Of Birds and Branches by Frances Pauli

Author:Frances Pauli [Pauli, Frances]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Goal Publications
Published: 2021-06-21T04:00:00+00:00

“The year of the Star-bear. Mid-winter. Today he brought to my perch a branch of ungainly visage. So lacking in grace and movement, that it was to me a thing of brutal ugliness. My gizzard did attempt to evacuate just to gaze upon the wretched arrange-ment of twigs. Garish and out of step with nature, I found no option was left to me, in the sight of this thing, than to reject, firmly and forever, he who would select such an offering.”

Mima warbled in the back of her throat. Surely that was about the branch itself? Ungainly and garish. Ugliness out of step with nature. She felt she could see the branch in her mind just by reading Sai’pa’s description.

She picked at the passage, as Ist’av had shown her, rolling the specific words over in her mind. The terms "grace" and "movement" struck her. Mima imagined what sort of shape might qualify as in step with nature.

When she’d digested the entry fully, she hopped down from the perch and made a line for her door again. It was not so complex a thing at all, it seemed.

The meaning of the rite had been clarified, and she let it settle into her psyche with a welcome sense of calm.

The branch must please her, and yesterday she’d been too shocked to engage with the ritual properly. When the next branch was settled at her feet, Mima knew what she would look for, at least abstractly. If Kov’an’s choice said anything at all, it was that he hadn’t taken the process seriously.

She would see him now and straighten everything out. With her steps quick and full of purpose, Mima left her rooms and scurried across the palace to the soldiers’ quarter. She would go to Kov’an directly to discuss this thing.

Before he tried again, he had a thing or two to learn about branches.

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