Lark and the Almost-Morning: story transcript
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Lark and the Almost-Morning
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Lark had never heard the first birds of morning. By breakfast, everyone was always saying, "Did you hear them?" Tonight she tied on her moss-green scarf and told Tansy, "We’ll get there before the sun. I’ll be quieter than a mushroom."
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They settled beneath a willow while the sky was still blue-black. Lark tucked her cream-tipped tail around her paws. She listened. She listened harder. A twig ticked. "Was that a bird?" she whispered. Tansy whispered, "That was your tail."
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Waiting made Lark’s ears itch. Perhaps morning needed a reminder. She rustled the willow leaves like a hundred flapping wings. She tapped a pebble against another pebble. Tansy covered her ears. "If morning is asleep," she said, "you’re certainly waking its neighbors."
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Lark tried her most serious owl call. "Hooooo-WHEEP!" It sounded like a kettle falling down a hill. Tansy snorted so hard she rolled backward into a dandelion puff. Lark caught her and said, "I think I’ve invented a new kind of owl."
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The sky stayed quiet. Lark stood up. "Maybe the birds forgot today." She took three steps toward home. Her paws felt heavy. Tansy did not call her back. She was brushing dandelion fluff off her whiskers when Lark stopped and turned around.
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"I wanted to hear them," Lark said, settling beside Tansy again. "But my ears keep waiting for a big noise." A drop slid from a leaf. Plip. Farther off, something pattered under dry leaves. Lark held still to hear where it went.
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A breeze slipped through the willow. Somewhere below, water made a soft, uneven trickle. Tansy’s whiskers tickled Lark’s paw; Lark almost giggled. Then came a thin note from the hedge. Both friends looked up. They waited, but it did not come again.
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The note returned from the same branch, clear as a tiny bell. A second bird answered from across the path. They called back and forth while the sky grew pale. "That’s all?" whispered Lark. "That’s plenty," whispered Tansy. Lark listened until both birds flew away.
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Back at the den, Lark’s mother set pancakes on the table. "Did you hear the birds?" she asked. Lark told her about the leaf, the trickle, and two birds singing across the path. "Also," Tansy said, "a very unusual owl." Lark covered her face with her tail.
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After pancakes, Lark curled up for a nap. Tansy tucked the moss-green scarf beside her. "Hooooo-WHEEP," Tansy whispered, very badly. Lark’s ears twitched. Without opening her eyes, she whispered back, "Shh. I’m trying to hear a mushroom." Then both friends snorted.
