Friendship Is Magic

“D

id you find enough nuts and acorns today, Nibble?” Bright eyes of amaranth gazed up into the branches of a tree where a fluffy tail protruded from hollow, twitching about wildly. It disappeared followed by the head of a tiny squirrel, nose twitching as it chattered and peered down at a cheery little wolf pup.

Her nose twitched and she tilted her head as the squirrel went back into its den, scratching and scuffling around. “I’ll help you look for some more, alright? Alright!” With that, the scampered off to a cluster of trees nearby, digging around the remains of the snow against the roots. She lowered her nose to the ground to try to sniff out some morsels for her wiry little friend.

Every time she found a nut for Nibble to snack on, she’d pick it up in her mouth gingerly and drop it at the foot of the tree where his stock was being kept. “There you go! There’s some more for you!” She announced and the squirrel would come racing down the side of the tree trunk, snatching up whatever it could grab before returning to the branches.

Clover worked away as fast as she possibly could, knowing that soon Maela, her favorite wolfess in the entire world, would come and scoop her up for her nap time. At least for now, she’s get to enjoy her morning play with her squirrel friend, finding joy in making sure he always had enough food to eat.


@Cian

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

I

t was presently midday, the sun crawling across an azure sky. With the coming of spring, the sun aimed a little higher each day, expanding its arch overhead. The trees in the forest were budding in the bright green hues, and Cian smiled unconsciously. It was lovely there, and the boy had inherited his appreciation of nature and its beauties from his fair mother. There were no flowers blooming just yet, but secretly, Cian was excited for them.


This forest was unfamiliar, its mysterious aura creating a sense of wonder -- and confusion. Cian had come here to patrol, though he was still a few days shy from being a real army wolf. The youth was both excited and apprehensive about this new status. This new season of life came loaded with high expectations that were never far behind Cian, even as he wandered in this enigmatic region.


His father would not approve if he knew where his son had strayed. But it was for the sake of duty… and maybe a little bit about exploring this strange new location. What his strict father did not know was that his Highlander wife had quietly told a younger Cian about this unusual space and the mischievous fae that inhabited it… supposedly. He knew Father would laugh at such a concept -- or worse, look down upon it with scorn and disapproval. Nothing was quite as severe as that look. Then again, there were so many things that Father did not approve of. But the surly, tradition-driven brute was not here now, was he?


And this was for the best, because now Cian was not entirely certain where he was, and his sire would assuredly be displeased. Cian was not afraid, as he had been taught enough about navigation to find his way back to the Mainlands… eventually. The flame-colored boy was in no rush as he looked around in youthful curiosity.



@Clover

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

C

lover hastily dropped a couple nuts and acorns at the foot of the tree again, winking up at little Nibble. “Maybe just a few moor and then you won’t even need to take a bite of anyone’s ear!” She teased the small creature, glancing up where she could see the folded over tip of her right ear, a reminder of how her and a particular baby squirrel got acquainted. It has hurt a lot then. It felt like she’d lost her whole ear, but at least now they could look back on it and laugh!

There wasn’t too much more to be dug up in this area, so she scampered to another grove just next to where she’d come from. Immediately, Clover had her little nose pressed to the ground trying to sniff around the snow. She was so focused on scavenging for any morsel she could find, she hadn’t even seen a guest had arrived.

She definitely caught the scent of something and so she sniff, sniff, sniffed until her nose led her to an odd looking tree. She sniffed up the base of it realizing it’s bark had fur that was bright as flame and soon thereafter her nose met another nose and then a pair of crimson eyes. “Oh!” Well, this tree wasn’t a tree at all!

Her tail began to whip back and forth wildly, a smile breaking out across her face as she stared happily up at the other wolf. “Hello there! I’m Clover, what’s your name?” She asked cheerily, her voice a sing-song tone paired with a darling Irish accent.

@Cian

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

I

f Cian was startled, he gave no indication of it, save for the widened of flame-colored sights and the forward flicking of both ears. The youth had not expected the sudden appearance of the pretty lass, and her cheerful, gregarious demeanor seemed even more surprising, as evidenced by the look of bafflement on his features as he gazed upon this stranger -- who was less of a stranger in an instant as she introduced herself. Clover.


In his world, most unknown others saw you, but acted as if they did not, glancing this way or that, rather than bothering to look you in the eye. This girl, clearly not a native Mainlander in every way, was… quite different from that. Cian himself could be mistaken for a Highlander, with his fiery coat, but it was just an inheritance from his foreign-born mother. He was a Mainlander, through and through. But this girl, with her bright eyes the same color as flower petals...


