Thread: 🌻 Pass The Clara ✨ | PAUSED

"A warm welcome. Always wonderful to see."

She is here to mingle with the mortals, but on this visit she has one particular chook in mind who she would just love to call on--one who has inadvertently captured the imaginations of many other chickens. Though twice at least this bird has visited her realm--once in truth, once in a vision--never did they survive long enough for Clara to grasp what it truly is that so endears them to their peers. Now though, there are no trappings of games or rules to impede her.

She casts her eyes about the yard until she catches a glimpse there in the distance--deep blue feathers lined with soft pinks, purples. They seem to be following some sort of trail; they haven't noticed her yet. Leisurely, as though she has all the time in the world (and she does, to a degree), she struts toward the detective, catching up faster than her pace should imply. However, mere steps from her quarry, there is a rush of motion as a shadow appears.

Before her stands a dark, black rooster, cloaked in shade from head-to-toe, intercepting her path. His feathers are bristling.

"Fushigi. I didn't expect to see you here."

"Likewise... I don't know what you're planning, Clara, but back off. The detective's mine."

"Oh? Are you saying that you, of all birds, are going to challenge me?"

"Drop the act. You don't have any power here. We aren't in your domain."

"Dear little shadow, are you sure about that?"

A palpable tension rises between them, the rage rising as obviously from Fushigi as his fear; Clara's expression remains inscrutable, but the air sizzles around her.

Just then, from behind her, comes a voice, so gentle, so soft, and yet it pierces through the air like a clarion.

"hi"

Clara whips her head back just in time to be knocked nearly off her feet by the thundering report that follows:

"i'm norm"

When the ground stops shaking, Clara blinks, and sees before her a chicken of...a texture that there may not be words for. The bird has not a feather to its name...or, does it have too many? Two blank eyes stare soullessly back at her, not a single jot behind them. Or, do those two white voids adorning the pink mass contain everything there ever is, and ever was?

With the placidity of a saint, or the aimless rolling of an ocean tide, the bird called "norm" approaches her. Almost ignoring her presence, he pecks the ground beside her feet, gobbling up an inchworm, then leans boldly in and plucks away a loose bit of straw that's found its way into her wing.

He looks Clara straight in the eye, and says again in that sweet, unnatural resonance:

"hi"

What unfolds after that, Clara can't really explain, but there's nothing to do but take stock of the surprise circumstances as she finds herself sitting quietly in a nest beside the (other) otherworldly creature. Observing the detective can come later perhaps, she reckons. Even if she ignores the new questions floating across her mind, this visit has been more than eventful enough.

A few days pass in the blink of an eye. Clara had made plans to tour more of this coop while she was able to, but in the end she find she's satisfied with just the occasional leisurely stroll around the yard. Every time she lays eyes on her original target, the infamous detective, a certain shadowy rooster appears to block her way. Fine enough--she's found other things to amuse herself with.

After some time, the unplanned egg hatches, into a darling little chick:

#23784 Clarion

Waltz

3 months • ZZ

Clara looks upon the child with a mix of emotions: alarm, threat, but somehow a strange fondness. The child has her blood, and that means so many different things to her. In an ideal world, she would remain to observe what this progeny grows into, but she can tell from the way the ground crackles at her feet that this patch of earth is growing averse to her presence. However, the creature called norm seems equally endeared with the chick (for as much emotion can be read in his vapid eyes). Clara gets the sense she'll still find this child--her little herald--safely here, should she happen to return.

She gathers herself and gives the coop a quiet nod as she makes her way out, heads turning as she goes. Just as she's about to leave, another bird, apparently in a great hurry, slams into her. They scramble to gather up whatever it was they were carrying, glancing up in fear before making a mad dash away. Clara gives a scrutinizing squint, but has no time to worry about whatever just happened.

She's heard tell of another unearthly creature walking the mortal realm, and she's sure that the coop of @Daisy512 will have some answers...