It had been a few weeks since Juniper and Blade had lost Squirt in the forest and he drew a picture of them all, happily together, under a bush. They were characteristically unimpressed in the way of older siblings, and after making a lot of noise about the drawing, convinced Squirt to leave it and go home for the day. The chill in the air was beginning it's inevitable retreat. first from the edges of the daytime and then slowly from the nights as well. As spring gave ground to summer, the days filled with a balmy warmth that colored your vision yellow if you napped lazily in the sun.
Juniper and Blade were growing in leaps and bounds now, their young frames seeming to create longer legs and stronger wings even as you watched them. Juniper had begun to grow small berries in her mane the match to her mother's and the mare couldn't be more proud of her little filly. Blade, meanwhile, took after their father more. His wing membranes had grown tough and leathery, and the bony wedge at the end for which we was named lengthened almost into a natural weapon. With growth and larger wings came flight lessons, and before long the two were flapping with determination after their parents during the day to find their own berries.
Squirt waited for his own flying lessons as he, too, gained a bit of height with age. His wings certainly weren't that impressive
yet, but he was confident that soon he'd hit the same growth spurt his siblings had gotten and his wings would stretch wide and proud as he trailed from tree to tree in their wake, just like when they were all ground-bound together. Growth would come at it's own pace and in the meantime, he certainly didn't let anything as silly as colt's wings stand in his way!
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The lemony sunlight danced on Squirt's eyelids from between the shadows of grass blades that waved lazily in the light breeze. Blinking sleepily, the colt loosed a jaw-cracking yawn and rolled upright in the cool sandy soil of the meadow. With a happy grin, he trotted to his mother and nuzzled her.
"Lazy boy!" Joy of the Summer's Dawn laughed down at her baby, "I've been calling you for ages!"
"I haven't been asleep
that long..." Grinned Squirt back up at her.
"If you haven't been asleep that long, then how did you get that long gray beard hanging off your chin?" she teased back.
Gasping in surprise, Squirt crossed his eyes and tried to find the nonexistent tuft of hair. "Mama! He cried, I don't have a
beard!" Giggling, the two of them collapsed near the edge of the seep-spring at the meadow's center.
"Now what's this all about?" asked Squirt's father as he approached with the rest of the Song, "It looks like little Squirt isn't hungry, because I surely don't see any
washing happening..." he commented with a wink.
"Oh, Papa... do I
have to??" sighed Squirt as he slogged into the shallow water, already knowing the answer.
Joining Juniper and Blade as they gamboled about in the shallows, Squirt splashed about, trying to give as good as he got in the impromptu water fight that struck up. In the background the adults conversed in low tones about the day's activities. The conversation was really just a blur in the background for Squirt as he washed up...until he heard his name. As he looked behind him the adults stepped closer together, talking even more quietly.
"Mama...?" Asked Squirt, somehow concerned by the odd moment.
The conversation cut off quickly as the group looked back at him, and his mother opened her mouth to reassure Squirt. Before she could answer, Squirt's father smiled back at his foals, " You three all finished, then? Good. We're heading South today; the wild cherry trees should just be getting in to season there. Blade? Juniper? You're to stay close by your mothers. Squirt? You will stay within sight of us
at all times, is that clear? You will
not run off, you will
not hide under leaves or in holes or
anything. We'll be flying ahead; you and your mother can meet us there." and with that, the group was off and flapping through the trees, leaving Squirt and Joy to hoof it along the ground.
Squirt gazed longingly after them, unfolding his own tiny wings and buzzing them in an attempt to
will his young body off the ground.
With a sympathetic smile, Joy gave her son a light headbutt, sending him forward. "Come on Squirt, we can play a game along the way and we'll be there before you know it." Folding her wings tightly at her sides, Joy headed the two of them southward and tried not to step on Squirt's tail as he weaved between her legs as she walked.
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Arriving at the wild cherry grove, Joy gave Squirt one last nuzzle and leapt up into the trees, chattering with her songmates as they gathered the ripe fruits. Squirt was left to entertain himself (so long as he stayed in sight), being the only member of the song who couldn't reach the cherries. After standing around uncertainly for a moment, Squirt decided to see what his sibs were up to and raced off to find them.
"Juniper! Blade!" cried Squirt, "Where are you? Do you want to play?"
Blade exchanged a meaningful glance with his sister. "Look, Squirt, it's not that we don't like you, it's just that we're busy with
grown-up stuff now. We can't waste time on
baby games anymore. You'll understand when you're older." Blade puffed himself up as light notes of condescension crept into his voice. "Besides, you could never keep up." And with that, he and Juniper hopped awkwardly into the next tree and pridefully giggled to each other.
Not to be deterred, Squirt set his jaw stubbornly and looked around for some useful way around. Most of the cherry trees were smooth-barked with few or no lower limbs at colt-height. There were a number of small ricks around, but they were too small to be useful or too large to be moved into a pile for climbing. Really the only remarkable thing between the leaf litter and the treetops was a downed forest giant that had been lightning-struck in the vernal rains.
