His offer of being a listening ear for her problems is a touching one, though truthfully Mazikeen had no practice talking out the things that bothered her. An unfortunate thing to learn from her mother, who was keen to keep as much as she could locked away (no matter how much snuck out anyway).
Besides, how could she possibly burden this earnest, sweet soul with even a hint of her nightmares?
And really, her life had not been so terrible - had it?
She’s thankful when he takes to her change of subject with the tree. When he warns her about an accidental impaling, she laughs again and scoots back dutifully. Her eyes dance with even more interest now. The idea of him being able to create a tree out of ice was pretty interesting on its own but mix in the danger of impaling? Now that was fascinating.
Mazikeen follows his gaze, feeling excitement tingle across her skin as that first thin filament forms - and then breaks. Although she feels disappointed, Mazikeen doesn’t say anything or move because Barrow is still concentrating and he tries again without hesitation. She’s fascinated by the growing spear and when he looks at her - or over her head - she smiles with what she hopes is some encouragement. The spear itself was already impressive and she marvels as it begins to branch and even sprouts a few maple leaves. He comments on its faults, but she cannot see them.
“It’s beautiful!” She exclaims with absolute truth, stepping forward to touch Barrow gently on the shoulder before moving closer to the tree to examine it. She is not feigning the wonder in her orange eyes for his benefit and with a delighted laugh Mazikeen shifts into a small white hawk and flutters around the tree approvingly. She lands carefully on one of the branches - taking a couple tries as she shouts “Ohh! That’s cold.” at the first contact of ice on her bird feet.
Then she settles down at eye-level and trills a happy call in her hawk-voice. “One day I bet you’ll be able to make a whole forest if you wanted to. All it takes is some practice, right? Just like my shifting.”
“I wish I could create like this, though.” Mazikeen says, even though it’s not entirely the truth. She’d trade her ability to shift forms for nothing - but how wonderful to make something so beautiful out of nothing more than a little ice?
@[Barrow]