“The guy that owns the place is working on re-aging me right now. But he said he can’t do anything for you until you get the dice. Apparently he needs to reset the charm or something? I don’t know, it was a lot of technical terminology.”
“I stuck?!” Laura screeches. Mason winces.
“Only until you can bring the dice back to the store.”
“I two!” Laura points out angrily. Mason nods.
“Yeah, that’ll make it difficult for you to get them back…”
“Mason?” Mason and Laura look up. An old man has emerged from the back of the store. “Come here so I can return you to normal.”
“Awesome!” Mason jumps to his feet and races away, abandoning Laura in her playpen. Laura idly plays with the blocks in the playpen while she waits for Mason to return. After what feels like ages, a man walks up.
“Hi,” Laura says warily. The man grins down at her.
“What? You don’t recognize me, Laura?” he asks. Laura’s mouth drops open.
“Mason?”
“Yep! Back to thirty-five!” Mason sits by the playpen. “And, actually, the reason it took so long for me to come back was because the wizard and I were trying to figure out how to handle your situation.” Laura sits up eagerly. “We decided that I’ll help you get the dice back. I’ll take you to the place you left the dice and we can look for them, and if we can’t find them, I’ll be the one to make phone calls about it.”
“Fank you,” Laura mumbles sheepishly. Mason shrugs.
“It’s no big deal. The wizard guy’s compensating me for taking care of you. And I’ve always been curious about what it’s like to have a kid.” Laura cocks her head curiously. “Oh, right, I implied it but didn’t outright say it. I’m going to be taking care of you while we look for the dice. You’ll be staying at my place and everything!” Mason grins. “How does that sound?”
“Okay,” Laura says with a shrug.
“Good enough for me.” Mason picks Laura up. “The wizard managed to get my car here and put a car seat in it for you, which is great. We can go straight to our first destination.”
“Whewe we go?” Laura asks. Mason pops a pacifier into her mouth. Laura suckles on it eagerly. Mason carries Laura outside, up to a black sedan, and buckles her into a car seat. “Whewe we go?” Laura repeats around her pacifier.
“I’d think it would be pretty obvious where we’re going,” Mason says, “but I’ll tell you anyways.”