It took the boy a beat or two to realize that was staring, and his gaze quickly averted to the ground before his large paws. ”Hello,” he began with hesitance. "I’m just, uh, looking around the forest to assist any lost citizens,” he offered, though she had not asked why he was here, for it was an automatic response to be clear about one’s objectives, as he had been taught.



@Clover

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

W

hen he finally uttered a greeting she gasped excitedly and danced on her toes happily. And then he told her his name and her eyes grew twice their size as she tried to take i t all in. “‘I’m just, uh, looking around the forest to assist any lost citizens’ is the longest and most strangest name I’ve ever heard…are you sure you don’t have a shorter one?”

Clover giggled and cocked her head to one side, peering over at him curiously. He seemed ot really like to look at his feet and she shuffled closer to take a look down at his very large toes. “What’s wrong with your paws? Are they okay?” She lifted one of her own and prodded each of his and stared at them, tilting her head this way and that as though waiting for something to happen. “They seem fine to me. They’re just very big, I think.”

@Cian

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

”I

’m just, uh, looking around the forest to assist any lost citizens’ is the longest and most strangest name I’ve ever heard…are you sure you don’t have a shorter one?” Again, the boy looked puzzled as he looked at the stranger. ”What---” Now gaining awareness over his shocked facade to something less surprised and more friendly. ”My name is Cian, um, of the Eamonn clan. “ He glanced up carefully to see if his family name would create any recognition in the unknown fae, though somehow, he doubted it would be so.


But whatever sense of control he had over his expression was soon dashed again when the girl was bold enough to reach out and make physical contact -- and not just with one or two of his paws, no, with all of them. Again, the boy looked rather stunned, and he took a step backward with uncertainty etched onto his flame-kissed features. ”N-no, there’s nothing wrong with them,” he responded in an uncertain voice, for he found this Clover to be confusing -- but also intriguing. It was not every day that Cian encountered someone who was his own age.


”I’m, um, just keeping a patrol over this -- this area -- er, this forest.” He blinked, trying to regain his senses when he again found himself gazing upon the delicate features of the young femme. ”Do you, uh, do you happen to be lost...?” He smiled in a way that he hoped spoke of confidence. Of strength. He was an army solder, after all.



@Clover

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

T

he little girl lit up to finally know of his true name. “Cian!” She exclaimed, looking him over, her hindquarters wiggling with energy she could not contain. The name certainly fit him, but there was also something else about it. Something seemed so special about him…she could feel it!

“I like it! It’s a much better name than the first one you gave me.” She nodded fervently as she paid him, what she would consider, a compliment. Clover paused her nose wrinkling slightly as she pondered what else he’d said in his introduction.“Buuut, what’s an Eamon Clan? I dunno what that is.”

As she inspected his gigantic feet, Cian seemed bit fidgety. Maybe his paws were just too heavy for him or something. When he explained there was nothing wrong, she breathed a sigh of relief and grinned at him. “Good! I thought so too. I’m glad all’s well with them, because sometimes I get splinters in my pads and those are not fun. How can something so super small like that hurt so much?” She mused absentmindedly, while beginning to circle him in a bouncy trot.

Clover giggled as he tried to keep an eyes on her, deciding it was a fun game to try to escape his ruby red gaze. She stopped and raised a tiny eyebrow at him as he told her what he had been doing. “Patrol? What’s that? Is it a game? Oh! Maybe I can play with you too!” She threw herself into a play bow with a yip of glee, but once more became puzzled by his strange questions. “Lost? Oh no, I’m not lost. I’m with Maela and then I was…”

She trailed off before gasping and sitting up, bring paws up to cover her mouth as she realized what she’d forgotten to do. “I was getting Nibble some more nuts! I need to finish that before we can play Patrol, Cian. It’s very important!” She scampered to a pile of snow at the base of a tree and began to dig beneath the snow there. Taking a moment, she looked over at him and smiled. “Do you want to help me?”

@Cian

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

H

e could not quite decide if the girl was indeed mad, or if she was playing a trick on him, or if she was just… Cian could not even find an appropriate word to ascribe to this strangest, yet fairest of strangers. Her coat was pale, its patterns like rays of light through the trees during the middle part of the day, with a darker muzzle that only seemed to make her rose-colored sights all the more bright and bewitching.


It was impolite to stare, though he could feel her eyes upon him with no ounce of shyness or caution, he chose instead to look at the blank space between Clover’s ears. He found otherwise that a certain unexpected timidness threatened his courage when he gazed upon the feminine features of the young wolfess. She asked of his last name and he bit back a frown. ”A clan… you know, a family?”


