The Sunspire little star

the children were growing. the ways in which they grew were plentiful, expected, easily witnessed as tiny moments of triumph. the opening of eyes, uncurling of ears. the discovery of a voice. although little ibis had grown in to her body in the months that passed, she was clearly destined to be small, to be delicate, and the strongest part about her - aside from an unyielding spirit - was that precious little voice.

her voice was her strength. she babbled often, she sang in fits with the birds come morning, and cooed her brother to sleep at night. there was a brightness to the little one which had not been sullied yet - an innocence - and as she basked in the company of her brother @Okeanos she only wished he could sing with her. but she was no bully; the child knew to be quiet at nap time, and dared not raise her voice in case he woke against his wishes, but it took some effort on her part to remain calm as she cuddled up against him.

It was a little time before Wraen's cold had got worse - now they were mere symptoms that did not bother her much and therefore she engaged herself in the usual activities during the day. This morning, for example, she had managed to dwindle a bit the new generation of the teenage ducklings, catching two - eating one herself and bringing the second back to Terance's children. 

Now that they have grown up enough to be more independent of their mother, she visited them more often, playing with the boy and trying to remember all the rhymes and silly songs she had heard from the elder from her birth pack. But, where her memory did not fail her in stories, it did in songs and it was a rare exception, if she managed to recall a song in full, more often it was like this - second verse from this one and the chorus from another, and the last four verses of the third. 

She put the half-grown duckling down and announced her presence with a quiet bark.

she did not immediately rise when there came the approach of someone from outside, because she was so thoroughly enjoying the warmth of okeanos' tiny body as she pressed against it. her mother didn't seem very keen to get up either, not when her little ones were so content and quiet — but @Seabreeze eventually got up and ventured to the entry of the den, where she found wraen and an offering; in the next few moments perhaps they exchanged words, perhaps her mother merely accepted the gift and lost interest afterwards, but ibis was ignorant to the behaviors of the adults. she yawned slowly, stretched her little legs, and realized that her mother had left an empty spot - a cold spot - beside them.

curious of this development, little ibis rolled to her feet and staggered her way after the scent of her mother. as she got near to the den mouth, she spotted her friend wraen and let out a flurry of babbles, climbing around the stilted legs of her caregiver as she closed the gap. seeing that her daughter was well attended, seabreeze went back to tend to okeanos - but she'd keep an ear out for issues should they arise, ever vigilant of her beloved children.

ibis was of course, ignorant of the offered duck. perhaps it was already inside the den at this point - she didn't know, and didn't hold much interest in the scent of solid food yet. but she did have an appreciation for wraen, who had earned her babbled praises and gleeful giggling within moments of their reunion.

After the polite and brief exchange with Seabreeze, who also took the duck away to eat later, since the kids had had a meal already, Ibis - the white puppy she had met previously - appeared in the den mouth. Sleepy still, but her joy seeing her aunt got better of the prospects to continue her nap. She approached Wraen happily and she returned the favour by leaning down to nuzzle the girl's scruff and then lied on the ground to be within the same level. 

"How is your singing going?" she asked, having heard from others that Ibis was quite a chatterbox.

A moment later, Wraen was flopping down so that she could be on Ibis' level and the girl, watching intently with a grin, let out her own narration to accompany her action; she had heard some of the adult says something like, Ooophff, when they sat down, lay down, ran in to something, or whatever, so she piped up with a big display of 'oof' timed with Wraen's slinking.

Ibis began to prance around before Wraen after that, using the den mouth as a backdrop and the flat earth as her stage, she stumbled and roamed, climbed across her friend's paws, and then rolled backwards in the dust, giggling throughout. Why ohh burr! She chirruped with a flourish of her little legs, almost like a ta-daaah!

"You are a true star, no doubt about it," Wraen said, watching the little puppy's antics. Had she herself been such a diva, when this small, she would never know, but - nonetheless - it was great seeing the girl enjoying herself. 

"I remembered another rhyme specially for you," she said, when the performance was finished. "It's about ducks. The birds that go "quack, quack, quack". Want to hear it?" she asked.

For her? Oh! She knew when people brought her gifts, and this was no different — there was no toy or anything for her to play with, but the mere mention of something being just for her was enough to bring a big grin to her face. She wriggled in place for a moment, wondering what it could be, looking around as if Wraen had brought something physical for her — and then it was explained, and she giggled at the silly sound the woman made. Wack wack wack! Repeated the little one, and she waited eagerly for more. 

Ibis's eager response to the quacking sidetracked Wraen from her original purpose and gave her inspiration to elaborate a little more on the subject of "languages". 

"Good one," there was no limit of praise for people  she genuinely liked. Her niece she adored - all the more reasons to tell her, how great she was. "Do you know, how the owl go?" she asked, before demonstrating a rather melodic and spooky "hoot, hoot, hoot" with strong influence of wolf.

