Cricket Creek Bog Itsy Went Up The Water Spout

Itsy the bird had flown to and fro across the lands of Teekon. Exploring like it was all she did. She ended up in a bog, and bogs were abundant in worms. Itsy could also hear crickets about, many crickets. This meant like many food for the little bird. Yes, many food for her. She took a landing amongst the bog, making sure not to get stuck in the boggy mud. 

@Grimeye

Her limping was growing more prominent than it had been when she'd started this whole accursed journey, and her already-puckered expression soured further as she exited the trees and found herself facing a wide expanse of marshy ground. There were higher patches of ground speckling the area among the muddier lower portions, small grassy islands that were an easy spring away...for someone much more young and agile than her. Grimeye threw her nose up higher and took an experimental sniff of the gloaming air, but as she sorted out the faint traces of her fellow coyotes she scowled. That tantalizingly faint aroma did indeed come from directly across the other side of this bog, as far as she could tell.

Muttering curses under her breath, she gritted her teeth and started to make her way across. She actively winced only occasionally, as a sharper pang hit her brittling and much-injured bones, but nonetheless between her whispering snarls of invectives and the exertions such acrobatics required she found herself needing to set her rump down for a rest before she was even halfway across. She did however take a moment to curve slowly in half and make absolute sure there was a nice dry patch of ground behind her. As she cautiously lowered her hips into a sit, her long ears flickered up to home in on a flittering, twittering bit of motion caught her attention. Oh. Just a bird. Grimeye grimaced as a fresh sensation distracted her, and lifted up a slightly-muddy paw to look underneath it in digust. Her slimily wriggling assailant seemed to be having some trouble with the oversaturated ground before her. Birds and worms, that seemed to be all that was visible in this soggy piece of land. Why any coyote with even half a brain would want to cross it to begin with Grimeye surely didn't know, but she was nonetheless determined to track down her wayward relatives no matter how baffling their choices... after she'd caught her breath, here.

Itsy perked up, a cricket in her mouth. Something had moved in the corner of her eye. Something big...at least to her. She fluttered up and saw exactly what it was and dropped the cricket in surprise. Not that she noticed for there was a wolf here. And after the last wolf she met...

"Is wolf friendly?!" she asked, flying a bit in front of the wolf. "Is wolf friendly?"

Grimeye looked somewhat sourly down at the little featherbrain. If only Grimeye herself could move with that same flickering quickness anymore. Coyote, she said, with the flick of an ear, her one eye tracking the bouncing retreat of the baby cricket the bird didn't seem to notice it had dropped. Or had it perhaps done so on purpose, thinking Grimeye might have spotted something better? Who knew, maybe to something that thought crickets were a delicacy squidgy earthworms were a step up. She leaned back a little as the creature flitted by in front of her face.

Were you hoping for my worm? she wondered aloud, making a bit of a face. Not something she was about to squabble over; she hadn't sunk quite that low yet. Besides, she had to admit she had a bit of sympathy toward any creature that was having trouble finding good hunting grounds, today. You're welcome to it, she said, placing her paw back down in approximately the right spot and shoving it forward a little ways, so that a small roll of mud rose up in front of it like a wave. Sure enough, the hapless earthworm's head—or maybe its tail, Grimeye could never tell—poked up from the mud roll, wriggling in astonishment as it found itself indecently exposed to the open air again. Grimeye picked up her forepaw and distastefully snapped it away from herself a few times, trying to flick the mud from her claws before she lifted her nose again and looked consideringly out over her course, clearly not all that invested in whatever else was flitting through this little bird's head at the moment. Grimeye wasn't about to stoop so far as to pick up the worm for the greedy little creature; that would be a little too demeaning. The way the coywolf saw it, she'd just done the majority of the hard work here in finding and uncovering this earthworm, and even if it was the barest of token efforts for the canine the little featherball ought to be fawningly grateful she'd bothered to do even this much, really. Especially since the little twitterbutt had had the temerity to call her a wolf, harrumph.

Itsy twitched her head a bit. Coyote? To the little bird, coyote's and wolves were much too similar. Then she hopped forth a bit, eyes brightening as she heard the word 'worm'. Then the bird watched as the coyote lifted the mud and dirt over the worm, and her eyes widened some more. "Coyote has made Itsy happy!" 

