The little girl was beaming back at Haven once he had commented that he thought the beach sounded nice. And it was! Valkyrie loved going there, since she wasn’t allowed to go very far from Inferni. Once she was older and able to really explore the various territories, she was sure to find more adventure. But she had a feeling there would always be a place in her heart for the quiet coastline.
"Ohh, whoopsie," the little girl chimed, having forgotten all about her turn to ask someone a question. "Mommy," she started, turning to face Ryan. "Why you so sad?" Though very young, naive, and innocent, the girl had picked up on Ryan’s recent increase in sadness. She had no idea that the cause of this sadness was their recent run in with DaVinci.
Ryan, surprised by Valkyrie’s question, almost let her face slip. But she managed to hold herself together. How had her daughter known? She offered a lighthearted laugh as she tried to respond, "Well darling…" But she wasn’t sure what to say. She really couldn’t explain things so that a little girl would understand. She started again, "That man we met, DaVinci, is a friend of mine. And mommy was just sad because she doesn’t get to see him often." Well, there, that was close enough to the truth, wasn’t it? In order to move on, she turned to Haven so that she could ask a question. "Umm, let’s see. Who are your mom and dad?"