• PM To Join • Winston Miller and the Labour of Leaf Huts

[Kisaik]

7th of Zi'da 722

Not long after Kisaik had taught Winston the fundamentals of tunawa alchemy, and helped to devise a new recipe for warming sauce with filling scones, he had another issue that needed proper attention. While Tunawa in Magani, in the Southern Continent could generally live among the trees of their birth, Sweetstone presented a specific and particular... hazard that Magani hadn't. Namely that of occasional rock fall. They were just litlte pebbles for now, but in time would grow to be much larger samples of stone and jade during seasons of plenty, Spring and Summer. Kisaik wasn't entirely sure how to solve this problem, or make it less a danger to his tribe or to the people of Sweetstone, apart from putting up hazard signs to warn away wanderers or the curious.

It was quite a pickle of a dill, to put it lightly.

So Kisaik left another letter in Chest, sneaking it into Chest's mouth of a night. He asked for Winston Miller's help, as he understood the ferret to be not just a smith and a craftsman of great skill, but also a groundskeeper. He would surely have a solution to the problem of falling rocks from the Sweetstone tree.

So Kisaik waited, on the outskirts of the Sweetstone for Winston to arrive. His tribe was also in attendance, ready to lend their help to the effort. Even Aida was there, powdering and perfuming her lichen and macadamia hair for the benefit of Winston's company.

[Winston]

The sky is falling!

As the far from typical silhouette of a locomotive, cake-dispencing chest appeared from around the corner, a more unusual thing came to light in the form of the absence of a ferret. It was not until Chest got closer, or perhaps sooner for the particularly sharp-eyed, that the tiny fairy-ferret fluttering along beside Chest became visible. There were, in fact, two Fairies. Apparently Kelpie was giving Winston some flying lessons. Either that or she was playing the part of some kind of cheerleader.

"That's it! A tinkle more flipp'ady ... yes-yes-NO! Less floppsie and more flappsie. FLAP! Like THIS ..." She gave off tinkerling noises as she pirouetted in the air. "Dis is NAT flopsie!" He objected, having first-hand experience of that one already.

Winston was NOT piroetting. He was barely breathing if the gasping and gulping was anything to go by. "Right. Flap ... *gasp* Nat flop ..."

The Devil on My Shoulder
Curiosity: I'll flipp'ady her flopp'ady in a minute!
Winston: Dat's nat nice ... *huff*
Curiosity: She's nat actually helping, she's just shouting gibberish at us.
Winston: No mun ... *puff* ... She's speaking Fairy ... *gasp*
Curiosity: But we don't speak Fairy. It's just RUDE.
Winston: Dem don't mean ... *huff* ... anytin' by et.
Curiosity: Well, you need to get yourself composed right sharpish. Aida's over there.
Winston: Mun ... Alive ...

Chest stopped in front of Kisaik and Winston unsteadily plonked down on-top of them, bent over, his hands on his knees and sucking in air. "Hi ... Chip ... Me ... Gat ... yuh ... note ..." Kelpie fluttered over and looked at Winston in dissapoitement. "Why have you landed? You can just talk while you flutter. See?" She hovered over to Kisaik and smiled. "Hello! I know you! Winstie-poohs tells me that your friends call you Sir Chip? My name is Kelpie. We met at the picking. Winston talks about you all the time. A friend of Winston's is a friend of mine. Can we be friends? Can I call you Sir Chip?" There were very few gaps in what she had to say, but on the final query, she did actually pause. She didn't wait long however before darting toward Aida. "OOOOooohhhhh ... Winston was SO right. Your hair IS very pretty." She said, fluttering around Aida, full circle.

While Kelpie continued to flutter around the others present, Winston stretched out his back, placing his palms in the small of his back, letting out a little sound of relief. "PHEW! Me thought et might be 'andy to fly to see where de rocks drop fram. Me might walk 'ere next time dough." He chuckled, gradually regaining feeling in his shoulders.

"So. Give tuh me da details. 'ow big es dese rocks?" He looked around the area ... it wasn't small.

[Kisaik]

Wendy didn’t visit Kisaik all that often, actually, nor for that matter did Lalia. In fact, Kisaik had been meaning to spend more quality time with his diri and fairy friends, but time had gotten away from him by hook or crook. And it went by all the faster when he was working with his new friend, Winston.

