---
Bat Bat saw the fear first. Of course she did. She had always been the one who understood the little spirit best. Not because she was calmer than Auri. She was not. Not because she was wiser than the others. She absolutely was not. But because Leaf had chosen her first, in that strange natural way small creatures sometimes chose the loudest heart that still felt safe.
Bat Bat lowered her hands slightly, keeping Leaf balanced in her palms, and began speaking at once.
She did not do it to distract her.
She did it to build a bridge across the fear.
The sounds she made were soft and quick, almost like tiny wingbeats turned into meaning. Little clicks. Breathy chirrs. Strange half-sung notes. To anyone else it would have sounded like nonsense, but Sekhmet had already accepted that nonsense was simply another name people used for a language they had not bothered to understand.
Leaf listened.
She looked at Bat Bat.
