Over the next few weeks the same bird continues to come back. Usually when Fish Bones is away, but more and more often when he's there as well. Fish Bones's shouted "Shoos!" become less effective as well, taking more volume and action to get the crane to leave.
Each time the meddlesome bird is after his bones. Shards of ivory that Fish Bones has painstakingly cleaned then placed in his pond. The crane never seems able to escape with any, though, much to Fish Bones relief.
As time wears on, he starts to wonder why the bird is drawn to the pond. There's not much to eat. Try as he might, Fish Bones has not been successful in his attempt to transplant fish. So the only living things in his pond are plants and bugs. He didn't know much about cranes, or any bird really, but Fish Bones suspected it wasn't a bug eater.
This question intrigued Fish Bones enough that the next time the crane came he simply watched. He was ready to shout at her if she was trying to take his bones, but so long as she didn't he was content to just watch.
The crane picked her way through the water, each foot set carefully down. Her beak too picked carefully and soon it became apparent that she wasn't stealing the bones. Instead she was arranging them. Fish Bones didn't know why, especially since her patterns were just as random as his.
Seeing that she was doing no harm, he decided to stop chasing the crane away. Fish Bones had never considered a pet before, but he decided if she chose to stay he'd adopt her. Not wanting to get his hopes up he delayed giving her a name, sure that any day she'd find something more interesting then bone picking.
This didn't stop Fish Bones from talking to her. He told her a great many things. But most of all he spoke of his pond. About his naming dream and how this pond was built to look like it. Even of the doe and buck who'd helped him build it. Between these, he'd also talk of his travels and others he'd met.
These stories took many days to tell and through it all the crane quietly moved through the pond, arranging the bones how she wanted. By the time Fish Bones ran out of things to tell he'd figured she'd been here long enough to be his. So he considered the names he'd thought of for her. One was Bone Picker, since that's what she did mostly. But the other seemed to fit better, made even more true by the fact that she'd chase away any other creature who came near the pond.
"I'll call you Bone Keeper, since you care for them so well." He frowns at a stray thought. "Though if you'll be guard over them I should teach you to let other Kimeti through." He had no idea how to do that, it had been months since the last Kimeti passed even near his pond.
Thinking on this new problem, Fish Bones settled down in his nest to watch Bone Keeper continue her work.
