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 Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 12:38 pm
It was difficult to silence Birch, but now he preened his flight feathers very thoroughly before answering. He was both pleased and embarrassed by Char's compliment. When the silence started to feel awkward he finally opened his beak again.
"Ah... I know." Birch said, "You do put up with me, but could you handle a handful of other feather brains too?"
Unable to dodge the subject any longer Birch allowed himself to get carried away by Char's idea.
"Do you really think someone would like to sing my songs?" he blurted, "Perhaps I could play my noise makers as they sing."
He scratched his ear tuft with his foot making his bells jingle.
"Do we need dancers too?" he asked, "I've seen this female fly really beautifully. She's a scout or a hunter I think, but she's practicing dance routines when she thinks no one is looking."
When he realised what that might sound like Birch flattened his feathers in embarrassment.
"I mean... err... I happened to see her one day. It's not like I'm following her around."
He fell silent again. Picking at some loose bark and feeling very small.
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Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 6:43 pm
Char gave him a warning look, withering the words about the female like a worm in the sun.
"I'll leave the female-chasing to you, then, while the rest of us bards get on with serious business. At any rate, I'll need someone without anything useful to do to run around gathering people for me. Since you've agreed to it so readily, that's your job, for now."
Char cackled once, spreading his stained and rickety wing-feathers, and turned around.
"I'm old, after all."
And with that, he leaned forward and dropped from sight, gliding off towards his home.
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 2:57 am
Birch slowly fluffed up again as he was left alone. It wasn't the first time Char had "talked" him into doing whatever the olde bard felt should be done.
His feathers fluffed up further in annoyance. Female-chasing? Like he would do that... He couldn't help if they felt like dancing near the tree he was resting in. And now he was supposed to embark on a mad bard chase instead...
"I guess he got me again," he said to himself and smiled, "Old? My tailfeathers..."
Still... He was in charge of finding others to work with, and that was a good thing, right? He needed to find some decent singers... Yes. Birch rummaged in his bag and selected another noisemaker. This was also a hollowed out piece of wood, but this one was filled with seeds that rattled around as he shook it with his foot. He tapped it against the branch he was sitting on to mark a rythm.
"Hey!" he yelled to everyone in earshot, "Anyone want to sing with me? What should we sing today?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 5:27 am
A group of bards! Tousled had momentarily forgotten about her braiding, as her imagination soared with her heartbeat. The songs they could sing! The performances she could get to see! A ripple went through her feathers, and she absent-mindedly begun trying to preen them again. She wasn't at all disappointed that she had come, now, and she dearly hoped that the old bard's plan would come through.
Somewhere, in a secret chamber of her heart, Tousled dreamt that she was already a part of the bard troupe, enchanting hearts with her clear, beautiful voice and smooth, silky feathers...
When Char left, and Birch called out to other bards, Tousled almost answered him. She caught herself at the very last moment, however, resulting in a queer little cough.
And then, to her astonishment, she heard her own voice call out:
"Just sing something!"
But... her beak was closed! She hadn't shaped those words! the ruffled sentinel glanced around, and her eyes fell on Tuft. Her feathers sleeked back in urgency when she realised what had just happened: The parus must have interpreted her noise as impatience, and since he knew how shy she could be around bards, he had taken it upon himself to get her feelings across.
"Tuft!" she hissed, glancing over at the bard in slight panic.
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Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 11:13 am
Birch turned his head towards the voice. He hadn't noticed the female before. She nearly blended in with the background, but the brightly coloured Parus gave her away. Birch thought he had seen her before, but he wasn't sure and her name escaped him at the moment.
"Certainly my lady," he said and turned his body too, to be able to give her a bow before starting. He tapped a slower rythm with the noisemaker and started to sing as softly as he could.
Once there was a mother
who laid an egg
And from it came a hatchling
a ball of fluff
And when the down fell off she
would start to fledge
To some day be a mother
and lay an egg
And from it came a hatchling
a ball of fluff...
Only the increased wind stopped him from singing it another time. It looked like another winter storm might blow in.
"Better find some cover I think," he said, "Do you live nearby?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 1:07 pm
Tousled felt distinctly awkward as Birch turned his full attention to her, and had to focus really hard to keep her feathers from rippling with embarrassment when he bowed at her. Tuft just gave her a bright-eyed glance and flew to a branch a little bit further up, out of the reach of the sweep of her wing. As if she dared to move right now!
But Birch started singing the egg song, and it was such a typical thing for him to do that Tousled had to stifle a giggle. The simplest, oldest song in the world - and also the one most comfortable to listen to. She opened her beak in a slight smile and was just about to start tapping her claws quietly against the bark in rhythm with Birch's noisemaker, when he suddenly stopped. And what he said next made her go rigid with surprise.
