Corbie was worried about Aryn. Something about the way she talked - or didn't talk - about her pack and the fact that she felt she had to hide her livestock venture away from them struck her as concerning, and the way she was always so anxious and apologetic as though she were an inconvenience, rather than a good person with a lovely heart, made Corbie think there was more wrong there than just being embarrassed by her pack might cause. While she didn't want to bull in and interfere in Aryn's life, Corbie did want to make it better. There was a lot she couldn't do right now to fix things, but she could show Aryn that she was cared for, and maybe brighten things for her.

She'd decided that the best way of doing that, for now, would be to make her something pretty that could cheer her up every time she saw or heard it. She'd gone back to the stash that she and Ignis had found in one of the metal hulks and had scavenged some more things from it, including thin copper wire that had just needed the weird brightly colored almost waxy coating peeled from it, some light metal tubes, and a bunch of pretty colored glass she'd picked up from here and there from long broken bottles and windows.

Ayer was picking over the broken glass. She'd be carefully drilling holes in each piece with a flint spike since she had hands and corbie didn't. Luckily the metal tubes had holes already, or she didn't know how she'd get anything through them. Her plan was to use short pieces of the wire to hang a pattern of glass that would meet in the middle with a thicker wire loop to use to hang it on something, and longer pieces of wire to suspend the small tubes under it. A pretty chunk of quartz would hang between the pattern of tubes, so that when the wind blew the rock would bounce around the tubes, making a chiming sound. The glass and the quartz both would shine in the sun, and the pretty colors of the glass would be cast around it as the sun shone through it. She thought it would be something that could make Aryn happy.

She'd only just started sorting the wire pieces by size, though, when a sound made her prick up her ears and glance around with interest.

Mercury had set up in the gulley to camp out for a couple days. It was a good base of operations to explore the Southern territories. It was also where he would be meeting Fern the next day. He was just considering hunting down a rabbit or two to fill his belly, when Solar alerted him that he wasn’t alone. The little black cormorant glided over the Gully and landed on his back. She made the gutteral sounds of her call, and pointed with a wing further in.

“Someone else here, eh? Guess we can check it out” he agreed, and began to trot through the flowering meadow until he caught sight of the small wolf. The white and black form was sitting in the grass, and working with something intricate. “I hope i’m not intruding” he said, as the light of the glass reflected across his eye. “Do you mind if I ask what you're working on?” He stayed standing, giving her the opportunity to dismiss him.


"Speech"

The wolf that had attracted her attention was another behemoth, but a very polite one. Corbie smiled at him. "You aren't intruding at all. Please, come and make yourself comfortable and I'll show you. I'm working on a windchime for a friend. You could help me if you want to?"

Ayer had gotten to work as soon as it was clear that the newcomer was no threat, and there were already a few pieces of glass with holes drilled near the top. Corbie pulled a green one over to herself and carefully poked the wire through. Wire was so much easier to work with than sinew or rope when you didn't have hands, she discovered, as the stiff metal went through easily and it was a quick matter to just twist it a few times to keep the glass in place. The other end of the wire looped over the heavy wire circlet, and another few twists, and that part was done. "And just like that," she said with satisfaction, already reaching for another one. The wires for the glass were all different sizes, so they'd not all hang at the same level and would add some visual interest there. "I'm Corbie, by the way," she said to the male. "I am glad for the company. I'd likely end up brooding if you weren't here to distract me." The last was said with some humor, but truthfully, because while Corbie didn't really normally tend to brood she was quite concerned for her friend and her own inability to help.

“Thank you” He said as she responded to his presence with warmth. He took her invitation and sat down beside her. Seating his rump on the grass and hunching down a little so his form didn’t tower over her. “A windchime? I haven’t seen one of those since…” his voice caught, and he cleared his throat. “I’d love to” He said, changing the ending of his sentence.

His feathered companion hopped down from her furred perch and waddled closer to the wolf and her creation. Tilting a curious head. “I’m Mercury, this is Solar” he responded, tilting his head down to indicate the curious bird. “What can I do to help?” he asked as he watched her work. “Or I can help by lending an ear, if you need. What do you have to brood upon?”


