[FIN] Shinies! (Blue Streak and Wood Spider)

[lostandtold]

The Swamp was always noisy with the sound of splashing water, the chirps of insects, and the songs of birds, but today, it was a little more noisy than usual.

"--and the roots dug into my back all night and I couldn't sleep, and then I woke up when a fruit fell on my side--"

The doe paused to breathe, and to crop the leaves from a low-hanging branch.

"--only it was sour and not quite ready so I left it for the birds, and I wonder if they've eaten it yet? Maybe I should go back and check and make sure because waste is so awful, even when there's food all around--"  

[phoenix kiss]

Wood Spider, enjoying her travels now that she no longer had babies to worry about (and especially now that, having laid her sacs, she was back to her slender former self), has begun to collect her charms and trinkets again. In a burst of luck, she'd found shed moth wings, a lynx's discarded tooth, and her biggest find: a stone with a hole worn through the middle. Some were easily carried in her mouth and she'd managed to get Bauble to carry the moth fronds -- it was a good day indeed and Spider was confident that the rest of the day would go just as well.

Until she comes upon the other doe -- talking fast enough and about enough things to leave her head spinning. Having never heard a kimeti talk like that, she pauses for a moment at the edge of the clearing, sets the rock down on a particular stump (making sure she'll remember it), and approaches... cautiously.

After a moment, she sidles up alongside the doe and has to ask. "Who are you talking to?" There's no familiar, no pet, that she can see. And no crocodiles either.  

[lostandtold]

"--and the sun is still up so I have plenty of time to walk around before I have to eat and I wasn't talking to anyone before but I'm talking to you, now." Another breath. "Hi, I'm Blue Streak, what's your name? That's a pretty moth, what's his name? It's a really nice day today and -- hey, what's that?"

Blue Streak bounds through the clearing to investigate Wood Spider's finds. "Wow, I guess somewhere a lynx is having a hard time chewing and a moth is shedding, I wonder what made that hole through that rock?"  

[phoenix kiss]

Wood Spider blinks, slowly -- it may appear at first that the doe is slow on the uptake, or doesn't understand Blue Streak's chatter. In short, it's because she's struggling to even catch up. After a moment she follows the other doe to her small cache of charms, and stands regarding them for a moment before speaking slowly. And enunciating. Perhaps it will rub off on Blue Streak.

"They are charms," she explains patiently. "The moth fronds are my moth's own. He doesn't seem to mind shedding them... they are for seeing in the dark. They're also beautiful." She smiles. "The lynx tooth is what you might suspect," she adds, as if this is all very obvious, "To repel them. To make you appear big and fearsome. The rock? I think it's to see things as they really are."  

[lostandtold]

Within a few seconds of holding still in one spot, Blue Streak is bouncing in place. It doesn't take long before she's pacing around the charms again, nosing cheerfully at them. "Oh, wow, you know a lot! I've never heard of using charms before especially not moth fronds for seeing in the dark but it makes sense when you say it like that," a breath, "Do rocks like this one that help you see what the charms do? What's your name again? And his?"

It appears that Wood Spider's enunciation and careful pace of speaking aren't rubbing off at all.  

[phoenix kiss]

Wood Spider, though perhaps a bit of a loon, is not a stupid doe. Her silence after Blue Streak's burst of chatter is not stupidity, but her brain struggling to go fast enough to catch up. The idle thought comes and goes that if her thoughts have to spin this fast, the Swamp only knows how quickly Blue Streak's move. The idea leaves her smiling.

After a moment she paces sedately over to the other doe and regards the rock with its hole. "You know, I've never tried the rock that way. I've only used it to help me tell when kimeti are lying or where there is danger hidden, you see." She shrugs, ears perked forward. "And my name? Wood Spider. My moth is Bauble. He tells me it's nice to meet you." The small smile Spider wears is a bit blank, but it's benign, at least.  

