between the places where it's buried
She's pleased when he laughs, and were she a bird her feathers would be ever so slightly puffed. It's not often than her intentional attempts at humor land so she felt justified in being a little prideful. She's even more pleased when he asks to hear the story, and though she doesn't stand she does collect her long legs to her body to sit more upright and proper rather than the casual slouch she'd been in before. Though she wasn't exactly a practiced story teller, she'd spent enough time in the company of one to have hopefully picked up a thing or two. She begins almost without pre-amble, gaze landing somewhere in the middle distance as she recounted the tale.
"Back before time and space settled into what they are now, when all worlds were new and the universe was still taking shape, things did not have the same constraints as we did now. Creatures could grow as tall as there was space to suit them and could live as long as their bodies could be repaired. It isn't until much much later that the universe discovered the beauty of impermanence; that things should end so the now could be appreciated for what it is - a once in a life time event.
But that's a story for another time, tonight we live in the long lost then, where we find a bullfrog named Tiddalick. He was not an exceptionally large fellow though I think in these days it would cause quite a stir to come across a frog the size of a moose, but it wasn't as though he was one of those who could cross this entire island with only a single hop. That isn't to say there wasn't anything large about him; for Tiddalick, it was his apatite, for there was one morning where he awoke with a thirst so great that he began to drink...and drink and drink and drink until the rivers ran dry and the ponds were empty. He drank and he drank until there wasn't a single drop of fresh water left in all the lands and the rest of the animals knew it was only a matter of time before his greed would be the end of them all.
And so wise owl conversed with clever raven and together they devised a plan - a contest of wits amongst the trickster spirits to see who could make Tiddalick laugh the hardest, and thus release all the waters he had slurped up. For a day and a night, crows and coyotes, spiders and rabbits, all tried their hands at making Tiddalick laugh and all failed. It wasn't until the eel named Nabunum began to tie his body into more and more elaborate and comical shapes that Tiddalick finally cracked and all of the laughter he had been holding back poured out of him along with all of the water he had swallowed. And that, is the story of Tiddalick." she finishes before her nose turns skywards, pointing first to the moon, and then trailing ever so slightly to the left before she traces out the shape of a seated and bloated frog.
"As with many of the very very first to have walked the worlds, his stars are there so that we might remember that sometimes a creative solution is the answer to what might seem to be an impossible problem."
She drops her nose then, and turns back to Baldur with a smile and a raised eyebrow, curios as to his opinion.
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f e i
ten years - 18 hands - white percheron mixed draft mare - setsu
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