If you give Moiraine a cookie -- or rather, if you set an Aes Sedai a task . . .

[creator_raven]

The difficulty with deciding to stay in one place is that eventually it requires a place to live.

If only to avoid the cousins.

This may explain why, on a rocky island in the middle of a river, there are several piles of lumber.

Or rather, logs.

Among other things. The process of assembly is difficult for one bird, out on his own.

It has nothing to do with his laziness. Really.

Would Raven lie?

Comments

[blue_ajah]

"Someone has been busy, it would seem," she observes, studying the landscape before her.

[creator_raven]

Raven makes a face.

"Not so much, that."

He's standing behind her and to the left.

Because he can.

[blue_ajah]

She turns enough to slant a speaking glance at him, then looks back toward the clearing.

"It appears a pleasant place."

[creator_raven]

Raven's laugh is wild and ringing.

"It is an old place, yes. Worn, perhaps."

He wrinkles his nose.

"If it is pleasant, I think, I will not be so inconspicuous."

[blue_ajah]

"I suspect," Moiraine tells him, amused, "that you shall be no more nor less conspicuous than you wish to be."

[creator_raven]

He does not look shifty at all.

That would be beneath him.

"Suspicion, I think, is not so fine a trait."

She's smart, his sister. Also he is not always very subtle.

[blue_ajah]

She raises her eyebrows.

"Perhaps that might depend upon the circumstances."

[creator_raven]

He sticks out is tongue.

This is clearly an eloquent answer.

[blue_ajah]

Clearly.

She shakes her head slightly and studies the logs again.

"What do you intend to do with them?"

[creator_raven]

"Build walls."

He tilts his head, studying the piles of material.

"The roof will be something else."

Maybe shingles, if he's feeling really lazy.

[blue_ajah]

"I see."

Moiraine slants another glance at him.

"A place to perch, is it?"

[creator_raven]

"Mostly to keep the cousins away."

They shit.

[blue_ajah]

"A matter of some import," she returns, without missing a beat.

[creator_raven]

This time he does look shifty.

A flock of black birds darts across the sky.

"Yes."

[blue_ajah]

The Aes Sedai shakes her head, amused again.

"Very well."

[creator_raven]

He leans over to ruffle her hair.

"You have not so much built a house before, I do not think?"

[blue_ajah]

"You might be surprised," Moiraine observes. "However, it may depend on what you mean by 'built' and exactly what kind of 'house' to which you are referring."

[creator_raven]

"Mostly a cabin."

He laughs.

"That, I think, is more easily seen than explained. So."

[blue_ajah]

"That would seem simple enough."

She glances skyward, as a small flock of birds wheels in a circle overhead.

"And of great interest."

[creator_raven]

This time Raven does not stick out his tongue.

He tilts his head back, instead, voice rising incomprehensibly toward the sky.

A few moments later it becomes clear that his request -- if it was a request -- was incomprehensible only to human ears. Or, perhaps, human minds.

The cousins vanish in a swift scatter of feathered bodies.

But they will be back.

At least the logs -- and the ground itself -- are still comparatively clean?

[blue_ajah]

A hint of hidden laughter colors her tone as she observes,

"That approach does seem efficient, but I suppose that your voice would give out eventually..."

A pause.

"How might I be of assistance here, then?"

[creator_raven]

He looks down at her, wrinkling his nose.

"You do not so much have the voice for singing."

This is not an insult. Ravens are not songbirds.

"But possibly lifting is not so difficult, instead, yes?"

[blue_ajah]

"You are more right about that than you may know," Moiraine tells him, and then blinks.

"Lifting?"

[creator_raven]

Raven just laughs, leaning over to ruffle Moiraine's hair.

"Or possibly stacking, yes?"

There are many things that could use stacking here. Like logs.

And rocks.

And the returning cousins.

[blue_ajah]

"... all right."

She sounds just the slightest bit hesitant. There was a time when work of this sort would have been as easy as breathing for the Aes Sedai; however, that was before she had given herself to the Pattern.

Almost all of herself, that is, save for the last sparse thread of her life that had remained drifting for Raven to find and return.

She has not tested herself in her ability to channel fully since that day. She has not dared risk it.

Moiraine studies him carefully for several seconds, and then inclines her head in assent.

"I will try," she says, simply.