milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

The smallish Native American woman was back, still working on beadwork. Somehow she'd managed to get herself a rocking chair, and really, it was anyone's guess how she didn't lose beads working with them while rocking like that, but she didn't seem to be losing any, glasses perched on the end of her nose so she could see what it was she was doing.

Go ahead and ask her what she's up to, or ask what's in the basket, she loves that question.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Someone she's only met in wolfish form is sitting nearby, reading a book, unaware they have met before, and in completely human guise.

It was a cold day out and Merlin is in, getting warm by the fire.

It took her a moment to figure this out, really, but when she did she chuckled, setting herh chair to rocking once more, "Well hello again puppy." There was simply no mistaking a presence like that

A pause then, while she strung the next bead into the pattern, pulling the thread tight, "Don't believe I properly caught your name before."

He blinks and glances over, eyes wide for a moment, then he grins.

"Hello, little sister."

He eyes her work and nods.

"I'm Merlin, milady. And I think you didn't toss your name my way either."

His voice is soft and velvety, almost as he grins, eyes glowing a soft golden color.

She chuckled warmly enough herself, "Estsanatlehi, called Changing Woman, called White Shell Woman, called Turqouise Woman, called a whole lot of other things, but Ana suits well enough for most."

A shrug and what might have been a wink at him over her glasses, "Less of a mouthful as well innit?"

"Greetings, Lady Estsanatlehi."

He tries out her name and grins.

"I like it."

And then his eyes twinkle.

"There are some who might like mouthfuls, milady."

She fairly well chortled at that, rocking her chair once more, "Oh, s'true, s'true." The near-impish smile made her look younger, though that may well have been a trick of the light, "I know that as well as anyone."

He grins at her again and nods, sitting up an closing the book, giving her his attention.

"A pleasure to meet you, dear lady. Women of great thought and humor, and beautiful to whit, are always a pleasure to meet."

She laughed again, brighter than before, and it did indeed make her look younger, though mostly it was the compliments, they did that to her.

"Well." She said, smile spreading, "You certainly know how to make a girl blush."

He grins even wider, the glow in his eyes shading a little red to the gold.

"It is my most solemn pleasure to do so, milady. A beauty should be appreciated, and let know of such appreciation. And a woman who possesses beauty, talent, and a mind, and who dares to use them all? Such is to be treasured."

She couldn't help but laugh again, smile gone ear to ear at that point, "You sound like my boys."

A pause, blinking, "Not that I've had them yet at this age, but really that's rather beside the point isn't it?" She shook her head, adding, "Complicated story. And it's all true."

He grins.

"I would be interested in hearing your words from your beautiful lips, milady. Would you care for a drink?"

He stands and summons a wait rat, resettling, surely coincidentally, closer to her own spot.

"They tend to know what I like." This was said with a wink, more to the rat, really, than to Merlin just at the moment.

A shrug then, setting the chair to rocking once more, a bit more slowly than before, working at the beading a bit more slowly as she spoke, "Well, the story says that I was found atop Spruce Mountain, wrapped in a magical blanket of rainbows, and strapped to my cradleboard with thunderbolts. Coyote found me, back when she was a he, and didn't know what to do with a baby, let alone a people one, so took me off to the First People to be cared for."

He nods to the rat then, adding his order to hers, and watches her, listening.

He nods, eyes alight.

"A fair beginning, milady."

(ooc: wheeee!)

"Now." She continued with a nod, "This is the tricky part, so watch closely."

The beading was going well enough even as she spoke, "The story also goes that I created the First People with a bit of cornmeal dust that I brushed off my breasts after milling, cornmeal, water, magic blanket and sunshine."

She smiled, "The selfsame blanket that I was wrapped in when Coyote brought me, as an infant, to the First People."

"Indeed...? An interesting possibility, to juxtapose time and space. A mystery such as this place presents, but a glad one, for it brought you to be."

She smiled again, "Ah-ha, but that's just the beginning, and the story goes around in circles, because, you see, when I was an infant and Coyote brought me to the People, I grew, and when I was a young woman, not much older than I am right now, the Sun took me as his wife."

She nodded, "The selfsame sun who's light helped me to bake the first people when I made them. You see?"

"Indeed. So you made the people who would raise you to be awife to the being who would help you make the people?"

His eyes glint with amusement and a golden glow.

"I fear your story is far more complex than a simple student of magic might know the answer to."

She grinned, setting aside the beadwork for the moment, "You seem to have gotten it exactly, despite your claims."

She shrugged then, smiling and accepting her jam-jar of a glass from the waitrat, "I told you it just went around in circles."

"There is nothing wrong with circles, dear lady. Some circles are quiet intriguing, others, intensely appealing. And such stories are always welcome."

His smile was warm.

"My thanks for sharing your tale. Twas as marvelous as the woman who wove it."

She laughed again, "Well of course there's nothing wrong with circles, everything goes in circles if you watch long enough."

Another warm smile, sipping at her applemash, "And it's a pleasure to have someone who wants to hear it."

He sipped his wine and nodded.

"What tale brought you here, then, lady beautiful?"

She smiled again, "At first? Well, at first it was just realizing how long it had been since I'd seen certain family members of mine, and wound up here instead of my kitchen. Today? Today is simple: It's warmer here than at the Turquoise Place, especially with my husband out on his usual business."

Merlin nodded, watching her, and smiling.

"I'm glad your path wended this way, milady."

Hie gaze dipped to her beadwork and he arched an eyebrow.

"What make you, this night?"

she set her drink aside to pick up the work again, holding it out. It was rectangular, and growing, "This, well, it's nothing much yet, but when I've finished with it, it will be the feather of a thunderbird."

His eyes widened slightly at the sight, and then he nodded.

"I am afraid, milady, that this means nothing to me. What is a thunderbird?"

"The Thunderbirds." She said with another smile, "Are the ones who bring the storms, with the thunder in their wingbeats and the lightning in their beaks. It is said that a man cannot truly be a warrior until he's gone up the mountain to steal a thunderbird's feather."

"Ah... Intriguing! There are some similar myths in my land, but mostly of Gods doing the making."

He grinned at her.

"And you are making one of these feathers... is it for a thunderbird, or for a warrior to find?"

Another bright laugh, "Perhaps both, or maybe I'll give it to a Thunderbird who's had one stolen."

He grinned at that and nodded.

"A worthy endeavor, milady Estsanatlehi. Worthy indeed."

His voice lingers on her name and he grins as he lifts his glass to drink.

She couldn't help but smile at that, brow arching just a little, "Usually when I'm making things, I stick to cornmeal, it's easier to work with than glass."

"And how do you make with cornmeal?"

He imagined it was magic but with a lady like this, it could be anything.

She shrugged, smiling still, "Same as I made the First People, cornmeal, water, sunlight and a magic blanket." She nodded to Duck who was dozing atop her basket, "Made him."

"Ah... amazing."

He looked at her with even more respect.

"You are a rather intriguing woman, dear lady."

The laugh was warmer then, settling into her chair once more, rocking again slowly, "Well I'm certainly glad you think so."

His smile was warm right back and he settled back again, sipping his drink.

"So is this what you do with most of your time? Making things?"

She nodded at that, "More or less. Sometimes I garden, sometimes I cook, but it's all in the same line as 'making things'"

He nodded.

"I am amazed. Such is beyond my own talents."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only