Cricket Creek Bog Itsy Went Up The Water Spout

Grimeye looked somewhat sourly down at the little featherbrain. If only Grimeye herself could move with that same flickering quickness anymore. Coyote, she said, with the flick of an ear, her one eye tracking the bouncing retreat of the baby cricket the bird didn't seem to notice it had dropped. Or had it perhaps done so on purpose, thinking Grimeye might have spotted something better? Who knew, maybe to something that thought crickets were a delicacy squidgy earthworms were a step up. She leaned back a little as the creature flitted by in front of her face.

Were you hoping for my worm? she wondered aloud, making a bit of a face. Not something she was about to squabble over; she hadn't sunk quite that low yet. Besides, she had to admit she had a bit of sympathy toward any creature that was having trouble finding good hunting grounds, today. You're welcome to it, she said, placing her paw back down in approximately the right spot and shoving it forward a little ways, so that a small roll of mud rose up in front of it like a wave. Sure enough, the hapless earthworm's head—or maybe its tail, Grimeye could never tell—poked up from the mud roll, wriggling in astonishment as it found itself indecently exposed to the open air again. Grimeye picked up her forepaw and distastefully snapped it away from herself a few times, trying to flick the mud from her claws before she lifted her nose again and looked consideringly out over her course, clearly not all that invested in whatever else was flitting through this little bird's head at the moment. Grimeye wasn't about to stoop so far as to pick up the worm for the greedy little creature; that would be a little too demeaning. The way the coywolf saw it, she'd just done the majority of the hard work here in finding and uncovering this earthworm, and even if it was the barest of token efforts for the canine the little featherball ought to be fawningly grateful she'd bothered to do even this much, really. Especially since the little twitterbutt had had the temerity to call her a wolf, harrumph.