Hushed Willows the morning will come soon.

Happy Halloween!

It wasn't so bad here, but Ibis wouldn't admit to anything. She wouldn't tell anyone about the whispering she heard as she investigated the willows, nor how charming she found them. But she was adjusting to their new home. Thoughts of her father still made her sad, but they were less frequent than before and if she felt particularly sad, she could always seek out Mommy or Okee.

Even the oft-disgruntled and unfriendly @Mali had earned themselves some attention from her. Ibis had begun exploring the territory and when she couldn't find her brother, she had started asking for the rogue child to come with her — but it rarely worked out. Typically the St. Claire wouldn't even speak, just flat out ignore her. Ibis was adamant that this new place would also mean a fresh start, so she refused to be bogged down. Her moodiness remained a constant but on the whole, Ibis had gotten pretty good at distracting herself with all the pretty trees.

Today as she wandered the territory, she made sure to avoid the flowers that had caught her paw. She deviated along an old path that led through a crux of trees, until she was in a sequestered section of the willows where one bent tree sat alone, surrounded by crab grass and plants she had never seen before. If this was a garden it had been abandoned — but there was something small and root-like, bleached and white like an old stone, poking out of the dirt. Ibis didn't notice it at first but when she went to settle beneath the tree, she couldn't get comfortable - and soon found the strange stone to be the reason.

She was annoyed at first, frustrated by so many things and so very tired of raging against the changes in her life, so Ibis turned upon that stone and she glared. She huffed and puffed, looking at it intently as if it had caused all those problems. Her frown deepend when she came to some unknown conclusion; then, in a fit of unhindered and childish violence, she began to dig. Her little paws scrambled against that exposed stone, claws dragging at the soil, uprooting the offending shard. Except the more she dug the more stone there was. Her claws caught upon it and scored the surface; it was porous.

When a good amount of it was unearthed, she sat back and sighed with her eyes glued to her work. Ibis was a mess. She looked like she had been through a trench, and certainly had been constructing one. The prize at the bottom of the child-sized pit was by all accounts, wolf-shaped itself. It was smaller than her too, which was curious. The smooth white dome of what she'd thought to be stone gave way to a sickly green-gray color, and as she lifted the shape free of the soil Ibis saw it had two black holes set within it. Something wrattled when she tossed the object against the grass—a whisper pulled its way through the willows hanging tresses, like a little voice maybe. There were smaller segments attached together, sprouting out of the smooth round thing.

Ibis had no idea she what she had found; it was appropriate though, that on this evening the cherubim unearthed herself a playmate. A lonely little boy, forgotten, broken, and unloved She was immediately charmed by the skull's tiny grin. The way it sat among the grass reminded her of the way Okeanos sometimes sprawled out in his sleep—

Eleuthera didn’t know much, but she knew that she did not like these apparent “chilly” autumn and winter months. She had inherited the thin constitution for cold of her father, the silky and somewhat threadbare coat of her mother, and slight figure of both her parents — she was not a creature made for the cold. Even in these early months, Eleuthera found herself shivering at night and rueing the oncoming winter during the day. Though she had zero experience with winter, just what she was told in stories, the lilac girl just knew this was going to be something she would hate. She knew it down deep to her bones.

Her days were spent being lazy and avoiding the other cubs, because they were all rather rude and whiney and didn’t seem to want to like her too much. She ate and she slept and she groomed her fur, which were all things she had learned to do from her two mothers, both of whom loved nothing more than to sunbathe and had taught their children dolce far niente well. Perhaps she more than her other siblings would join them as they lay in the dappled sunlight of the willowed arbors, lay betwixt their arms as if she was still a small pup and try to regain the warmth that she was quickly losing as the season progressed.

She was stretching her limbs with a light jaunt when she came across Ibis. Without anything better to do, she quickly diverted her course to intersect with Ibis’s, though she was not moving around but digging and staring at something. As she approached, Eleuthera was almost aghast at the state of disheveled that Ibis currently was; fur every which way and covered in dirt, as if she didn’t even care. Eleuthera’s thin brow furrowed at the sight, about to chastise her sister for representing herself so poorly, when the skull caught her attention. She did not know what it was. 

“What is it?” she inquired sincerely through a newly acquired grimace, instinctively unsettled by the shape of the holes and the porous texture of the thing.

—What is it? came the voice of one of her adoptive siblings; had she known of the term "step-sister" then she would've applied it, but for now Ibis only knew Eleuthera as the pretty girl that sleeps all day. Her voice wasn't one she often heard and so the presence of it spooked her more than the words, because the girl thought she had been alone. When the sounds came she startled like a cat — tail flipping up and puffing, head raising and head pivoting to face the oncoming body. Her tail went up and down in a quick arc, and the rest of her puffed when it did. Ibis did not like to be surprised (she was reminded vaguely of a particular incident that has left an indellible mark upon her psyche) and lashed out in order to show how irritated she felt. Her front teeth clipped the air as soon as the fright went through her; she narrowed her pale blue eyes at Eleuthera accusingly and with a huff, turned back to her prize.