“Do you really know this ferret?” Ce’nija asked Kisaik as she saw the great big Chest approaching, no sign yet of the ferret. “Does he eat… meat or plants?”

Kisaik pat Ce’nija on the shoulder reassuringly, “Winston and I are fast friends, and he didn’t try anything like you may be thinking.”

Kisaik knew that Ce’nija and Aida had suffered some serious torment under the auspices of slavery under that evil alchemist he’d rescued them from. This had engendered a degree of distrust of new people, particularly of races that she was unfamiliar with, such as a cadouri.

“Besides, Aida has really gotten along with him, having you Aida?”

Aida was fussing with her pink hair, and nursing what looked like a large seed growing out of the bun of her hair. She primped and preened, as the Ferret came into sight.

“Oh do you think he’ll like my present, Kisaik?”

“Present?” Kisaik lifted a leafy brow, turning around to look at her. “You didn’t say…”

“Oh here he comes!”

Sure enough, the ferret in fairy form was right on his heels, floating and flying about in that assumed form. Kisaik almost had a mind to join him in it, but thought better of it. It might be useful to stay ‘big’ and not shrink both of them down to size as they worked.

He of course had the option of using his +1 orange fairy ring, in case the situation evolved…

“Hello Kelpie!” Kisaik said brightly at the fairy. “I am Mädärä Kisaik Ciuruọrun sọ Kufuata Karo Kashe Däuä, Tìfmi Härumtä sọ anou Faewun Samuwar, ọbavi sọ… Err… but yes you may call me Chip! Of course, I’m sure we’ll be fast friends.” Kisaik smiled, swept his arm into a deep bow before the fairy creature.

Meanwhile, Aida had gone ahead and intercepted Winston before he could duck behind anything or hide, If he were so inclined. Although Aida enjoyed the thrill of the chase, she liked it every bit as much when they were too tired to run away anymore. She held the macademia nut growing in her hair. With a sharp tug, “OW!” She yelped, and then placed the large nut before the fairet. “I grew this for you! I thought you could use the nut in your cooking, or maybe a tree for your garden if you have one! I can grow more”

Kisaik turned from Kelpie, to the gift that Aida had made. He scratched his beard, which had been growing longer of late. He wore his wizard robes today, complete with his cloak and all his alchemy tools on his belt. “Macademia nut shells are extremely tough. I used to use them to store potions in, as you would a waterskin or canteen. But now that I’m more experienced in alchemy… perhaps a paste or something can be formulated from them… Yes that’s an interesting idea. A very thoughtful gift, Aida. I can grow more as well, should you wish to have more than one macademia tree. We could very well make an orchard!”

Just then, as Winston asked how big the rocks were, a small pebble of a jade fell on Kisaik’s head from above, bonking his wooden skull. “Ouch!” Another skipped off a nearby branch, and got close before he blinked, teleporting swiftly to a few steps behind him.

“I’ve had a lot of near misses. The rest of the tribe had taken to using parasols to avoid getting crushed… It really is a problem, Winston, and I wonder if we might put our heads together for a solution. As for how big? They can be as big as Vega’s fist, and as small as that pebble that fell over yonder. Very dangerous! Especially in this fall season. Do you have any ideas? And maybe we should move a bit further afield, before more start falling…”

[Winston]

It's not a date

Kelpie

returned his bow with a tiny fairy curtsey in the air, which was accompanied by the tinkling of bells. "'Fast friends'? Oh, that sounds like fun! I have a lot of tortois friends and they are NOT fast friends. No-no-no. They are very SLOW friends. They are still turtally amazing friends though, but not fast, not like us." She said in excited tones.

As she darted around the party she approached Ce'nija hapilly. "Hello! I don't think we have met. I'm Kelpie." She leaned forward as if to deliberately illustrate she was admiring her. "Your bark is the colour of olives! It's so rich with colour. I love the colours of autumn ..." She said doing a little spin in her dress made of leaves and moss from the autumnal woodlands. "... isn't it just sublime?"

Meanwhile, Winston was receiving a gift. He had an expression of a little shock when she plucked it from her head. "Me do 'ope dat nat 'urt. Tank yuh." He said, taking the nut, which at this particular moment in time he carried like an enormous boulder. "Et feels rude tuh eat et ... Me don't 'ave a garden yet, but me want one ..." He considered something for a moment. "Me plan tuh get some land somewhere around 'ere en de next growing season. Per'aps yuh might help me pick a gud locashun wen de time comes?" It felt like a fair reciprecation in thanks for literally growing a seed from her head for him.

