It was laundry day at the Greymourne house.
Mother had her sleeves rolled up, Mira was washing clothes by the stream, and Elric… was supposed to be helping.
Supposed to be.
Instead, he had convinced Twig and Fangshade to pull him around in a wooden cart.
Boneclaw barked proudly like a parade leader. Mossback Sprite sat on Elric's head, wearing a leaf like a crown.
And Mister Pebbles…
...was fighting a bucket.
A wooden one.
A very stubborn one.
"Come on, Pebbles! Just roll over it!"
The proto-golem rammed the bucket and bounced off.
Then it rammed it again. And again. Until the bucket tipped and splashed water all over the yard.
Grandpa Riven clapped once. "Victory goes to the rock."
Elric stood up in the cart and declared, "This is why Pebbles is the siege unit of my pack!"
Mira tossed a soaked shirt at his face. "You're supposed to be helping!"
"But I am! I'm teaching the golem to do chores!"
Riven raised a brow. "And how's that going?"
Pebbles rolled over the now-empty bucket and then got stuck inside it.
"Progress!"
---
Later, Elric was told—firmly—to stay out of the way until chores were done.
So he wandered toward the nearby stream with Mossback Sprite and Boneclaw, looking for shiny stones and maybe trouble.
"I bet I could summon a frog if I tried really hard," Elric said, eyes closed.
Nothing happened.
Boneclaw coughed up a stick and looked unimpressed.
"I bet I could summon a stick frog!"
Still nothing.
The sprite plucked a flower and stuck it in his hair.
Elric giggled. "At least someone believes in me."
---
As the sun set and the village began to quiet, Elric sat beside Grandpa Riven on the porch.
"Do you think it's weird?" Elric asked. "That beasts like me?"
Riven leaned back. "Some people are born with loud hands. Others are born with soft hearts."
He looked out toward the forest. "But you, boy—you've got the kind of soul that makes even stone want to follow."
Elric beamed. "So I am cool!"
Riven chuckled. "Dangerously cool."
Mister Pebbles rolled up and bumped into Elric's foot, still wearing the bucket like a helmet.
"See? Even the bucket agrees!"