A Feather Falls at Dusk

Forming black feather filaments into suggestions of English letters.

When I started to see how it could be done, I doubted I could manipulate the delicate threads of a crow's feather to read as lettering. When I coated it with my trusty matte medium, an "s" formed itself with a pronounced curl (upper left). I kept at it, coating threads from another feather and adding them to the prop, little by little, pressing in with tweezers until all the letters were there, but not too literally.

I had the leaf title card for Akt 2: Day completed, so I thought about what the next chapter segue might ideally be made from. I realized that the Dusk chapter occurs in the cottage as evening falls. The Season at the cottage is Fall as well. In Halfland, Seasons and Time of the day are always the same, locked to specific places; Dawn (Spring) in the distance, Day (Summer) in the garden, Dusk (Autumn) at the cottage, and Dark (Winter) beyond it.

Thanks to reader Jill, I'm fixing to have a gliding cast shadow of Tarn the Crow Woman flying over the ground near the cottage as we pass the bug party spot during the day on our way to see Rana weaving on her porch. The Tarn character later arrives at the cottage after Dark, so a feather marked with the chapter's lettering drifting down to land on the porch might be a perfect foreshadowing of her impending arrival.