Winston looked to the others and smiled. "Tis nice to meet yuh all. Me 'ope me cun 'elp yuh out."

He turned to

Chest

. "Wid my udda Fairy-fud seeds please Chest." Chest opened its lid poked out its tongue. Winston put the nut down on it carefully and to most, it then it was swallowed. He replied to Kisaik's remark regarding the nut. "Me nat gonna lie, et will take a lat af self-control NAT to see wat me cun cook et with." He smiled cheekily. "Me do love tuh cook wid new tings."

"Yikes!" He exclaimed as the nut assaulted the noggin of his friend, followed by a "Her FIST?!" He suddenly became quite worried and started looking up at the canopy. Even a pebble right now might squash him flat. "Yuh, mun. One gud gust af wind and de rain will take us all out." There was some melodrama to his tone, but it was not entirely deviod of genuine concern as they moved to a safer location.

Once they were a little way out of the way Wiston (while looking much more comfortable now) began to wax lyrical on the potential ideas. "Well, yuh see, me wus wondering ef nets might do, fram the base af de tree, going up to the outta branches, but dis might get overwhelmed." He gesticulated as he spoke. "We cud also create sheltered paths? Dat wud allow yuh tuh get in an outta de tree?"

He had given this some thought and paused for feedback. "Or 'ave yuh considered underground tunnels? Just tuh the outta boundary?" He pressed his lips together tightly, with the expression of someone not happy with his own ideas on his face. "My 'aonestly nat sure dere es much we cun do to stap a rock desize af Vega's fist fram hittin' de ground dough." He looked up at the conopy.

"Me tink per'aps a net up at the under-canopy? Suspended fram the lower branches and tilted so dat the large rocks roll along to da middle far collection? An so dem don't accumulate an break dat nettin?" Winston had plenty of experience with netting for huntly and figured a larger nat was no different.

[Kisaik]

Kelpie could give Kisaik a run for his money in her ability to go off on fanciful tangents and with the way her stream of consciousness flowed. He found hiself nodding emphatically at her, hoping that he wasn’t bothering Winston by encouraging her. He thought he could sense the Ferret was a bit driven by the fairy, but that might’ve just been a sign of his exertions in training how to fly while following after her.

“Oh, you have tortoise friends too? Are any of them happening to be panhandlers? Do they know Peter?” Kisaik chattered excitedly, suddenly interested in her insight into turtles. “I’d love to pick your brain about all the finer points of turtle lore, if you have time for tea later. But for now, I’ve got to get this stone problem sorted. Later though!”

Ce’nija blinked, but then curtseyed toward the fairy. Knowing that they were settling in the native homeland of these fairies, or at best neighbors in the same wood, went a ways to ameliorating what might’ve otherwise been an incredulous attitude. But the wise-woman of Kisaik’s tribe was gracious enough to know the fairy meant no harm, “Oh, that’s a lovely garment. Very muchy so!” Ce’nija meant it honestly, as she had a dress that was similar.

Aida was smiling at Winston as he took the macademia nut. “Oh no, not too painful, nothing I wouldn’t endure for my scrumptious Fairret.” She blew a kiss to Winston, and then fell back into the makeshift awning that sheltered them against the rockfall, at least temporarily.

Meanwhile, it was time to get planning for the architectural whatsits with Winston, so Kisaik bid the lady tunawa adeiu, and led him away from the radius of the tree.

Once they arrived on the outskirts, Kisaik frowned, “Now I don’t quite understand why these stones are falling so soon? Most of them are on the small side, as the tree has only bloomed this season.” He scratched his beard, looking upward at it, and the many colorful jades and other gems that hung from its branches. “Nets… yes possibly. Do you know a good weaver for that?”

Of course, Winston came with other ideas, and Kisaik had his fair pick of which he thought were most viable, which he appreciated. Options were always good. “I’m wary of digging into the earth too much, as that might not be to the good of the gardening situation. And we want to honor Lady Vega’s vision, of growing and coexisting alongside nature, rather than carving a place out from it, but if there was a way we could do both, perhaps a sheltered path and central hub around the base of the tree? Like a skirt?”

