Page 118
“While carrying the very object the enemy seeks?”
“Yes, but Sam goes with him.”
“The gardener? Has he any military training or knowledge of the territory?”
“No, but he's very loyal.”
“Loyalty will not protect them if they are caught.”
“Frodo's trying to protect everyone else,” I explained. “That's why he leaves.”
“I understand his reason for going, my love. I do not understand why he would do so without adequate protection.”
I smiled. I really wished I could just put the film on and let him watch it instead of trying to explain why Frodo hadn’t arranged proper military protection before leaving the Fellowship.
Aladdin gave them even more to worry about.
“He steals,” Darius said.
“Only because he's starving.”
“And he encourages the monkey to steal as well?”
“Abu. And I don't know whether he teaches him.”
“Was the monkey already stealing before he met Aladdin?”
“I don't know his backstory, Darius.” I looked at Leon, who seemed just as interested in the answer. “I don't understand why you don't like him. Everyone I know likes Aladdin.”
Then Alaric found another reason to dislike him.
“He assumes a false identity in order to gain access to a woman.”
Yes! The irony didn’t escape me.
“He's pretending to be a prince because he loves her.”
“Does he eventually confess the truth to her?”
I hesitated.
“Someone else tells her. But it's more romantic when you watch it, I promise.”
He didn’t look convinced.
Moana went much better, though Caius found a problem with the fighting almost immediately.
“She is under attack, and she is holding an oar,” he said. “Why does she not use it?”
“She's not going to beat Maui unconscious with it.”
“Why not?”
I carried on before we somehow spent the rest of the evening discussing all the different ways Moana could’ve used an oar as a weapon.
“How are goods exchanged on the island?” Leon asked. “You have described farming, fishing and skilled work, yet you have mentioned no currency.”
“There are lots of coconuts, so maybe they use that.”