She wasn't going to answer. Yeah, it was rude. If Seabreeze was around she would have likely called her out on it or tried to teach her some manners, but to Ibis the only people worthy of her good behavior were her mother and her real brother. And after being spooked by the other girl, Ibis was certainly not going to be nice to her. It wasn't even that she disliked Eleuthera — the girl was only a little bit older than her (to the point where it probably didn't count for anything) — but Ibis was immensely jealous of the curious tone of the girl's fur. It was a beautifully soft tone of something (not quite brown, not quite anything else) which reminded her of the blush-pink of snowberries out of season. 

When compared to Ibis, Eleuthera would always be seen as the unique and beautiful creature while she, at least in her own mind, was a boring mix of colors. Ibis was so envious that she would take to avoiding the girl and all mention of her, but then upon discovering her somewhere in the territory, sit and spy upon her, and sometimes when nobody was looking she would play make-believe — everyone would fawn over her, beautiful princess Eleuthera.

But, enough about that. Ibis' many layers of emotion countered any sense of propriety trained in to her by her mother. She shifted her weight a little bit to get comfortable and in the process she hid what she'd unearthed from the invasive girl. The skull sat close to Ibis' narrow chest while her forelimbs created a vee around it. 

Not yours, Ellie. Ibis informed her, sharper than a switch of willow. The little girl did not know what she'd found either, but she'd found it — that's the point. Finders-keepers-losers-suck, etcetera. The skull was incredibly small, owed to the fact that at the time of the child's emergence to the world, the mother had been under-weight and borne it early; but neither one of the older kids would know that. To them it might resemble a rabbit's head, or something slightly bigger — but of all the things it could be, Ibis didn't think it was anything that morbid (or that important).

But it was her's, and she'd keep it to herself for as long as possible.

Eleuthera was not surprised when Ibis moved to shield her captive prize. The lilac girl scoffed and did not bother to keep silent with it, simultaneously rolling her moonshine eyes in an act of knowing repugnance. She loved her siblings — the were the only consistent thing she had ever known in her life, up to this point — but by god, they were annoying. It was not the easiest thing for Eleuthera to spend a lot of time around others, lest she become tempestuous and ornery, and even in their solo travels Leu found it necessary to take a reprieve from her brothers and sisters to partake in some more conventional fare, usually with her mama’s, talking about adult stuff. She always had been a mama’s girl, but Eleuthera liked to believe it was out of her obscenely keen sense of maturity rather than a crutch for her social anxieties. But, without either mother nearby for the wisp to default to, Eleuthera decided she couldn’t allow Ibis’s secrecy to sour her mood. Why’d she always have to be so selfish?

“Come onnnnnn,” Eleuthera breathed exasperatedly. “You never share.”

The drone of Eleuthera's voice made Ibis pin her already slanted ears against her head. She huffed and tried to ignore the other girl, but she had been taught to be kind and to share just like all the other children, and eventually the weight of that knowledge won out. She shot the other girl a sharp look again but after a pause, Ibis shuffled her rear end so that she could accomodate the lilac girl's shape beside her. Fine, she sniped, but did not offer up the skull for easier view or anything. It was still held in the crux of her limbs and Ibis was loath to move it, she thought it might break.

But don't tell anyone? She half demanded, half asked. The lilt of her uncertainty colored her words with a small sing-song quality. Whether her step-sister agreed or not, Ibis finally dipped her nose towards the object and rolled it carefully forwards, until it caught upon the grass and soil just ahead of her v-ing forelimbs. The little black holes stared skyward. I foun' him, so he's mine, but -- but I'll share, this once.

Finally, Ibis had relented and invited her to take a glimpse of the treasure. Eleuthera was delighted; this was a tactic that had worked for her often before, the idea of being annoyingly persistent until you got what you want, and here it worked yet again! If Eleuthera hadn’t known better, she might have smiled at what she didn’t realize was quite a childish manner of manipulation… but to her, right now, it was simply the matter of getting whatever it was that she desired at the moment and nothing more — and hey, look, it worked.

Eleuthera sidled on closer to her sister, eager to see what secrets she held in the crux of her arms. She had always been a curious soul, which was clear in the way she craned her neck to scry a better peek — but at Ibis unfurled her protective barrier and offered up the object for inspection, the lilac girl pulled her head back and wrinkled her nose in repugnance.

She rolled her tongue against the roof of her mouth, almost as if she could taste the rot in the air, although it had clearly been a long time since the creature died and all the flesh had since been stripped away. “Oh, ew, Ibis. Throw it away,” the girl moaned her commanded. She knew exactly what this small thing was — for a girl so young, Eleuthera has had several encounters with death of the bloodiest kind, and as a way to heal her nursemaid mothers educated her about the inner-workings of living creatures. Bodies were just bodies after all, and souls were eternal, right? 

