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The four month old child had quite a reputation for mischief, and after the recent turbulence in her own life, with both her guardians disappearing and being adopted by 'Satan', had come to a crucial realization: surely all that she was taught by her former guardians no longer applied. Including the order never to go outside Vinatta's borders without adult supervision. Sura was a creature of literal meaning, and as borders are always quite fuzzy, found no harm in hanging around the borders, dancing shortly outside of them, or wandering a little ways into another territory's border not so far away. By this time, Sura was lost, but with a sense of adventure, she pressed onwards and inwards, resting as she needed to, as four month olds hardly had the stamina as adults did, not to mention their short and stubby legs could never boast the lengthy and effortless strides of someone senior to their age. Little Sura would not be discouraged at how long her progress took, as each step was an adventure, and every few minutes, there were new things to look at and admire. Her scenic route was mostly a scribble from bird's eye view, as she stopped to look at rock formations, holes, flowers, bugs, and even dung, trying out the taste of each one except the last. (She'd done that when she was much smaller and had quickly developed an aversion to such things). Wandering more, she had long since crossed the territory boundaries of Sangi'lak and after a near collision with a tree that had suddenly sprouted in her path (because she could hardly pay attention to everything at once), she found herself eye to eye with a peculiar creature. It walked on two legs and had no arms but rather, a plump body, thick "fur", an upright stubby tail, obscenely tiny eyes, and large, red dry flaps of skin hanging from its face. Startled, she jumped, but the creature took her movements as an opportunity to peck at the ground where her feet had been. Sura moved around more to see if it would repeat the behavior, but it did not and wandered just as she had, stopping to examine the ground with its beak every few seconds. What was this terribly odd creature! How exciting! Sura began to follow it around and made jabs of her head just as it did, even going so far as to emulate its noises. "Cwuck cwuck cwuck..." . She went about this for a few minutes, but quickly became bored. In the distance, another, similar creature loomed, nearly taller than her. She felt the urge to chase it just because it moved so funny, but thought it would be much more fun to follow behind them both, and hopefully emulate each bird's actions at the same time. Sura began to do her best to herd the creature by blocking its path. "Cwuck cwuck cwuck..." , she repeated again when the creature didn't seem to get the message. Surprisingly, it looked up, cocked its head, and per chance, went the direction she wanted it to. Exuberance filled her veins. This was far more interesting. Sura felt so proud of herself! She could talk to these creatures by making the same noises they did! How ingenious! Of course, with the size of the brain housed in each of these avians, it was most likely they didn't have a language at all, and Sura's actions and result were mostly by chance. " |