Damaris peers suspiciously at her.

"Hello, Damaris! We're going to go to the coast and bring down some rain."

"Okay!" says Damaris.

"Get in your leathers, and we will go pack little snacks and go," beams Rinnah.

"Little snacks!" giggles Damaris. She goes and gets in her leathers.

Rinnah takes her to the kitchens, and they get little bags of dried fruit and nuts, and then off they go! Rinnah keeps to Damaris's flight pace and leads the way. "I remember my first intercession! I had to calm wind near Semorrah," says Rinnah nostalgically.

"That must've been a while ago," says Damaris.

"It was!" agrees Rinnah. "A little more than forty years ago. I was your age, maybe a little older, and I went with my father."

"You were never twelve," Damaris accuses.

"I was twelve!" returns Rinnah. "I was even younger than that, before I was twelve!"

"You were noooot, you're older than Mom and Mom is older than me and I'm twelve," says Damaris, "you were twelve so long ago it barely even happened!"

"Things that happened a long time ago still happened, dear one," laughs Rinnah.

Damaris giggles.

"One day you will be my age and you will tell your grandchild about this day, and he or she will not believe that you were ever twelve," Rinnah declares.

"What if I stay twelve forever instead," says Damaris, "what then?"

"Do you want to be twelve forever?" inquires Rinnah.

"No-o. But I'm not sure I want to be forty and have grandchildren either," she says consideringly. "How old is Mom? Maybe I'll get to be that age and then stop."

"She's thirty-two. Although she doesn't look it; she looks at least five years younger than that."

"Then I will grow up until I am five years less than thirty-two and be that old forever," Damaris says firmly.

"You might look that old forever, but that is not how time works," says Rinnah lightly.

"Says who?"

"To be really twenty-seven forever, you would have to not have any experiences after you would turn twenty-eight," says Rinnah.

"Well, I'm gonna still be twenty-seven when I'm a hundred," says Damaris.

"That is not how numbers work, little one," laughs Rinnah.

Damaris giggles.

"Who has been teaching you your sums? Should I have a word with them?" asks Rinnah playfully.

"Noooooooooo," she laughs.

"Because I wouldn't want my granddaughter to be getting a substandard education," says Rinnah lightly.

"I know the rules, I just don't let them stop me," giggles Damaris.

"Is that so? Just math rules, I hope."

Damaris giggles some more.

"Numbers will not get angry at you if you misuse them."

"They're nice that way!" says Damaris.

"It's convenient!" agrees Rinnah. "But if you want to do any things with your nice cooperative numbers you need to know how. If we can fly forty miles in an hour, and we are going to intercede at a settlement that is one hundred miles away, how long will we have to fly?"

"Two hours and some," says Damaris.

"How much is some?" prods Rinnah.

"Half an hour?"

"That's right! Very good," approves Rinnah.

"How far away is it where we're going?"

"A little less than a hundred miles. We are going west, except that when we reach the river, we'll follow it south, and there we'll find a little town that needs rain."

"Okay!" says Damaris.

"We can rest there for a little if your wings are tired after we fly all that way and pray for the rain."

"Okay," giggles Damaris.

They reach the river, and turn south, and find the town, and they land for Rinnah to ask about the details of their needs, and then they go aloft and she starts the correct rain-inducing prayer for Damaris to harmonize with.

Damaris sings cheerfully. And loudly. There is no doubt at all that Jovah will hear them.

Although she laughed at the suggestion originally, Damaris shakes her head and says, "I want to rest a little."

And Damaris eats pastries and drinks juice and is generally pleased with herself.

When it is a couple of hours before dark, Rinnah says, "It will be easiest to find the Eyrie again if we go now, so we don't have to look after sundown."

"Okay!" says Damaris. She thanks the villagers for their pastries and juice, and follows her grandmother into the sky.

"What do you think of doing weather intercessions?" Rinnah wants to know.

"I like the part where they feed you nice things afterward!"

Rinnah laughs.

So does Damaris.

"It was meeeee," she laughs. "And the villagers gave me juice and pastries!"

"That's because you helped them, so they were kindly disposed," says Charles.

"I want to help everyone," Damaris declares. "So they will all give me food."

"If everyone gave you food, and you ate it all, you would burst," laughs Rinnah.

"I would not!" she objects. "Mom wouldn't let me."

"Maybe not, but probably best not to live like she'll rescue you from every silly thing you could do," says Charles.

"Why not? She will."

"So you want to live a life of doing silly things and having your mom fix it?" asks Charles.

"When I really want to do the silly things? Yeah," she laughs.

"It's more fun when they give me pastries, though," says Damaris.

"Maybe so!" says Damaris. "It's okay, Grandpa! I'll give you pastries for being a good grandpa."

He takes a moment to remember the significance, but then he takes it, and laughs, and hugs her again.

Hugs.