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With thanks to Axioma for the idea in the first place. heart

"Ever heard of Pippi Longstocking?"

Doe-brown eyes blinked back, a clear negative as she chewed slowly.

"The fictional creation of a Swedish gentlelady, loved all over the world for her impishness, inhuman strength and gravity-defying pigtails. Her best friends were a monkey -- a chimpanzee, as I recall -- and a very wise horse. I think you'd like her."

"Never had much patience for kids' stuff," Nina sniffed haughtily and paused to offer her companion a bite of her sandwhich.

"No, thank you," he declined politely, "peanut butter gives me gas."

"Of course, I'm sorry."

"If you shun all 'kids' stuff, you're going to have a very short childhood, Nina," he said gravely. "And we've talked about what happens to adults with a short or non-existant childhood."

"I'm not a child, though!" protested Nina. "Physically, biologically, maybe but I'm smarter and more mature than people twice my age."

He snorted in amusement, "Which really isn't saying much, my dear. The average sixteen-year-old of the species seems to take a backward slip in the intelligence and maturity departments. A side-effect of puberty, no doubt."

"See my point?" Nina beamed, but her companion only shook his shaggy head. "I'm seroius, Marcus. Maybe I can avoid puberty and remain this 'grown up' forever. Then I don't have to be an adult with no childhood, either."

"Dear, dear Nina," the Norgul sighed gustily. "I'd much rather see you mature into a creative, delightfully healthy adult -- puberty and all -- than see you waste away as a child in an adult's body. Or worse, an adult in a child's body. Better to grow than to stagnate."

Nina chewed her lip and came to put her arms around the Norgul's great, shaggy, snaggle-toothed muzzle. "But I don't WANT to grow up, Marcus. I don't want to lose you."

"You'll never LOSE me, Nina," he murmured warmly. "I'll always be around when you need me. I promise."

EDIT: DV, you'll have to pardon Marcus. The fact that a Norgul has read Pippi Longstocking at all is impressive, considering his relatively intangible state. 3nodding heart