How hard could taking care of a little girl be? If she was sick, she probably wouldn’t have a ton of energy to do many things anyway. It was understandable why she would want to get out of the house though. Bed rest was important, but it was boring. Some fresh air was important too, however, so Atani didn’t really see the harm in any of this. Upon meeting the child though, she saw the harm it could do to her peace of mind.
To put it bluntly, the child was a spoiled brat. She wasn’t sure how someone raised by such a kind and beloved lord (who, for that matter, the child seemed to adore) could turn out to be so bothersome. Atani had not expected the girl to be so... demanding, especially when she was supposed to be sick. In fact, the first duty Atani had to do as her babysitter was to collect every single seashell she could find along the shore. “Every single one?” the elf asked, surprised. The girl firmly nodded her head. “Along the entire shoreline.” Atani took a deep breath and did as the little noble said. Why she wanted so many seashells, the elf did not know. Half the fun was collecting them yourself.
Partway through the collection, the little girl began to complain of heat, so Atani had to provide some shade with palm leaves she gathered from the trees. She, on the other hand, still had to collect shells in the heat. Suddenly though, the young noble realized that she did not want to spend any longer at the beach, and wanted to pick flowers in the forest instead. That, Atani loved the sound of— she was not a beach person. And so, she gladly led the girl to the forest, but of course the girl did not want to pick any flowers of her own. She insisted that Atani was the one to pick them. There was no refusing her client, so the mage did as she was asked. She started picking all the colorful flowers the girl wanted, when suddenly, she realized that the demands had ceased. The little girl was not there anymore. Panicked, Atani began frantically searching for the child. How could she have gotten so far away? After what seemed like forever searching, she heard the sounds of crying coming from one direction. The elf quickly went in pursuit of the sound, and found the girl curled up, eyes red and tears rolling down her cheeks. Atani picked her up and carried her back to the castle. She tucked the girl into bed and set the colorful flowers on her nightstand.
“You know, you’re one of the nicest people I’ve met. Thank you for the seashells and flowers.” Atani was surprised. After all that bossing around, she would have sworn the girl didn’t think twice about her, but it appeared she was wrong. “Of course. You’re welcome, now get some rest. You’ve had a long day.”
With that said, Atani departed from the girl’s room, collected her reward, and headed back home for some shuteye of her own.
WC: 614+523=1137/1000