She hopped forward and grabbed at it, pulling as hard as she could. Now rather ignorant to the coyote, all focus to the worm.

The little flitterbug was quite a bold birdlet, needing no further invitation to swoop down and start decapitating some worms. Grimeye flicked an ear down at the little beast in some bemusement; it took so little to make the little birdbrain so ecstatic. Well at least it had stopped calling her wolf.

The spectacle of bird versus worm caught her attention for a few moments despite herself, as she watched the tug-o-war and had to wonder if when that worm pulled loose it was going to tear right in half or possibly send the little bird tumbling end over end from the backlash. Grimeye was downright grateful not to be obligated to go to such work for such a tiny and disgusting mouthful—although, fine, it was probably a lot more filling to the tiny stomach of a bird. Still—ew. Grimeye raised her eyes to the tree-studded horizon again and scanned over the wetland with her black nose fitfully twitching. Nothing much new to see out there; neither hide nor hair of any of her wayward relatives or of any prey. I don't suppose you'd know where to find anything better to eat than worms and crickets, she grumbled moodily, half to the little bird and half to herself. As she glanced down at the twittering ball of feathers near her feet she had to admit the thought crossed her mind that an "Itsy" might make for a better meal than worms, at least, if that was all she was going to encounter in this useless mess of a swamp... but the flittering little thing looked to be more feather than substance, truly, and hardly worth the effort to even try to catch. She wasn't nearly that hungry. Yet. Grimeye gave her head a tiny, unconscious shake and shifted from one sore hip to the other. At least the soggy ground here helped to cushion her poor ass a little better than the unforgiving mountain rocks of a few days ago. But she really didn't think much of her nieces' choice of real estate, still.

The little bird paused, looking up with the worm in her little beak. It wriggled in her beak, her eyes glued to the wolf. For a moment, Itsy had set it down onto the ground before planing a taloned foot over it, tipping her little head.

"Many places! Itsy has seen many hare, many food for wolf about" the bird answered, the worm attempting it's escape. "Or coyote, food for coyote too."

The tiny bird risked putting down her own meal to answer promptly. Grimeye liked that. To her surprise a small chuckle even escaped her at the bird's words; the little creature was an oddly cheering one, especially as Grimeye's mood reacted to the hopeful news that the little critter knew where to find some real food too, for a change. Grimeye's stomach growled in agreement; excellent notion, and excellent little bird to offer up what she was craving. A+ rating, five stars on Yelp, do not eat, would happily do business with again.

Well aren't you a clever little bird, she purred most approvingly. Hell, she'd've reached out to pat the thing on its head, if such a motion wouldn't likely squash the bitty birdlet straight into the mud. 'Many places,' ey? Well I guess we'd best visit some, then. And I wouldn't mind stealing a bit of 'wolf food,' either, really, she added musingly with a bit of an evil grin. ...Not if the wolves themselves were about, of course, and likely it was just an amusing notion rather than something either of them could make into an honest reality, but the arrogant canines often and deservedly needed to be taken down a peg anyway, in Grimeye's book—not to mention her empty belly obviously took much higher precedence than theirs, should Itsy spy a conveniently unguarded wolf cache for her. The smile continued to play about Grimeye's lips as she daydreamily toyed with the notion for a moment, but then her expression changed back to a grimace for a moment, as she hefted her bony old hips off the ground.

No time like the present! she said to the Itsy-bird, a little overbrightly. We'd best hurry before old Grimeye's spine is absorbed all the way into her shrinking-up tummy. ...And maybe we can even find some more worms along the way for Itsy, she magnanimously allowed, though her supercilious look at the current wiggling victim suggested it still left much to be desired. But hey, whatever kept the helpful little featherbrain focused and motivated and happy to be working for with her, right? If these 'many places' really have the smorgasboard you're claiming, at least. Damn but it would be good to have a real meal for a change. Lizards and such kept a body together but they didn't feed the soul like a nice juicy bite of real red meat. Grimeye slapped her mind away from dreaming of such things before she began to undignifiedly drool. ...Although...wait. Searching back along Itsy's words in her mind, Grimeye spotted a potentially fatal flaw. Wait, hares? All hares—all adults, and alive? Well that wouldn't work. I hope you've something better in mind than that, she offered suppressingly to the bird, now ready to downgrade its status a few notches after all.