Kisaik grinned when Winston mentioned stones the size of Vega’s fists. “Yes, I saw one at least! But they’re fairly uncommon. Only one of them I spotted and I hadn’t actually seen it fall…”

As they were talking, there was movement above the trees, but Kisaik didn’t quite notice it. A pearly white winged creature looked down at the two pint-sized creatures, staring out from behind the cold leaves of the Sweetstone tree. Gems obscured it, but it was clearly drake-like in appearance, with a pale scaley hide and amber eyes.

The creature

Looked down on them with curiousity, which only increased as they stepped over various small pebbles of gems and jade.

“So…” Kisaik began, “I think…”

Just then, a gem got shot out in their general direction. Kisaik still couldn’t see the Sniffer Drake, but Winston could from where he stood, it was behind Kisaik, tossing gems at his head with its little clawed hands.

A solitary quark issued from its mouth, as it glanced playfully at the two.

[Winston]

Enter, stage left!

Kelpie

Gushed air and tinkles as she moved on. "'OH! I will bring some tea! I can tell you all about Snowpoke!" Winston didn't seem bothered, quite the opposite. If anything, he would appear to be delighted that people were getting along with his Fairy companion. Many found Fairies hard to accept, due to their easily misunderstood ways. "Hehe, me nat tried Fairy -tea yet. Gud luck wid dat." He winked.

Aida's advances, whether they were genuine or playful, were met with polite smiles. Winston had no aversion to overly friendly behaviour, it was preferable to the opposite, but this particular 'flavour of friendly', even he had to admit, was not something he was entirely accustomed to.

As Kisaik cast his opinion of Winston's suggestions, he nodded and listened carefully. He drew a crude stump in the loose ground and added a canopy all around it, as Kisaik described. "Yuh, mun. Dis cun 'ave yuh stalls an' living areas under et. All duh way around, wid sheltered paths leadin' arf et 'ere, 'ere an 'ere ..." but something caught his attention, swooping clearly into his field of view. At first, it simply caught his curiosity, but that developed into mild concern. Kisaik was far better equipped in temperament, ability and experience to deal with such a problem, but even the greatest of worriers would not likely appreciate being blind-sided. As such he focused on the creature and

rang the tiny bell

on his belt. It caused a ringing in the ears of the tiny creature, that only it could hear.

Winston hoped this would buy him enough time for him to give Kisaik the heads-up he might need. "Watch out Chep!" He said, pointing over his companion's shoulder and ducking for cover behind him.

[Kisaik]

Kisaik nodded politely to Kelpie, "Oh, we can have a big party with several fairies invited, maybe even all our fairy friends, plus Blackberry and Cage. I suspect they might be busy but it's polite to send an invite anyways. My friends Wendy and Lalia can come too, right? And I look forward to hearing more about this... Snowpoke?" It sounded like an interesting name for a turtle, yet Kisaik had heard of stranger names.

Aida for her part was flirty with just about everyone, although she did seem especially smitten with Winston. It was just in her nature to cozy up to folks. Kisaik found it a little too much to bear at sometimes, and so was glad to leave her behind in the shelter for now.

Kisaik liked that Winston agreed with his assessment of the plans for protecting the paths leading up to the Sweetstone. "Ideally, I'd like paths to be big enough for our tall folk kin, like Vega and her children and family." Kisaik said, "That said, if it's doable we could have smaller paths for regular sized folk, like us." Kisaik said it without a slight bit o irony, to him he was regular sized, and Vega and her people were veritable giants. Giants he was more than comfortable with, mind, but giants nonetheless.

As it happened, the moment that another projectile entered Kisaik's sphere of rupture-sight, he felt it as it approached from behind him. He reacted in kind, as Winston rang the bell which made no sound to the tunawa. The quarking of the Sniffer Drake intensified as the bell rang in its ears, it quarked angrily, scattering more of the small pebbles from the Sweetstone Tree.

Just as the scattered shot was about to hit Kisaik, though, he blinked out of sight, and grabbed Winston and blinked with him out of the range of the pebbles.

With a burst of will, he sprouted his orange fairy wings (he was still his full-sized self at this point) that he'd gotten as a gift from Jesine. With that done, he flew up into the air with fairy Winston in tow. "Hold on! We gotta get to the poor drake before he gets really mad! I think I can reason with him!"

He wouldn't hold too tightly to Winston, in case he had other ideas, or wanted to fly in the other direction, but for now Kisaik was darting fast toward the Sniffer Drake.

