Flowers In Bloom

Summerlate, Day 29, 576AS

I have been monitoring Tamberlane's progress for the past three months and I must say, it has yielded… mixed results. We learned some things about her yet at the same time many things are still a mystery. For one, she has a remarkably fast growth rate! When I measured her today, she had grown sixteen centimeters within this time frame! An impressive feat when considering normal standards. However, her maturity level remains about half that of normal kits her age, due to which she is a bit slower at learning things that her peers would be proficient with at this point.

Thanks to the efforts of Belfry and myself, and perhaps from her own observations as well, she has managed to pick up more Growl, which has been a relief and made communicating with her easier, but she has this unusual difficulty speaking it that seems to relate more to her vocal physiology than her maturity level. It's like she can understand words but has difficulty pronouncing them. She has, however, learned to write Growl better than she speaks it.

In these three months, we have tried narrowing down her diet, but many of the foods we offered were rejected by her. I was disappointed to see that so far peas and oatmeal have been the only successful candidates. She has omnivorous teeth yet does not seem to have a taste for meat, which I experimented with giving her today, although this could be just her being fussy as kits often are and might change as she grows. I made a note to test meat again once she is older.

She definitely has had a life before we found her, but she cannot recall most of those memories. It is understandable however, given that she may have been too young to remember her first two years. What few answers she's given us on the rare occasion are either extremely poorly described or hint to an environment that is completely unfamiliar to us. Ultimately, that information is of no use for us to figure out her background.

Attempts to identify her species have been unsuccessful. We theorized if she could possibly be an amalgamation of many different species, a result of numerous instances of crossbreeding between several different generations of hybrids, done so excessively that the original parent species is no longer identifiable, but so far we have not found any evidence to support this. Ainsley keeps referring to her as an 'alien', and it peeves me every time he does so. The problem is, they might be going around town peddling this tripe to the other citizens, which could cause problems. I sincerely hope others will not be dissuaded by that fool's superstitious codswallop!

As we learn about her, we are left with more questions than answers. Where did she come from? How did she end up in Rattleglen forest? Who are her parents? Do others of her kind even exist? Somehow, I feel that a lot of these questions will unfortunately go unanswered. Or at the very least, we'll have to wait a long time to get answers. At least we know enough to conclude that she has far more similarities to us than differences, the chief one being her appearance. We have slowly and carefully been introducing her to the rest of the town, and while initial reactions were not so encouraging, many have indeed warmed up to her with time. I am optimistic that soon, she will be accepted by the community as a full citizen of Treehollow.

The council has been oddly silent on the matter. I would have expected them to have concerns. Could it be possible that Tess has convinced them otherwise? She is, after all, the only one of them having the closest interactions with her. I would not be surprised if the others asked her to keep an eye on Tamberlane and she may just be silently observing her on their behalf, hoping to find some excuse to formulate a narrative that they can use as a legitimate reason to throw her out. Perhaps these are just the paranoid ramblings of an old coyote, but at this point, no one can say.

I tried discussing her diet with Belfry. I explained to her that she would need far more than just peas and oatmeal for a healthy diet. But, as is often the case with Belfry, it is difficult to have her attention for longer than a few seconds. The source of the interruption this time was her sister Briar. Apparently the issue of Tamberlane's adoption is still heating things up in the Baker household. Tess never really accepted her since day one, which has caused friction between her and Belfry, though the latter is thankfully standing her ground. While I would normally not get involved in their personal quarrels, this is however about Tamberlane, and I'm not going to let that battleaxe of a badger toss the girl back in the forest!

I cannot for the life of me fathom the reason for why she is so against Tamberlane. Is it because she looks different? Is it because she still believes Tamberlane will not survive? While I was admittedly of the same view initially, since then I've realized that Tamberlane's 'drawbacks' are normal features of her species, not deformities. She should be fine as long as she is cared for. Why Tess is unable to see that eludes me. Then again, she is on the council and seeing as how only closed-minded muppets qualify for those positions, it all makes sense.

Belfry took Tamberlane to Avery's to retrieve a new outfit for her, something that she told me would help change Tess's stance on Tamberlane. I had no idea what that meant but I wished her the best of luck. It would be easier to move a mountain than change that stubborn mule's mind! Since I couldn't study Tamberlane, I spent the remainder of the day tending to the library. It had been a while since it was tidied up, but the time was well spent putting everything in order and attending to the occasional visitor.

It wasn't until Belfry returned with Tamberlane later in the evening that I saw her new 'outfit', if it could even be called that.

A badger costume? Seriously?!

The reason Belfry gave me for that costume only made me angrier than I already was! Did she seriously think that Tess's maternal instincts would activate just like that upon seeing a monster in a badger costume?! Not to mention seeing something wearing that standing next to an actual badger would look… macabre!

I didn't argue about this further with her, though. Trying to convince her otherwise was like slamming one's head against a wall. In fact, that would be a more pleasant experience!

Additionally, as a favor to Avery, she asked me to take Anthony and Piper to the docks tomorrow morning to meet their father Jason who would be arriving on the Jumping Guppy, since both her and Avery would be busy working their respective booths for the Sovereign Festival tomorrow. For some reason creatures seem to think that just because I'm a librarian, I don't do anything but sit here and look at books all day! For goodness sake Belfry! I did have other things planned for the day after all!

Tomorrow, at the festival, I intend to release Tamberlane to roam around freely and observe her. With the large crowds that will be present there, foreigners included, it would be an excellent opportunity to see how she reacts to large gatherings and how she mingles with strangers, if she even does so at all. It might give me some insight into the social and communal aspects of her species.

I can't say I'm all too pleased to be doing errands, but if nothing else, at least it will be good to see Jason back, he's been gone for quite a while.

That does give me an idea though. The crew of the Jumping Guppy frequently travel to other places. They are some of the few around here who have seen places and creatures of other lands. There might be even just the slimmest chance that they may have seen Tamberlane's kind somewhere out there. Perhaps having been given this errand works to my advantage after all. Along with Piper and Anthony, I can take her with me as well, show her to them, and with luck, they might have some idea about what she is and where she comes from.