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Childcare

A 48-post collection

Challenge #04978-M229: Just Like Kids in a -- Oh Dear

A ship of pirates who think that human kids are easy to manage, figured just give them snacks, and they'd be calm. Except... they gave the kids lots of sugary snacks and learned a new word. Hyperactivity. -- BKF

It was a very simple plan with one minor flaw. See if you can spot it. First, conquer a scholastic transit vessel and send the adults off to their origin point with the ransom demand. Second, abscond to a secure location whilst keeping the hostages pacified. Third, wait for the money to roll in whilst strategically releasing hostages for profit.

If you didn't spot it, it's "whilst keeping the hostages pacified".

Children, especially Human children, know when someone's in control and authority. They get noisy. They get rowdy. They start pushing the boundaries they were familiar with. They start playing silly games. With each other, with their environment. And especially with their obviously ineffective guardians.

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Challenge #04955-M206: Sufficient Motivation

Bibrid and Wraithvine take the children to get something that scares poor Chance. To get inoculated against illnesses. -- BKF

Bibrid learned quickly to match his footsteps to Chance's once they were inside the town's walls. The young Hellkin was supremely clingy, seeming to fear being torn away from their only security. So he clung to his adopted child and moved in step with the poor suffering kid.

And, in this case, halted cold on their approach to the temple of Lenus.

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Challenge #04950-M201: Careful Gentle Lessons

The kids are getting cooking lessons from Wraithvine and Bibrid. -- BKF

Scramble and Chance had learned the most important things about living in the wilderness. How to make shelter if they had none of their own. How to make fire even when magic was unavailable. What plants and animals were reliably edible more than once.

Now they were learning how to cook it.

One thing that could very rarely fail was stew. Except one eager child was fireproof and heat-resistant. Chance

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Challenge #04928-M179: Important Developments

Wraithvine and Bibrid take their two young family members to a beautiful lake for swimming lessons, and they get to meet the fly-dragon. Lilbit isn't impressed with water, but loves sunning herself. -- Bridget Kielas-Fecyk

[AN: Callback to Deserved Reward ]

Children need the best protection in the world - knowing how to survive various situations. How to find good food. How to cook it safely. How to preserve some for travel. How to truly use their gifts.

This day, it was how

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Challenge #04879-M130: Sad Beige Life

My parents were cold narcissists. As an adult, once they signed everything to me, I signed our entire solar system to the alliance. I have plenty to live on, my mansions, my gardens, and so much more. But now the halls are full of life and youthful laughter. It actually feels like a home, not a museum. My parents? They live in their wing, their own little world. I'm letting them live the remainder of their golden years in peace. Under watch,

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Challenge #04837-M088: We Have What Now?

A wealthy family, though decent enough rulers. A lonely child whose parents were so busy they had little time for hir. The child started making little clothes, tiny furniture, and putting together a dollhouse, a mini mansion. When asked why, the child simply said, my friends want to visit more so I won't be lonely. -- Anon Guest

Ardinae had a nurse, a tutor, a bodyguard, and a host of dressers, chefs, and stylists to make sure they were the very picture

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Challenge #04834-M085: Making Light of the Matter

"Wraithvine, Wraithvine, where art thou?"

"I'm over here, playing the clown!"

"Wraithvine, Wraithvine, why be a fool?"

"Because laughter is another healing tool!"

A children's skipping game of how Wraithvine saved a nation, by teaching the leaders of the warring factions how to have fun together and laugh. -- Anon Guest

Evidently, Bucky had been to the library. Asking questions and finding out things. Kro could throttle the librarian's prentice/acolyte[1] for teaching him how to read.

"I learned fun stuff,

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Challenge #04730-L346: Improvised Weaponry

The pirates caught the ship's human in their jammies and socks. The human captured them by shuffling feet on soft surfaces and touching the pirates. The touches leaving painful spots. Rumor spread humans could shoot lightning from their fingers. Those that knew better knew it was just static. -- Fighting Fit

Ships' night is normally a strategic time for space pirates to attack. Unfortunately for these pirates, normal and Humans don't mesh. Human Zorq was in their BVD's and socks when the

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Challenge #04497-L113: Tiny Teaching Moment

A small child once again tried to swipe Wraithvine's hat. A common enough occurrence. What was uncommon was how protective the tiny dragon that lived on hir hat with it's tiny 'hoard' of a single gold coin, got of the child. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Corrected Wraithvine's gender in this prompt]

Walking sticks and wizards' hats are irresistably attractive to small children. Many is the king or other holder of a crown who has had to shoo a tiny toddler off the

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Challenge #04479-L095: A Safe Space

Some children were playing hide and seek and one ended up in the king's private offices without permission by mistake. But the king, despite the child's fear, didn't get mad. He did suggest safer areas to play though. -- Anon Guest

Whitekeep Castle was large, labyrinthine, and full of secrets. It was also full of staff taking care of it. Some lived there, true, but their accommodations were much less impressive than the King's. The one thing they all had in common

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Challenge #04448-L064: Completely Unsupervised Chaos

You can't control chaos, don't even try. So what makes you think you can control the humans? -- Anon Guest

The Humans, as always, have a song that fits... even if it only fits slightly. There's a hold-up in the Bronx/ Brooklyn's broken out in fights/ There's a traffic jam in Harlem that's backed up to Jackson Heights/ There's a scout troop short a child/ Khrushchev's due in Idlewild... The meaning's been lost to the centuries, but it does contain the moral

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Challenge #04418-L034: The Necessity of Wandering

The family asks Wraithvine to be the god-parental to the quadruplets, and they visit from time to time to help teach magic, and just to enjoy the company of family.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04340-k322-a-pound-of-protection -- Anon Guest

[AN: Had to make a correction in the prompt over a minor detail]

"A goodparent," Wraithvine repeated. "I am a wandering thorn in various evils' sides. We've done what we can to protect them while they're vulnerable, but... there's reasons why I wander.

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Challenge #04346-K328: Early Childcare

There's something to be said about need being the parental of invention. A small, sharp needle, some thin wire, and a lot of imagination can move mountains. -- Anon Guest

[AN: A little elementary research has shown me that the concept of a fastening device that doesn't hurt its wearer is older than you think it is. Look up fibula brooches. You're welcome.]

There's something to be said about loving another to the point of invention. Loving someone so much that creating

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Challenge #04266-K248: Mistaken Identity

The small child nearly crashed into Gikka and stepped on the disguised Bibrid to hide among Wraithvine's robes. When gently asked the fear, the child admitted to playing in the house despite their mother's warnings, and breaking a window.

"Mommie's gonna be SO mad!"

"Oh child, you know, if you tell her you're sorry, and admit what you did, I bet she won't be mad long." -- The New Guy

It was raining, but not heavily enough to drive people indoors or

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Challenge #04264-K246: Thanks Enough

Despite your aversions, you did this... for me?

"All life is precious, but, I knew you could not survive on plants."

And for my children.

"You were ill, I'm just glad my poor skills were enough."

Thank you. You're the first human I've ever met that has ever been this kind.

"You're welcome, my friend."

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04162-k144-help-to-all-in-need -- Lessons

Many omnivores who choose a herbivorous diet seem to believe that everything can subsist on a herbivorous diet. Those

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