It's neck curled as he approached, as if ready to pounce. Just as it flew off from the tree, it barreled past Kisaik, causing him to fly into a tailspin, and then straight for Winston. He snatched the fairy bell from him! And then he began flying off, full speed toward the north.

"Oh my!" Kisaik said, after a bit of flapping and righting himself. "Are you alright Winston?!" The Sniffer Drake had snatched the bell quite adroitly, more than he'd give the creature credit for just by looking at it.

"That was a Sniffer Drake, no doubt... I've heard of them in Desnind, but didn't know they live this far north!" Kisaik chattered excitedly at Winston, "They hoard treasure and metals, and it's said they can sniff out real rare metals and minerals too! Shall we go after them? Perhaps the shelter planning can wait!"

[Winston]

OI-OI! That's me bell!

That was it. Kisaik was entering into a contract, whether he realised it or not, that was considered binding by the little Fairy as she flew off with a nod and an excited chatter.

Winston nodded. "Oh yus, mun. We cun build et far all tuh use. Me shaw we cun get some 'elp wid de larger parts af de construction. Dough, me wud make dem wid run-ways aff ground level far us lat. Dis 'elps wid issues during the wet seasons wid flooding and makes it easier tuh walk wid da bigguns." Winston didn't feel the need to go into details with regards to the challenge of a puddle a biggun would just step in.

Next, all sorts of things broke loose. Winston was teleported by Kisiak, a most unusual experience, and the creature then turned on him instead. He attempted to swoop to the ground, out of reach, but before he could find his bearings, it had swooped passed and snatched his bell from his belt. "AH!" He let out a little cry of surprise, feeling lucky to have not been lunch for the creature.

Dispite the loss of the Bell, his first instinct was to dart low for safety, but it seemed not to be interested in Winston. He took a deep breath as it flew away. "Me? Yuh, mun, me es fine, tanks, but dat blighta pinched me Fairy Bell." His tone was a mix of disappointment and relief as he fluterred his dragonfly fairy-wings.

As Kisaik explained, Winston looked off in contemplation ...

The Devil on My Shoulder
Curiosity: How very RUDE!
Winston: Dat was close.
Curiosity: He stole our BELL! Quick! Go get him!
Winston: GET him? I can't 'get him' its massive. Not to mention too fast.
Curiosity: Dude, grow a pair and go sort him out ... Hang on, Chip is saying something about gems and rare metal.
Winston: Let's just keep our 'ead down an be 'appy we es nat 'is lunch.
Curiosity: No way! Lets go find him, become bigger and then get our bell back, along with anything else we can pilfer.
Winston: We do not PILFER.
Curiosity: OK. So you can just LOOK if you like, but lets get our bell back at least ... See! Chip said we should do it too!

He smiled at Kisaik. "Let's go! A Sniffer Drake, yuh say? Sounds interesting tuh me. Et owes meh a bell."

As they set off, Winston remained a fairy for the time being fluttering along as Chest followed down on the ground. "Hopefully it es NAT flying all de way back tuh Desnind." Tracking things on the ground was one thing, but doing so when something could fly ... Well, that was not really an option. "Quick, da best we cun 'ope tuh do es follow et to somewhere an' den coxe et out." Using the tree-line for cover, he would set out. He was no worrier, but sneaking and hunting, he could do these things.

Watching for the tiny dot in the sky to descend back into the trees, Winston would fly with Kisaik as fast as they could both manage, should he decide to fly with him. Chest would follow them slowly, unable to keep up, but capable of following its master anywhere he went, eventually. "Wid a tree dat draps rare jems far free. Dis ting 'as probably settled nearby." And sure enough, the tiny dot vanished down into the canopy some distance ahead of them.

It was almost impossible to tell exactly where

, but it was a start.

Winston was quite aware that his teleporting, transforming, combat-ready friend might have tricks up his leave that he had not yet seen and so as they started to approach the area, he paused. "We cun wait an see, where 'im comes out again. Ar dere es sometin' else yuh cun do?"

[Kisaik]

”Hmmm, well I doubt it could fly all the way back to Desnind at a jaunt. Sniffer Drakes rarely migrate far from the tropics…” Kisaik brought a hand to his beard, deep in thought, “I think he must have hitched a rid on a Flutterbus, that has to be it. Or one of those Desnind visitors brought him over. Sometimes there’s traffic between here and there you see.”

