brew-tea-ful

Gilda considered the tea leaves as they swirled, the way the water darkened as the flavour was drawn from the herbs by the warm water. She turned half an ear towards her mother and tried to focus on keeping her face pleasantly blank. Once the water had stilled and the steam rose off its surface with a curl. She bit back the urge to snatch at the vessel and gulp it down. She knew she had to take it with both paws and try not to wobble. She blew gently across the top of the cup and sipped delicately, looking for her mothers nod of approval before putting the tea down again. It would take a lot of practice, but Gilda was pretty determined to get at least this skill right.

"speech"