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 Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 12:10 pm
"Uh, huh," Craneberry said and nodded, "He's brave. And Mum too. Dad? He's called Reindeer moss. And... And... And... Any minder. They are all nice. But not Barkbeak, he's scary."
She was slightly unnerved by Tousled's behaviour, but put on a brave face. Her father wouldn't be scared, right? Craneberry nodded eagerly and waddled forward, she even called out once before she looked outside. And realised that was she saw below wasn't branches, it was ground-plants, and they were close. So very close.
The fledgling stumbled and flapped to propel herself backwards as quickly as possible. Her frightened wail was much louder than her tentative hooting before, and the piercing sound carried through the dying storm.
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Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 5:04 pm
Whirlwind's beak opened widely as she heard first Tousled’s answer and then Craneberry’s distant call. Taking note of her location, the medic dove of the tree, this time fully committed to remembering the location of both shelters. She was flying slowly, carefully maneuvering between the currents when the loud cry reached her eartufts. Accelerating to a rather dangerous speed considering the weather conditions, she was landing at the shelter’s opening in less than a minute… after colliding with the tip of several small branches.
“What? What? Are you hurt, child? Are you hurt?” she stammered between heavy breaths as a small drop of blood slid through the side of her facial disk. "Stop that at once, Wit! Where are you?"
Wit was feeling rather comforted under the warm wing of the deep woods crafter when he heard his master’s call. Though he chose to ignore it, he couldn’t possible do the same about the fledgling’s sudden reaction. Screeching loudly in panic, the little companion ran as far from the opening as possible, colliding with Craneberry twice before hiding in a small shadow, still screeching the life out him and not daring to look up to see what had freighted the little fledgling so.
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Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 2:23 pm
Tousled fluffed up at Craneberry's sudden panic attack, and choked on her next hoot with a loud hiccup. In the next moment, the friendly little mus exploded out from underneath her wing and joined in the screaming. Bewildered, Tousled threw a quick glance outside and only then did she realise how close to the ground they were.
Something could actually reach them down here. For a moment, that thought constricted her throat like a frozen talon, and she understood why the little girl had gotten so scared. What if she had seen something out there?
"Ssschhh!" She turned, desperately, towards Craneberry and spread her wings out in an attempt to block the view of the outside, or perhaps to try to shield off the noise, so that whatever could be out there wouldn't notice them. "It's okay! It's okay! Ssschhh! It's okay!"
But her little voice could barely make itself heard through the din, and it was with a profound sense of relief that Tousled heard Whirlwind's voice behind her. Without folding her wings, she turned her head around and gave the medic a somewhat desperate look. "Did-did you see anything out there?"
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Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 11:57 am
The collisions with the scared Mus agitated the fledgling further, and despite Tousleds attempt to calm her down she kept crying. When Whirlwind arrived the wails had died down somewhat and Craneberry just sat there, clearly miserable and with huge frightened eyes.
"They eat fledglings..." she whispered "Are they going to eat me?"
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 3:35 pm
Wit squealed quietly from the safe little dark spot he had found but did not budge. His master seemed quite unaffected by that fact, staring wide eyed at the deep woods crafter before turning to the fledgling.
“If I saw anything…? Eat... you?” the medic froze for a second, fluffing up considerably before whirling on the spot to face the night before her, intent gaze examining the darkness for any kind of suspicious movement, any clue to what had frightened the poor fledgling so. She saw nothing of the sort.
“I don’t see anything.” she said from the opening turning her head softly over her wing to get a proper view of Craneberry’s expression. “What did you see, child?”
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Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 5:24 am
At the sound of the litle ghost's tiny voice, Tousled turned her head back and nearly thought that she recieved another hit in the sternum: The fear and misery in Craneberry's eyes touched her heart in a way that she had never thought possible.
