"Okay, easy does it…" she whispered as she carefully stroked the bird, nudging it into her hand.
"I just need a few of your colorful feathers…" she continued saying to the bird as though it understood her. The red bird twittered, hopping onto the palm of her hand looking around for seeds. Cautiously she raised her hand, looking into the nest to see if there were any bright red feathers. Seeing one, she reached in and grabbed it, but not before getting squawked at and a flutter of wings in her face. But she had accomplished her mission to retrieve some red feathers. The bird was still squawking at her as she ran away, thanking the bird even though the bird clearly did not appreciate the gratitude.
"I think that just about does it!" Rebecca declared, showing her horse the feathers. Midnightwarrior seemed unimpressed and returned to grazing while Rebecca assessed her inventory. She had feathers from multiple different birds, red, blue, and yellow ones as bright as she could find them. Before the feathers she had gone to the beach and gotten filled a bottle full of sand. Before that she had borrowed a pick ax to find lapis lazuli and had collected several large gemstones. She added the feathers to the collection of things and ran off to collect wild flowers that grew in the forest, leaving her horse to munch on grass. There were already roses from the Winery, but she wasn't satisfied until she had more flowers, pinks and yellows and purples. Midnightwarrior was quite sure what sort of human ritual this was that she was performing, but he knew he needed to eat as much fresh grass as he could before she finished collection flowers.
She returned with an armful of flowers, wrapping them in a blanket before she put it in a saddle bag. Next she changed clothes, putting on much thicker clothes and changing her horse's tack to a set that would be better for snow.
They didn't waste time heading into the valley, she wanted to flowers to be as fresh as possible, and Midnightwarrior wanted to get to shelter as soon as possible. They ran down the snowy path, not stopping at the campsite, and continued on the trail through the winter wilderness until they reached at gate made of stone.
"Greetings, Rebecca! Have you come to trade?" Nanook called to her when she came into view. She waved and shook her head, letting Midnightwarrior go directly into the shelter with the Fjord horses. Once her horse was out of the wind and snow she dismounted and grabbed the bag.
"I don't have anything to trade today, but I did bring you some gifts! I thought you might like seeing something from, well, beyond the Valley," she explained, offering the bag to the pair of Kallters. They glanced at each other but took the bag with interest.
"I don't know how often you see flowers that aren't white or blue…" Rebecca commented as they first unraveled the blanket holding the slightly bruised wildflowers. They spoke to each other in their own language, but from their tone and expressions she gathered that they appreciated the flowers at the very least, maybe even a little surprised to see such bright colors. They were particularly interested in the deep redness of the roses, and she wondered if they ever saw such a color aside from blood.
"Oh, that's a bottle of sand from the ocean, I just thought you might like it," they studied the bottle, rolling it in their hands. Sedna opened the bottle and poured some of it onto her hand, removing a glove so she could feel the fine texture. While Sedna closed the bottle, Nanook picked up one of the lapis lazuli.
"I'm not sure if you have lapis lazuli here, I've only seen the kallstones. Unfortunately, the gemstones don't have any magic or energy, they're just pretty to look at," Nanook turned the stone over, looking at it from all angles, before he passed it over to Sedna to inspect. She put it up against one of the Fjords, seeing how the stone looked with the horse's coat color.
"The last thing is feathers. I'm sure there are birds here but I've never seen any in the valley with those colors," Nanook chuckled at that statement and shook his head, feeling the delicate feathers with his fingers.
"Correct, they would not blend in with these hues," he replied, speaking a language she could understand once more. She smiled at that, twisting her hands as she waited for something. She wasn't sure what, but she was hoping for a reaction of some sort.
"These are fine things you have given us, we thank you for your gifts to us," Nanook said in his formal manner and Rebecca smiled and nodded.
"You can't really use them, I know, but I'm glad you at least like to look at them," she said apologetically, knowing the flowers would be dead and faded soon.
"Perhaps, we do not waste what we have. If you, by chance, would like to bring us more gifts, we may be able to offer you a fair trade for the objects," Nanook said as he touched one of the Fjords, actions deliberate to convey the underlying message. She grinned at looked at her own horse, not sure anything could make her take on another horse besides him.
"Thank you for the offer, I will try to bring you more soon," she said as she mounted up on her horse once more.