vesper

I smile over at Maude, who’s clearly also come from the Edge this morning and been distracted by the turkeys. However, her Papa didn’t seem very happy that she’d gone out this morning so I thought it wise just to leave the two of them be rather than going over to say hi.  I was amazed at how many people were drawn to the turkeys, but at the same time I shouldn’t really be surprised - a bunch of people had come to play mother fish’s game when she’d been looking for someone to look after Everly’s egg. 

I kept to the sidelines as the others came, not wanting to disturb the turkeys.  But as more and more arrived - and more and more became determined to obtain the orb - the turkeys seemed to get more agitated.  I tried to ignore that fact for a second as I connected names with the faces that I knew. I recognized Queen Alysanne, of course, and a few other faces from home. There were a few that brought with them scents of the basin, but I didn’t remember ever seeing them when the Basin had been home.  It did make me miss Mama, however, more than ever. I wondered if anyone from up north had had a report on how her mission was going - if they had had any word from her.  I let out a little sigh, but my attention was broken by a particularly loud burst of gobbling. 

I scanned the crowd again, growing more concerned about the state of the turkeys, and was pleased when I caught sight of a familiar shape. “Hi Vastra!” I trilled, happy to see my once-seal friend. “You still have your seal spots!” I giggled, pointing out the obvious with a nod of my dark nose towards her spotted shoulder.  Again, the gobbles intensified - now punctuated with squawks and flaps and other sounds of turkey discontent.  I took one uncertain step away from the madness, silently wondering if it was even safe to stay this close to the unhappy turkeys.  

Everly spotted the flames before I did, alerting me to the strange lights by unhappily flapping her wings dancing uncertainly on her preferred perch between my ears.  But then the flames exploded into animals.  Not just any animals…foxes.  The uncertain shuffle of my hooves that originally could be attributed to nerves could now only be attributed to excitement as the trio of foxes explained the situation.  And then, with a shout, the turkeys were off and the whole situation had dissolved into controlled chaos.  My silver eyes widened as the turkeys rush past in a panicked sea of feathers - breaking off where they saw opportunity. 

”Come on!” I shouted over the noise to Vastra, as a few turkeys broke off from the main southbound group, struggling to catch up to the crazed birds.  Everly immediately took off from her perch on my poll, determined to help in some way - doing her best to get in front of the flock.  Instead, she flew higher over the group of stragglers and began to beat her wings - and the strangest thing happened. Time itself began to slow so that I was able to catch up with the stragglers and cut them off, flashing the glowing undersides of my wings in front of the turkeys in the hopes of turning them back towards the group. 

Look at the stars, 
Look how they shine for you,
And all the things that you do.