our fair lady — keona's birthday

[Keona.]

[div style="width: 527px; line-height: 1.4; text-align: justify; font-family: palatino; font-size: 11px;"][align=center]blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly

Unusual. The strange taste of suspicion rested on her tongue.  Difficult to ignore yet hard to refuse certain proposals.  Willing to be tricked for the potential gain.  Paws buzzing with more excitement than wariness.  Dutiful and attentive, quite pleased to spend the day training.  Memory of previous lessons, surrounded by sand lingered in the shadows of her mind.  Dangerous circumstances.  An unfortunate time now passed, not quite forgotten.

Content to linger with one studious.  Ears perked, pale hues bright with the eagerness of knowledge.  New lessons and stories.  If disappointed in returning to one tricky, not a gleam of it in her eyes.  And still the taste lingered on the very tip of her taste buds.  Like the presence of a shadow.  A tailing presence just out of notice.

The warmth on her back began fading as the sun started to dip.  A pause, eyes blinking sharply as her father announced a turnaround.  Return home -- or rather the temporary home by the railroad.  Even before he spoke, the gears spun, a question building in her throat.  Her nose inhaled sharply the smell of sweets and drinks.  Briefly, brows creased in bewilderment, blinking.

Lá breithe sona.  Oh.  Happy birthday.  She knew, yet the matter seemed small.  Faraway even.  She'd never celebrated a birthday before... Did not know the custom, nor had witnessed it before.  Worse yet, she looked no where near her birth age -- just barely growing out of her kitten fluff -- making matters more confusing.  Yet she stood beside one father, the other only a little away, a whole party thrown together.  So he distracted me.  A soft breath left her maw. "I... A páirtí..?"

A shy smile played with uncertain lips, a long, stripped tail flicking.

[ mobile translations : Lá breithe sona - happy birthday, Páirtí - party ]

✯ — keona sibéal ó faoláin. female. striker of the typhoon. blind. rusty spotted cat.  ref. bio.