Itsy began to hop around happily at being called a clever bird. In that time, the worm was wriggling away. "Itsy is clever bird! Itsy most clever!" She nodded her little beak to the coyote, wagging her little tail like she did every so often. It was like a habit that never died now. "Many places! This way, that way!"

Itsy lifted up into the air now. "Hares not enough? Itsy has only seen hares! And larger birds! Birds steal Itsy's worms." Of course she meant such things as herons in the bog. "Grimeye? Coyote name Grimeye?" she asked after, having noticed the coyote had mentioned it before. Itsy started to flitter about, hoping for Grimeye to follow.

Grimeye refrained from remarking on how the "clever bird" appeared to be in the process of having its earthworm dinner outwit it and escape. The little Itsy bird was so excited, bobbling her bum to and fro as she chattered on about all the wonderful places she knew of that coyotes and wolves would enjoy. ...It would be a pity to interrupt the little bird's stream of enthusiasm, after all, wouldn't it? Especially when she was so eager to make herself of use. (Grimeye mentally patted herself smilingly on the back for such a magnanimous attitude on her own part.) Besides, maybe an empty belly would make the little bird both speedier and more motivated to fulfill the coyote's wishes, who knew. Grimeye thought it would be acceptable enough to genuinely stop for a worm or two along the way, providing there was real food at the end of it all.

Yes, my name is Grimeye, she confirmed offhandedly before turning the conversation back to meatier subjects (so to speak). Larger birds... who might perhaps have eggs, still? Or naked pink youngsters, at least? Mmmm. In nests upon the ground, or in the trees? Ground birds seemed more promising than hares, but more elevated beasts were right out. And finally, also important: And are they somewhere else in this infernal swamp, or elsewhere? Pointedly she raised a forepaw which shed a couple of sludgy droplets of swamp slime, plop, plop.

Itsy nodded her little head. The larger birds, yes. The ones that took the worms, among other things. Like other bugs and sometimes frogs. "Yes yes large birds. This way, this way" she said. Were they elsewhere in the swamp? Yes. Was that area just as muddy? Perhaps. Did Itsy care? No, all she wanted was delicious worms. "Birds on ground, Grimeye sneak."

The little bird was bobbling her speckly brown head so much that Grimeye wondered for a moment if it might nod itself right off Itsy's little neck. Appearances to the contrary, though, it remained firmly attached as Itsy twittered unhelpfully on and on about big birds this way and all that. Grimeye wasn't able to dredge any further useful information out of the nattering bird's speech beyond that these other and bigger birds were ground-dwelling. Grimeye at least held her impatience and pessimism in check enough to wait until Itsy's back was turned before the coywolf rolled her eyes though. Large birds on ground, Grimeye's gotta sneak. Great. Eggs, swamp, all her other questions...who knew. Well, she'd see what there was to see when they got there, but her doubts about all of this were only growing.

Clever Itsy must help Grimeye find clever ways to sneak in upon the large birds, was what she said however, in a slightly hushed voice. Make sure you lead her to someplace she can sneak upon the large birds from without being heard or spotted, Itsy. Remember that these birds have better eyes and ears than worms. Keep the words short and sweet, that was the trick of it, right? Grimeye gestured with her mud-streaked paw for the little bird to lead her onward.

Itsy chirped happily, bobbing her little head on her little neck with her wings fluttering. She took off then, with the 'orders' given by the wolf Grimeye. She flew about. Tweeting around she got the big birds attention. Being the greatest she could. Though she had no idea how to get them to sneak over, really all the little bird could do was just fly about and be a great annoyance. But it was worth it for worms.

...okay I didn't think this had gotten quite this long when I scrawled it out earlier today.  x.o;  Oops. Lots to pick from to reply to at least, hopefully? <3 lol. ...I may get around to winnowing this down s'more later, if you don't reply first, heh.

The little twitterbrain seemed quite happily to be enslaved by the coyote, it seemed to Grimeye. Such a servant was of somewhat limited usefulness in some ways, but well, she could and would make do with what she had. Grimeye followed resignedly after Itsy, placing her paws more and more carefully to minimize the chances of the bigger birds catching on to her presence, though she grimaced as she stepped carefully into the muck a few more times as a result—but hey, she steadfastly reminded herself, if it cushioned her steps enough to let her sneak up on her next meal, it would be worth it.

