|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 2:49 pm
Typhoon shook his wings out and preened them carefully, slowly moving his beak over one feather at a time, starting with his primaries. There hadn't been much for him to do since he'd returned from his trip back to the tree he used to live in, near the Not-Cold woods. Most of the fledglings seemed well cared for, and Ty had been left to his own workings as of late.
Dune skittered over the branch, sitting close to Ty and cleaning his whiskers. He peeked over the Minder's enclave, antsy to have a fledgling to entertain. The flight to the old tree had been a long one, and not one Dune had particularly enjoyed. The mus didn't really enjoy having to cling to Typhoon for hours on end, staring wide eyed into the dark when they finally landed for the night, always terrified of being eaten by some strange predator. At least here Dune knew who his predators were, for the most part.
"Glad to be home, Dune?" Ty asked lightly in between feathers. Dune nodded his head rapidly, and Ty let out a hearty laugh. "I know you don't enjoy flying for so long, little friend, but it is a necessary evil sometimes. I missed the fledglings terribly, though. I bet we'll have a few to tend to after too long."
Dune tittered excitedly, "Fledge, fledge!," climbing back to a larger section of the branch to do a backflip. Ty laughed heartily, going back to preening. The mus' antics always entertained him.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 8:06 am
 It was that time again. Mom and dad had been home for only a few days this time, and they were already going to leave again. Mulberry understood, on an intellectual level, that the Clan needed more food after the storm. Both parents had explained it to her so many times that she had stopped talking about it because she was afraid that they were going to start thinking that she was stupid and didn't understand. She did understand. It was mom and dad who didn't understand at all. On the way in to the minders' enclave, Mulberry had tried to dawdle as much as possible, complaining about soreness and tiredness, finding interesting bugs or sights that needed to be explored, even one attempt at flat-out refusing to move, but all that that had accomplished was to have made her parents grumpy and irritable. In short, it was a very unhappy little fledgling who landed in Typhoon's tree along with her parents. She didn't even bother to preen after her flight, just sat there and stared sourly at the bark underneath her talons. Her mother bowed down and gave her ear tufts a quick preen. "Listen, Berry, darling. We won't be gone for long," she whispered, probably feeling somewhat guilty about berating her daughter earlier. "Be a good girl now, okay? Can I get a smile before I go?" Mulberry sniffled, but didn't move a muscle to comply with her mother's wish. Her father heaved a small, unhappy sigh, but didn't bother saying anything. He looked up and noticed Typhoon a little ways off, sending the minder a slightly weary smile. "We should go," he remarked to his mate. "She will be fine. You know she will." Mulberry's mother looked at her mate, and at her unresponsive fledgling, and heaved a sigh of her own. Then she forced another smile and bent down to give her daughter another quick preen. "We'll bring you something really nice when we come back. Okay?" Mulberry still didn't move as the two adults left the branch and flew off into the forest together. She didn't feel like being "fine" at all. In fact, she felt even worse now. Her feathers slowly sleeked down until she looked very much smaller than she usually did, the very image of a miserable little girl.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 4:18 pm
Typhoon noticed the fledgling, and flashed a quick smile at the Hunter father. It was a difficult job, doing their part for the clan and also trying to raise a fledgling. The Ghost Minder knew he had a tough job, raising all the fledglings of the Clan, but he'd never had a fledgling of his own. He hopped over next to the fledgling, giving his feathers a quick preen. Then he glanced at the fledgling, smiling a little.
"Hey there. Your parents gone a lot?" Ty asked. He knew a regular greeting wouldn't work with this sad little girl, she felt abandoned as many fledglings did who were left here by their parents. Some were left here longer than others. This little girl didn't realize how lucky she was, to have parents everywhere, and her biological parents too. He hoped while she was here, he could get her to understand a little of that.
Dune scrambled over the branches, wiggling down the branch to where Mulberry and Typhoon sat, nose twitching madly at the fledgling. He moved a few steps, and sat between the fledgling and the adult, giving the fledgling a little nod. "Dune," he said, pointing proudly at his chest.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 5:22 am
Mulberry still didn't look up as the old minder approached her, but she reacted to the sympathy in his voice - it was what she wanted most of all right now - and nodded a little, underscoring her misery with another pathetic little sniffle. Why wasn't it raining? It should have been raining. It would have fit her so well right now.
The light-coloured little mus, on the other hand, made her glance stray from the bark beneath her feet, and a tiny smidge of interest appeared.
After a brief moment where the fledgling seemed to weigh continued sulking against curious interest, she tentatively mumbled: "...Mulberry. I'm Mulberry."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 4:40 pm
Typhoon continued to preen, not wanting to seem too interested in the fledgling, or she would wonder what his motives were for trying to cheer her up.
"Mulberry? That's an awfully nice name, mine's not half as nice. Mine's Typhoon. And my mus there is Dune, as you might have guessed." Ty gave the fledgling a little smile, and Dune pressed his nose against her closest primary feather to him.
"Do you have a companion yet?" He asked, hoping if he got her interested in his own companion that she would be curious, if not still upset.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 4:30 pm
Mulberry's feathers unsleeked themselves just a little bit at the mus' light touch, and she turned her head towards it. She still did not look directly at the old minder, but she dared a quick glance up in the general direction of the Ghost's chest.
"...Typhoon is a nice name, too," she mumbled, most of the grumpiness already gone from her voice. She looked at the companion again and let a little smile onto her own beak.
"No, I don't have a companion yet. Mommy says I'm still too little... but when I get older, I wanna have a mus. They're so cute and smart and have paws."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 4:07 pm
Typhoon smiles just a little as her feathers unsleek, and quickly hides it as she glances up at him.
