Though the day began partly-cloudy, slightly breezy, and really quite cool, the first half-formed thought that entered Rylan's head upon waking went something like; 'Hmm, I think a picnic lunch today would be lovely.' Understandably, when she made this announcement at the breakfast table later that morning, she was met with somewhat less enthusiasm.

Nonetheless, by noon that day Rylan had whined and cajoled Sophia into preparing an impressive amount of sandwiches and snacks, managed to get herself, a fairly apathetic Jiang, and the almost impractically large picnic basket into the back seat of the car, and convinced Stefan to drive them to one of the nicer wooded campgrounds near the outskirts of the city.

When they arrived, the small parking area was, unsurprisingly for the time of year, empty. Exiting the car- Rylan with Jiang bundled up in her arms, and Stefan hauling the basket- they bypassed the more open area, with its scattered fire pits and picnic tables, and headed for the more heavily wooded spots, which surrounded a slow-moving river that cut through the site- the primary reason Rylan had chosen this particular area.

She wandered along beside the riverbank until coming across a nice looking patch of grass, and nodded in approval. "I think here will do nicely, don't you think?" She then brought her attention back to Jiang, who looked notably happier about the whole trip since catching sight of the river. "Would you like to splash around a bit, or would you rather eat first sweetie?" He didn't have to think about it very long. "I would like to swim first, please." She set him down next to the water's edge and helped him shed cloak and sweater, watching as he slipped into the cold water with little more than a ripple.

Taking a couple steps back as she neatly folded the clothes, she waved Stefan over. "Would you be a dear and set that down just over here?" After setting the basket down with an 'oof', Stefan promptly announced that he was going to have a nap in the car, and disappeared back down the short trail before he could be asked to do anything else. This wasn't much of a surprise, and Rylan happily laid out the blanket and sat down, fishing a flaky pastry out of the basket as she listened to Jiang splash about.

Life was quite grand, really.