The Crow and The Dog

Mutt climbs down awkwardly after her. "Okay!"

 

She sets off for the trees again, hopping along, stopping now and then to point something out, a weird shiny bug or another bush-that-looks-like-a-thing. She never gets too far from Mutt, pausing on makeshift perches to let them catch up.

 

Mutt follows her happily, disagreeing about what the bushes look like every so often. Whenever they come across a good sized rock, they ask it if it's a dwarf.

 

The rocks continue to reply with stony silence, no matter how the two younglings pester them. Until one doesn't. It's a big boulder, pinkish-grey and flecked with shiny black bits, and Munin's already scrambled up on top of it, poking in the seams as they make their inquiries. Suddenly, the boulder gives a soft low rumble, and says, quite clearly, "No."

 

Mutt jumps back and then starts bouncing. "If you're not a dwarf, what are you?"

 

"What's it look like?" The rock grumbles, shifting a bit. Munin has to shift her weight to maintain her balance, and then she's scrambling to stay on top as the rock.... stands up. It's a person, nearly as broad as it is tall, seemingly made entirely out of stone, with rough-hewn features and glittery holes lined with pyrite for eyes. Corvie ends up perched on one sloping shoulder, leaning forward to peer at its face.
"You look like a rock." She answers, fairly unperturbed by her perch becoming a person.

 

"You could still be a dwarf. They look like rocks. Munin said so."

 

"They're also..." They reach up to try and pluck Munin from their shoulder, but she scoots over to the other one. The rock-person gives another rumbling sigh. "Small."

 

"Oh. Okay." They tilt their head and think, but they don't come up with anything. "I give up. What are you?"

 

"A rock." Up goes their other hand, and Munin hops onto their bald head with a giggle. They sigh again. "Would you get down? I don't like birds sitting on me."
"How come?" She asks, hopping onto their hand and clinging to their wrist.
"They... 'paint'."

 

"Munin wouldn't do that," Mutt says defensively.

 

The rock person lowers her to the ground, and she skips back to Mutt. "Don't know, don't care." They grumble, and turn to start walking away with slow, plodding steps. "By the way... Dwarfs aren't gonna answer you just because you asked."

 

Mutt frowns. "That doesn't sound right." They look over to Munin for confirmation.

 

She shrugs, feathers raising to emphasize the gesture.
"Suit yourself." The boulders says, lumbering off to find somewhere else to exist.

 

"How are we gonna find a dwarf now?" Mutt asks. "If they don't have to tell us if they're a dwarf?"

 

"I dunno... I guess we just gotta find one when it's not a rock?" She suggests, clacking her beak.

 

Mutt nods. "What do they do when they're not rocks?"

 

Munin blinks at them, startled. "I dunno! I dunno what kind of stuff is 'dwarf stuff', I never had to watch one before."

 

"Oh. Okay. So let's go find out!" They turn around and around to see if they can figure out where they came from, where to go next. It's not too clear, now that the boulder is gone.

 

Corvie turns with them, giggling, more for fun than to figure out the direction. So long as they don't go exactly the same way they came, they'll cover new ground anyways!