“What are you doing?” said Rinnick.
Finnick shifted in his chair. “Oh, I got to thinking—”
“That’s never good.”
Finnick’s eyes narrowed. “Never mind that! I was just wondering what you think is the most awesome thing we’ve ever done?”
Tapping his finger on his lips, Rinnick looked away with a glazed over gaze. “Let me think. There’s that time when we bottled a gruggle fart and bombed the colony with it, and the time when we made that bully Branch’s voice go stupendously high,” he paused and let out a snorty chuckle. “And then there was that time when we threw the gourds in the fire and blew the fireplace to smithereens. Oh! It’s gotta be when we convinced cousin Twipple into thinking he was a toad.”
Finnick blinked without expression. “Of all the marvelous things we’ve done that’s what you come up with?”
Rinnick chortled. “You’ve gotta admit, watching him hop through the colony trying to catch bugs with his mouth was hilarious. Well, until he nearly lopped off his tail when he realized toads don’t have tails. That was almost a disaster.”
“Don’t act so innocent. You gave him the axe to do it!”
Rinnick’s mouth stretched to a long frown, his eyes as big as saucers. “I—I would never—”
“Don’t deny it. I saw you sneak it to him behind your back!”
“I didn’t tell him to chop off his tail! He was having such a hard time catching bugs I told him to cut up a snail from the bucket. It was a simple matter of miscommunication.”
They sat in silence for a long while, staring at one another like there was more to say, but Rinnick’s only reply was a witless grin.
Finnick rubbed his face. “You give disappointment a whole new meaning.”