"I think Dune would agree with you that mus are cute and smart." Ty said, and Dune held up his front right paw to prove that indeed, he did have paws.
"I didn't get Dune until I was an adult either, but he's been by my side ever since. So do you know what you want to choose as your task when you grow up?" The Mist Sentinel asked and then went about preening his chest feathers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 12:54 pm
Mulberry smiled at the mus. There was just something about those weird, tiny little paws that made her feel all warm and happy inside, and she was absolutely fascinated by all the things that they could do with them. Unable to resist the impulse, the fledgling bent down a little to get a better look at the offered paw, and almost giggled at how strange it looked up close.
But when Typhoon asked his question, she straightened up again and made eye contact with the old minder for the first time with a defiant glare. "Well, I'm not gonna be a hunter, that's for sure!" She huffed. "They are always gone so long, and never have any time!" She emphasised her indignation with a queenly huff. Then a sudden glint of curiousity came into her eyes, and her appearance softened noticeably as her head tilted slightly to the side.
"What's it like to be a minder? Why did you want to do that?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 10:22 pm
Typhoon smiled to watch the fledgling's fascination with his mus, perhaps she would grow to become a mus keeper. There were always new fledglings to need Companions, so Ty though keepers were a needed Task. He'd always had a soft spot for mus because of Dune.
"Hunters are gone quite a lot, but we do need them to provide for the Sentinels who can't get out and hunt much for themselves." The Mist Minder blinked at Mulberry's question and preens one wing as he thinks. "Being a Minder is a little different from most Tasks. We work a lot to take care of younglings and some Sentinel don't think we deserve respect for what we do.
"Minders are needed to watch fluffs and fledglings so that other Sentinel can do their tasks. I wanted to be a Minder because I've found I learn the most from fledglings like you." Ty fluffed Mulberry's feathers, preening her dark brown and white ear tufts. "You and other fledglings like you will carry on when old bags of feathers like me have given in to old age."
"Are there any other Tasks you're curious about?" The grey Sentinel asked.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 3:44 pm
Mulberry's ear tufts sleeked right back down in a frustrated frown as the old Minder repeated her parents' words pretty much verbatim. But she knew better than to try to explain her own opinion against the Infallible Adult Logic, so she merely looked away, so that Typhoon wouldn't see her roll her eyes and heave an annoyed little sigh.
Sweet moonlight, were all adults always this predictable?
However, she was soon distracted from her little sulk as Typhoon went on to talk about the task of Minding. She sent him an interested glance and allowed him to preen her without complaints. She even smiled a little at the phrase 'old bags of feathers'.
"Hmmm, yeah... all of them, I guess," she mused in reply to the old Minder's question. Then she unfolded her wings a little and turned to face him fully, having found a question that begged an answer so much that she couldn't sit still while it was still unspoken. "But but what did you mean about the... that you learn from fledglings like me? I mean, what can we learn to you? ...Teach you, I mean."
Her yellow eyes sparkled curiosity at Typhoon. That a little one like herself could possibly have anything at all to offer a seasoned adult like this one, was a completely new and infinitely interesting concept. Grownups always had all the right answers - Didn't they?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 2:14 pm
Dune curled up next to the fledgling's foot, licking his back paw clean.
"Fledglings--like you--have taught me to always be open to new ideas. So that I don't end up an old Sentinel that thinks he knows everything," Ty hooted a little at that. "Even though I know a lot about minding, I'm not specialized in any other areas.
"And you've taught me to have fun. That life isn't all serious. And to appreciate small things, like the gift of flight. Once you learn how to fly, it's easy to take it for granted."
"Have you learned anything from other fledglings that I might need to know?" He eyed the fledgling, laughter dancing in his dark gold eyes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:45 pm
Mulberry's beak opened in a wide smile, and she let out a surprised titter as the old minder pretty much echoed her own thoughts, and she had to preen herself a little to hide her embarrassment. She had been thinking that all grownups thought they knew everything.
"I can fly," she said quietly, peeking up at Typhoon and still smiling. "Dad says I'm getting really good at it. But I learned a lot from watching the older fledglings, actually." She looked away again, and bent down to give Dune a light, gingerly preen. "Other than that..." She paused thoughtfully, her ear tufts rising in concentration. "I guess I've mostly learnt how to be really quiet, so that the..." She snapped her beak shut and sent Typhoon a quick, sharp glance. "...nothing."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2008 8:21 pm
Typhoon nodded, hooting to himself, a little laugh.
"That's something to be proud of, flying. What have you learned to be quiet for, little one? There's obviously a time for quiet, but there's also a time for speaking up." The Ghost Minder smiled as he watched Mulberry preen Dune.
Dune froze at first, thinking Mulberry was trying to eat him, but when he realized it was a preen he squeaked happily. He pressed his little body against Mulberry's leg in thanks.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 2:05 pm
Mulberry's plumage rose and fell in little ripples as she avoided eye contact, clearly feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable.
"I... no... I... Um..." She started intently at the yellow little mus that cuddled up against her, as if hoping to find a way out of this bind in the companion's black eyes. Then an idea struck her. "Um, actually, I've learnt to be really, really quiet so that... so that everyone thinks I'm sleeping when I'm really not, so that I can tell the minders when other naughty fledglings are trying to sneak out after daybreak!"
Pretty pleased with her own quick thinking, Mulberry dared another glance up at the old Minder, quickly adding, just for safety's sake: "I never sneak out like that, of course."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
