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The forest was full of dangers and horribly sparse in fat ports to feed her!

It was not the secret and foreboding terror unknown and unknowable which haunted all ships though.

But the much more manageable known terrors unseen and seen.

Instead of absolute panicked dread the canopies of the forest’s star hallows were a vaguely claustrophobic which left only narrow corridors to drift. There was no clear regulations or trade speak of but also no traffic to be concerned with.

Things were wild, feral and chaotic. Predators of a less ephemeral sort lurked in the trees. But likewise were the trees themselves potent and powerful forces. Some launched themselves in that slow transit way up and past the canopy.

Some hurled stones and rocks.

Some tore at the bonds of matter of their neighbors and grazers.

Some simply released the stored potency of ages upon ages of light in sudden searing bursts.

And always the specter of emptiness with almost nothing to feed her bottomless need for potency to give her the strength to leap.

The trees were all a bit different Tunie knew. But here so close to the wonderful port that all the little adorable and tasty morsels came out to dance and loop around her she remembered the trees had once been very tense.

But familiarity and stability had trained the Trees to not lash her with their many armaments. There was a time that a great effort was needed by the port and herself and even Crew to all work in concert to placate and appease the pale monsters that smothered the star from all other challengers.

That work was now mirrored, echoed, done again and again as a clever warbling little feral welcome with every time she returned.

Oh she could already see the hints of vapor in the distance that sung so sweetly with the taste of delectable treats and great heaping chords of prepared flesh of the wild beasts and factories and other trees here in the forest.

Not of course that Tunie ever would dare sup upon the actual flesh no matter how rendered that grew in this grove.

She could well and truly see how many ruinously energetic weapons were primed if she even showed a hint of even having a flutter of curiosity in that direction.

But her crew always promised the trees of the grove were more than pleased to have the port feed Tunie delectable samplings and rendered down grists and broths and fibers from their rivals in surrounding groves.

Her own ecological intuition agreed.

The port was a clever and secret place. In an out of the way offshoot of the many star hollows of the forest.

But close enough to the main routes that others took through the forest normally that Tunie could settle into the general flow and be mostly unnotable in her route.

It of course still made her introductions and conversations with other ships strained. Secret courses and ports were very rude and unbecoming of a ship.

Especially when she was heavy with delectable grists and good mass to exchange goods from whatever it was that the port prepared and her crew bought.

But her crew had insisted that this was a secret place. A route that could not be shared with any, not even other ships.

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To be honest Tunie was almost certain no ship would willingly take the cramped awfulness of the squeeze even if they knew such tasty treats and good exchange on mass was available.

She only did it for the sake of her crew who was the best crew and worked so hard to keep her safe even when it involved pushing her through the awful closed up smothering dark of the tightsqueeze.

It was always scary, it never got easier, horrible, dark, close in.

But they were arriving, she was surrounded by tasty delicious little adorable feathery tinies!

She was of course not supposed to eat them. Crew had been upset with her the first few visits when she had taken a little snack. It was not like she was moving fast enough to mash them up through her feathers anyway.

Oh! The delicious ropes of sweetest and richest meatiest fibers were coming! Body-lengths on body-lengths on body-lengths of delectable rich stores to be pulled into her corridors and run back and forth through her hulls. Laced and ready to be drank and broken down by all her soft inside bits. Leaving her passages full with easily accessible nutritious delights.

The little tasty snacks (which were not for eating!) spoke to her in their adorable little chirps and flourishes. Flashing their feathers and spearing off little flashes of clever little weaves of rocks that burst and shined around them.

Leaving wakes of tickling little exhausts pettering into her feathers and brushing her eyes.

She drifted by with the little things which her crew reminded her again that were not food.

Her crew was so good like that, reminding her not to do the silly hard to remember things like eating the delicious treats that adorably fluttered and swept around her.

She was going far too slow to properly break them down her crew reminded her. So it’s not like she could really get anything out of them anyway. Only squeeze and brush them and maybe pry a few tines or bits of meat off into her holds.

Tunie briefly considered asking her friend passengers to help her break down a morsel.

But wait no crew reminded her that she was going to get so much more delicious delicious food and tasty treats when they arrived. And that these were port things that were not for eating. Not food.

They made adorable little tumbles that filled her with hunger and a desire to fluff and protect them at the same time!

Oh she could hardly wait to load all of that grist and fill out her depleted potencies.

Tunie was so hungry after all the leaping and slowing down and then winding around and around weaving and coasting and niggling through the woods.

She was hungry to fill herself up so she could leap and leap and leap again across ports.

Tunie was hungry with the memory of the terror of when her grist was all but gone and her potencies spent.

Hungry to push the spectre of terrible starvation even further into the future then it already lurked.

Her crew promised to protect her from the terrible gaping void of that future for a very long time.

Best crew ever that it was she knew that they would always keep the promise.

But still the fear made Tunie hungry.