"jagd oder medizin?" he asked isa.
it was eventide after a very warm day. but the growing shadows brought coolness with them, and he felt restored. he wanted to give one of the children or another a lesson before they retired for the night.
he stretched, one ear cocked to see what his daughter might say.
The question was met with a frown on her features. Why did she need to pick one? She didn’t particularly have an interest in doing either as she lounged in the shadows in the hopes of remaining cool. “Können wir einfach rumliegen, Papa?” She asked with frustration heavy in her tone.
Her brother liked to hunt, and she liked to learn about things, but she did not want to move, simply lounge out the rest of her day in peace before she sought the safety of slumber amongst her family.
isa very much enjoyed her leisure. and it was quite hot. it did not change the fact that mahler was energetic today. but he did not want to drag his child out into something she would not enjoy.
"all right, liebchen. heute kein unterricht." he settled beside her on one elbow and let his eyes drift shut. "ich dachte nur, sie möchten vielleicht die sehr große motte sehen, die ich gefunden habe."
Relief flooded the tiny girl’s body as she chipped away at her father, hearing him concede to her wishes. That’s right, she was Daddy’s Little Princess and would get what she wanted. She felt content in the way that events had turned…
It was mentioned passively, causing her eyes to pull back open as her head turned to him… “Wie groß, Papa?” She asked suspiciously as she looked at him. He had managed to catch her intrigue, and it might be enough to peel her from the piece of floor she laid upon.
mahler tried not to smirk, for he had anticipated isa's immediate interest.
"oh, vielleicht so groß wie meine pfote." he held it up, looking at its rough breadth.
"vielleicht größer," the man added very casually, jaws parting in a wide yawn now that he was relaxing.
Her eyes widened when her father said it had been the size of his paw. Surely that could not be true, right? She still had a guarded expression, not pleased with the idea of getting up and moving around.
“Really?” She asked with amazement, hints of the accident involved with carrying her father’s tongue starting to slip through in her voice as it was more practiced than her common tongue was, with how much time she loved to spend with her father. “Vielleicht sogar größer?” She questioned, narrowing her eyes as she rolled onto her paws.
“I want to see it!” She declared finally as she found her paws, her chest puffing out as she commanded him to show her.
"gut," mahler chuffed, rolling to his paws. he shook debris from his coat and ensured that isa was tucked near before he headed off. she was a little princess, nay, a duchess, ordering him around in such a way. and of course her far larger father was fully indulgent of all her tiny whims, and was as excited to show her the moth as she was to see it.
secretly he hoped it would still be there.
mahler took isa toward grünstein, a gigantic and ancient boulder almost completely covered by thick green moss. and there, hovering delicately over one of the stone's few exposed patches, was a great white moth that was indeed larger than mahler's paw and almost the breadth of his wide head.
"sie saugt die sonne auf. und dann legt sie ihre eier."
Good. The soft praise pleased her as she followed after him, her head held high as she was eager to see the moth that her father had promised her. He had never failed to deliver before. Her eyes widened when she saw the creature, indeed as big as her father’s paw. “Es ist so groß wie deine Pfote! Ich denke, es könnte so groß sein wie mein Kopf!” The exaggeration quickly fell over the girl as she tilted her head to the side.
She hummed curiously, looking up at her father. “What are the eggs for?” She asked, perplexed as to what the creature might be laying. “Do we lay eggs too?” Perhaps it was some kind of food or something else to help nurture the creature in front of them.
mahler laughed. "yes, it is very big." at isa's question, the man chuckled again, for she amused him. "ve do not lay eggs, liebchen. ve have live young, babies born breathing und crying."
he cleared his throat.
"vhen you vere born, you vere green." he watched isa for a reaction. "green as the grass. i have never understood it. did deine mutter tell you about this?"
The laugh by her papa brought a soft shyness to her that was rarely seen before she listened eagerly to his explanation. “But how? How are we born already alive?” She asked, not fully understanding the complex details her father was trying to share with him.
She had been green? She wrinkled her nose in disgust for the color, a frown on her features. “No! Meine Mutter did not! How was I green if I am not that color now?” She asked, the continuing confusion striking over her. “Was I ill?” She asked, trying to understand if there was an external factor that had contributed to the coloration.
mahler snorted. "vell. ve grow inside our mutters. a bird or snake, it grows outside its own in an egg." her questions followed, each more pronounced than the last. "ve are still not certain how it happened," he admitted. "but you vere healthy. you ate a lot, shouted a lot. pooped a lot," he teased isa.
"and then the green vent avay, and you look as you do now. strange how nature vorks, yes?"
Her father began to explain the way of things, but it was met with a mere frown instead. She still did not understand! “But papa, why do we grow inside and they grow in an egg?” She wanted to root herself to this deeper question that she had created, despite him saying that he did not know the answer for her… just as he did not know why she was green.
She wrinkled her nose as he went in. “I don’t want to hear about it, papa!” She whined, finding it a bit too… messy for her tastes when it came to such a discussion. “It’s very strange, Papa. Can we ask it to stop?”
fade and have another? <3
"vell — maybe that is a conversation for another time." mahler chuckled. she was quite proper, the little princess of sleepy fox hollow. and though he knew wylla would find him irascible for it, he thought of her secretly that way, a little royal among the others.
mahler exhaled.
"ask it to stop." he motioned at the creature.
Isa wrinkled her nose when he said he would tell her about it another time. He motioned to the creature, telling her to ask it to stop. “Hey, moth, stop it please!” She called out, but much to her displeasure, it did not… instead she frowned, insisting they returned to what they were doing before her curiosity got the best of her.
She wished to lay more in the sun and enjoy the warmth on her fur instead.