Itsy was not really the best of guides, with Grimeye forced to follow her exuberant flittering with considerably more caution. Once or twice she had to detour around a patch of undergrowth and step a little more lively to catch up to the small bird. Fortunately, Itsy herself was not much of a master of stealth, so Grimeye kept an eye on her relatively easily even at the slower skulking pace the coywolf was taking. No warning was given before the pair approached the open stretch of marsh where a much longer-legged feathery bunch was milling about in the patchy wetland. Grimeye jerked to a halt and then scuttled behind a particularly profuse and verdant bush that sat perkily at the clearing's edge. One bird's long-beaked head whipped about to look in her direction, Grim not having been quite fast enough to avoid detection entirely, but although it let out a nervous squawk as it craned its neck and squinted toward her, it seemed unable to make out her frozen shape in the shadow of the overexuberant shrub. Of course, it also wasn't able to keep its attention on the concerning flicker of movement it had noticed for too long, because Itsy was being an increasingly unstealthy little bird herself, swooping and singsonging and making a general nuisance of herself. Two more of the birds squawked back at her, one of them mantling its wings threateningly as it tracked her whilst the other simply ruffled its feathers in annoyance. In the end it didn't take long at all for all of the swamp patch's birds to be fixated on Itsy, with varying degrees of annoyance, alarm, disbelief and bafflement apparent in their shifting legs, glittering beady eyes and wavering long heads. At least two of them that Grimeye could see looked as if they were seriously considering stabbing the noisy little featherball the next time it fluttered within their needle-like beaks' reach.

She wasn't certain what type of bird they were, and for that matter, while she could see more than one messy lump of twigs and grass that was probably a nest, from back here she wasn't spotting any smaller or pinker birds anywhere around them, or the sweet curve of a delicious egg nestled in any of their depths. But Itsy was doing a bang-up job of making herself such a nuisancy distraction that Grimeye thought perhaps one of the adults could make a dumb and easy enough target, after all... She crept slowly around to the bush's far side, and kept herself scrunched as close to the ground as caninely possible as she moved up on the nearest bird that was gawking stupidly at her feathery little brown-speckled friend. Grimeye spared hardly a glimpse for Itsy's aerial acrobatics herself; instead, she gathered her hindquarters up beneath her and made a sudden spring for the tantalizingly long and slender neck of the nearest waterbird. There was a sudden explosive ruckus that drowned out Itsy's yammering racket from the long coyote ears for a minute, but no matter: she could feel the whippy birdneck between her teeth as they snapped shut, and quickly and ferociously shook it until the long, muscular tube snapped and went limp. She dropped the first bird and made a quick lunge toward the next nearest one, which had been slowed not only by Itsy's confounding antics but also by the particuarly oozy patch it had been standing in, but it was already breaking itself free in a flurry of feathers drumming at the air and a volley of loud, unhappy squawks—the screechiest and loudest noises yet, which caused Grimeye's long ears to flatten back against her skull as she snapped frantically again once and then twice. Then she slowed and then stopped, watching futilely as the second bird stepped further out onto drier land and rapidly gained ground on the old coywolf. Mentally she shrugged before turning and going back to make sure the first bird hadn't just been playing dead.

