the usefulness of this uselessness

Lyra was so engaged in her work that time seemed to glide away. She seemed to lack any conscious control and was just doing. Bore another hole. Pipe a string. Thread in the tingly items. Tie a knot? That required some assistance from Modesty. It was hard at first, but once she got the movements down the redundancy quickly became meditative in a way.

Some more time passed and the inaudible noise of Modesty's voice signaled she was making her rounds again. Lyra didn't realize this though, so absorbed in her task- in her need to succeed. The presence of her mother would bring her back down, the comfort of her celestial pelt and familiar scent seemed to snap Lyra out of her focus. She tried to keep going although she felt a little more pressure with her mother watching so closely. Did she think it was stupid? Was there a better way for Lyra to do this?

Neither of those things. Instead, Modesty gave her daughter praise. No, she gave something even better- validation. Belief in Lyra's creation. The young girl's tail thumped against the floor in excitement, her heart picking up pace as she stopped what she was doing to give Modesty her full attention. She took the advice to heart and nodded her head. While the last piece of commentary was food for thought, Lyra did not dwell on it for long. This was not for an enemy, it was for her sister.

*****

Her little paws were cramping by now and her jaw was tired of gnawing. However, when she tied that last knot, she couldn't help but be proud. This was worth it. Hopefully Pythia would see the point in it. A proud smile would come and not leave her face for a while. Lyra stood tall and stretched, looking around at all her siblings who either finished far before her or were close to wrapping it up. She looked at Korona and the necklace, it seemed cool. The feathers must have been hard to work with, she remembered how she tried to incorporate such things but quickly dropped the idea after discovering how dainty feathers were.

Next, her eyes would move to look at Cutlass. His basket was impressive, to say the least. She could only imagine how sore his paws were after all of that weaving. Others were working on their items but they were just far enough that she couldn't quite see what it was they were working on.

Finally, Pythia would be done. Her sister didn't look as happy as she was hoping. Perhaps her gift would cheer her up?

"Pythia!", she would call before she picked up the main branch, "I've got this for you!", she exclaimed. Although her words were muffled and nearly indecipherable behind the branch she carried. Proudly she carried over the chime. Setting it before her sister, she took a moment to lay the strings so Pythia could feel it.

"go ahead! Touch it! I made it for you! It's a little thingy- I don't know what it's called.... but if you hang it in the doorway, it makes a noise, so you know when you have visitors!" She eagerly brushed her paw against it, the chime made a half hearted rustle. There could have been far more strings and those strings could have been more densely packed with stones, shells, and other knickknacks. But it was the first thing Lyra created and she saw no flaw.


"Speech!"