Northstar Vale tuesday, the seventeenth, bright lights and camaraderie

jax was so strange to indra -- but strange in a good way. she liked how ebullient he was, how outrageous and semi-manic his words seemed. it didn't matter that she hadn't ever seen a mountain explode, or whether or not she could possibly envision it -- he spoke it with such steadfast conviction it was simple: it was truth.

all the same, the idea of a mountain blowing up drew awe and amazement from the child, who still carried an expression of stupefaction on her face. she was about to ask how the mountain exploded or how jax's grandfather survived the explosion when he mentioned the scarf of white that wretched her chin. she blinked and crossed her eyes, trying to see the tip of her nose in vain. "i'm not grandpa!" she insisted, quickly bucking her chin with her wrist to rid herself of the powder. "how do you explode?"