the usefulness of this uselessness

She was delighted to see Kor was the first to track her down. She gave the girl a proud smile that morphed into a chuckle when she choked on a feather. There was nothing malicious in the gesture, but she also knew the girl was in no real danger. Corsair's comment receives a raised brow, but actually seeing emotion on his face? Hearing a chuckle? Her heart catches in her chest just a moment.

Cutlass is quick to follow, less inclined than his siblings to tinker but she doesn't mind, and Gilda, always fearless plops herself down and gets to work. Pythia makes a comment about danger and Modesty forces herself to hold her position. Coddling the girl wouldn't make life any easier on her. She would need to figure out how to navigate the world in her own unique way, and anything the mother tried to do would only set her back. Life was cruel, and she might have distanced herself from the girl in the beginning, not expecting her to last as long as she had.

Lyra busied herself with the items as Pythia demanded to know just what they were doing. "Today we are making. Useful things like baskets or bowls, or pretty but useless things like charms and decorations. Others place value on these items, and we can sell or trade them to other wolves for resources we might not otherwise have access to. You will need to feel your way around whichever you chose to do," If she wanted help, she could ask for it, another important lesson for the girl.

"speech"