[lostandtold]

"It's nice to meet you Wood Spider and it's nice to meet you too Bauble but why do you need to see if kimeti lie? I mean I know crocodiles like to hide and wait for kimeti to come along and get eaten and sometimes there's patches of sucking mud big enough to swallow a buck and sometimes branches fall, but I never met a kimeti that lied."

That, honestly, is probably because Blue Streak has never given them a chance to speak long enough to lie, and because she has nothing they would want.  

[phoenix kiss]

"Don't you think--" and here she stops. Never in her life has Spider offended any kimeti on purpose, and now isn't the time to start. Whether Streak would even notice is questionable, but Spider would feel bad about it all the same. So the sentence-as-planned stops there... and, pawing a hoof in the dirt, Spider comes up with a new finish. "--that those things are awful? If you wore a feather, you might not fall into those sucking-mud pools, and, well, crocodiles know better than to mess with a lynx." A firm nod punctuates this; Spider feels that she's narrowly avoided even more trouble.

"As for the other kimeti, well, I can't say I've ever met one either. But I carry this rock around, you see." She tips her head. "What do you like to collect? Most kimeti I have met do have something interesting about them." Spider's normally polite smile has grown a little blank, like she's tuning Streak out, or as though her thoughts have whirled off in another direction. She's too polite to ever admit that, however.  

[lostandtold]

It's likely, judging by the way Blue Streak blinks wide, curious eyes at Wood Spider when she pauses, that she wouldn't have noticed if Wood Spider had said she was annoying and ugly, or else that she would have taken it in stride.

"Well yes they're awful but usually I'm fast enough to get out of the mud and when crocodiles try to eat me I can outrun them," breath, "obviously or I wouldn't be here talking to you at all."

Collect? Blue Streak actually pauses, one hoof raised mid-step, with her head tipped to one side as she thinks. It's not that her life is really that empty of purpose -- it's that she's struggling to find a way to articulate herself, for once.

"I collect experiences. Like how a crocodile can move so slowly, sliding through the water, right up until it bursts up with its jaws open wide, and how the sunlight scatters rainbows from the droplets flying through the air." It's relatively slow and comprehensible, compared to Blue Streak's normal prattling.  

[phoenix kiss]

This amount of level-headed, slow and comprehensible speech leaves Wood Spider gaping at the other doe with new respect. After a moment, however, she decides on something, and smiles slightly, deciding on the moth wing. It's one of Bauble's own, one of the deep blue fronds he sheds on occasion; she picks it up in her mouth and offers it to Blue Streak, head tilted.

Her words are only slightly muffled around the frond. "Then here. It will be a new experience for you. This will help keep your thoughts light, keep you light on your feet, and help you see in the dark." New experiences, perhaps, aren't they? She flicks her tail against her flanks. "They're worthy things to collect, anyway."  

[lostandtold]

And just like that, Blue Streak is beaming again, bouncing laps around Wood Spider. She takes the moth frond delicately, and ducks her head to drape it around her shoulders. "Wow, it's really pretty and very light and even though I thought it would be light it's almost like it's not there at all but then I guess moths have to have light wings so that makes sense." She nods, firmly.

"I've seen moths shed fronds like that every now and again but I never really thought of picking them up and wow, it's even softer than the moss I like to sleep on the most so you're right it is a new experience," breath, "Thank you."  

[phoenix kiss]

"You're welcome," Wood Spider says, taking a moment to stand back and regard Blue Streak. The other doe speaks so fast that it leaves her out of breath. She turns to leave the small clearing, satisfied with what's happened. It bodes well for the rest of the day. "Please enjoy it. If we meet again, let me know how it works out for you."  

[lostandtold]

"Thanks Wood Spider I'll remember the present and your name good luck with your collecting!" And, as Wood Spider gets further away, Blue Streak's babbling turns once again to her surroundings and the immediate happenings, and she starts meandering in a vague spiral, the sound of her voice fading.