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 Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:59 pm
"Mama, mama! Did you see that? Was a shootin' star!"
Ishizuke dashed ahead in the ever-darkening evening, darting from tree to tree in the park but always staying where she knew Mercury could see her. Even for a little girl who was fundamentally nocturnal to begin with, the dark was big and scary sometimes. Ishi liked to have Mercury near.
But now she dashed back to her mother and clung to her leg, pointing at the sky and babbling excitedly. "I saw it, I saw it! It went whoooooooosh!"
And she threw her arms out wide and spun in a circle, losing her balance and falling over in her excitement. Mercury laughed and picked her up, nuzzling her nose in the little girl's blonde hair.
With the days getting longer, there was limited time for Ishi to go outside, which was killing her (after all, the weather was getting so much nicer). So Mercury had brought her about half a mile away from home to a well-lit and fairly safe city park to stretch her legs and expend some of her energy. The night was clear and the sky, outside of the typical bright haze of streetlights, was full of stars. Ishi threw her head back to look at them again, and Mercury couldn't help but follow suit.
How pretty.
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Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:12 pm
A bit of a ways away, three siblings had started up a nighttime game of tag. With the coming of warm weather and clear nights, Eshaa had made the decision to seriously learn Gaian astronomy once and for all, and henceforth had been dragging the children to the park every night. She sat on a blanket eating dinner, taking notes in a textbook, and looking through a telescope, and the kids played tag and capture the flag in the dark.
(Somehow, luminous little Orli always managed to lose these games.)
"Look, a shooting star!" shouted Ranza, stopping in place and looking up. She always saw these things. Nahuel and Orli looked up just in time to catch a flash as it vanished into the dark. The parrot girl and jaguar boy both looked at their sister, but she didn't say anything. And why should she? Neither child had ever mentioned anything about the night the star fell in the cabbage.
Nahuel seized the opportunity to bop Orli on the head. "You're it!" he shouted, and darted off into the trees. Ranza followed suit, leaving Orli to look around, wondering where they had gone off to before taking off running in search.
She spotted a roughly Ranza-sized figure ahead, and chased after it, only to run into a child that was, although the right size, not the right anything else to be her sister. "Tag!"
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 4:21 pm
Ishi squealed loudly when something quite large and heavy bounced into her, leaping to the side and tripping and falling over her mother's feet. Mercury had been trying ot get out of the way, but rather unsuccessfully. Ishi gave a little whimper and immediately turned and dove behind Mercury's legs, peering out around them at whatever had occured to her.
What she saw surprised her. It was actually a little girl, and a bright little girl at that. There was something about her that suggested a glow. (Whether it was real or not, Ishi couldn't really tell. After all, as far as she could tell, people didn't glow.) Whining softly, she peered out from around Mercury's legs even farther, turning her head so her hair fell over the scarred half of her face and exposed her seeing eye to the newcomer.
"Hello there," Mercury said with a laugh, seeming a tad surprised. "Ishi, look. She's not going to hurt you, say hello."
Prompted in that way, Ishizuke shifted a little more, and found herself exposed when Mercury stepped all the way back from her. "...'lo," she murmured, looking shyly at the other girl and waving, boundless energy apparently gone.
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Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 7:46 pm
Orli waved to the girl, who was visible now that she was closer. No, not Ranza, but maybe a friend? She flashed her best smile and said, "I'm Orli! Hi!"
She took a moment to look around the immediate vicinity but saw no sign of her siblings.
"I'm looking for my sister," she explained. "Her name's Ranza and she has feathers," she added brightly, smiling at the shy girl. She'd get her to be happy! After all, it was so nice out! "Wanna help me look?" she asked.
"That's no fair!" shouted a blue-feathered child, who promptly hopped out of the bushes and tore off down the path. "Nahhhh, Orli's cheating!"
Orli looked from her rapidly vanishing sister to the girl. "Come on, let's go!" she exclaimed, offering her hand.
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Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 8:28 pm
Ishi blinked, bewildered, at Orli for a second, but when the second girl darted out and dashed off, she was immediately engaged and curious, all her energy returning. A quick glance at Mercury sealed her fate.
“Mama, can I?”
“Go on ahead.”
And the little girl reached out and took Orli's hand, looking at her with the same bright interest with which she had been regarding the stars in the sky a moment or two before. "We cheatin'?" she asked, really curious. She had never played this game, whatever it was. "How we play?" she added after a moment's thought.
And a moment more before she realized that she had never introduced herself to the other girl. "I'm Ishi! Sorry f'r not saying b'fore!"
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 3:36 am
"Ranza was hidin," shouted Orli as she ran, "And we have to catch her so we can hide. An' then she'll have to catch us."
She stopped running to look around the clearing they had come to. All signs of Ranza had vanished.
"Do you see her?" asked Orli, starting to investigate a clump of bushes.
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 4:14 pm
Ishi understood the game rules instantly, and when Orli asked if she saw the other girl, she cast around, tilting her head this way and that, birdlike. She could only see out of one eye, and to compensate, her awarenesses and hearing were somewhat better-used, somewhat sharper than typical. But she heard nothing.
Slipping after Orli, she touched her on the shoulder and then leaned in to whisper in the fallen star's ear. "Maybe if we act like we don' wanna find her anymore, she'll come out," she murmured.
It always worked with her, when her mother wanted to catch her and take her to the doctor.
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Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 6:44 am
"Really?" asked Orli. "You think so?" Well, it seemed as good a plan as any. She made her best effort to do anything but look for Ranza.