She could already see from here that it hadn't been playing her false, though. Smugly she slorched through the mucky swampland toward her prize, but lo and behold, she too was now sidetracked by the flittering about of little Itsy, and paused half a moment to consider, same forepaw upraised. That hesitation gave another small movement to catch the corner of her eye, and Grimeye first turned her head irritably and then instead smiled. She took two long steps to the left and peeled back her lips as she grabbed at the thrashing earthworm whose tail had been exposed by the mad churning of a dozen fleeing birds' tall legs. Grimeye flipped it casually in Itsy's general direction—There you go, Itsy!—and smacked her lips and ran her long pink tongue through her worn ivory-yellow teeth several times to try and rid herself of the taste of the worm and the small clump of mud that had accompanied it, both. She had neglected to mention not only the three grasshoppers, half-dozen caterpillars, and earthworm she had spotted on the way to the birds, and didn't bother to point out the other frantically wriggling earthworm she saw two tussocks away now—it didn't seem worth the effort, really, and as always Grimeye's own food was a much higher order of priority, of course. She wasn't about to chance some other beast happening upon her bird carcass, after all the trouble it had taken to get here— but she would make a short swift detour for the lone chick that now burst out of its nest a little ways away, unable to stand hiding any longer as the coywolf trotted slightly nearer to it. Grimeye spun about and, with only a few hitches to her stride between the swamp and her stiff bones, galloped awkwardly up on the smaller birdchild, to grab its frantically peeping form between her teeth as well. Her tail quirked up and swayed at a jaunty angle as Grimeye returned to place the tiny corpse upon the first, feeling smugly that she had very much gotten the better end of this bargain. She grinned widely up at Itsy, swiftly and neatly licking a small, downy feather from one corner of her mouth, a motion which didn't even touch the light smears of blood on her maw's opposite end. I knew a brainy little bird like you would be good luck. Heh heh.

As soon as the wolf made their move, Itsy got down into the grass. Seeing violence like that so quickly, she had to admit she was suddenly scared...till the deed was done, and then she popped out before the wolf for her reward. "Itsy have worm now?" She did not really care if the wolf ate as she saw her prize. 

And then once she put a foot over it, she looked to the wolf. "Itsy thank you!" If there was nothing more to be said, she would leave with her worm then.

It had taken her a few moments to locate little Itsy again—that bittier bird had gone to ground as well, once the frenetic grab at slaughter had begun. Wiser than Grimeye might have given the little thing credit for. She felt an almost parental fondness toward the little creature now, though, quite happy with the outcome of their little bargain. This time, at least, Itsy was being more careful with her earthworms, smashing them flat to the ground with her tiny birdtoes. Good: Grimeye really didn't want to interrupt her own gathering up of trophies to go chase any more worms.

Yes, Itsy have worm, she agreed, eyes glinting in Itsy's direction before returning to the feathery pile before her. Grimeye carefully picked up the downy gray baby and deposited its form atop its elder's, giving it a small proprietary nosing to make sure it'd stay in place before she looked back up again at her little helper. I'm glad I could help, Clever Itsy. Good times! Enjoy your worm, little one. Grimeye's eyes strayed again, this time to what she thought was the edge of the swamp which she could just glean through the small screening copse nearby. Better and better; now she had a couple of meals' worth of booty and could escape this dreary place. She gave Itsy a jaunty wave of the tail in farewell, though she'd keep the little bird and its gullibility generous assistance in mind if it could ever be found again.

Itsy wagged her little tail like a dog, like she usually did when happy, like how she had been taught to do. "Itsy will enjoy worm. Itsy will enjoy worm" she said twice. Then, she was off with the worm in her beak while flying away. Itsy was satisfied with getting the worm. Later she would either eat the worm, or somehow lose it and become sad. Such was Itsy.

Mrphmmrwf nmmrrphrmmrr— Grimeye didn't put all that much effort into her last reply, and was more concerned with busying herself gathering up her prey. It was quite a mouthful, even with the long thin neck bit to grab onto; the larger bird's corpse tried to drag her head down in an awkward lop-sidedly fashion, was difficult to hold along with the smaller carcass, and banged into her chest in an irritating pendulum-like tempo. Thinking better, however, Grimeye licked the gathering saliva from her lips and glanced up to make sure Itsy hadn't somehow magically thought better of her own meal and decided to try nice juicy bird wings in place of those blasted earthworms, but the tiny birdling was already winging out of sight. Not that Itsy could have eaten very much of the coywolf's prey, no matter how hard she tried, with a stomach that couldn't have been much bigger than Grimeye's remaining eyeball, but it was definitely always better not to have to share.

Grimeye maneuvered the dead birds over to a drier patch on land nearer the swamp's edge and tore into the big one's belly, hollowing it out in the process of filling her own belly well. She gave a contented little burp once she had quickly gorged herself and then very carefully picked up first the small bird and then the large in one long slow swoop of the jaw. This time there was at least less of the big guy to thump into Grimeye's chest, as she sampled the air and then held her treasures out away from her as she decamped from the swamplands at last. This place had been worth the visit, after all...who'd've thought!