"Do I...? Me? Do you mean..." she stammered quietly, driving herself even further into embarrassment by sounding like such a dunce. "I live nearby. Fairly nearby, at least. But it is a ways to fly. a little ways. Not too far..." she wisely closed her beak at this point and continued the jumbled sentence inside her own head: But it's nowhere near tidy enough to... and you can't seriously be suggesting... but of course you're not. You were just asking to be polite, right? Yes, that must be it. So there's no reason for me to get so excited. Right? Right. Right... Calm down, you silly bird!
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Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 12:53 pm
“That’s good,” Birch said, “I wouldn’t want you to get caught out in bad weather.”
He hoped he wouldn’t be either. Birch was fairly certain he was fit enough to fly home, or get to one of the shelters nearby before things started to get really bad. He wasn’t sure how Echo could handle it.
“Do you want me to fly you home,” he asked, but quickly added, “Not that I think you aren’t perfectly capable of flying home... but it’s important to watch out for each other.”
His mother had always told him to be nice and helpful to girls and older Sentinels. Not because they couldn’t take care of themselves, but because it was the decent thing to do. His parents and teachers had also trained him in how to handle a storm and other nasty weather. Get everyone to a shelter, watch out for your fellow Sentinels, and don’t try to be a hero – leave that to trained professionals.
“Echo!” he shouted as he carefully packed his noise makers he had used today.
”Echo!” the Parus chirped from somewhere overhead. Birch looked up to see a tiny head peek out from a small hole in the tree.
“Wow, you are smarter than you look, little guy.” Birch said and smiled.
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 1:55 am
Tousled relaxed again, feeling a bit relieved and very slightly dissappointed, but she refused to recognize that last part. You see? Just to be polite. Then he suggested to fly her home, and Tousled couldn't help but puff up a little. However, in the gusty wind it didn't make too much of a difference. She did it partly out of embarrassment, but mostly because she was suddenly inexplicably happy. She had to look away, to keep her soft voice properly steady:
"That's all right, I think I'll manage. Wouldn't want you to get caught outside, either..." She opened her beak in a shy smile and looked up at him again, her voice threatening to drop to a whisper so that the wind almost carried off her words. "...But that's very kind of you, Birch. Thank you."
Feathers rippling with a sudden burst of embarrassment, Tousled turned to look at her parus, who seemed to be patiently waiting for the two sentinels to finish talking. "Come on, Tuft, we have to go now."
Tuft chirped at her, stretched out his wings, settled back down and gave himself a quick preen, apparently in no immediate hurry to get out of there.
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Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 5:19 pm
Birch looked towards the treetops. They appeared to be dancing in the wind and he could even glimpse part of the cloudy sky as the branches moved. He shivered at the sight and at the thought of what might lurk overhead.
"I think I'll just fly to the shelter a few trees over," Birch said, "I'm not sure Echo could handle the flight back to our territory."
He looked at the hole where his companion had now disappeared.
"Hey!" he shouted, "that was not the shelter I had in mind. I wouldn't fit for starters..."
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Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2007 6:04 am
Tousled sent a glare up at Tuft, but couldn't help but giggle at the idea of seeing the bard try to fit into the tiny hole that his parus had chosen for a shelter. She tried to hide it by preening her chest, but the smile was still in her voice as she mumbled:
"They are impossible, these little birds, once they get an idea in their head..."
Maybe because it had been so very nice of him to offer to fly her home, maybe because he hadn't said a word about her feathers, or maybe just because he was talking so lightly to her, Tousled suddenly lifted her head and blurted out:
"Say, I- I really hope that idea about your group of bards work out! I think... that would be really great. And if... if there's anything you might need... Maybe costumes or... or adornments... or- or- or anything like that, perhaps I- I could help you." Her feathers sleeked back - which didn't much help her general unkempness. She almost frigtened herself with this boldness, and even though her beak kept on going as if by itself, she had to lower her eyes out of sheer embarrassment.
"I- I- I'm a crafter." Using her will, she lifted the complicated, colorful braid that laid at her feet, and held it up before her for a moment as if to validate that claim before lowering it once more and tying it around her foot. "I'd be glad to... if there was anything... I could do... to help..."
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Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 6:56 am
Birch took off from his branch and landed next to Tousled to examine her braid.
"That's really beautiful," he said and leaned forward to admire the braiding.
"I'm sure we could use a crafter in the troup," he said, this time to her face and not to her foot. "You're Tousled, aren't you?"
Birch had noise makers crafted by many of the crafters in Noctua, and he was always on the lookout for more. He had heard that Tousled was talented but never met her before, only seen her work on other Sentinels.
"Have you ever tried making noise makers," he asked, excited like a fledgling, and now completely oblivious to the weather.
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Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 7:53 am
Tousled hiccuped in surprise when Birch landed on her branch. She hadn't actually expected him to come in for a closer look, and it was all she could do not to instinctively try to back away. And then he complimented her. She could feel the fluff coming on, starting on her feet and working its way up over her entire body like a warm wave, disarranging every single feather in its path.
