How Green Becomes Wood

Wobbling Alec with one hand, he watched as the motion caused more kernels to tumble down, "You are a scarecrow with a hole. You need to be patched."

Daizi couldn't quite see how Dark had them, but by the rustling she guessed he had done something, "How deep is it? The corn?"
 
Alec laughed and tossed a few kernels in Dark's direction. Most of them tumbled harmlessly in random directions. "Maybe so! Or maybe I'm planting corn like Johnny Ragweed!"

"I dunno," Xander answered Daizi. "It's pretty thick, so it's hard to get deep, but it can't be more than maybe four feet, if that. Three, I'd guess."
 
"Am I meant to know who your Johnny Ragweed is?" Dark asked, shaking Alec like he owed him money.

"Three feet," Daizi mused, hanging back, her face scrunched up as she considered the state of things, "Hm. I wonder if that's safe to fall into. If you had help to fall into it."

At her curiosity, Dark glanced at her, then with a single breathy laugh which sounded like little more than a exhaled huh, back at the twins, running his tongue across his teeth, and then at the corn, trying to solve Daizi's query for himself.
 
"Classic American folktale about a guy who traveled around the world sewing ragweed everywhere," Alec said cheerfully.

"That's appleseed," Xander corrected. "Johnny Appleseed. I think ragweed was some cartoon character." He narrowed his eyes at Dark. "Alec, hold Ba's arm."

"Huh? Why?" Alec asked but did as told, wrapping his hands securely around Dark's arm.
 
"I trust him implicitly," Alec said brightly. "I also trust Xander, and I am very well aware that you and Ba both have souls of chaos."

"Absolute chaos," Xander agreed with a little wheeze.
 
"How dare you?" Daizi asked, shocked, "What on earth would we ever possibly do to you?"

"How could I have a chaotic soul? Surely you recall how often you have accused me of not knowing how to relax?" Dark tutted, "I am a stick-in-the-mud, or so I have been told."
 
Alec laughed. "You can be a stick in the mud and be chaotic! You can be both! Because when the stick comes out of the mud, it flings it everywhere!"

Xander eyed Alec sideways. "Seriously? That's what you're going for?"
 
"Toss us into the corn," the twins said instantly.

"In which case, I am not sure I mind it," Alec admitted, letting go of Dark's arm.

"Wait! I mind!" Xander complained, half reaching for Dark's arm but not completing the move.
 
The moment Alec released his arm, Dark threw them both back into the corn before either of them had a chance to reconsider or prevent it. Xander was quick, but not quick enough. Then he stood back, his hands on his hips, lips pressed in a thin line, "You know," He waved one hand before settling it back down on his hip, "Certainly, I am not as chaotic as you believed, since you easily unraveled my plot. In a way, I am pleased to have proved you wrong, but the victory is pyrrhic. And confounding."
 
Alec laughed and flopped about helplessly. "Oh no! Oh dear! How horrible!"

Xander threw a handful of corn at Dark. Not hard, but hard enough to actually reach him. "Should pull you in with us!"

Alec smirked and got himself standing. "Not a terrible idea."
 
"I half expected you would," Dark replied, taking a calm, collected step backwards, "and now that you have spoken it, what joy would there be in attempting it? I am now prepared to resist."
 
"A lot of joy, but I don't think this pit is big enough for the three of us," Xander grumbled. He got up and slogged his way out of the corn pit. If it had been water, he would have sloshed. "I am going to be dropping corn for days."

Alec pretended to do the backstroke rather unsuccessfully. "Isn't it great?" Then he got up and slowly swished his way to the edge. "Should we move on?"
 
Xander snagged a small handful of the corn and tucked it in his pocket. He didn't need much. His pockets already had some corn in them. He tried to brush the kernels from his hair as he followed Dark.

"That was fun," Alec said happily, grinning at Ivy. "Maybe next year, you can join us!"
 
"It feels almost rude to leave her out," Dark mused, "Part of me wants to toss her in too, for good measure. She likes it when I toss her onto the couch."

"We'll never get her out again," Daizi giggled, "and she'll try to eat the corn. I don't want to know where it's been."
 
"It's been in everyone's pants and shirts and everything else," Xander said bluntly. "And I think it's a little too hard for a little-little one to get tossed. I don't think she'd like it."

"She'll have lots of other things she can do elsewhere," Alec assured them.
 
"I do not think so either," Dark replied, crouching down by the stroller and leaning in to give Ivy a kiss. Then he sat back on his heels, looked at her for a moment longer, and took her out anyway, "I am not going to toss you into the corn, tifla, but Baba is weary of not holding you." Before she snuggled in, he tossed her gently into the air to make her laugh, "There, now you have also been tossed like your brothers, just not into the yucky corn. It is equitable."

"How are you going to play games while holding her," Daizi asked, coming up beside him.

"I will put her back in the stroller when we are there, but there is a walk to get there." He glanced at the twins, "Would one of you be willing to push the stroller?"
 
"Yes, I can push the stroller," Xander said, amused. He took the handles of the empty stroller and started pushing.

"We can use the stroller to keep all the stuff you win in," Alec said. He used Xander to check the time. "You can't disappoint, after all. You have to win them all."

"It's a pumpkin patch, not an actual carnival," Xander pointed out. "I doubt they have a lot of prize things."
 
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