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 Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 6:50 pm
Silverbell hummed a merry tune as she soared through the branches, her silver bells on her leg jingling as she went. The bard-to-be watcher was looking for anything that would make a good song and the area around her territory was same ol' same ol'.
And the stars they glitter
and the birds they sing
but inspiration comes
on the thinest of wings
Her impromptu song made her fluff a little in pride.
She flew further on, humming and coming up with more verses, when she spotted a grove of trees. What a thinking spot that could make! Quietly she alighted upon a branch and breathed in the change of scenery.
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Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 5:11 pm
Branches clicked and rustled as the Apothecary went about his gathering rounds, moving slowly from branch to branch in hops and flaps and rustles. The crab apples were just beginning to bloom, and Catchfly used the petals to decorate his roost, as well as to make tinctures look more elegant (dried and crumbled petals of all sorts, so long as they weren't poisonous, were a personal favourite of the Sentinel's), and so when he could get the petals, he did.
His little fraying basket was coming apart, but he was filling it with buds nonetheless, not stopping until he heard the jangle of bells and looked up, flaring his wings in involuntary irritation. He followed the silhouette of the other Sentinel, tracking her until she landed not far from him, and then proceeded to completely ignore her. He was concerned by her, but if she didn't notice him, he'd be fine.
If she did...well, Racket was rustling about in the branches nearby, and if need be, the Mus could talk for him. He wasn't too concerned.
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Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 6:05 pm
Silverbell smiled and ruffled her feathers in appreciation of the beauty of the blooms. Especially the way they gently swayed in the breeze, and the colors! For a long while she simply sat there, occasionally jingling her bells as words formed in her mind. She secretly wished her territory could be this lovely, but if there were such as nice as these near her place they'd be snatched up by either stronger, or more higher in rank sentinels.
A rustling caught her attention, quite different from the sound of the leaves. She swerved her head to the left, and noticed a very colorful Mus climbing about. Curiously she took off, landing herself just short of the little yellow critter. The colors seemed that of a companion, and it wasn't in her nature to harm one anyways. She waited to see if the critter would notice her.
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Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 7:16 pm
Catchfly tried to keep his mind off the presence of the Bard, but he seemed rather unable to do so. Every so often, he glanced at her, keeping an ear on her doings as well. The soft jangle of bells was very pleasant with the rustles of blooms and the soft hum of spring's earliest insects. He wondered if this particular Sentinel knew that the crabapple grove was unowned (the trees were too small to be useful for roosting, though they were certainly pretty), or if she simply suspected that she wouldn't be minded for trespassing. Either way...she was bold or stupid. He wasn't sure which.
Racket, who had been scrambling from branch to branch doing whatever it is that Mus do when they're not clinging to a Sentinel, had not been paying enough attention to realize that there was a Sentinel other than his master present. Dashing up the trunk of Catchfly's tree, he slipped along a branch, enjoying acting like a Skurri, and almost ran straight into a pair of talons that were certainly not his master's. Giving a scree of alarm, he dashed back to the trunk and clung to it, scolding the female viciously.
"What you doing here, scaring us poor Mus to death!! These aren't your trees; they're mine an' Catchfly's!" he snapped, squeaking and sniffing his irritation in an attempt to hide his absolute bewildered terror.
Catchfly sighed at the noise the small animal made, and spread his wings, flapping ungracefully to catch the altitude needed to glide to a branch near to Racket and rescue his Mus from embarrassment, no doubt mortifying himself in the process...oh dear.
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Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 7:44 pm
Silverbell watched the little Mus, amused by his antics. She was surprised when the little creature didn't notice her, she certainly was bright of feather. He obviously didn't seem to be paying attention either as he nearly collided with her feet, and she lept back in alarm, if not from the suddenness of his scolding.
"I's sorry little guy I had no idea there was anyone here!" She replied, shuffling her feet uneasily. Was this another's territory? The blossoms had distracted all other thoughts of the sort! Quickly she regained her composure, her feathers had flattened down in her surprise, and she ruffled them back into shape and began to preen one of her wings. She was still keeping her eyes on the little Mus however, who's to say he couldn't run over and give her a sharp n**? Oh that would be one for the songs! How the sentinel got put in her place by a mere mus. She chuckled.
Her attention was swiftly drawn to an incoming Sentinel, this must be the owner of the Mus...what did he say? Catchfly? She stopped her preening to look at him, almost afraid she'd be shooed out of the grove or locked into a territorial brawl, but he didn't look the sort.
"I apologize dearly if I have intruded into your space," she gave a small bow, "the beauty of the trees had me mesmerized."
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Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 4:43 pm
Catchfly took a perch on a branch above Silverbell's, where he could easily look at her, and where Racket could easily swarm up the tree and onto his back, where he continued to glare angrily at Silverbell. She seemed genuinely upset when she realized that there was company, and the apothecary granted her grudging respect for that. Resettling his basket, he investigated it to see if anything had been lost in the short flight. Satisfied that there had not been. He listened to her and frowned thoughtfully.
It would have been so easy to claim the trees as his, to send the young female away (he was never one to enjoy such company, particularly not when he wanted to work...), but something stopped him. Shuffling his feet uncomfortably, he smoothed some of his coverts back into place with the smooth top of his beak before answering.
"...Not ours," he said after a moment in response to Silverbell's concerned litany. "My territory is small."
