cooped up (SEARCH)

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It was already warm outside when Vrinta awoke. Summer was really giving its all today, blasting out the sunshine like no tomorrow. The night's chilliness had already been fought off. She dragged herself out of bed to the sound of the rooster and a myriad of songbirds, and of someone else shuffling around the tiny home. As she suspected, it was her mother.

"Oh, Vee," her mother called, seeing her daughter sneak out of her bedroom. "You're off to the chickens, right?"

"After breakfast, yes," was the girl's quiet reply.

"Your father's already out in the fields."

"I know," Vrinta mumbled. He always was. Chances were, the old man had risen just at the crack of dawn to get to work. It was a surprise that her mother was still here, though. Usually she left early, too. Vrinta was the slow one. She used her teen age as her excuse. When her brother had still been around, it had been a different story, because Zadian refused to let Vrinta sleep in later than he did, but now that he had run off to Itnala, she could sleep all she wanted. She could still never sleep too far past dawn, though. It was habit by now.

"I should get going, too," her mother continued. "I woke up with a nasty headache so I took my time. Hm. No time for days off, though." With a decisive nod, she grabbed her boots and gloves and went out the door, leaving Vrinta by herself.

Vrinta let out a sigh of relief. She didn't feel social today. She never really felt social around her parents, anyways. Her parents just... existed. Not much more. They worked too much.

She took her own sweet time with a small breakfast and getting dressed and washed up. By the time she got outside, it was warm enough that she turned around to put her sweater back inside before heading to the chicken coop. Gentle clucks emanated from it, and she saw the rooster, Jimmy, strutting around outside with a few hens pecking after him. As far as roosters went, Jimmy wasn't anything spectacular. Her family had had him for a long time now, and he was getting old and wasn't as flamboyant as he used to be. He tried, every now and then, to be cocky and confident, but everyone could tell he was trying too hard - including the hens. He clucked hoarsely at Vrinta as she went by.

The hens inside the chicken coop cooed a little as the door opened and the sun came in, but were otherwise lazy and fat. Vrinta reached under each one of them in turn, feeling around for eggs to put in her basket. The hens were so used to it now that they just stood up and gave Vee a mildly disgruntled look and sat back down when she was done. She addressed each of them as she went, and a few clucked a reply, but mostly, like always, they were lazy and fat.

"Don't give me that look, Penny," Vrinta said. "Oh, come on, you didn't even lay any eggs. See, if you had, I might forgive you for glaring at me, but you didn't, so we have a problem. Yeah, yeah, sit back down. Be grumpy. Stupid chicken." With the last nest searched, she looked down at her basket. It was a good, large number of eggs today. Her arm was aching from holding it, though - an indication of how long it took to go through every nest. She often fantasized about setups she could install in the coop to make it fast to get the eggs, like tubes or a drawer under each. She'd tried training the chickens, too, but that didn't work. Chickens weren't that bright.

With her loot, she went back outside. She set the basket in the shade of the shed and grabbed the bag of chicken feed. With Jimmy strutting around arthritically, Vrinta went about scattering the feed, and while she did her mind wandered.

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[Kilnarak]

Muraaph glided low over the flatlands north of Sayaie, the rising sun flecking her wings with golden highlights. She was unharnessed and unburdened - Hers had remained at the Eyrie playing a game he had called 'tarock' in the dining halls with his own deck of highly prized illustrated cards; old things, by the looks of it, dog-eared and worn. She might have stayed with him, watched and tried to learn the rules of the game, but Muraaph felt restless. It had been some time since her mating flight, but still it had been recent enough that she doubted that was the reason for her restlessness. So, after their shift on Watch, Muraaph had decided she simply needed to stretch her wings.

The cool morning air felt nice on her feathers, and as the sun rose higher and the morning grew warmer, the heat of the day buoyed her. Muraaph rose with it, gliding in lazy spirals on warm updrafts; soaring her way past Chydyn and further, further south toward Sayaie - for all that she didn't really intend to go there, it seemed to be her destination. As she saw the farmland spreading out below her, Muraaph folded her wings and dropped, against the currents, diving ground-ward. She flared out her wings perhaps four yards from the ground, beating them in powerful strokes to regain altitude and startling grazing farm-animals in the process - cows bleated and scattered away beneath her shadow, horses reared and bolted. She derived a perverse pleasure in startling them, watching them flee from her shadow. She wouldn't take them, of course, A're had explained to her more than once why she could not simply take the animals when she was hungry, that they belonged to the farmers and would have to be bought. She didn't wholly understand the practice, but she understood that Hers didn't want her to take them, so she would not.

Muraaph was circling about for another pass over the farmland when something below caught her attention. A nagging, tugging sensation, pulling her attention ground-ward - she wasn't sure exactly where at first, but as her keen eyes scanned the ground, she began to narrow her focus. She circled around a third time, coming to land in the field of a farmhouse. The green - small in comparison to her siblings, but still monstrous to any of these ground-dwelling creatures - shook out her wings and peered about, looking for whatever it was that had caught her attention.

