The large summer moons hint that fall is not too far off, along with the light breeze that brings relief to the night air. It's been a day or so after getting back from the singing stones.
Within Acera's room, high in the branches of the treehouse, the two little mustelids prepare for sleep. Nalae's face retains the rather unsettled expression that has frequently rested on her features since the return from the stones..
Acera fluffs out the sleeping blankets that the rest on and notes Nalae's look and chitters, "You gonna be ok?"
Nalae nods a little bit, idly scritching at the sides of her muzzle. "Yeah, I guess.. I was jus' thinking..."
Acera fwumps next to Nalae and nods, "What about?"
Nalae shrugs a little, glancing over at Acera. "The stones.. an' the stuff we saw.."
The young little mink nods to her adoptive sister, "Yeah, me too."
Acera rubs her nosepad thoughtfully and sighs, "It was kinda weird. And I'm used to ma's magic and stuff. Did it scare ya?"
Nalae shakes her head a little. "Na really.. we had visions an' stuff at home, sometimes... but.." She pauses for a moment before glancing up again. Nalae quietly wonders, "What's it like to have.." It takes her a moment of searching through her magically-implanted vocabulary to come up with the proper word. "..parents? Real ones?" She watches Acera's face, half-afraid at having raised what must be a sensitive subject.
Acera is too startled by the question at first for it to bring up any bad memories, "Whatcha mean? I thought your folks were still alive?"
Nalae shakes her head softly. "It's different.. It's na like that.."
Acera looks at Nalae curiously, "Ya mean where you live, you don't have parents?"
Nalae shakes her head. "It's jus' sorta.. everybody takes care of everybody else.. I mean, the Keeper was sorta like a parent.. but he was everybody's parent.."
Acera chitters softly, not wanting to wake her mother Samantha up, "So, do ya know who your mom and dad are and stuff?"
Nalae shrugs a little and shakes her head. "We don't even got words for 'mom' or 'dad'..." She looks momentarily puzzled. Having vocabulary words magically entered into one's mind can do that. "But I got.. had friends an' stuff, and the Keeper.. an' everybody else would help me if I needed it.."
Acera blinks a few times and chitters, "Ya don't know who gave birth ta ya? Or who was your sire?"
Nalae shrugs and shakes her head. "Na really.."
Nalae says, "I mean, I never really thought 'bout it.."
Acera seems truly stunned and stares at Nalae a little, "Wow. I mean, I miss my real folks a lot. Samantha...I mean ma, she's been great to me. Like a real ma, but..."
Nalae nods quietly. "I miss the Keeper like tha', too.."
Acera fidgets a bit and nods, bothered both by the thoughts of her parents, and the thought of losing Nalae someday, "Ya...really wanna go home that bad?"
Nalae abruptly reaches over and pulls Acera into a gentle hug. "I wanna go back.. but.. I mean, even if I could... all this new stuff.. stars an' stuff... an' I don' wanna leave you, either..."
Acera churrrrs softly and snugs, not wanting to say anything more. She knows how Nalae feels.
Nalae forces a little smile and murmurs, "You're better ta hug, anyways.."
Acera giggles, "So're you. So, what else you think about what we saw?"
Nalae carefully avoids discussing the bird-thing, of which Acera already knows her opinion. "I dunno.." She shrugs a little, then smiles and observes, "You were a cute kit.."
Acera's face feels warm as she giggles, "That's not funny. ;)"
Acera quiets a bit and then says, "My real ma was very pretty, wasn't she?"
Nalae gently scritches at Acera's back, and nods softly.. "Yeah," she murmurs, a little worried about provoking Acera into unpleasant memories..
Acera chitters softly, "My dad was a great swimmer too. I can just remember em, I was so young. Ma...Samantha says I take after my real ma. I sure hope so."
Nalae blinks slowly, glancing up at Acera. "Take after her?"
Acera chitters, "Ya get your looks and a lot of what ya can do from your parents. Ma says that the mom and the dad both help put ya together."
Acera says, "So I have some of my ma's looks, so I kinda "take" those from her or something. Not sure about the "after" part."
Nalae ohs softly.. "Okay.." If she can accept 'stars' and 'space', she supposes she can accept being constructed by parents..
Acera notes Nalae's look of puzzlement again and nods, "Yeah. I tried to get ma to explain it once, but it didn't make any sense. She says the mom and the dad make a baby inside the mom. That part's probably right, I have helped ma at birthings, and the baby does come outta the ma.....Mom says it'll make sense when I get older. She says that a lot."
Nalae ohs softly. "Anyways.. I'm glad that I've got you an' Samanth.. Ma.. I d'no what I'd be doin' without you.."
Acera giggles, "Probably bobbin aroun in the ocean by now. :)"
Nalae flushes deeply and sticks her tongue out at you, uncomfortably aware of how close that probably is to the truth..
Acera snugs her sister and scooches back on the bedrolls, looking out the front of her little tree room. She looks out at the stars for a bit as Nalae settles down next to her, then curls up and nods off to sleep.
Nalae cuddles in with Acera, slowly dozing off and chrring softly.
And somewhere 'out there' the power(s) that be watch over the two little mustelids, along with their adoptive mother.