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Vesper watched her sister walk off, and while she poked around at some of the low boughs of a small tree, she kept an eye on her—as much observation as protection. She felt inclined to keep her sibling safe out of duty rather than affection as of yet, but if Sparrow continued to prove herself worthy and rose from Tirones upwards, she might earn it. Whoever said you must love your family unconditionally didn’t have my family, she thought, even if she knew she was all the colder for it. She had a reputation among some in the past for her darkness, although few in Inferni saw that callous side of her. They saw her heat, the fire that burned for pride and passion, and the ice was only an idle mask that could be cracked in an instant. Or maybe they just saw what they wanted to.
Musing about her own morals wasn’t getting work done, however, and she pulled a tangle of wood off a tree before realizing it was dead stuff, fallen from an upper branch. With a grimace, she looked it over and back at what Sparrow was collecting, matching the color and species and moving to add it to the pile. “Stiff, but maybe we could just pile it on after we weave everything,” she said by way of apology for the randomly-chosen piece.
There were a few more trips, but eventually she had helped to gather her share of pliable green branches and bundles thick with foliage. Wiping bark-dust on her fur, she stared up at the stands as well. “One more thing,” she said, and grinned lightly. “We need to make sure the archers can actually get up on the stands without knocking everything off. So maybe an open space near the back? Hopefully the enemy won’t get far enough to see the gap.” She played with a piece of wood and glanced at Sparrow.
“Want to start positioning and weaving?” Vesper asked, as if she were confident about the decision. “You had the idea, so show us how to start.” Others might have been afraid of delegating too much, appearing weak and incapable of leading on their own, but she knew that she was clueless about this process. Her sister shone in some things still, and if this was one of them, it’d make this project that much easier.
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