All aboard the puppy train

Step by step Vanta pushed along with her siblings, her shoulder gently touching that of her brother's to ensure that she could keep the same safe course as him while she walked. Crux's voice caught her ears and her head swivelled to the sound, giving toward him a thankful smile. It was good to hear him so close by and relieving for Vanta to know that the differently-disabled child was not heavily impeded by his own crystalized body. Someone was surely helping him too, right?

His explanation only made her more curious - no roof? It just goes up and up? Forever? The itching feeling to turn her gaze to the sky returned and she swallowed it hard, remembering the sharp sudden pain in her eyes with clarity the last time she'd dared to try to peer into the sun-lit day. Charlie's voice added to Crux's, and Vanta frowned at the added bits of information. "And we can't get up there at all?" Suddenly she dropped her front end into the grass, pressing her muzzle into it and lifting her paws over her eyes to try and shield them from the light so she might be able to squint out and see even a little bit of what they described. It partially worked, allowing her to squint into the grass without too much discomfort, but as soon as she angled her gaze and the shielding paws upwards the blindness swiftly and abruptly returned. Ugh.

Her brother was still talking, and as Vanta got back to her paws and shut back her eyes, she refocused upon his words. They were kind, and while she appreciated the effort it was hard not to imagine that his idea was born out of pity. Would she find something in the dark that the full-sighted pups could not? Vanta doubted it, but she could still hope. "Maybe!" She forced enthusiasm into her tone, continuing forward with the rest. Charlie had posed a question to Crux, and turning her head she waited to hear what the boy might choose to explore.

"Speech"