“You stay in there,” Finn kneels next to the bath tub, grabbing the edge of it excitedly. He smelled like a banana fudge sundae someone had left in the forest. “I slayed the beast, dude!”

He raises his arm in a mock show of swordsmanship. His exuberance seemed cranked up to a level Jake hadn’t seen since Finn was a kid. A younger kid. It had the excitement of newness, of doing something you didn’t know you could do…that had worn off a little over the years, replaced with experience and surety.

“You should have seen it, there was banana guts everywhere! It was awesome.”