And those six words said, he gave a shrug of his wings and went about in his gathering as if she wasn't there, presumably blocking her out of his mind. Racket, however, tilted his head, less angry and more inquisitive now that he was no longer surprised.
"We are Catchfly the Sentinel and Racket the Mus," he said brightly. "Treeflowers are pretty, and we like them. You too, huh?"
Catchfly said nothing, preferring his silence and the Mus's chattiness over his having to speak. Racket scampered down his back and onto the branch between his master and the visitor so he could look at Silverbell more closely. "Hallo!" he said.
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Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 6:10 pm
Silverbell gave another small bow. "It's a pleasure, Racket, Catchfly." The last said with an upwards peek at the other Sentinel. She rose. "I was afraid I had strayed into your territory..." she said with a nod, speaking to the little Mus. "This is a wonderful area, I shouldn't have thought I'd be the only one here! Aye, the flowers are grand."
She kept stealing more peeks up at Catchfly. Was he a gatherer? No, gatherers weren't the only ones who gathered, and she grinned at that thought. "If you two are busy, perhaps I should go?" She lifted her wings slightly.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:19 pm
Catchfly shrugged his wings in response to most of what the sentinel said, though he did bob his head in acknowledgement of her respect when she bowed. At least she had manners...or manners enough. He found himself looking at her with mild interest, wondering where her bells were. He assumed she was a bard, but without the emblems, it was difficult to tell. She wasn’t too brightly coloured, either...and it just perplexed him more. A moment later, he realized that she had finished speaking to him, and her last sentence had been the kind that, while it was not a question, expected a response. He looked at her and blinked slowly, processing the words and putting his own reply together.
“Stay if you want,” he said, shrugging his wings again. It was of no import to him whether or not this female spent time in the trees. They weren’t his any more than they were hers or any other Sentinel’s. She had right enough.
When she kept looking at him, the apothecary got a bit uncomfortable. Sidling a bit away, he turned his head over his shoulder to look solemnly at the other Sentinel with unamused teal eyes. She hadn’t given him a name, he realized, and he fluffed his feathers with irritation at that. Shifting on his talons, he looked at her for a moment, and then put his thoughts together into a coherent statement again.
“Your name?” he asked, and while the first two words seemed to be missing, it was quite obvious. He had introduced himself, and Racket had introduced himself, so he didn’t see why this young female not do the same. Particularly since she was staring at him.
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:12 am
"Oh! Excuse me, my name is Silverbell." She would have blushed in embarrassment were she not a Sentinel. Instead she shuffled her feet a little bit. She had completely forgotten her manners there. To ease the awkward silence, she tried to start up some conversation. "So, well, what is your profession? I see you gathering but I don't think you are a gatherer..." She looked both at Catchfly and the mus, inviting either of them to answer. The former didn't seem to want or even like to talk much, she didn't want to force him to any more than what she already did. Silverbell hoped that by inviting the mus to speak instead he'd be more at ease.
She looked away for a moment to look at the blossoms, and began to hum a little to herself, eyes darting back to look at the two. "And thank you, I'll try not to get in your way."
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Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 4:39 pm
"Silverbell, hello!" Racket's cheerfulness made up for Catchfly's absentminded nod. The apothecary didn't seem unpleasant in his actions, just........halting, quiet. Almost tentative. And Racket knew the little courtesies, or at least the typical patterns of exchange. But when the female's conversation changed, shifted from names to professions, Catchfly turned his head and focused on her, ear tufts standing straight upright on his head and giving the Sentinel a somewhat startled expression, though inwardly, he was quite pleased.
"Apothecary," he said swiftly, words sounding odd in his voice, almost mechanical. "Work is mostly with medics, not artisans." He shook his feathers. "Petals good for colour, mostly, and look nice in general." Clicking his beak as punctuation, he then moved and went back to the collecting he had been doing beforehand.
Racket, understanding his partner's lack of tact, turned his bright eyes on Silverbell. "What you do?" he asked. "Bardy-bard?"
Catchfly didn't much like bards, but the mus loved them.
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Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 5:48 pm
"Apothecary is an important job to have!" Silverbell nodded, her eartufts swaying as she did so. She shuffled on her branch, closer to some of the blossoms, investigating them closely.
Her attention switched from the blossoms to the Mus. A bard? I wish! "Oh..." She shifted her feet. "Not a bard, not yet. Soon, I hope." Silverbell smiled, that must have sounded silly on her part. Sure she loved song and dance and wanted to be a bard, but ...was she afraid to commit to it full time? She preened a loose feather, and it fell out, drifting to the forest floor. "Heh, molting?" Bell said with a sheepish grin.
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Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:21 pm
Catchfly did manage a smile when she complimented his profession, but his attention wandered mildly as his mus and the other Sentinel began a chat.
So she wasn't a bard? But she wanted to be. Catchfly almost laughed his disdain but caught himself just in time. As long as she was watching and not simply mooning about pretending to be something she wasn't.
"Early for molt," he commented. "But not too early."
In the meantime, Racket had scampered down from Catchfly's back and was regarding Silverbell with his sloe-black eyes. "You sing?" he asked her excitedly, not noticing Catchfly's mild irritation. It wasn't something that'd show to another Sentinel, simply a particular way of shaking out his wings and preening a talon. But he was irritated. Or, more accurately, he was uncomfortable with Silverbell and hoped she'd leave soon. He didn't like other Sentinels.
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