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Kiri had travelled to a near by park to take reference pictures for a project she was presently working on. Since both Simon and Mrs Potts were busy Alice had come with her.

Kiri hated cold weather and was decked in coat, gloves, scarf and a warm hat. It was a pity she hadn't been able to find any suitable reference images so had to go and get her own but Alice on the other hand was thrilled. She too was in suitable snow gear but lighter than her mother's and didn't seem to notice the cold at all. Facinated by the snow she was running around trying to see as much as possible.

Kiri still was amazed by her daughter's ability to move around. She barely talked at all and her concentration was the pits but when it came to physical actions she showed amazing development. She would have suggested that Alice build something out of the snow while she took photos but knew from previous experience that her daughter wouldn't have concentrated on it unless someone played with her.

Kiri was looking around for suitable photos of trees and so didn't notice until it was too late to stop Alice from her incurable determination that everyone was a friend that she just hadn't met yet. Alice spotting the other tot charged up to her and would have hugged her if she hadn't been on the bench, instead the tail peaking out from under she coat wagged happily and she smiled up at the girl while hopping happily from one foot to the other.

Kiri charged after her and turned to who she hoped was the father to comment helplessly "I'm so sorry, I'm afraid my daughter tends to be a bit friendly".

Alice wondered what her new friend was asking about, it appeared to be something behind her. Trying to see what she was pointing at Alice started turning in circles in an effort to see behind her until her balance abandoned her and she fell on her rear. Well that hadn't worked, now how was she to find out what had been pointed to? She thought she had seen her tail out of the corner of her eye but it didn't look any different from normal so that couldn't be what was being pointed at.

Kiri was caught between being hopeful and embarrassed, perhaps dealing with other tots would encourage Alice to talk more, this one seemed talkative enough. "I'm Kiri, the little one is Alice." She introduced them, her own tail was starting to twitch a bit due to the cold and embarrassement.

Alice looked at her with a bit of amazement, it certainly looked like this girl was talking about her tail but why would she want to know about it? It wasn't anything strange, mommy had one too. Only hers was white and different shaped.

"Tail?" she asked confused and wagged her tail indicate it was her tail she was talking about. Her hat was also bothering her, it was irratating her ears. Mommy also had a hat which was why she had agreed to wear hers but this girl had funny fluffy things instead so she took off her hat, it wasn't like she really minded the cold anyway. The funny fluffy things looked nice, leaning forward to poked one to see if they were as fluffy as they looked.

Kiri smiled, she was fond of Alice but it was clear that this gent doted on his daughter. "It looks like the two of them are getting on well. Its good to see Alice talking." Even if it was just a single word she thought, Alice could go days without saying a single word.

Satisfied that the earmuffs were indeed as fluffy as they looked Alice turned her mind to the last question.

Alice decided that she liked the idea of building a fort with her new friend. Tail wagging she nodded her agreement before looking around for a good place to build their fort. She'd made forts out of the stuff in her nursery before but a snow one would be something different.

Spotting what she considered a good spot not far away she pointed it out to Hana. It was at the top of a slight hill and there wasn't much around it to get in the way. She remembered Simon telling her things like that were good for forts while he helped her build her nursery one.

Kiri mentally sighed at Alice reverting to her usual tatics for communication, oh well at least it was looking a little hopeful. "I'm just glad they left my tail out of it." She was fairly sure if the topic of the fort hadn't come up Alice would have used Kiri's tail as proof of furry tails.

Happy that Hana approved of her choice she charged off in that direction, she quickly overtook Hana and was the first to the top of the hill. Once there she waited for Hana to catch up and surveyed the surrounding area trying to decide what the best way of starting would be.

It would need to have walls, and those wall had to be big enough to hold both of them in and everyone else out. It was good that there was so much snow, there would be plenty of building stuff for their walls. All the same this was her first time working with snow, she hoped that Hana would now how to use it.

Kiri made a face at the thought of Alice permanently attached to her tail. "Lucky for me while she does love hugging people she can't stay still long enough to really cling to people for long." Watching her daughter charge off Kiri picked up the forgotten hat. "Alice hasn't really met that many people but she seems to think that everyone she does meet is a friend. I don't get out much so the only other child her age that she's met was a little boy she met through the Eden Project". Kiri just assume that like most people Wren would think Eden Project was some children's group.

Alice gave serious thought to where the door should be. She couldn't remember Simon mentioning anything about doors but she realised that a door would be important. Finally she decided that the best place would be facing the most open ground and so pointed in that direction before starting to help push snow into place.

To answer the name question she commented "Alice", it had never occured to her that names might have a meaning, wasn't a name supposed to mean the thing it was naming? So the meaning of Alice should be Alice and the meaning of Hana should be Hana. Still making a good fort was more important than strange double meanings.

Kiri blinked in surprise. "Alice did come from a leaf so I guess that does make her a LeafBaby." So Hana was from Eden Project too.

Pleased with the praise Alice smiled and her tail started wagging wildly. Still despite the happiness she focused on the most important thing. Making a good fort. It was her and Hana's fort so it had to be good.

Seeing that for a good sized fort with suitable walls they would need more snow she starting raiding the area around the fort, figuring that Hana could build the walls while Alice brought more snow for them. They would be able to make a really good Fort this way.

Kiri laughed at seeing Alice push snow towards Hana and the fort. "I should have brought one of those toy beach buckets with us." She would have brought one but she hadn't expected Alice to pay much attention to building things by herself. "When Alice was still just a potted leaf I visited the Eden Project's HQ in Barton to find out more. A nice girl there called Shouko told me that all the Edens have the soul of an animal or plant. Based on observation I would assume Alice is a Labrador Retriever"