Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce owns both these characters, I don't.

Thi is a holiday gift for Maya, aka Rainstorm Amaya Arianrhod. The pairing of Sarralyn/Salmalin and Junim Crow was created by her. If you don't recognize these character names, Sarralyn is Daine's daughter, confirmed in TQ, and Junim is Aly's son, which Ms. Pierce confirmed on Sheroes. Any things that you may not recognize, like Sarralyn being in the Copper Isles or me mentioning Rikash's accident (Rikash is Sarralyn's brother, also confirmed in TQ) are snitched from Maya's fabulous fic Choices, which is on the Dancing Dove forum.

Read and enjoy!

Sarralyn loved to fly. Being above the rest of the world, surrounded by only other birds that knew her as a bird, not the slightly unstable-Gifted Wildmage was pure heaven.

She had come to the Copper Isles after the accident with Rikash. She had met Junim.

Things seemed to be getting better. Until she was flying alone over Rajmuat one morning, as a crow, when another oddly familiar crow joined her. The first thing that she noticed was the necklace.

It, too, was oddly familiar. The necklace was a mess of gems and glass and precious metal beads, that the god Kyprioth had given every crow on the Cooper Isles for Aly winning her wager with him.

It was very, very sparkly.

And, just like that, she knew who the other crow that had joined her was. And to her credit, she didn't tell him that she knew.

But Sarralyn was bad at keeping secrets. She knew that one day, it would probably slip out.

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Alianne Cooper-Crow had long ago made it her business to know things. What Fesgao was doing with the armies on Lombyn, the exact number of knives in the armory, where Vitorcine was off to the month and who exactly Dove had for a chess partner that afternoon.

The location of her triplets was an important thing too.

She knew that Ulasu was in Hamrkeng right now. She knew that Ochobai was sleeping around, and that she didn't approve. She also knew that Ochobai probably wouldn't listen to anything that she said on the topic.

Aly knew that she couldn't have any more children, that it was a byproduct of her giving birth to triplets. She didn't mind, really. By the time she cared, after looking after three screaming babies, she was too busy as a spymaster.

One thing that she would like to know, however, was where her only son went every morning. She had asked him once, and all that he had said was "Out, Ma," and then given her that wide grin that made her stop pestering him.

Aly vowed to find out.

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Junim didn't know why he flew with her in the mornings. He liked to fly, it was because he was half- crow by his father and although he was born human, he could still turn into a crow. And he did, to fly with her.

He knew he liked Sarralyn. He wondered if he liked her in that way.

He also knew not to tell his da about it, because whatever his one-crow father said, Junim was smart enough to know that mate feeding Sarralyn was not the best way to go.

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It did slip out. Sarralyn knew that it would. She just wished that it hadn't happened at a ball.

She had been wearing a lovely soft blue silk dress and Junim had on a dark blue dress tunic. They had matched quite nicely. They had been dancing, and Sarralyn had felt so free with the airy tunes floating around her. It had gone something like this:

Sarralyn: I know

Junim: What?

Sarralyn: That's it's you

Junim: That I've done what?

Sarralyn: You know. Been flying with me.

Junim: What? How?
Sarralyn: Necklace.

Junim: Oh, right.

Sarralyn: Thank you for doing it. I appreciate it.

Junim: Um, okay. You're welcome.

Then the dance ended, and Sarralyn was glad for that, because she was blushing strawberry red.

And then she met him on a balcony later on and all was well, because Junim gave her a slow, sweet kiss and asked her "Same time tomorrow?"

And Sarralyn agreed, and all was right for her then.

Happy Holidays, all!

Happy Hanukkah, to those that celebrate it, a of a few minutes ago it was sundown for me and the start of Hanukkah!