"Speech"

The male sat with her, but when he responded his voice caught, an he seemed to change what he was saying. Perhaps she had hit a sore spot in his history, whether he had lost people he cared about or a home he couldn't go back to or whatever else, she didn't know, but she didn't press him. Instead she patted his paw sympathetically, an took up another wire and glass - blue this time - to show him what she was doing if he decided on it. "It's nothing I can change more than I am right now, so it's silly to brood," she said lightly. But he had offered, so after a beat of silence she relented. "A friend of mine seems to be in a very unhealthy living situation," she said. "We only recently became friends so I don't feel it is my place to try to ge her out of it, but I do worry for her. I'm making the wind chime for her to keep her spirits up, but it isn't much. I wish I could do more for her, and I just... Don't know what to think about it, I suppose." She sighed. Without her attention her paws twisted the wire, locking the second glass piece to the wire circlet. This time she took up a longer piece of wire, and one of the metal tubes. She had decided in advance where she was going to put the tubes for both aesthetic and to harmonize the different tones, so it shouldn't take her overly long to put them on between putting each strung glass piece on.

He was surprised as she reached over and gently gave his paw a pat. The gesture was very motherly, despite the little difference in age between them. He gave her a smile that creased the corners of his eyes. Turning his attention back to her work, he watched as she picked up a blue piece of glass and a thin slip of wire. As she worked, she spoke.

At first, he took her words to be all she would say on the topic, and he wasn’t one to pry. “That’s a hard one” he agreed when he surprised her by delving into the reason for her brooding. Worry for a friend. Somehow, it didn’t surprise him. There was something about her that felt right with the concern. “Is she trapped physically, or mentally?” if it was the prior, he could offer his assistance. He wasn’t so sure if he could help with the latter.

“Please let me know if I go wrong” he said with a chuckle, as he picked up his own piece of wire and glass, and began the process of twisting it - hopefully under her professional eye.

"Speech"

Mercury's question seemed like he genuinely cared about her problem, and it made her think for a moment as they both worked on the windchime. She smiled to see his work, letting it distract her for the moment. "You're a natural," she assured him. Her smile faded, attention turning back to her own work for a moment before she spoke up again. "I'm not sure if she is there by force, or if she choses to be there and it just isn't a good fit for her. I know she is allowed outside of pack lands, because that was where we met, but she seemed reluctant even to introduce herself as part of the pack, and she doesn't seem comfortable even having her own livestock within pack bounds even though it would be safer." Corbie sighed. Saying it out loud made it clearer how little she had to go on for her feeling. "I just have a feeling she's miserable there. I don't have anything concrete to go on though."

Quietly, she twisted the next few pieces onto the windchime, the glass tinkling against the metal as they fell against it. "What about you, Mercury? Is there a pack you're eying, or are you too freespirited to be tied down?"

“Heh, well, I wouldn’t know about that” he disagreed as he carefully turned the wire. His movements were slow and precise. Steady, without the speed experience would carry. Her own hands had been clever and precise as she worked on the greater part of the windchime. Once he finished twisting his wire, he looked at the piece he held, and thought of trees that had shadowed a wide, clean lake. Of the hundreds of windchimes placed in the branches, from low to high. When the wind brushed through, the world had sung. “My people believe that windchimes carry the voices of those that have passed.” He said, voice soft for a moment as he stared at the glass, and then shook his head at his whimsical words.

“If her jail is of her own making, then being her friend would be the best tool you have to show her something better and give her the strength to break free. If the restraints that hold her are of another, then she would need a different kind of strength. I reside in the caves to the North, just past the Battlefield. If you find the strength she needs is the second sort, you can call on me there.” As he spoke, he carefully studied the windchime in his paws.

As for her question on packs. “If you give it some time, then look up a pack named Menagerie, and you’ll find me there” he raised his eyes to her again, a little bit of mischief in their blue depths.

"Speech"