"They swarmed forward, swirling about the burning paper, bits of which were now separating from the form and drifting upwards like gloried angels before extinguishing and drifting down again as a strange, sooty snow.
"They gathered this in their hands and marked themselves to mimic their God's appearance -- they smeared the soot over their eyes, ears, and they coated their hands and feet.
"In the commotion and chaos, we were able to quietly extricate ourselves with nary a notice, and we slunk quickly back to our canvas tents.
"Over cups of tea a few hours later, I apologized profusely to the Professor for what I'd had to do. The corner of his mouth twitched almost imperceptibly, and I found myself overcome at the lavish display of emotion. He murmured that it was all for the best, really, and that I'd shown wonderful resourcefulness. He was most likely, he said, going to mention it in his report when we returned to the Conservatory to display our findings to the Aetherial Expedition Committee.
"'Besides,' Septimus said just a little too loudly and jovially, 'when would you ever have thought that knowing how to fold a paper panda might save your life?' And in our mutual generosity of the afternoon, we chose not to chastise him for his brutish ill manners, because he did speak the truth."
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Date: 2009-01-10 05:18 pm (UTC)"They swarmed forward, swirling about the burning paper, bits of which were now separating from the form and drifting upwards like gloried angels before extinguishing and drifting down again as a strange, sooty snow.
"They gathered this in their hands and marked themselves to mimic their God's appearance -- they smeared the soot over their eyes, ears, and they coated their hands and feet.
"In the commotion and chaos, we were able to quietly extricate ourselves with nary a notice, and we slunk quickly back to our canvas tents.
"Over cups of tea a few hours later, I apologized profusely to the Professor for what I'd had to do. The corner of his mouth twitched almost imperceptibly, and I found myself overcome at the lavish display of emotion. He murmured that it was all for the best, really, and that I'd shown wonderful resourcefulness. He was most likely, he said, going to mention it in his report when we returned to the Conservatory to display our findings to the Aetherial Expedition Committee.
"'Besides,' Septimus said just a little too loudly and jovially, 'when would you ever have thought that knowing how to fold a paper panda might save your life?' And in our mutual generosity of the afternoon, we chose not to chastise him for his brutish ill manners, because he did speak the truth."