Mira had stopped asking whether the water would hold. 🌿
THE BOOK OF TAD
PAGE 101
AFTER THEY HAD RESTED 🌱
Three quiet days passed before TurboTAD brought out the copied route.
He and Mira had taken several more laps. Sora had inspected the nursery passage herself. The children had stopped noticing the steady water.
Beyond home, some branches still carried too little flow. Others ended at closures no one could explain.
“I want to see how far we can make a safe route towards the Crystal Channels,” TurboTAD said. “Somewhere to leave supplies. Somewhere to turn back before we’re desperate.”
“Not open everything we find?” Vael asked.
“No.”
Finley spread the travelling copy. The full chart would stay home with the recovered plate.
“I want to measure the water there. We guessed too much last time.”
“I’d like to return with all my favourite hiding places,” Zale said.
Glint asked who would be waiting if someone needed help.
Marno and Nibble offered to establish a supply landing on the known branch. Pip would wait there once the travellers went farther. Someone would return with news before each evening meal; if nobody came, Pip would check the agreed approach, not search unfamiliar water.
“The outer-bank jobs can wait,” Nibble added. “The nursery passage can’t. Sora keeps that checked.”
One by one, the five chose to go.
Sora chose to stay.
“Someone has to enjoy the nursery you went to such trouble over,” she said.