The girl continued to speak in such a light, careless way unknown to Cian. Even his mother, who was a Highlander and more placid than the rest of his kin, was not quite so exuberant. Clover inquired about patrol, and Cian found himself more uncertain of himself. If his was so proud a heritage, why did he feel hesitant to share…? ”A patrol is, um, not exactly like a game,” he began, watching as Clover initiated a play stance that urged an arched eyebrow.


The girl was not lost, which was good… that made one of them. She smiled brightly to him, saying things he did not quite understand, but he smiled unconsciously in return. “Do you want to help me?” Cian paused thoughtfully. If a citizen was asking for help, then… this counted as an imperial duty, right? The youth decided that sounded reasonable, so he stepped slowly toward Clover. "Alright, uh... What does this business entail?"




@Clover

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

R

ecognition passed across her face as the word ‘family’ was used to explain what he’d meant by ‘clan’. “Oh! Family! Yes, yes, yes! I have family! Mama and Papa and Fletcher and Chloe aaaand and Meala aaand…I think thas it.”

As she lowered herself into her bow, Clover noticed that the boy seemed a little bit confused. He probably didn’t know she was trying to play with him so she rolled over onto her back to where she was looking up at the underside of his chin. “You look funny from upside down!” She laughed, extending both of her paws in an attempt to bat at his chest.

But then he said that Patrol wasn’t a game. “Not a game?” She asked almost disappointed as she rolled herself back over onto her belly, letting her legs splay out behind her. “What is it then?” Clover was learning so much from Cian and they hadn’t even been friends for an entire day yet!

When she did start to get back to work to uncover Nibble snackies of all varieties, she took a couple steps back and patted the earth next to a couple of acorns and a hazelnut. “You see? The trees drop them and the snow covers them up so you have to dig them up like this and here, I’ll show you Nibble’s tree! Come on! Follow me!”

She scooped up the morsels and scampered back to the other grove only to find a bird with a pointy beak pecking some of the offering she had left behind. An angry squirrel was chattering loudly at it, tail lashing back and forth as it expressed its distaste for the other arrival. Clover with her mouth full let out a muffled cry as she went to shoo away the freckled bird.

She spat out the nuts and glared with the intensity of a pup at the winged creature that was now hovering above their heads. “Hey! You can’t have Nibble’s foods! I worked real hard to get it for them!” Clover scolded the nut thief, tapping her foot like her mother might. She quickly softened, however, and sighed in defeat. “Now, if you’re hungry my friend Cian and I can get some more just for you. Does that sound good, wee bird?”


@Cian

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

C

lover described her family, rather a small one, like Cian’s, and he nodded knowingly. He was about to ask if her family was nearby when Clover was suddenly turned onto her back, belly up, before him, leaving Cian feeling embarrassed, though he could not say exactly why. ”Y-you look pretty funny, too.” Quickly, he added, so as not to offended: ”I-its not bad, though, necessarily.” How did the girl live in such absence of fear when she made herself so very vulnerable before a stranger? Cian felt a surge of protective instinct as he looked down upon her.


She was still curious about the duties that had brought Cian to this place, and his features were pensive. What was the point of it, really…? ”It’s…” He sought the words to describe a patrol to someone who evidently had no context for the world in which Cian had been reared. Finally, he conceded, ”Okay, it is rather like a game, I suppose, just not meant to be fun.”


Cian had been raised from a tender age to follow orders, but he found himself rather amused that the orders he was now following were not from an Imperial superior, but rather a quirky femme out in the middle of nowhere (for Cian, anyway). He watched the odd interaction between the wolf and the bird as Clover attempted to reason… with the bird. The strangest part of it all was, Cian swore that the bird somehow understood, as it seemed willing to accept the help of the two wolves.


Cian could hear the voice of his father in his head: Utter nonsense! Foolishness, all!, and a waste of time But rather than feeling shame for his inexplicable desire to help Clover and her woodland friends, the youth instead experienced something different: defiance. Her shook as head to assist in clear his sire’s surly tones from his mind. Again, he felt relief that Father was far away, but Cian knew it would not have mattered. He would have helped Clover regardless.


Instead, the Highlander lullabies of his mother resurfaced in his imagination after lying dormant for many months… Songs of magical forests filled with the most incredible creatures, like fae. Suddenly, Cian’s face contorted in wonderment. This unusual wolfess… Was she really a creature of fantasy that was a little less fantastic than he had been lead to believe?


Was she a fae?


It would explain her exquisite eyes, the way her pale coat seemed practically to glow. ”Are -- are you from here? I mean, you know, are you…” But he could not bring himself to ask the question in its entirety, instead leaving the rest to Clover, who seemingly had no problems with filling the space with her lyrical voice.



@Clover

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck