Hushed Willows Hush little baby don't you cry..

It took some time before she was done with the melodrama of it all; her body reacted by making her scrunch away from him and wail piteously, the sound filling the air and catching on the willow trees. Perhaps the reason nobody else heard her suffering was because of those tendrils draping the area - they were like noise-cancelling whips. That said, Ibis remained quite loud with her misery and flatly ignorant of what Khali was saying until she gulped air a few times, and the sobbing ebbed to something more manageable. His voice was low and filled with a masculine timber, and in those moments where she hiccuped for oxygen she could hear him - he was apologizing, and looked as awful as she felt.

This wasn't her father and that hurt her very badly, but he was using logic and reasoning on a person that was still going through the depressing throes of abandonment and immaturity; she didn't want to hear his explanation and snubbed his efforts by plastering her ears back, glaring at him for a moment before turning her nose up and pushing away from him - physically as well as mentally, Ibis was repairing the wall of her hope, cementing it with the feeling of betrayal that she felt so acutely.

Ibis wasn't stupid, or at least she thought of herself as a pretty smart little girl despite the evidence to the contrary, and found this discovery of dad-but-not-dad to be extremely distasteful. He did it on purpose, she decided. Somehow - maybe with some kind of evil, no-good magic. Or maybe he was in cahoots with Terance and they were working together to undermine her love for her father --- no, that makes no sense you silly thing. Either way, she doesn't trust the golden man and doesn't want anything to do with him. Her cheeks were wet from her tears, growing cold as the willows whispered comforts to her; and without a word Ibis spun on her heel and took off, leaving the horrible man to his horrible tricks.

Moments later, with the willow tendrils still trembling from her sudden exit, there came a loud splash and a shriek.