Approaching the battered hulk of a downed tree, Squirt appraised it carefully. The stump was
huge, easily wide enough to hold him and his two siblings together. The main trunk of the tree was still leaning against the stump, propped up on it at an angle toward the tree Blade and Juniper were sharing. Hanging just over the pointed overhang of the tree's broken heartwood dangled a slim, new-growth twig of the tempting cherry tree. It wasn't very big, but Squirt
had to show them he could give as good as he got. If he got a running start, he may just be able to grab it in his teeth...
Trotting down the length of the fallen tree, Squirt came to a place where the trunk had cracked in half and partially buried itself in the ground. This made for a great place to climb on; thought the trunk itself was very wide, Squirt hardly had to step up onto the natural ramp formed by the tree. Once atop the beam, Squirt noticed the whole log was cracked up the middle and scorched at the edges and through the crevice. It made for tricky footing as he climbed the trunk, the split got wider as the log got wider toward the top and by the time he reached the high point of his climb, he was having difficulty straddling the crack. It would certainly be harder to get his running start this way, but that twig from Blade and Juniper's tree was dangling temptingly before him...
With more enthusiasm than skill, Squirt backed up a few steps and charged forward, leaping at the last moment and hoping he would reach the twig; he even stretched his little wings as wide as they could go! One moment, two moments, Squirt seemed to hang in the air... the twig was just out of reach...
With a sharp '
snap!' the twig slapped against Squirt's cheek as he closed his mouth on the twig and tried to reach his paws up to shimmy up the tiny branch. As his flight was arrested, the tree limb bent beneath the little colt's weight and the twig sagged, and then broke. Squirt's bottom thumped down bruisingly and he was whipped again by the branch as it rebounded past his eye, narrowly missing blinding him on his right side. With a cry, Squirt spit out the bit of broken twig in his mouth and rolled over to get off his aching rump. ...Or, he tried to.
Unfortunately, there wasn't that much room to maneuver. Flailing against the walls of his prison, squirt saw he was surrounded by a round ring of cracked, black walls. Well above him the walls ended in jagged points; he was inside the stump.
It was impossible to tell the stump was hollow from the ground, and he hadn't bothered to look
down before he'd tried to make his leap of faith. Now he was in a tight hole formed when lighting that had struck the tree had burned down through it before the rains had put it out, forming the hard, charcoal walls around him. It was cramped, it was uncomfortable, and he was get
extremely dirty as the black soot rubbed into his fur.
Remembering his father's lecture on staying visible, Squirt held his breath and listened for the telltale signs of discovery. As the general chatter of the song at work filled his ears he breathed a sigh of relief. There was still a little bit of time before he was in
big trouble. Trying to think logically about the problem, Squirt took another look around his prison. If he moved carefully, he could get himself upright again. The main problem is that the burned hollow in the tree narrowed as it plunged down until the part where Squirt was stuck was hardly bigger than himself. Once above head-height or so, it widened and the walls took on a regular cracked pattern of diamonds and hexagons scored deeply by the fire.
With careful movements to avoid getting stuck, Squirt wiggled his way up out of the narrows part and scrabbled for purchase on the textured walls. He pulled himself out slowly, backsliding twice, and once having to start over because the hand- and foot-holds were just not set up in a good way for him. Teetering on the edge of the stump, he turned around slowly and carefully lowered his back feet over the edge, where the brittle charcoal promptly broke beneath his weight, setting him on his rump for the second time that day.
With a painful wince, Squirt turned around to glare at the broken bits of stump where they landed behind him. One had skittered across the surface of a flat rock, leaving just as black a trail on
it as the stump's interior had left in his fur.
...
The burned hunk of wood left a black trail behind it...
Yelping with excitement, Squirt surged forward and grabbed the elongated little black hunk of wood in his forepaw. Gripping it between his toes, he dragged it experimentally across the stone again and... Yes. Y
esyesyesyesyesyesyes--YES! He could draw with this!
Excitedly, he raced across the meadow to a birch tree and dragged the charcoal across that, too. As the little black chunk left another trail behind it, Squirt cheered excitedly and tucked the little black splinter safely behind his ear, just as his mother glanced down to see what he'd found.
"SQUIRT!" Joy yelped, "What have you been
rolling in?!"
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So... he may have been dragged home by the tail and tossed unceremoniously into the little pond for yet another bath, but it was worth it. With his little piece of charcoal he could draw on pretty much any hard surface; rocks, trees, himself if he wanted another bath... and when that hunk of charcoal was worn to a nub, he knew exactly where to get more from. He even discovered that he could save his drawing on flat tablets of bark torn from trees of he kept them in a sheltered burrow, out of the weather.
Even better than that, he gained a new name! No longer did her suffer from the insulting title of "Squirt" anymore, oh no! Now he was "Sketch", and Sketch didn't care how long it took for his wings to grow, because he finally had something to do while everyone else was away...
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Edit: uhhh... I wrote this at 3am. I need to... Go back and edit it to make some sort of sense. Later. Like, after a nap.
(-_-).oO(zzzzzzzzzzzzzz)
