[color:"a0a0ff"]SULKING IN NOWHERE

I lay in the grass, nibbling at my fingernails and boring myself to death. Washing was done and I was not in the mood to get new orders from ZHE BOSS again. BeeGee was nearby, using Wolfy as a trampoline, I watched both lazily. Suddenly Polgara's voice woke me up:

"Hey, Kiya, survived washing? here, take this..." she raised her hand, closed her eyes and a fruit appeared in her one and a little knife in the other hand. She cut and sliced it and handed me one piece over. "How's life here, hm?" And sat down beside me.

"Huuuuhhh, boooring... the others are having fun and I'm left out," I grumbled, eating the fruit. "Polgara, what do you know about imps? BeeGee's behaviour is a puzzle to me."

"A puzzle? What's so puzzling about the little guy, he's just having fun..." she replied and gave me a quizzical look.

"Well, I don't know how to deal with him - you know the other day I tickled his belly and..."

"You did what???? Do you want Beeyas running around here? Still no clue? Oh, Kiya... you started the first part of the imp mating ritual! Ok, let me warn you - the first part is tickling an imp's belly, then you have to reject him, the next stage is denial - and... hm, were there other stages? I'm not sure - and the birth of a little imp is still a mystery - some say, they're sneezed out, others believe, they just poof up. But no human so far has really seen what happens."

I turned a whiter shade of pale:

"Polgara, I was at stage 2... If BeeGee hadn't run away..."

"Yeah, sure, all male imps do that - and do you know why? It's their tradition that male imps take care of their offsprings for 10 years and the females take care of them for a day. So, a very long time ago, some clever male imps thought about meddling with time - their 10 years were as short as a day and the female imp day went on endlessly for 10 years. After the females had found out what had happened, they meddled with time, too - this went on and on until one day - time burst. And as the male imps started this foul business, their 10 years are 11 years now and the females have to cope with 2 days now.
Well? Now you know why male imps run away... Kiya," Polgara looked at me closely," are you planning to..."

"Nooooooooo, never - I was just thinking of what could have happened. If BeeGee hadn't run away - but he's still a baby and needs his nappies - how did he know that?" My face must have been a nice greenish colour by now.

"Oh, that's easy, even baby imps know everything the adult ones know, they have a sort of [color:"pink"]All-In-One conscience[/color] - and when they reach a certain stage, [color:"pink"]POOF[/color], their knowledge is there. BeeGee is too small to know this all really, but his AIOC must've warned him to react like all other male imps. And, Kiya - BeeGee doesn't need nappies, he controls his functions already - he just played with you. All imps mimick, didn't you know?"

Ohhhhhhhhhgrrrrrrrr... BeeGee had sneaked up during our chat and cuddled up at my shoulder, his little body was tense and very attentive. I squinted at him:

"You know the rules about hair and ear, right?"

Wide-eyed innocence, a little chuckle and his tiny hand reached out to pull my nose. I jerked back, he toppled over and my nose brushed against his...[/color]