Sun Mote Copse Starwaves

Stories really weren't Finley's forte either. She had come up with plenty in a pinch (though were lies told to get out of trouble really count as stories?), but none really came to her at first as the game began. She considered her repertoire in the back of her mind as she listened to the first volunteers. There was the story about shooting stars, the one about Rodney the Bear, and of course the one about the bat cave. That one was actually inspired by a true story--and it was that thought along with the well-timed nudge from Penn at her side that made her realize. She didn't need to make up a story. She'd lived about thirty billion of them.

"So, y'all might think that we have a big family here with all these Blackthorns and all these Redhawks running around," she began, "But when I was a kid, I had about as many siblings as there are of us here, with aunts and uncles and a whole mess of other Blackthorns on top. Now, this may come as a bit of a shock, but back then, I wasn't really a huge fan of sharing the spotlight with so many other brothers and sisters. I was obsessed with being the center of attention and I must say, I was pretty creative when it came to figuring out just how to get that attention from everyone."

Fin paused to let people laugh (because of course they would, she's hilarious). Then she smiled and continued. "So one day, I got this brilliant idea in my head that if I broke my leg, then everyone would have to pay attention to me. I was probably like... five months old at that point? Maybe? Well, in any event, I was young enough to not realize that breaking my leg would be crazy painful and I should probably not do that. Mostly, I just knew that every time I did something, Ma Blackthorn was always yelling at me not to break my leg, so I figure, yeah, that's totally what I need to do."

"Problem was, I wasn't sure how to break my leg. I thought maybe I could break it by biting it real hard, but my siblings and I were always biting on each other and nothing ever broke. Then I thought maybe I could jump off of something and try to land on it weird, which I tried a few times, but it didn't really do much. Finally, I had to shelf my pride and ask for help. And this, of course," Fin glanced at Nellie (and Bronce and Niamh if they're here), her smile softening as her eyes glinted, "Is where my dear brother, Colt, came in."

"So Colt has this brilliant idea that I'm not the one that needs to jump off of something--He can jump off of something and land on my leg. All I'd have to do was stand beneath this tall rock and just stick my leg out for him and he'd leap off of rock and land on my leg. Genius, right?" She shuffled a bit to get more comfortable before continuing.

"So we head out to find just the right rock, which wasn't too hard. The Blackthorn clan claimed this big ass valley in the middle of a long mountain range. We called it the Vale. But anyway, there were cliffs and rocks and everything else far as the eye could see. So we get to one and the drop is pry about as tall as that tree right there," she gestured with her nose at a tree that was a good 12 feet tall, "Colt climbs up and I get into position at the base of the rock. He asks me if I'm ready and I've never not been ready so I tell him to get on with it. He decides to count down and make things all dramatic, and then he jumps."

"Now, somewhere in between where he said one and then jumped, my instincts must've kicked in because suddenly, I'm in a blind panic. It all comes rushing back to me that y'know, when I tried to break my leg by jumping off things, that did kinda hurt. Maybe this is gonna hurt. Maybe this is a terrible, terrible idea, and I need to bail. So, I tried to bail. Only Colt apparently had that same thought in his head that maybe this was a mistake and he needs to abort before we kill ourselves, only it didn't occur to him until he was right about to jump. So in his brilliant head, he decides to just jump further forward and try to land in this bush that was right nearby us. And me in my brilliant head, tried to make a run for it.

"Lo and behold, I managed to put myself right where Colt managed to land. The bastard smashes right into me--completely missing the bush, I might add--and we both go crashing down. Turns out it was just as terrible an idea as we both realized way too late that it was gonna be." Fin paused once more before wrapping up her story with a neat little bow. "So! That is how I broke my leg," one more pause for good measure, then, "...And how Colt broke his leg also."