— bit this thing, it was clearly a skull, and much too familiar for comfort. The way the empty sockets glared unblinkingly up at the sky — the crack of the skull and the flaking of the bone — the small, lipless grin — it looked like a thing from her nightmares, and it instinctively turned her stomach and make her hackles stand on end. Eleuthera turned up her nose at Ibis and this disdainful thing. Just wait till their mommas heard… 

“You got so dirty just for that thing?” Eleuthera suggested dismissively. “C’mon, let’s go take a bath.” Assuming that Ibis would simply follow, the lilac sprite rose and walked a few paces away. Her sister was certainly weird, and the least Eleuthera could for her was clean her fur and  primp her and make her look pretty again. It was a kindness, really.   

To say she was pleased with the girl's reaction was a considerable understatement; she was a little bit confused about the scrunching of Eleuthera's face and her clear disgust, but if it kept her from taking Ibis' new friend away then that was fine with her. She had never experienced anything as vile as loss before, not real loss, final loss. Not death. Her father being gone and her home having changed places were losses too but that was different. Ibis knew her father was still out there - watching the same stars as her and Okeanos, staring at the same moon - and she knew that, if she wanted to, she could find her way back to the mountain where she was born (or so she might tell herself; she needed to grow a bit before doing such things). But she had never seen death. Even the meals that she shared with her siblings were bloodless things, piles of warm meat regurgitated and half digested, presented as neat little piles. It never occurred to her that the little skull could've been alive at one point. It did not disgust her the way it clearly unnerved Eleuthera. Ibis decided that made her stronger than her beautiful step-sister, and that was quite an ego boost.

Lets go take a bath, demanded the lilac girl, her voice a little bit distant since her retreat.

Ibis was too busy smiling down at her prize. She hadn't noticed Eleuthera's movement until her voice called out like that, and the girl's ears twisted. She shot an indignant look at the other girl and huffed, Nuh-uh. You can't tell me what to do. She would much rather sit and commune with the discarded boy - Ibis had so much more in common with it than with her, anyways.

Eleuthera has moved only a few steps away before she realized that she heard no movement behind her and did not feel the presence of Ibis near — her sister hadn’t followed her, apparently. The lilac teen grit her teeth indignantly, halting her motions and casting a furtive glance over her shoulder at the dove-like girl still on the ground, still with her attentions wrapped around the skull as if it were some perverse babydoll. Eleuthera was thoroughly annoyed.

She trotted back towards where she just was, her movements sharp in their disapproval.  “How’re boys ever gonna like you when you look like this?” Eleuthera asked, still wondering with serious passion how Ibis’s priorities could be placed so incorrectly. They had been raised by the same parents, hadn’t they? Did Ibis simply just not care? Well, Ibis was lucky that Eleuthera was so caring and nurturing; so willing to take her younger sister under her wing.

 “Let me help at least,” Ellie offered in a voice somewhat softer than before. She always had liked caring for things and making them feel — and look — better. Without waiting for permission [because, y’know, family] Eleuthera placed a paw upon Ibis’s withers and began to lick and preen the thick fur of her neck; cleansing the girl of the dirt which besmirched her and setting every hair into its proper place. Eleuthera was only half-involved her her task, though: her gaze remained upon the skull, unerring in its attention. Eleuthera felt as thought it was staring at her; could see her and read her thoughts, as if the soul of the thing was very much alive and existed within the bones as her own soul resided in her warm, breathing body. 

Between licks, Eleuthera mentioned offhandedly  “You know that is a dead thing, right?”

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.

Eleuthera was wholly turned off by Ibis’s rebuff. It seemed almost instinctive, the way she rebuked her sister’s [correct] assertion that the toy was indeed dead. Ibis fled away in a tizzy, leaving Eleuthera in a huff, and honestly Eleuthera did not know what she did to be treated so poorly, but she wasn’t going to stand for it any longer. The other pups in this pack — including her sister and brothers— were all weird and she really didn’t like being around them. If they couldn’t be mature and adult-like and know the difference between play things and dead things, then Eleuthera didn’t care about them. Eleuthera pushed all her paws into the ground as she tried to grow and inch or two taller, leaning upwards and forwards in the direction which Ibis had darted.  

“Whatever Ibis —”  the lilac girl dismissed the entire interaction with a stamp of the paw.  “Keep your stupid dead thing because I don’t want it because it’s GROSS.”  Eleuthera could have gone one for quite some more time, making inane accusations and becoming involved in childish name-calling, but a sob rose unbidden in the girl’s throat and a wave of emotion overcame her. In order not to blow her entire cover, Eleuthera squeezed her eyes shut and turned to run in the other direction. She didn’t even wait to see if Ibis was still in the area, she didn’t care, she just suddenly wanted mama and nothing else would do.