video.

[illuminating]

[ How had this happened? A sneeze? A hiccup? A belch? A misplaced thought?

Days ago, the birds twittered and fussed; cawed and clamored, and she had truly promised to do all she could, but she could only find the little ones. The small feathers, and who knew if this would help? But on she collected, doing her best. Then this had happened, two days ago, a day? She can't quite recall.

She's been learning to walk again, and her thoughts fly away with her mouth. A situation both wonderful and troublesome!

But here she is in the round mirror of the locket—woman or half-beast; a tiny girl materialized from sunbeam and breezes. She's wiry, more hair—full and framing and wisping at the temples; tangled with leaves, grass or flower-seeds, and burrs—than body. It keeps her modest, but barely: she's quite visibly nude and pale. The canines in her smile are too sharp: the wolf that won't allow itself to be suffocated under this trick. And the wolf boasts its ears through her mop of hair. Behind her, unseen, at the end of her spine it keeps its tail. ]

Hello, [ how nice it is to speak it. ] my body is different now. It does not keep the cold out. Is there someone—

I'm curious about clothes. I'll do my best to repay any help. [ Her narrow shoulders come up, then fall, as if she isn't sure what else to say. Starting conversation isn't very easy, and she's always been more suited to listening. ] And... conversation, I think, I would like that so very much.

Comments

video;

[jaywalks]

[ RUBBING THE SIDE OF HIS HEAD FROM THAT PUNCH, mako smiles back, because she seems so much less creepier than the outsider, and doll seems so thrilled by the sight of her. ]

Hi. [ the dragon echos the sentiment with a musical trill, and his smile grows slightly, edged in the embarrassment of retrospection. ] That was probably rude to ask. Sorry.

video;

[illuminating]

[ The trill is sweet, so sweet, and with her beaming her shoulders come upwards. Dragons are precious and important, of course. At what he has to say, though, she shakes her head. ]

No. If your heart wanted you to ask it, I couldn't be more glad that you did. That's honesty and it's much more important to me. You seemed to recognize that I wasn't mortal pretty quickly. May I ask what gave it away?

video;

[jaywalks]

You've got the ears and... [ he vaguely gestures around his eyes, and traces a circle over his own forehead ] ... these red markings?

[ small pause ]

Plus, Rìzhào [ he nods to the dragon ] kept sending me things, but she's not old enough to explain them, so all I really got was "not human" out of it, and I made a guess.

video;

[illuminating]

[ 'The ears,' which are folded passively. And she wonders, before he carries on to the next bit, because most wolves are perfectly mortal. They spring forward when he mentions her markings though and she sits straighter. ]

Oh, you can see them! [ Her tone is saturated in delight and she smiles at the dragon again, fondly. ] You helped him? Aren't you good! It's rare—you know? You've got to really believe to see them. I'm happy. What is your name?

[ On either side, there's a slow flash of white: her tail wagging. ]

video;

[jaywalks]

[ believe? believe in what, the spirits? it's hard not to, when you're so close to the avatar, when you've been to the spirit world yourself and seen chaos unleashed on the universe and light bonding to a human soul. spirits are real. ]

I'm Mako. [ the dragon chirps in delight at the praise, fidgeting on his shoulder. ] And... I've seen spirits before but... what do you mean, really believe?