A/N: Only one more Cress story after this one and I'll have enough to keep Tome of Eldritch Omake going all the way through October (since I like to alternate between Cress and non-Cress stories). If I'd have used "Home-Baked Goodness" as one, I'd have had it already...
~X X X~
"Ah!" Cressidor Blan-Virgine yelped sharply, interrupting her mothers' flow of dinner conversation. Both blonde women swiveled their heads in the girl's direction.
"Cress, what is it?" Amoretta Virgine asked.
"Are you all right?" Lillet Blan said simultaneously.
The seven-year-old made some very interesting faces as her tongue sorted out the contents of her mouth so she could swallow the bite of sausage and egg noodles she'd been chewing. That done, she reached up and daintily plucked a bicuspid from between her lips.
"My tooth fell out!" she protested. Cress was trying very hard not to cry. It didn't hurt, though the empty spot in her jaw did taste a little of blood and stung slightly when she probed it with her tongue, but she was really worried. It took a lot of effort to keep her composure; she kept thinking of the beggars she'd seen in the streets of the capital, or of the elderly, with their gap-toothed grins.
"Oh, no! Lillet, can it be fixed?" Amoretta displayed her fear more openly than her daughter.
"Probably, but I don't think it has to. Cress, dear, has this tooth been loose and wiggling for a while?"
"Mm-hm." She felt the first hint of tears beginning to well up in her eyes. Lillet, though, gave her a gentle smile and leaned over to cup her face.
"It's all right, Cress. This is supposed to happen."
"Mama?" Cress blinked in surprise. Lillet nodded.
"Humans are born with two sets of teeth. Their first set comes in when they're babies, but when they get bigger, those teeth fall out and their adult teeth grow in. You're right at the age when that starts to happen. It's just a sign that you're growing up into a big girl."
Cressidor sniffled.
"Really?"
"Really."
"Then why do some adults not have their teeth?"
"Because adult teeth can be lost, too. They won't fall out naturally like baby teeth do, but they can be knocked out in a fight or accident, or a disease like scurvy can make it happen, or tooth-decay can make a tooth sick so that it has to be taken out."
Cress gulped. None of those things sounded very good.
"Mama, are you really, really sure this is okay?"
"Yes." Lillet nodded firmly. She paused, though, for a second and said, "In fact, there's a story in some villages that if a child puts the tooth under their pillow at night when they go to sleep, a fairy will come to take the tooth and leave a penny in its place."
Cress blinked in surprise.
"She will?"
"I've never heard that story," Amoretta said curiously. Lillet half-turned her head towards Cress's other mother and for a brief instant there was a very sharp look on her face, but the smily was firmly in place when she turned back to her daughter.
"That's right. Maybe you should try it tonight."
Cressidor looked at her mother dubiously.
"Are you sure, Mama? Why would a fairy leave a penny for my tooth?"
Lillet shrugged.
"Who can say? You know, though, how stories about the fae people work. They never take something from humans without leaving something in return. Sometimes the bargain seems really unfair, either in their favor or in ours, but there's always a trade, whether it's a changeling for a human baby or doing all the household chores for a bowl of milk."
"Ha! I only wish that last one was true!" said Gaff, the family's elven majordomo, wheeling in the cart with the after-dinner coffee. "If you know how to get a parlormaid to be happy to do all the cleaning, let me know, huh, Lillet?"
That made all of them laugh, and Cressidor tucked the tooth away in a pocket of her dress so she wouldn't leave it behind. After all, while her family was very well-off, a penny of her own was something else entirely!
~X X X~
