Hushed Willows the morning will come soon.

The other girl's retort reminded her of the sound that Seabreeze made when she wanted the kids to head for cover for the night, and she didn't like it. It almost sounded like judgement, or the commanding tone of a know-it-all, both of which Ibis did not appreciate in the slightest. She had no idea why anyone would want the attention of boys. The boys around here (at least those around their age) were all related — besides that, having their attention consisted of being teased, jeered, and bothered (except in the case of Okeanos who could do no wrong). Had she been a little older then maybe she'd see the value of preening for the boys. Had she been a little older, and Ibis might've put two-and-two together with the assumption that Eleuthera had a crush on her blood-brother. Instead she met the suggestion with a scoff, and turned back to the small skull, eager to forget all about Eleuthera and her silly ideas, soft coat, pretty face, and everything else that her presence entailed.

But that wasn't about to happen, apparently. Ibis was focused on the skull and thought her obvious refusal would work, since she'd been keeping to herself recently and everyone seemed to pick up on all the hints she left; she didn't want to play with anyone except for Okeanos and this skull, but Eleuthera wasn't going to accept that. She came striding over with the arrogance of an adult, and began to clean up Ibis' coat. The girl fussed a little bit; eventually it became clear that Eleuthera was insistent enough that Ibis could not stop her, so she stopped protesting against the attention.

The skull was interesting for a little bit longer, but the more Eleuthera worked at Ibis' coat the less the girl could focus on it. She was touch-starved. The more attention Eleuthera gave to her, the more Ibis settled, and the happier she felt; but she didn't want to show that she was actually happy and chose to play the role of a brat instead. 

This came to fruition when the cocoa-coated girl pointed out, You know that is a dead thing, right?

Ibis' brows gathered for a moment. As Eleuthera had been grooming at her, Ibis had started to lean in to the attention (she felt warm and fuzzy all over and it was such a good feeling, a missing piece —) but as soon as she heard that, she pulled away. N-no! She countered, even though Ibis had no idea until her sister had pointed this fact out. Thinking quickly, she added with a snappy tone, I... did, but it doesn't matter its pretty and I like it! And its mine. If you think its so bad, then I won't play with you anymore.

With that, she swept low and grabbed the skull in her teeth, putting distance between the two of them with a short burst of graceless running.