Ibis had not been taught much about the world yet. Her world was very small, accommodating a puff such as herself, but she was eager to learn. When her auntie mentioned another animal she didn't recognize it, and continued to play with the first sound - since it was so well recieved - and peeped, Wack wack wack waah!

"That sounded just like a conversation," Wraen commented and nodded, wondering for the first time, if birds of different species could communicate with each other just the same way wolves could with other wolf-like creatures. But then - what could possibly ducks have to say to owls? Their levels of intelligence each were on the opposite side of the spectrum. 

"But I came here to share a song. About those - wacks, wacks, wacks - I will show you them someday. Tasty as well, even if there is more feathers than actual meat," she returned to her initial reason of visiting. She closed her eyes and hummed for a little while, recalling all four verses of the song and happy that it had so many other that repeated themselves with minor changes. 

"So... ahem," Wraen cleared her throat, knowing well that it was no use. She could not rise above 50% of right tunes, even if her dear life would depend on it.

"Five little ducks went swimming one day,
Over the hills and far away.
Mother duck said, "quack quack quack quack,"
And only four little ducks came back," she paused an looked down at the kid. "Like it?" she asked.

Nursery rhyme - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Little_Ducks

The child listened with her attention fully cued upon her friend, with her eyes widening and mouth gasping in awe as the song was recited. About partway through she was trying to follow along but she held the beat a little off-kilter, and couldn't make out  many of the words, so she ended up babbling and humming and dancing with little flailing limbs, until Wraen reached the quacking—that part she knew! She mimicked after the first quack, wack wack wack! A grin beamed off her little face.

To say that Wraen was not good at singing was an understatement. But in the company of this unassuming youth, who seemed to love all and every sounds and noises that were coming her way, finding everything novel and interesting, she could at least pretend for a little while that she could hold a tune. In time Ibis would probably hear better performances and find more proficient teachers, perhaps, become a great bard herself. 

"Well, the rest of the song is similar - with all of the ducks disappearing and coming back again," Wraen summed up the story, taking that she had strained her vocal chords enough for one day. "Want to hear a little tale instead?" she offered, though knew that in this was not entirely fair. Because - first - the kid had no idea, what she was saying. Second - Ibis did not really have a choice, did she?

Wraen didn't seem to want to continue the song, and she pouted a little at that, but the prospect of being told a story was just as alluring. She clapped her paws together like a dopey little seal when given the news. Of course she'd love a story! She nodded and pulled herself closer, sitting more or less on her friend's feet as if she needed to be as close as possible — and she babbled all the while, Dorree dorree dorree! Dorree wis Ween! This was the best day ever apparently.

Whatever were Ibis's thoughts on the matter of hearing a story, she sounded pretty excited about the prospect. Which was a good thing. Now with kids this small Wraen would not be able to retell all the amazing deeds of brave knights and dragons, and complex magic, but something more simple would have to do. Preferably, if the kid could play along. 

"So - I will tell you about, how nightingale learned her song," she said. "On the day, when the Old God of the Forest gave all birds their songs, the little nightingale had slept in and arrived very last. And by that time the God had handed them all away and, though he was a little angry for the bird to come late, he felt sorry for it as well. Therefore he said: "I give you the gift to learn and a good memory. You have to find your own song in the world."

"So, the little bird took off and the first he met were a flock of sparrows in a meadow. He joined them and listened to their singing, which went like this: "Chip-chip-cher-eeeep aaa-uf! Af-af-af-af-aroooo!" transcribing actual bird songs was more difficult in theory, but so much easier for otherwise unmusical Wraen to immitate. "And the bird thought for a bit, memorized and repeated it as well," here she paused and looked down at the kid. 

"Try to repeat as well - Chip-chip-cher-eeeep aaa-uf! Af-af-af-af-aroooo!"

Just for reference, not to imply that Wraen perfectly imitated a bird. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkOnpk8Wmow

Ibis listened as best she could; she was quite animated as things progressed, and even managed to keep up with the sound-effects at first; but by the time Wraen got to the end of the story she was yawning more often than chatting. Her attention had begun to drift too - she was looking over her shoulder at the welcoming den, but stayed where she was. Seabreeze had trained her to be courteous of her elders, but it was clear by the time Wraen was urging her to participate that she'd drifted a little.

Wraen noticed that the kid was tired and therefore decided that she would finish the story another time. Little did she know that there would not be any and the tale she had spun today and which she would continue to polish and embroider with details and sounds would be heard by different set of ears.

"Too much sounds for one day, eh?" she asked, getting to her feet and looking over to the den. "You be a good girl and return to your mom then. Have a nice nap!" she wished her, reached down to nuzzle the top of girl's head affectionatelly and then left.