Writing children's imaginary adventures kinda makes me feel all warm and cozy.

I should say that my laptop kinda failed on me with the next chapter of Cherish still on it. I was hoping that it could be fixed and so started on this, but it looks like I'll have to rewrite the chapter, which I'll do. I swear. Eventually.

In the meantime, cute children drabbles! There will be others, I'm sure...

"Prepare for landing!"

"Prepared for landing, sir!"

"How're the dogs?"

"Buckled down safely, sir." Carl caught the short glance that Ellie gave him and quickly tried to fix his error. "Uh, arf, bark arf!"

"They cert'nly sound lively!"

"Yes, sir."

"How's our altitude?"

"Five hundred…four hundred…three hundred…the wheels! Don't forget to put the wheels down!"

"I didn't forget, silly, the wheels are this lever here!"

"Oh, uh, two hundred, one hundred…" Both children braced themselves for the imaginary jolt that accompanied plane landings.

"Another safe landing by Ellie and Carl!" The young girl leaped off the old, but sturdy log and tossed her fake leather flying helmet in the air in genuine exhilaration. As usual, her hat hair was a barber's nightmare, unkempt, uncombed, unrestrained. As she continued her celebratory hooting, Carl also slid off the log, his butt a little sore. Sitting on a log for almost an hour can do that to you.

"Press conference," he reminded his energetic friend.

"Oh, right!" A stump was suddenly relegated the honorable position of a podium. "Ahem," said Ellie into the twig/microphone. Carl did his best to stand up straight and beam proudly, although he was sure that it was an uncertain grin that was plastered on his face. "Ladies and gentermen! Boys and girls! My partner and I have made a new exciting discovery! An animal soooooo fright'nin', sooooooooo dang'rous, so unbelievably cool, we had to capture it with, uh, mirrors, and rockets, and, uh, iron box cages…and…"

"Ruff."

"…and of course, our trust, well-trained dog team! We call it the, uh…"

"Velcrusopter?"

"Velcrusopter! Yeah! Um…" Ellie whipped her head around wildly, her ragged bow threatening to fly off. Suddenly, she jumped on the Velcrusopter, which happened to be a sleepy, good-humored toad. Carl quickly hopped over the stump and turned around, wildly cheering and clapping as loudly as he could. Last time it had been a wandering turtle.

Ellie showed off the Velcrusopter to her large audience and bowed deeply with a confident smile, blowing kisses and thanking family members for making her what she was today.

Carl didn't mind playing second fiddle to all of Ellie's schemes. In fact, it was almost an unspoken agreement. The spotlight could be tempting, but it just wasn't for him. The spotlight was where people were looking and, if people looked too carefully at him, he was sure they wouldn't like what they saw.

It was his one fervent wish that Ellie never looked too carefully.

"Don't you ever wanna bow?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Alrighty."