[open -- nest]

[new_inglewoodblues]

The nest Ragnelle has been building in the woods needed a few more blankets now that the temperature has dropped a few more degrees, so this morning she was in the mansion raiding cupboards. Now she's outside in the lee of Nightingale's summer house with a basket of comforters, cutting them into pieces with a little knife so they'll be easier to incorporate, like leaves in a squirrels' nest. The time indoors has warmed her up, and her hands move quickly with the knife.

Comments

[new_inglewoodblues]

"Mary, it may! Thou art suited well for it; 'tis better to be fat and hale."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina smiles, pleased. "I am suited for it. This fat and hale body kept two people alive when we were stranded in the ice and snow."

[new_inglewoodblues]

"Didst thou so? Mayhap I need thee more than these," with a wink.

[ravkanwitch]

Nina flushes a little. "Well, in the extreme cold, it is all about body heat," she tries to explain, making it sound worse in the process.

[new_inglewoodblues]

"Ay, so it is." She grins.

[ravkanwitch]

"Do you need help?" Nina asks. Then adds hurriedly, "With the nest, I mean. Building the nest."

[new_inglewoodblues]

"'Tis near finished. Come, I'll show thee." She gets to her feet, brushing stray down feathers from her gown.

[ravkanwitch]

Nina steps closer, intrigued. It does all look rather cozy.

[new_inglewoodblues]

Ragnelle grabs the basket and takes Nina up the same path to the woods she showed Magnus. Her pignut hickory has lost all its leaves by now, unlike the surrounding birch trees, which have a pale yellow-gold leaf that stays on all winter. It takes a while for branches to start coming out from the trunk, so it's not an easy tree to climb, but halfway up and close to the trunk where there are plenty of supports is her nest. It's a circular clump of dry leaves and blankets, and it stands out as not a naturally occurring thing, but it doesn't feel unprotected either.

"There I'll be well all winter."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina never used to appreciate nature. She was too busy being a bossy child at the orphanage and then she lived in larger cities most of her life; Ketterdam and Os Alta. It wasn't until her mission in Fjerda, traveling from small town to small town through the woods, that she gained the skills and the appreciation needed.

"It looks very comfortable," she says, truthfully. Sometimes she wishes she could sleep the winter away in a cozy nest. "A bit of tricky climb up, though."

[new_inglewoodblues]

"Do thou watch," with a grin. She puts down her basket and shimmies up the tree with remarkable dexterity, her long braid swinging, until she reaches the first branch where she can sit and look down at Nina. She swings her legs, flouncing the skirt of her gown. "Behold!"

[ravkanwitch]

"Impressive!" Nina says, laughing a little. "I used to be able to do that. In my youth." She manages to say this with a straight face.

[new_inglewoodblues]

"Pity thou hast no squirrel in thee." She scrambles back down, no more elegantly than she went up, but equally proficient. "It's well, I want no guests while I'm sleeping."

[ravkanwitch]

"Of course not. What are you going to do for food? Are you going to come back inside?"

[new_inglewoodblues]

"Hath a tree a need to eat in winter? Nay, I'll stay outside the while."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina smiles, then looks up, taking in the trees around them. "I used to be such a city girl. But now I appreciate the silence more."

[new_inglewoodblues]

"'Tis not silent," amused. "Soft and listen."

Indeed, there's a hushed sound of wind in the leaves that remain on the trees, the almost eerie sound of a squirrel alerting, the scratch of the peacock-pheasant kicking up leaves in the understory. A wren trills distantly.

[ravkanwitch]

Nina stands still and listens, taking in all the sounds of the forest with a little smile on her face.

[new_inglewoodblues]

"If it were still, I could not sleep at all."

[ravkanwitch]

"Do you dream?" Nina asks, curious. There's obviously something otherworldly about Ragnelle; the comment about not having to eat notwithstanding, she can still sense it.

[new_inglewoodblues]

She smiles; she likes that Nina asked. "I do. All things do."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina smiles back. "I would love to see more of the forest, if you'd like to show me."

[new_inglewoodblues]

For a moment there's a flash of pleased surprise, as if Nina had done something wholly unexpected. Then Ragnelle reaches for her hand, and pulls her off the path towards a stand of hazelnuts that are thick with smooth-shelled nuts. Magnus' squirrel family is chattering in the branches, but she ignores them. "These are kin. They prattle on and on, like old women spinning."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina follows gamely, looking up at the chattering squirrels. "It sounds like they're gossiping."

[new_inglewoodblues]

"Thou must ask Magnus an thou wouldst know what words they say. I know not the language of creatures, only trees."