"Chocolate chips!!" Alina squeaks in her little songbird voice, by which of course she means good morning and I love you. You have to read between the lines with Lina in the morning.

She yawns a dainty princess yawn and is super duper extra special careful to only use the most graceful motions in her arsenal to rub the last bits of sleep from her bright, shining eyes. She's gotta be pretty so that nobody notices she might be getting sick, or else Momma wasn't gonna let her go sledding and shell hunting today. That would be bad! Luckily it's a soooooooo perfect day and her excitement is bubbling over so much that she can't keep the bounces out of her steps as she races across the kitchen like a perfect little ballerina to sit down next to Rita and immediately start a war of tiny kicks and giggles. And this, of course, means I'm glad you're here, you're my bestest friend in the whole wide world.

She'd been dreaming. Something... something... weird and boring and without a [i]single[/i] shark in it, if you can believe that. That's why she thought she might be sick! It was all happy and sad and, and grown up and the longer she sits there watching the thick, fluffy flakes of snow, the less of it she can remember. But weirdly, the more it fades the better she feels. It's prolly just cause she's never up this early. That's a Rita thing, being up before the sun is. She looks at her adventure buddy and sticks her tongue out. 

Most days she'd grumble a little, but today it's worth it. Today's Solstice! That's the whole point of even [i]having[/i] winter! And since she did such a super great rainbow job of waking up so early, there'd be time for breakfast [i]and[/i] running around till her nose froze off before it was time to get... er, give presents! Heh, she's such a genius. Alina leans her little elbows on the table and watches her Momma cook with a silly little smile on her face. 

She watches a pancake flip through the air and wobble in all its fluffy glory as it lands back in the pan, and squeals with delight. She's so lucky. She is. She is! Momma makes the very bestest pancakes in the whole kingdom. No, the world! Even Ourania would be all, wow, these are so great, can I have the recipe! But it wouldn't matter, because she wouldn't be as good at making them as Momma!

...But today was different. And not cause it's Solstice. Well not just. Alina's been thinking and thinking and then thinking some more just to be safe, but she can't remember the last time Momma made breakfast like this. It's been, um... um... forever, she's pretty sure, since she's gotten to eat these ooey gooey yummy fluffballs. Maybe even two forevers.

Why... is she crying? 

Silly girl! She stealthily wipes her eyes on her sleeve (she's got her Adventure Silks on already!) before anybody can see. Just in time too, cause now there's a big stack of pancakes just stuffed with chocolate sitting in front of her and Momma is beaming at her little Ripple and it's making her so happy she wants to start crying all over again!

"Hey Momma, guess what?" She says with her mouth still half full, "I found a new bend in the river last week! I'm gonna show Rita before the Gifting, ok? I bet we'll find [i]diamond crabs![/i] It'll be the best Solstice adventure ever!"

She beams brighter than the sun on a summer afternoon. Brighter than rainbows over aqueducts, or sparkly jewels on a wedding dress. The only thing Alina loves more than Mommy and Momma is having adventures. Then she stops, and sniffles a little. Another thought just snuck into her head, and it reminds her of that dream.

"Do you... wanna come too?"