Look what we made!

Thorn was certainly excited by the map.  It was the first thing he had ever made, admittedly with help but it was still partially his work.  Thorn raised his own head, tilting it back for the nuzzle, the map slid a bit but considering he was about to take it off that hardly mattered now.

“Nope!” Thorn cheerily responded, assuring he hadn’t found any trouble. “Aunty Ash showed me how to make a map.  She said it might be a good decoration for the statue.”  Their map was cool enough to be useful on a statue, however that would work.  It marked it as more special.

Thorn shifted his shoulders a bit, leaning his body over until the map fell on the floor. Thorn used his paws to try and flatten parts, using his whole body on one end, laying down to smooth out all the edges that seemed determined to curve up.  Finally, when they seemed to concede defeat and limit the curve to the smallest of edges the boy stood back up.

“See? Its all of our land.  Aunty Ash did the plains and the grove.  She made all the pretty trees and the river and, these are stars here in the black.” Thorn was happy to share the credit and compliment his aunt’s work that seemed so amazing. “I made the inside of the castle castle though, and helped with the ocean waves.” Thorn pointed at the haphazardly drawn circles, “these are the castle tops,” then pointing to the squares, “that one’s our room, there’s the courtyard, and here’s the great hall.  I even drew in the fireplace.”

The boy looked up at his dad, hoping he liked it as much as Thorn did.  Aunty Ash had approved of it and complimented his work after all.  “Aunty Ash also said we could go out to the plains some time at night together to see the stars.  I can go out at night if I’m with her, right?” Bedtime was all well and good and Thorn could see stars from their window but apparently stars seen in the plains were better than the window.  It also just sounded neat to go out with his aunt to do something else together.

"Thorn Carpathius"