Nobody suggests that he eat food. Eventually Vaund gets bored with the game and wants to go out in the courtyard and show Bright Sorrow the treehouse.

Tree house!!!

It's a very nice treehouse that the kids have painted themselves though it was probably built professionally! There's a telescope in it, and beanbag chairs, and a secret compartment under the floor.

He investigates all of these but especially the telescope.

(He's very complimentary about the colors, too.)

Evkan says the telescope is mostly good at night. Vaund shows him the secret compartment which has things like sunglasses, pretty rocks, a magnetic drawing toy, a stash of candy, a handheld game system, and a journal with flowers pressed into it.

The drawing toy's really cool, and so are the rocks and flowers and everything.

He'll play around with the drawing toy, some.

Vaund has a lot to say about all the flowers and where he found them.

Bright's attentive! Flowers are pretty cool, and he figures out some decent questions about them.

Generally the boys are very hospitable. Evkan wants to see the shapeshifting!

Bright can be a puppy! And a kitten, and a big bird, and a fox, and a tentacle blob!

Oh gosh that's fascinating! They have lots of requests and want to know if they can pet all the cool alien animals; the next time Ude comes to check on them she reminds them to be considerate about it and they slow down.

He doesn't mind being petted, but shapeshifting rapidly is kind of hard! They'll probably get through a lot of shapes though by the time the play date is over.

And the car is ready to conduct them back to the house.

"I had fun! Thanks!" he says to Ude.

"You're welcome! Let me know if you want to come over again, the boys'd be thrilled."

"Okay! Thanks!"

And back to the house!

"Can we get you guys anything else? Set up any more visits?" Ude asks when she's seen them in.

"Maybe going to the aquarium or something else like that some day? Especially once mom's more comfortable with me going places on my own."

"She doesn't want to come along?"

"She does, but I don't wanna be in a wheelchair all the time and we dunno how easy it'd be to get everywhere in a truck? And I'm gonna have to go to school on my own sometime..."

"The wheelchair's just to cover up use of the car; if you wanted to go on a longish walk, we could get to the nearest aquarium in about fifteen minutes. For school it'll depend on how far away the one you pick is."

"Oh, that's okay then! And fifteen minutes isn't a bad walk at all."

"I think some people walk around more than I do! I'm accustomed to taking the train for anywhere more than ten minutes apart."

"We might also walk more back home? Trains are mostly for between cities."

"Makes sense! My husband keeps telling me I should wear more practical shoes."