Kaelira hid a small smile behind her teacup.
Aurora, who had been vibrating with impatience through this entire exchange, finally slammed both palms on the table.
"Now can I show them?!"
Thistle clicked her tongue. "What impatient youth..."
"Granny!!" Aurora pouted.
The old gnome sighed, her small shoulders rising and falling in exaggerated resignation as she began collecting the teacups with deliberate, unhurried movements. "Okay, okay... Go if you must..."
Her lower lip pushed out as she stacked the saucers.
"Nobody ever finishes the tea in this household…" she mumbled to herself, shuffling toward the sink with the tray. "I steep it for sixty minutes. Sixty! And they gulp half a cup and run off to play with their potions..."
Aurora was already at the far door. "We'll come back for more later, I promise!"
"That's what you said yesterday!" Granny Thistle called after them, but the words carried more fondness than complaint.