And the best part was that she didn't care at all. Her heart was making reckless loop-de-loops in her chest, hooting with joy. It took her a little moment to gather her wits about her and she very nearly lost them again when he said her name - He knows my name! - but she finally managed to get her voice back.
"I-I-I... thank you..." she said, somewhat breathlessly. "You... I... I'm Tou-Tousled, yes. You... you know... me?
She gave herself a mental shake. Don't stand there and stutter as if he was the Brigadier or something! He will think you were scared of him, for flap's sake! However, Birch didn't seem much bothered. At least not yet. She saw his eyes light up with excitement, like a hatchling discovering a knothole full of delicious bugs.
"Have you ever tried making Noisemakers?"
"Oh, I... I don't think so..." She hastily amended: "But many of my jewellry makes noises... I could try, definitely! How hard could it be... Would that be helpful to the group, you think?"
Unbeknownst to herself, Tousled had started glowing with the light of inspiration. She stood a little taller, a dreamy happiness and the urge to create shining in her eyes.
Suddenly, anything seemed possible. She had watched the bards for so long, enjoyed their antics and performances from afar, allowed them to inspire her to create her own kind of beauty. She had come to know every single one of them, but never thought one of them might have noticed her. So why not? Why couldn't a tufty, ruffled little bird like her join a group of bards? She might never stand on stage herself, but her creations could do that for her! Noisemakers to sing for her, costumes to shine for her... Why not?
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Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 8:05 am
Birch barely noticed Tousled's feathers fluffing up, he was much more excited over a possibility of a crafter in the group. Now they just needed better singers and perhaps dancers.
How hard can it be, she asked. He clacked his beak in laughter. "Well..." he said, "I know I'm no good at making them. I'll show you my first and final try sometime if you promise not to laugh too much."
It was ugly, the sound was horrible and it was a small miracle it didn't fall apart as he tried to play it the first time. He would have thrown it out in a fit of anger unless his father had insisted on saving it. It might be useful someday, he had said and winked. Birch had a hard time believing that at the time, but he was glad he still had it now. His huge fledgeling ego had probably needed a reminder that he wasn't good at everything.
"I love finding new noises and playing with rhythm," Birch explained, "But I'm no crafter and there are others who can make the noisemakers I imagine much better than I ever could. I always ask who the crafter was if I see a nicely made item or jewellery."
The glow of inspiration was more apparent to Birch than disobedient plumage. He was encouraged by her obvious excitement and started to dream up useful things a crafter could do together with them. Every thought of getting to a shelter was gone.
"Oh, what about some kind of noise making jewellery for acrobats and dancers? If I can talk some into joining," he mused, "Then the audience could follow them with both eyes and ears:"
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Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 10:21 am
Tousled excitedly shifted her feet and unfolded her wings a little, as if to imitate her soaring imagination.
"Oh yes! That's brilliant! Sort of like your bells, only prettier! -Er- notthatthey'reugly or anything, of course... but with a bit more color and perhaps some sparkle... Oh, and maybe some sort of wind-whistle that will sing differently depending on how fast they fly... But they would have to hold on to it then, wouldn't they? Hmm... Unless we could strap it on somehow, maybe on the back...? You know, I'd love to see your own noisemaker some day, and I swear I won't laugh at all. Maybe I could learn something from it! I mean, it's really amazing what sort of thing might give you inspiration, sometimes..."
A peal of distant thunder interrupted her for a moment, and she looked around as if she was starting to come out of a daze.
"Oh, right... the storm. Um..." Tousled turned back to Birch, her mind still half-way embedded in pleasant creativity, and gave him an excited smile. "Where did you say that shelter was? If it can fit the both of us, we could talk more in there!"
Up on his higher branch, Tuft proudly preened himself.
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Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:22 am
As Tousled talked Birch could imagine the dancer's noisemakers, and he really liked what she came up with. The thunder roused them both from their dreams.
"Um... Yes," Birch said and unfolded his wings, "Yes, it's not far. Just a few trees over, I'll show you."
Birch flew back to get his bag and continued to fly from tree to tree to lead the way to the shelter. Echo seemed cosy enough in the hole he had found so he didn't try to coax him out. The parus should have enough sense to wait out the storm and stay away from hungry Sentinels he hoped.
The shelter was two trees that grew close together and almost looked like they leaned on each other for support. There was enough space between them to fit two Sentinels if they didn't mind sitting close to each other, and the intertwined branches provided shelter from rain and winds. No one had claimed this particular spot as their own, probably because it was too close to the meeting place, and too close to other territories. It would have made a ridiculously small territory, and sometimed spots like these were left alone to provide shelter for passing Sentinels instead of being incorporated in existing territories. Better to have a shelter nearby than to have to invite everybird who got caught out in bad weather.
Birch landed on a tree next to the shelter to allow Tousled to enter first.
"Here it is," he said, "I think you will be better sheltered if I sit closest to the opening."
"If that is all right with you," he hastilly added.
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