There was something about explosions that made Lottie vaguely uncomfortable. But only because she knew there were those in the world that could take something lovely and turn it into something terribly ugly. Not right now though. Right now, she was here with an enthusiastic goddess who seemed like her bailiwick was fun. Not that she thought there was necessarily a goddess of fun, especially not amongst the Norse since they seemed to have a different kind of focus, but if there was one? Idun would be her. Lottie already adored her.
“Oh I want to see how this works,” she told Idun, nodding emphatically. “How does it get in the sky? And what makes it explode? Where did you say you got this again?”
Even as she spoke, she reached over to take the lantern from Idun. Not that she was exceptionally graceful, but since there was a threat of fire from the fireworks, dropping the flame inside the lantern was probably a bad idea. Besides, Idun was so excited, she was bobbing that thing around so much she'd never be able to read the instructions that came with the firework.
“Can you read the instructions? Are they in Chinese?” Lottie lifted the lantern a little higher and a little closer, so she could see as well. She squinted slightly.
There were a million other questions and comments that were tumbling over one another in her brain, desperately trying to push out of her mouth, but she didn't want to overwhelm her new friend. And sometimes, Philotes worried that she pushed people away by the sheer amount of verbage that came out of her mouth. She herself was occasionally stunned. So this time, she was just going to bite her lip and keep it to herself.
Except for one last question. “Why does it look like an elephant?”
And that opened the flood gates. “I mean, not the fireworks themselves because they don't look like elephants at all, unless that's what the drawing means, you're supposed to make them look like elephants, but that doesn't really make sense when you think about that bit down there with the flame, that is a flame, isn't it? It looks like fire to me. I'm just wondering why the instructions themselves look like an elephant, does it have some meaning or is it decorative or is it just a really interesting coincidence? Or maybe when they explode they're supposed to look like an elephant? It just feels like there should be some kind of symbolism to it since it does, and I don't want to miss it, because maybe it's important, and you shouldn't ignore important things when there's a possibility of setting France on fire, don't you think?”