oh my heart, it's a fish out of water; any

[Vi]

All I want is one more chance to be young and wild and free

She’s vibrating with excitement as the capybara starts to show even more obvious signs of calming down. It’s actually working!! But she has to keep calm, has to keep still. It would be all for nothing if she scared off the poor capybara now.

So she makes sure not to look at it, and concentrates hard on what Sette is saying to her (even though she desperately wants to check on the capybara). “Ohh does your Mommy play with you?” Her voice takes on a wistful note, similar to the one in Sette’s sigh moments before. “I wish my Mommy would play with me more. But she’s usually too tired, or more interested in looking for Volcan.” And as much as she wants to find Volcan too, she wishes Scorch could play with her just a little more often. “Daddy plays with me sometimes though.” But lately he’s been getting tired too.

Sette says that Lagertha is going to take her to one of the other kingdoms and Vi feels a tiny flash of jealousy. She’s only been to one other kingdom and it hardly counts - she was so young then that she barely remembers it. She only really remembers the trip home with Tantalize. “I was born in the Falls but I don’t really remember it.” She does remember being scared though too. And lots of red. But the kingdom itself? Nothing. “Where are you going?” Her eyes are alight with interest. She knows so little about the outside world. “Do you think … maybe … I could come to?” She’s never met Lagertha, and has no idea whether she’d mind a tag-along, but it can’t hurt to ask right?

Sette suddenly glances at the capybara, and Vi’s eyes can’t help but follow. Sette is right, the tiny capybara seems to have settled right down! “I think you’re right. But what do we do now? I don’t want to scare him.”