The curled leaf was almost as large as Pondling. 🍃
THE BOOK OF TAD
PAGE 98
A LITTLE WARMTH 🌿
Mira carried its upper edge while Pondling nosed the lower one along the entrance stone. Around them, the nursery’s belongings were returning to their proper places.
In the workshop, Finley made a clean travelling copy of the recovered route information. The original plate would stay here, protected beside his full chart and the index strip Glint had saved from the archive.
Vael checked the copy while Nibble fitted a cover over the plate.
“Again?” Finley asked when Vael turned it over.
“You checked that side three times. I should be allowed one.”
The curled leaf caught on an old Builder mark beside the entrance. Mira pressed it away from the carving; Pondling pushed underneath with his nose.
A faint warmth passed through the stone. Mira felt it beneath her flipper. Pondling paused against it, his little tail still.
For a moment the worn mark showed more clearly, a soft colour under the green water.
“Oh,” Mira said.
Pondling pushed again. The leaf came free and folded round him.
By the time Mira looked back, the mark was dull. She touched it once, puzzled, then heard Pondling laughing inside the leaf.
TurboTAD helped them carry it upside down to the sleeping hollow. Mira explained that Pondling had meant to do that.
Pondling nodded gravely.