Rumours had been abound. Moon Mist couldn't help but overhear numerous Nouls chatting about Scoria and her new craft. It seemed that she'd managed to come up with a trinket that help attract foal in need. Something about this really tugged at Moon Mist's heart. The idea of having that something that drew needy foals to you just resonated with her. Moon Mist pondered the idea, and decided that she needed to know more about this magical item.
A quick trip later and she had her answer. Scoria wasn't simply giving the stones away, you had to prove yourself. This set Moon Mist's face to a soft smile. Of course not just any Noul should have an ability to attract foals! She chuckled, imaging a few Nouls she knew suddenly confronted with parenthood. No, not all would do well. Shaking her head, she returned her thoughts to the challenge. Scoria had requested that those interested in one of her crafts come up with a toy. A safe one, of course, to entertain foals. What to make ... what to make ...
Moon Mist returned to her little home, nestled between trees with a carefully bent bough roof. She'd spent much of her early adulthood diligently working on it. Before that she'd had to spend so much time learning about how to carefully get branches to grow to her will. And what type of trees would even allow such a thing. It had taken a lot of talking to more experienced Nouls, and learning about plants and careful planning and memorizing ... She stared at her woven roof, and the leaves from the trees. Then a thought struck her. What if she made a toy that would help foals learn to identify plants?
She flicked her tail, excited about this idea. Moon Mist looked around her little grove, seeking young supple branches. She'd need the bendiest of branches to make this idea work ... One by one, she located appropriate branches, and snipped them free with her teeth. A small bundle of supple twigs harvested, she looked around for a good solid rock to assist her with forming the frame for her toy.
Just out of her home grove, she found a nice rounded rock. Using the rock, her hooves and her teeth she formed a supple branch into a little hoop. After she managed to get the hoop formed she realized she'd need something to keep it held together. Moon Mist rolled her eyes at herself, and let the hoop go. She'd need some long grasses too. She trotted off to a grass patch she was familiar with and harvested what she needed.
She returned to her rock and went back to careful hoop making. A hoop formed Moon Mist pinned it down with a hoof and then grabbed one of the grass strands with her mouth. She laboriously wrapped the strand of grass around her branch hoop, to keep it held closed. One hoop completed, she moved on to the next. Much of the afternoon passed as she carefully wrapped each hoop, Her harvested branch pile finally all made into hoops Moon Mist looked down at her hard work. "You wouldn't know that those took me all afternoon to make just looking at them ..."
Hoops completed, now it was time for the next part of the toy assembly. Carefully Moon Mist pinned one hoop to the ground, upright and then wedged another hoop inside of it. She bound the two together with more grass, creating the basis of a ball-like structure. Another hoop soon joined then, creating six vertical sections. Then came the hard part - getting a hoop in cross wise. It took much of her strength and all of her concentration to wedge the final hoop in. Now there were twelve distinct spaces around the sprung branch ball. Moon Mist grinned. This was more like it!
The Noul gently kicked the ball, testing it out. It wasn't perfectly round, due to its construction, which was exactly what she'd been going for. It rolled a short distance, and landed with one face up. "'Perfect!" Moon Mist exclaimed. "Now, to make a game out of it ..."
As the afternoon stretched on, she gathered twelve leaves of the most common plants in the Homewood. With painstaking care she rigged each leaf between facets in her ball with more fine grass. The sun had almost set when she had finally completed her toy. She felt quite the sense of pride. This had been hard work! And she was so pleased with how it worked!
Carefully snatching the toy in her teeth, she trotted off to see Scoria, and present her invention. "Hello Scoria!" Her voice was bright and happy. Normally around others Moon Mist did her best to keep her mouth shut, but she was nearly bubbling over with excitement. "I've made a toy as you asked!"
She gave her orb a gentle kick, causing it to roll a few feet, and come to rest near Scoria, the facet facing her featuring a carefully streched out oak leaf. "Foal can take turns kicking the orb, and then they have to identify the leaf on the top facet!" She puffed out her chest proudly. "Not only is it fun, but it'll help to teach the young ones about important plants!" Moon Mist almost held her breath, hoping that all of her efforts impressed the other Noul.
wc: 899