Anyway, how it was here was of little import at the moment, beyond assuring Winston it would not go far. And in fact Kisaik suspected Winston was entirely correct. “Yes, it’s probably been fetching all manner of goodies from nearby. Including Sweetstone. Hmm…”

Kisaik watched as Winston fretted just a bit, which was understandable given he’d had his belongings pilfered. The tunawa looked on with a measure of sympathy, as he scattered about the ground, looking for signs of its passage and using the treeline to cover his own approach.

“Well, we could proceed on foot, that would certainly be the safe choice. But that thing was fast, it would outstrip us by days if we tried that. Our fairy wings are little, and can only go so fast, afterall.” Kisaik lamented. “However, I do have a friend who can help us…”

So saying, Kisaik cried an eagle’s scree into the air. His voice transformed by a combination of tree-talk. It was also part of his mortalborn ability to echo the voices of animals to call for their aid and communicate with them. Within a half a bit, a large eagle swooped down, nearly three feet tall itself, with a wingspan many times its length. It flared its neck feathers as it regarded Winston with cool interest. Kisaik said some tree-talk bird-words to it, and then nodded at it as he pat it on the wing. “Phee here will take us straight through the forest, at least as far as the river. I think, not sure, but think that’s where we’d best start our search. Sniffer Drakes often nest near waterways, where they can find minerals washed up by the water…”

This said, he invited Winston to join him on the harpy eagle’s saddle, which was already on it. Kisaik had been flying him earlier and not taken it off just yet.

“Let’s go!”

With that, and if Winston joinied him, he’d take off, soaring toward the north, toward the river’s bank. Once they reached the shore, Kisaik would land there, and bid Phee to stand by with some more bird-talk.

Kisaik looked at Winston earnestly, and nodded, “I have just the trick that might help us locate it.” Kisaik smirked, “I happen to be blessed by Ashan. I have an ability, to commune with the wilderness, and see and feel through its senses… Sometimes it works to find what we’re looking for. It’s a little hit or miss, but worth a touch.”

So saying, Kisaik closed his eyes, and began concentrating. He envisioned the world through the eyes and touch of nature, trying to find something, anything to go on. No luck. “Nothing…” Kisaik said, and sighed. He was about to ask if Winston had any ideas, before his own lit up, “OH! These woods respond to song and wind… Perhaps if you play one of your instruments, or sing? Whichever you think will coax the wilderness to tell us where it might’ve gone off to? I can continue meditating and communing with the wild, while you do that?”

Once Kisaik gave the suggestion, he didn’t wait, but continued meditating, closing his eyes and focusing on anything that might stand out. It was all in Winston’s hands now, and probably hinging on how well he could play or sing…

[Winston]

A sing and a song...

"A Flutterbus?" The image of a butterfly the size of a coach popped into his mind as he nearly flew into a branch. Now was not the time ... Curiosity: Really? What else are you gonna do? ... "OK, me 'ave to know wat a Fluttabus es." He swerved to avoid a branch this time. "Cus ef dis Drake eats me, I will be complaining tuh Vri all de way tuh de great beyond dat me didn't find out."

Winston shrugged. "As many predators down dere as up 'ere." He spoke from some experience, but then Kisaik began to screech into the sky.

Winston edged a little closer to Kisaik. He was not typically an easily scared individual, far from it. In fact (not that he considered himself brave), he usually didn't even worry about things like being scared ... However there was definitely a self-preservatory reflex in him when big flying predators appeared in the sky.

The Devil on My Shoulder
Curiosity: Dat's a friend right?
Winston: Yeah ... Et's Kisaik's ... Prabably.
Curiosity: That didn't go so well last time.
Winston: True, true ... Yeah, nat a bad point now yuh menshun et ... actually ...
Curiosity: We are OK though. Just standing here?
Winston: Hovering ...
Curiosity: Yeah sorry, symantics are difinatly going to save the day here, you are right.
Winston: Look, ef dere wus somting tuh worry about, den Chep wub sart et out.
Curiosity: Uh-hu. And you have SEEN him in action right? Like you know all these stories about dragons and swaming 'things' are true!
Winston: Shut the Front door an' wash out yuh mounth reet naw. Dere no need far dat kinda unfounded acusashun!
Curiosity: Alright. JEES! Just saying. Teasy much? Good luck with the whole, not getting eaten, thing.
Winston: Herumpf.

