landscape

[isthisart]

Linya avoids haring off to do things much while Miles's arms are unusable. Once he can feed himself comfortably enough to prefer to do so, though, she makes plans with Ekaterin to go with her and little Nikki on a hike in some nice woods of mixed-origin fauna. She packs a picnic and takes the lightflyer and flies out to pick up the relevant subset of Vorsoissons.

Comments

[isthisart]

And eventually there is the picnic place!

Linya has a picnic blanket in her basket. Swoosh! Now it is there for sitting on.

[first_loyalty]

Swoosh!

Ekaterin puts Nikki down, and he picks up the edge of the blanket and clumsily attempts to swoosh it again. It goes... swosh.

[isthisart]

Linya giggles and puts the basket down on a corner of the blanket and sits. She has brought sandwiches and salad and fruit and maple candy, portioned with lots for her and some for Ekaterin and a little for Nikki.

[first_loyalty]

Nikki is really enthusiastic about the maple candy, and disdains the salad. Ekaterin permits him to disdain his salad, because this is a special occasion.

[isthisart]

And soon all of the food except Nikki's salad is eaten. "You don't like salad, Nikki?"

[first_loyalty]

Nikki shakes his head.

[isthisart]

"Why not?"

[first_loyalty]

"I don't like it," he says. Nikki does not seem to be very good at explaining himself.

[isthisart]

"Maybe next time I will not bring salad, then. What do you like?"

[first_loyalty]

"I like candy," he says. "And groats."

[isthisart]

"I like groats too! I never had them before I came to Barrayar but now they're one of my favorite things."

[first_loyalty]

"You never had groats?" he says, astonished.

[isthisart]

"Nope! They weren't very popular on Eta Ceta."

[first_loyalty]

"Where's that?" wonders Nikki.

[isthisart]

"It's two weeks' worth of jumps away. Do you want to see it on a nexus map?"

[first_loyalty]

"Yeah!" he says. Ekaterin smiles at him.

[isthisart]

Linya produces her pen and calls up a nexus map. "Here's Barrayar. If you want to get anywhere from here you need to go through Komarr, here, which is five jumps -" She traces out the route. "And then if you want to go to Eta Ceta, you go this way." She traces the whole route. "And it takes two weeks cooped up in a ship!"

[first_loyalty]

"Two weeks is a long time," says Nikki.

"It's a lot longer than fifteen minutes," says Ekaterin.

[isthisart]

"I got a lot of work done. I've been on longer trips, though. I went all the way from here to Earth once, but I stopped on the way."

[first_loyalty]

"Where did you stop?" asks Nikki.

[isthisart]

"Here," she points, "at Escobar, and here at Tau Ceti. So I didn't spend that long on a ship all at once on my way to Earth, but I only stopped at Escobar on my way back and only for a day."

[first_loyalty]

"How long was it?" he asks, staring in fascination at the map.

[isthisart]

"It took me twenty-four days to get from Earth back to Barrayar."

[first_loyalty]

"That's a long time," says Nikki. "Longer than two weeks!"

[isthisart]

"Yep. Two and a half. But I was on Earth for months, so it seemed worth it."