Surrounded By Song

For a long moment he felt completely frozen, glued to the ground with paws made of lead. Moving felt impossibly difficult, no matter how hard he tried to force himself forward. Briefly he felt like he was lifting from his body, and seeing himself from above; he no doubt looked scrawny and disheveled despite his larger size from the trek through the thicket, his flanks covered in burrs and twigs. Should he have made an attempt to groom himself before approaching her? Either way, he felt himself snap back into himself as she spoke, explaining what she was doing. Boneset? What was that? He tried to think back to his first lesson with Meadow, deciding that she hadn't talked about that one.

He nodded jerkily to her question, and suddenly - as if sensing his nerves - little Strawberry was gliding down from a nearby tree and landing on the ground beside him. "I d-do," he admitted, feeling encouraged by his companion's presence. Though quite small, she held a big place in his heart, and he felt significantly more at ease with her beside him. "But I d-don't know m-much." Slowly, cautiously, the closed the distance between them, though kept a safe distance from the fire, visibly quite wary of getting too close to it.