TDR: Life as a Traveller

The Cost of Curiosity Part 1, Chapter 3

I was her child, and she was my mom.
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A few months had passed since then, it was now what you could describe as late Spring. The once depressingly cold and short days grew a bit longer and warmer. And with spring came a change to our curriculum—free time. The gist of it was that we were given a bit of autonomy. Part of the deal at first, frustratingly, was that we had to stick together. Even more frustratingly, my brothers and sisters were able to speak like our mother while I still was a mute. I couldn't grasp how they learned to talk telepathically, nevertheless, they put such a godly ability to good use by making fun of me.
On a serious note, they did put it to good use by persuading her that we didn't need to stick together. However, it was under the condition that we never went beyond the river borders and to be only gone for a few hours at most. She further warned if any of us were caught breaking any of the two conditions, she wouldn't allow any of us to go out.

For me, it gave me an opportunity to be myself a bit without feeling judgy stares from my nosey and bratty siblings. I loved creating things, and while my lack of hands certainly made that difficult, it only made me aware of other ways I could achieve that goal. I decided on the same place as before since it was still the best place in the forest. My siblings also avoided this place due to our mother's warnings about the spirits. On the note of the spirits, they too came around eventually, taking great interest in the sculptures I was carving. You might believe that it would be dangerous, however, I never acknowledged their existence entirely. They were now no more than a passing audience, no longer a rabbid fan-club. Though, even in a passing audience, there were a few fans. As long as I didn't acknowledge them, they wouldn't be any danger to me.

One such fan was that shapeshifting one from before. Whenever I saw it, it made me wish that I had that ability, then at least I could become human again... however, wishes weren't reality. Anyway, since it was a regular of my artsy ventures, I did occasionally try to make it my muse through rather unusual means. Since I wasn't looking to acknowledge it, while still have it as a muse, I would focus on the background around it and attempt to determine the figure it took the shape of. Then came making the art piece: With the lack of hands, I first tried carved with my claws. When that didn't work (since of course it wouldn't), I moved on to using stones, twigs, the ground and even berries to draw pictures. As a side note, right around this time of year—Spring—berries bloomed all over, so they weren't that difficult to get a hold of.
As I progressed, I couldn't help but worry about the warnings, despite all the precautions I took. So when things didn't quite go as I expected, I decided to start over. A the very least, they wouldn't have anything bad to get attached over, hopefully.
In general, they certainly seemed casually entertained at least given how much my audience grew and changed over time.
My work wasn't anything too impressive—not that the spirits had any artistic eye in the first place—it was simply to keep me busy with the ever-increasingly slow days.
Eventually, the inevitable happened, my nosy siblings took notice of my ventures, and the spirits. They were more or less shocked and fearful at first. I half expected them to spill the beans, but eventually they were engrossed too with what was likely an unusual spectacle to their eyes. The real shocker that they weren't naïve about anything in the slightest, they knew well of the warnings, even more so than I did it seemed, and never paid the spirits any mind. Given how young, bratty and chatty they were... it was a surprise.

Months flew by, leaving it to be the end of summer. My siblings and I grew quite a bit in that time. When we got our names, each of us wasn't any larger than a chihuahua, now we were on average the size of a large beagle.
Kino, the one that was the smallest when we got our names, soon grew to match me, Anerie was the same. Kun, the biggest of us at that time, was a bit smaller than me now.
And lastly, Fen. She had grown the most, she had grown so much that her chin matched my head.