Today was set to be a regular day of patrolling for Sihaya. One of the regular nannies stayed the night so as to be there for her children when they woke up in the morning...Later in the morning. Her patrol was set to start before sunrise. After silently bidding each of her curled up little ones adieu, the scout made certain to tread quietly away from the den as she left for the day. For the morning, she was supposed to patrol through Homewood, then later in the afternoon expand her patrol into the barrens. The early wake up calls were no problem for the doe. In fact, she quite enjoyed the cool of the wee hours and enjoyed listening to the sounds of Homewood stirring into waking with the rising sun. Of course, today was also a special occasion. The word had gone around that Brightheart, one of the most well known Life Bringers in Homewood, was going to be resurrecting a long extinct creature. There'd be a large gathering there, to welcome the new souls as companions once more. Sihaya was vaguely curious, but the fact that she was already due to be working during the same time frame put thoughts of the event to the back of her mind. Had she been off, she might have gone to attend, to witness the rebirth of a species that Vykeli had previously lost. She'd see what was returning today soon enough. Whatever individuals would be placed in the care of the nouls gathered; and she'd just see them then and could ask about them if she was inclined to do so. She needed to focus on her patrol, to listen in case of trouble, to keep her awareness on the world around her.
The soft chirring of the night insects gradually died down and the first sounds of the morning birds began twittering in the branches and shrubs about her as she walked. Shapes of early rising nouls, jack hops, and others began going about their days. Another scout, Horatio, a leanly built strawberry roan buck, fell in pace with her as she turned onto a path that lead deeper into Homewood. The two scouts conferred over their routes for the day. Her offered her any updates he could on the state of things, since he was nearing the end of his work day. Apparently a few older adolescents had attempted to sneak out in the night to "just go for a walk" but had been turned away and escorted back to their homes. No predator sightings, which was good, and it was all otherwise pretty calm and peaceful. Thanking him for the update, Sihaya broke off to begin to weave through a few regular early morning gathering places. Coincidentally, this path had her drawing near to the gathering numbers in and around Brightheart's clearing. It was looking like quite a turn out.
The ascended vivify doe was already standing in the center of the clearing, facing the crowd, standing over the bones selected to be brought back. Sihaya paused momentarily as she had slipped into a gap in the crowd. There was motion above and off the the side of the clearing. With ears pricked forward, the scout watched then gasped aloud as a foal came tumbling into the clearing. Not just any foal, at that. With that fuzzy black mane and tail struck through with the odd stripes of white, the subtly white marked, softly desaturated leopard spotted coat, it could only be one of her boys! Her stomach dropped at his impact, right next to the space Brightheart was getting ready to work. She held her breath until her son popped up again. A wave of relief washed over her at the sight. Thank goodness foals were made of some stern stuff. She spied a white horn. Her eldest. Qal...One of the nannies had mentioned she had caught him trying to follow her off for patrols. Perhaps she hadn't been as quiet as she had hoped in her departure this morning, or he hadn't been sleeping as soundly as she had thought he had been.
Not wanting to make a scene during such a significant event, Sihaya remained where she stood. Being a little delayed in her patrol wouldn't be the end of the world. Qaletaqa seemed to move fine, no hitching or limping, scooting back behind the life bringer when she instructed him to do so. So he wasn't hurt. That was good to see. She was going to see this raising through to the end, and then afterwards, she was going to escort her son back home. The two of them clearly had to talk. She had been around, but not in attendance, to bringing a species back from history before. She knew how it worked, but this was going to be her son's first encounter with such a momentous occasion. Of course, she was angry that he had slipped away from the nanny she had left them with. He could have gotten hurt or lost! It wasn't totally unheard of that occasionally predators managed to slip past Homewood's outermost scouts to prowl around for easier pickings. There was also the fact that with both of them actually attending, whether they had originally planned on it or no, they'd both be entrusted to guide and care for a couple of members of this newly revived species. Hmm. If anything, it could be a lesson in responsibility! She and Qal definitely would have much to discuss on the way home.
[WC: 925 ]
