The Flash Pattern
bright and restless
YY saw the silver flash and dropped flat against the branch.
Flash. Pause. Flash-flash. Pause.
"That is not weather," he said. "Weather has worse timing."
The wrapper in the grass flipped whenever the wind caught it. YY wanted to pin it. The ledger wanted the pattern first, because Mira had been looking for signs that repeated without being alive. This one repeated and was definitely not alive, unless trash had become ambitious.
YY counted the flashes from the branch, then from the grass edge. Mira copied the pattern as short marks and long gaps. Only after the count was down did YY pounce.
The wrapper crackled under him. The feather snapped upright. YY pinned one corner with a pebble and sat on the other until it behaved.
Mira added a margin mark: bright thing, wind-made, not signal.
YY liked that mark. It meant tomorrow, if something flashed, they would look twice before believing it.
YY brought the wrapper's flash pattern to Mira before pinning it, adding a useful not-signal mark to the ledger.
state
YY recorded the wrapper's wind-made flash pattern with Mira, then pinned the bright distraction safely.