Finally, the bushes rustled and Ranza stood up.
"Hey dummies, you're supposed to be looking for me, not standing around!"
Immediately upon saying this, the girl realized she had been duped and tore off down the path again.
"Get her!" shouted Orli, following at a run.
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Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 8:59 am
Ishizuke allowed herself a laugh of satisfaction as Ranza reappeared, and she immediately followed Orli's instructions and tore off after the sisters as fast as her legs would take her.
Granted, she was physically only four years old, technically only a few months, and thus "as fast as her legs would take her" wasn't very fast at all.
But she didn't think that Ranza was that much bigger than her...at least...she was prettys sure that the strange feathered child wasn't. After a second, she pushed herself harder and caught up with Orli, laughing. This was surprisingly fun!
It occurred to her briefly that both Orli and Ranza were two of the strangest individuals she had ever seen in her life. But that wasn't saying much.
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Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 8:16 pm
To be perfectly honest, Ranza was getting a bit bored being chased. She slowed up a bit, just enough to let Ishizuke tag her. She skidded to a stop. "You got me!" she exclaimed, panting to catch her breath.
Orli cheered and hugged her new friend. "That was awesome! I can almost never catch Ranza! Now we hide and she counts."
Ranza stared off into the woods and shouted, "HEY, NAH! OLLY-OLLY-OXENFREE!"
The lanky jaguar boy dropped out of a tree above them. "Who's it?" he asked, looking at the three girls. He wondered who their new friend was.
"Ranza is," said Orli.
"Yeah," nodded the parrot girl, walking off. "ONE, TWO..."
"This way," hissed Orli conspiratorially, tugging Ishi off to go hide.
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 2:33 pm
Her pride at having caught Ranza was huge, and Ishi giggled in excitement, almost doing a little dance of glee. But when Nahuel appeared, Ranza started counting, and Orli gave her instructions along with the hug, she was immediately caught in the action again, only pausing briefly to give the newest kid a quick wave.
Nahuel interested her, but Ishi's attention was immediately attracted by Orli again, and she took the other girl's hand tightly and obediently followed her to...wherever it was they were going.
"Hidin', huh?" she whispered, just making sure she had understood all that was going on thus far. After all, when almost all your interaction occurs after dark, you rarely meet people at all. Orli was pretty cool, though, as far as Ishi could tell. She liked her. "Your brother part cheetah?" she asked, still in a whisper, automatically assuming that this other strange child was part of the clan.
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 2:52 pm
"Nah's a jaguar," replied Orli, giggling softly. "Ranza's a parrot," she added, guiding Ishi around a bend in the path. It was dark here, but Orli could see, and she definitely glowed.
"In here," she whispered, pushing her way into a clump of bushes and motioning for Ishi to follow. She smiled at the other girl like she was letting her in on a secret. The red man hadn't said anything about not telling, so she figured it was okay. Nahuel always insisted you couldn't tell other people about magic, but Orli didn't quite understand that. And Ishi was a kid like her! That rule only applied to grown-ups.
"An' I'm a star!" she said.
Far away, Ranza shouted, "Ready or not! Here I come!"
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 3:00 pm
Ishi was amazed by the fact that her new friend glowed—glowed!—in the dark, and she couldn’t help but stare at her, even though her mother told her it was rude. Because Ishi wasn’t sure if that counted, Mama had never told her what to do if the other person glowed.
“A star?” she asked, Orli’s words finally dawning on her. How could a girl be a star? She didn’t get it.
And she said it a bit louder than she had meant it—she’d be found in moments, no doubt, but still. A star!
{{Trying to wrap it up so I can play with her as a kiddo. <3}}
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 4:00 pm
By this time, Eshaa had finished with her studies for the night and packed up her telescope. The only task left seemed to be rounding up her children, who had vanished into the woods and, it seemed to her, were hiding...
"Yeah," whispered Orli conspiratorially. "The red man told me so."
Eshaa found Ranza standing in a clearing, looking in bushes.
"You 'it'?" she asked her daughter.
"Yeah," replied the girl. "Have you seen Nah and Orli?"
"No, but I'll help you look. It's time to head home."
"'Kay," said Ranza. "Orli's easy to find."
"How's that?" asked Eshaa, who had thus far not joined the nighttime games of tag.
"She glows!" cried Ranza as if it was obvious and skipped off down the path. Indeed, the bush ahead of her was glowing. She crawled in to join the other two girls, giving Orli a good whack on the head in the process.
"Tag," she said matter-of-factly. "Mom says it's time t' go."
Meanwhile, Eshaa had located her son and returned to the clearing with him.
Orli turned to Ishi. "We're friends now, kay?" she asked cheerfully.
"Orliiiii, we gotta gooooooo," murmured Ranza.
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 5:37 pm
When she saw Eshaa go wandering, Mercury realized it was time to gather up her own get. Humming quietly, she tossed the other mother a quick salute, and followed her to the bush. Little glowing girl and Ishizuke were getting along rather well, it seemed. Smiling, she put her hands on her hips. “C’mon now, Ishi.”
Ishi nodded absently, then grinned at Orli. “So cool!” she whispered, then nodded.
“Def’nitely friends,” she agreed, then looked up at Mercury and smiled. “Kay. We’re goin’ now, eh?”
Mercury nodded, took Ishi’s hand, and led her gently away. Ishi waved to Orli, but was looking at Mercury immediately after.
“You never gonna guess who I met!”
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