There's a lot to learn from the world around us

Briar chuckled at her inquisitive daughter's questions, adoring the way her bright little girl put together information and figured out things from what she was being told. "The beavers are very good at what they do," she said as Talyssa asked how they could possibly have a dam that stayed up and blocked water if there was nothing inside. "They put those branches and logs together just right to make walls just like the bricks in our castle and instead of mortar there's mud. They build up the sides and make a roof over the top. I'm sure it's very hard work, but don't they make it look easy? They're very strong despite their size and their teeth are very, very sharp." The beaver they had been observing drug his branch into the water and swam it easily out to the side of the dam, tucking it into the side and trimming off a piece that didn't quite fit the way it wanted.

Briar lifted her gaze to glance at the forest around them as well as Talyssa asked if the future pond she described would change the look of the forest as well. "It could," she agreed with a nod. Bringing her attention back to her daughter she added, "It would take a very long time for that to happen though. The world is always slowly changing. In fact, I heard when I was little that we didn't even used to know that Auster was here! The land bridge that connects us to Boreas where your grandfather and cousins live didn't used to be there at all. So sometimes it's big changes like that and sometimes it's little changes like a beaver dam making a pond. One day when you come back here with your kids or grandkids maybe this spot will look completely different." It was wild to think that one day she might be a grandmother or even a great grandmother if she was blessed enough to live long enough to see that come to pass when she had only just become a mother herself, but all of this talk of the passage of time made her realize that it all went by much faster than she would ever want.

"Briar Carpathius"