Since when did fledglings move her like this? At best, she had always felt uncomfortable around them in the past - they rarely thought before they spoke, or acted, and sometimes their thoughtless laughs or comments could hurt more than their incredulous tugs at her feathers. But this little one... she was so small, and so frightened. Tousled found herself wishing that the little girl would cuddle up to her again, so she could hide her in her wings and make all that awful fear go away.
"No, no..." she whispered, her voice taking on a somewhat sing-song cadence. "Nothing's going to eat you." She carefully waddled a little closer, still with her wings half-way outstretched. "Nothing's going to eat you. We'll find another shelter, it'll be fine, you'll see."
She looked away from the fledgling only long enough to send Whirlwind a look full of questions. Had she seen anything outside? Had she found a better shelter? Would it be okay to move from this one? Did she know a better way to calm a panicked child?
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Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 12:34 pm
Craneberry was too frightened by being close to the ground to answer questions properly. Words were meaningless to her now, but somehow Tousled's gesture managed to get through. With a half-choked sob she hopped closer to the female as fast as she could, and tried her very best to hide in Tousled's downy stomach feathers.
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Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 6:16 pm
Tousled’s worried look made the ruffled medic’s head turn again, moving silently through the surrounding area with both speed and resolve, searching tirelessly for… something. A creature, an ominous shadow, anything that might have scared the little fledgling. And again, she saw nothing of the sort. Peering back inside, she watched as most of Craneberry’s body disappeared under the deep woods’ wings with an almost confused expression.
“I don’t see anything.” She said quietly and surely as to not upset the little female, feathers slowly slinking back into place “There is nothing out here. I found a better shelter nearby but it’s still raining a bit… I’m not sure we should go just yet.” And by that she meant she wasn’t sure the fledgling was ready to fly again. Nor was she sure the other female could, for that matter.
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Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 2:28 pm
Shocked at suddenly finding her chest full of frightened fledgling, Tousled instinctively brought her wings forward and hid the little girl with her pinions. She looked down at the hidden child, and then up at Whirlwind with a somewhat dazed expression.
"Er..."
After another double-take at Craneberry and Whirlwind, she finally managed to process what the other Deep Woods had just said.
"Right, I... Hm..." She dropped her voice a little and gave the medic a look meant to convey her nervousness and worry about the panicked fledgling. "I... I think we may have to, actually." She noted the dull pain that radiated out from her bruised chest at the strain in her wings, and added, half to herself, "Or, well... at least try to."
She peeked down into the "tent" made by her outstretched wings and spoke as softly as only Tousled could: "Do you want to go somewhere else? Craneberry? Somewhere safer?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:59 pm
Safe, it felt safe to hide behind adult wings for a while, but Craneberry couldn't bring herself to relax just yet.
"Do you want to go somewhere else? Craneberry? Somewhere safer?"
Craneberry looked up at the nice female. Her feathers were still sleeked down in fear but her eartufts didn't lie completely flat anymore at least.
"Yes," she squeaked, and her voice was little more than a peep, "Safer."
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Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 11:42 am
“Alright.” The medic agreed slowly, looking warily into the darkness behind her. “We should go then. Before something… before the rain gets worse.”
The deep woods hopped to a nearby branch, eyeing the area one last time before her voice reached the shelter again. “The coast is clear and the wind is dying out but we should still be careful. Ready when you are Craneberry.”
Wit stirred a little in the dark corner of the shelter, worried eyes narrowing as his master’s head disappeared from the shelter’s opening. She couldn’t possibly be forgetting about him… could she…? AGAIN?
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Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 6:05 am
"Okay... all right." Tousled took a deep breath and glanced out at the rain. It didn't seem quite as heavy anymore, and the wind didn't quite howl so much. Maybe she could make it. She could probably make it. She could make it. Positive thinking.
She slowly opened her wings, looking down at the distraught little fledgling. "Okay, Craneberry, we are going to try to move to somewhere safer. You have to fly for yourself, though. Do you think you can do that?" She nodded at the entrance where Whirlwind's head had just disappeared and tried as encouraging a smile as she could muster. "You're brave, right? Just like your father. Let's go, I'll be right behind you."