Now. So far, this would be the second flying, Winston-eating thing that had appeared without Kisaik being too concerned ... This time, however, at least Kisaik appeared to have deliberately summoned it and, not without seeking a reassuring glance as it appeared in the sky and started towards them, he smiled.

On establishing that this was indeed a friend of Kisaik's, it was with complete and unwavering trust that Winston fell in with them both. "OH! Phee?! Me 'ave heard such wonderful tings about yuh. Me es SO glad yuh es nat gonna eat me." He grind, with much relief. Whether the bird could understand him didn't seem to bother Winston too much as he continued to engage them both equally.

As he was invited to ride the Eagle, he let out a little squeal of delight. In his current form, it was something like the sounds your ears make after a loud bang. A kind of 'ringing' tone. He fluttered over and found a spot where he could hold on tight.

Kisaik: "Let's go!"

"TALLY-HO AND AWAY WE GOOOO!" It did not take much for Winston to start enjoying himself again. The consternation Kisaik had detected before, though quite right, was more about the loss of the opportunity to be this close to the Fairies. In this form. Able to eat their food. More than just a belonging lost. Most any other thing and he'd probably have put up chase only out of idle curiosity, but somehow he felt a little like he'd only just started to explore that side of Idalos and it got a little much for him ... just for a moment ... but now he was an Eagle Riding, Fairet, on the prowl for a treasure-finding Dragonling! The day was turning around.

As they flew, Winston hummed a merry tune. It was not a tuneful merry tune, but it was merry. Phee might not be a dragon, sure, but you know what? When you're two inches tall, an eagle's as good as a dragon when both can swallow you whole without the need to chew.

As Kisaik spoke of his ability to be one with the wilderness, something happened to Winston's face that can only really be explained with the expression: Mind + Blown.

The Devil on My Shoulder

Curiosity: Are you actually really not freekin' kidding me?
Winston: Me knew et! Me knew 'im wud have tricks.
Curiosity: Hang on while I just become one with my naval and scan all of existence for your missing tinker-bell?
Winston: 'im es such an 'ero.
Curiosity: Oh. My. Word. There's nothing complex about your hero worship, is there?
Winston: Well, wen yuh spat somtin' tuh suggest 'im es nat an 'ero. Yuh just feel free tuh let me know. Till den, shush-now an let me watch 'im become one wid dis 'ere tree.

Winston looked like a child in a candy shop, that had just been informed that the jars on the top shelf were in fact all free, but then Kisaik reported nothing ...

The Devil on My Shoulder
Curiosity: HHHHHHHhhhhha!
Winston: Shush naw, 'im's nat done.
Curiosity: ... Sing? But he's heard your singing. Right?

Winston smiled so hard his head might split in two and without hesitation, burst into song, bringing to bout his Songforge-gifted ability to sing with the harmony of a chorus of fellow ferrets.

Blow the Man Down

"A-one, two, tree ...

Well I'm helpin' me friend out tuh think about trees!
Waaaaaay-Haay be-one wid dat bush!
Pay listen to me an show us de right treeee!
Give-'im some time tuh be-one wid dat bush!

'im said dat he can see though all af de leeeaaves!
Waaaaaay-Haay be-one wid dat bush!
Me lost me fine bell an me brought tuh me kneeeees!
Give-'im some time tuh be-one wid dat bush!

One wid dat bush, boy, be one wid dat bush!
Waaaaaay-Haay talk to da trees!
Yuh tall'em 'ow's boss an' yuh neva let ooooouuut!
Give-'im some time tuh be-one wid dat bush!

Me only just just worked out 'ow tuh make de cheees!
Waaaaaay-Haay be-one wid dat bush!
Da fairies won't like et if me cannot pleeeease!
Give-'im some time tuh be-one wid dat bush!

'elp us find out where me bell 'as gone toooooo!
Waaaaaay-Haay be-one wid dat bush!
Or all de night through we'll sing all un to yooooouuuu!
Give-'im some time tuh be-one wid dat bush!
"

Winston would continue singing until Kisaik suggested he should do otherwise. For what he lacked in actual singing talent, he gladly made up for in ghusto. If the trees could in fact hear the young Cadouri, they might just give over if not only to make him stop.