#oustered

        they're sprawled out on their side and even laying down, danny is five or six feet from shoulder to ground. not that it's an easy task with their elk antlers, but they make do. they do perk up and even wag their tail a bit.

        they're stretched on their side in the downstairs bed and they're looking at their palms. coyote is radiating light from between their fingers, from the centers of their palms, and it won't stop. their eyes are very gold, on the verge of chasing away even their pupils, and they don't really belong here.

        they're sitting and listening to a violinist on the street, and it's maybe coyote's presence that's making the music sweeter. the dark sunglasses, leaving others unable to see their eyes, hide dark brown irises with golden rings around the pupils. ( they saw the other one, the one with golden eyes with black rings around their irises. brigit tugging them along into another dimension. they hope they know not to trust her. )

        they're sitting with their back to the wall, knees drawn up to their chest. hazel's stretched out under their bed, the wombat proving to be the laziest creature out there. the book they've got, something on astronomy, is open, but mira's been reading the same three lines over and over. coin had to sit them in the bath and do everything for them. they hate the bun she stuck some of their hair in.

        they're tying bundles of sage together because if there's something that they can rely on muscle memory for, it's helping their mom so she can sell it come october. they're leaning on a small envelope, square under their elbow, and bell had it read to them from the doctor. just to be sure.

        he's sweeping out the barn again, a radio he can't hear playing in the background. he thinks that the horses, the mare and her filly, may like it, but animal thoughts are too complicated for him to zone in on. other thoughts, though— kit looks up and props the broom against an empty stable door.

        delilah is there too, watching some late night thing about religion. it doesn't interest her, and it doesn't interest babel. but she's quick to bully them into telling her where the first aid kit is so she can clean up their scraped up hands and dab at the split in their lip. they know she's not happy, and knows that neither of echo's moms will be.

        she's rearranging the books on her two shelves, titania watching from her oversized dog bed by the stairs. imogen finally moved away and out of her dad's house after that incident, ignores his texts and calls. she exhales.