Wild Berry Meadow If you keep on believing..

Gesturing her head around the pillar of the woman’s leg, her nose sniffled many times- more times than she could count. One, two, three, four, five, six, she’d been counting, and then lost many counts or so there. Hundred, fifty, something like that of the numbers she knew. Groveling at the lady’s feet, it had been ages since she had crept into the embrace of Tautuk and Maaksi. Two whole suns went over her head, and many, many naps if she hadn’t forced wakefulness through most of it.

The owls woke her up often.

Lady’s teeth snipped the air. They were playing, she thought, or doing adult things that didn’t quite register. Maybe her word would find themselves lost in the tension, but she spoke through them anyways. She always had. “I cand find my aaba’,” she sniffed. “Nyou helps me?” It was rude to ask before she had figured it out herself. But Nutu didn’t know if she could figure it out herself. Had it been enough time? Enough time to figure it out herself? “P-pnease?”