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Vrinta had found something to puzzle over. There was one particular riddle that she had been told by a kind old man in town, but she couldn't remember it. It nagged at her brain, because she knew it was good since she hadn't been able to answer it herself. She hoped to tell it to Tilly, so see the look on her face as she tried to figure it out, but that required actually remembering what it was. She knew it had something to do with days, particularly Friday... but beyond that, it wasn't coming to her, and it was driving her crazy.

She tossed the chicken feed about the yard with particular frustration, her mind working hard to dig up the riddle. Hearing the sound of seeds hitting the ground, some of the hens in the coop were starting to come out to eat. Some of them made a point of beating Jimmy to it, while others waiting for him to eat his fill. It was obvious that there were varying opinions on the rooster among his harem. Some worshiped him, some thought he wasn't worth it. Vrinta could name off all of the hens who were in favour of Jimmy, and all the ones that weren't - she knew them all that well.

However, they suddenly scattered, flapping their wings and sending feathers everywhere. The hens clucked amongst themselves; Jimmy swelled up his chest and let out a shrill crow. A shadow passed overhead. Vrinta dropped the bag of feed to stare. A simourv? She could barely believe her eyes. Sure, the simourv were well-known, but it was still amazing to see them. Most of them stayed up at the Eyrie. Here was one now, though, landing in her family's field. It was hard to think with all the chickens chattering away, scared for their uneventful lives, but she noticed something odd about the simourv.

Wasn't a simourv supposed to have a rider? The ones that showed up usually did, at least. The riderless simourv tended to hide away. This one was riderless, though... Or was her rider simply somewhere else?

Then, it hit Vrinta. Rider! She remembered the riddle, now!

Still looking at the green simourv, she said, "A horseman rode into town on Friday, stayed three days, and rode out again on Friday. How did he do this?"

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[Kilnarak]

Muraaph's great ears swiveled about at the cacophony that arose with her landing, the animals about the farm working into a panic at the great predator's arrival. They were silly creatures, of course - she wasn't even that close to most of them and she didn't mean them any harm at all! She wasn't even particularly hungry at the moment, but even if she had been, she knew better than to take them! She was almost indignant at their continued alarm, now that she was no longer going out of her way to cause it.

Thus distracted, it was some moments before Muraaph noticed the girl tending the chickens. Her ears had twitched as she heard a voice, and her wide orange eyes had turned abruptly to focus on the girl, peering down at her with a clear sense of curiosity. A horseman? the green's voice projected out to the girl, and she chirped questioningly to emphasize her words. Was he a courier? Why would he stay so short a time? Muraaph lowered her head to peer at the girl from her own level, wuffing out a heavy breath in the direction of the panicking chickens. Wouldn't he stay longer than three? The couriers to the Eyrie usually stay longer, but... maybe because they come with caravans and goods... the green's mental voice trailed off thoughtfully. She didn't give much thought to the riddle itself, trying instead to puzzle out the strange actions of the rider. Friday was just a day, after all, and she wasn't even sure how to tell one day-name from the next - Hers didn't seem to worry much about dates, marking only the turning of the seasons and festival days.

What is your name? Muraaph resumed speaking after a moment, whether the girl had answered her musing or not. Are all of these yours? She chattered excitedly, rising to her full height and sweeping her gaze across all of the delicious-er domesticated animals.

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The chickens continued to cower, clucking worriedly and keeping wide eyes on Muraaph. Jimmy's feathers were practically standing on end as he prowled the line between his hens and the intruding green simourv, attempting to a big, bad, protective rooster. Some of the hens appreciated it; they calmed down with him out front and were free to glare Muraaph down without fear. Others found it ridiculous. One particular hen ventured forth, closer to Muraaph, and continued pecking for feed like before.

Vrinta was then in a similar state of shock to the chickens. The simourv was talking to her. The mental voice was a strange sensation, but also fantastical. Simourv were, of course, the thing of dreams. Elusive. Huge. Powerful. Telepathic. She listened to Muraaph's ponderings and smiled. She loved getting people confused. That was what riddles were for. Muraaph wasn't worried about how he stayed only three days but rode in and out both on Friday, though. That was the whole point. Maybe simourv didn't know days of the week? Vrinta just smiled more and refused to give away the answer. Trying to figure it out yourself was the best part; having the answer told to you ruined it.

"Vrinta." The girl said, putting down the bag of chicken feed. "I'm Vrinta. And... well. They're my family's, but they're really as good as mine. I take care of them all the time. Isn't that right, Jimmy?" She looked over her shoulder at the rooster, and laughed at how poofed up he was. It looked ridiculous.

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