Then she turned her head towards the little crack in the wood that she knew was hiding the poor, frightened little Mus, and smiled again. "You too, little one. Come on now."
Again, she thought about Tuft and felt a pang of worry run through her. He was so little, and so vulnerable. She really hoped that he would be okay.
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Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 9:33 am
"I... Yes," she said, "I can do that."
Brave. Yes, brave. Craneberry walked to the edge of the shelter and stopped for a moment to hiss at the ground below. It sounded childish even in her ears, but it made her feel a tiny bit better. She have practiced flying on her travels with Lichen, but flying in bad weather was never on the agenda. With this in mind the fledgling focused on Whirlwind and her branch.
"Here I go," she said, a bit louder than before. She took off into the thin rain and soon landed beside Whirlwind. Encouraged by the success she looked around for a new branch that she could easily reach and took off again.
She stopped at this new vantage point, feeling a bit better with the increasing distance to the ground below.
"Where to?" she asked.
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Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 5:53 pm
“Just go up. Follow me and we’ll…” the medic hopped a few branches, froze for a moment and dropped back down, looking to the shelter opening “Wait, I forgot! My mus! Wit! Wit, are you there?“
By this time, Wit had already decided that (unlike his master) Tousled was someone he could trust and had hid himself under the warm feathers of the deep woods. It had been a while since someone had spoken so gently to the white mus. But when he heard his master’s voice, he couldn’t help but feel obligated to at least poke his tiny head out of the opening, with an offended glare that seemed almost as angry as he was hurt. He was clearly frustrated by Whirlwind’s lapse and immensely aggravated by the fact that he couldn’t put all the things he wanted to say into words.
“I useful!” he shouted as if the two words conveyed all the neglect he was feeling, glaring at his owner one last time before running back to Tousled’s feathers.
Whirlwind looked around, half perplexed and half embarrassed, paying just a little more attention to the fledgling in the rain than her angry companion.
“Yes, yes, you’re very useful. But you can’t ride with Tousled, she was hurt before and can’t carry anything right now. Do you understand? Now come quickly, we can’t stay in the rain.”
The white mus weighted his options, clearly conflicted. Not wanting to go with Whirlwind was an easy choice to make but… Tousled had been hurt… and there was a poor “little one” outside… and he really didn’t want to be left behind…
“You no take Wit?” He asked sheepishly to Tousled, glimmering black eyes looking up to the female as his ears dropped slowly down his white back.
Whirlwind wondered if she should just go and get the mus herself but not wanting to leave Craneberry alone for a second, she moved closer to fledgling instead and lifted a protective wing over her head as she waited. For Wit to come back. Just like he always did.
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Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:33 am
Tousled couldn't help but smile at the little mus' indignant outburst. She hadn't really thought that Whirlwind had actually forgotten about Wit, just that she had been temporarily distracted, but the companion seemed so insulted that it almost appeared as though something like this had happened before. Whirlwind was probably a very busy medic.
But she was right about the injury... that was another thing that hadn't really crossed Tousled's mind, but even the neglectable weight of a mus might cause her problems in her current (self-inflicted) condition. A brief flash of embarrassment washed through her again, and she looked down at the little mus, but whatever she had meant to say died in her beak at the utterly adorable expression Wit was making.
"Er... I..." She couldn't help but smile again. "I would love to, but I think your master is right. I'm in a little bit of pain right now, so it would probably be better if I didn't. And... um... I think Whirlwind would be a little sad if you rode with me. I'm sure she didn't mean to make you upset." She gave him an encouraging smile. Companions, she could deal with. She knew how they worked, and they never made her feel awkward. Unlike fledglings... She glanced up at Craneberry and found to her own slight surprise that she couldn't help but smile at the little girl. Okay, unlike most fledglings. Some were actually quite cute.
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