Flock Together

- Chapter1: Begin Together -

Her world began with a muffled sort of sneeze.

Warm darkness had cracked open moments before, cold air prickling uncomfortably over wet skin. She was alive, in that moment… But the air was cold, so she did what any warm blooded creature would do in that situation - and sneezed.

Her first memory of her mother was of a massive, dark shadow blotting out the dappled sun. Instincts prompted her to open her mouth, and swallow. She did not experience hunger, in those first few hours. The yolk in her belly still nourished her, for a time.

She began expecting the large bird, and the slimy offerings of food. It sank heavily into her stomach, hunger relenting with each eager gulp. She learned to voice her growing hunger, and her satisfaction in different notes. The other bird sat quietly, watching her with one keen, black eye.

Her body felt… awkward, somehow. It was the only body she knew (right?) yet it felt bloated, lopsided. A dozen unpleasant concepts slithered up into her brain, and the dissatisfaction grew. Her arms were too short, legs so thin and weak she could barely move them. The bird returned, her hunger quieted, and she fell quickly into unconsciousness.

The next time she properly awoke, her body felt… less sore. A bit less tender, but just as lopsided. She was able to drag her oversized head to look around, blinking against the way her vision swam. The enormous, disgustingly high-definition body of a baby bird leaned against her.

No… that was her body.

She groaned, hearing her voice come out as a warbling sort of croon. There was something twitching at the edge of her brain that said she should be able to conceptualize this into meaningful sounds. Words, even. This body felt heavy, dragging her down away from something that should have been.

Shit.

But the shadowy bird was always swift to return when she woke up, and the desire for food drowned out logical thoughts.

The tightly woven nest still pricked her delicate skin, sunlight feeling too hot, wind too cold, and the ever-present feeling of vulnerability sitting heavy in her chest.

This wasn't right…

But, it was the only existence she knew.

So she slept.

"Wake up."

She groaned, tucking her head a bit closer to her chest, wishing the world would just pass on by. A warm shadow passed over her.

"Wake up, before I eat you."

A jolt of fear shot through her tiny body, and she shot upright, flailing little stubs of arms (wings?) and kicking out with her feet.

She slumped onto her back, heart racing, muscles already tired from that small movement. The shape above her sharpened into the black bird, beak open in mocking, raspy laughter.

"Now that's better." It growled, finally stopping the harsh choking noise. It sidestepped around the edge of her nest, peering at her from different angles.

"You wake up when I come back." It finally demanded, nipping at her tiny stub of a wing. She pulled it away, tucking it closer to her and trying to sit upright. She glared at the bird with as much strength as she could muster, trying not to feel put-out when the bird just huffed another chuckle at her anger.

"Don't be so prickly, little squirt. You need to eat more, or your flesh will fall off your bones." The bird muttered something under her breath, beak clicking with irritation.

These words mean something. She noted with a blooming amazement.

As unpleasant and aggressive as they were, the bird was still Communicating with her. She opened her mouth and gave a pleased warble, the hunger growing stronger with every second. It gave her enough motivation to lift her head and look around.

Food? She tried to ask.

The sound came out more like a long whine fading into a teetering hiss. She quickly shut her mouth as the crow snickered at her again.

"You'll have to practice using that tongue of yours, Kuroko." The bird's eyes squinted shut in what could be called a smile, if one were being generous about giving birds facial emotions.

"Since you're awake, You'll eat something, yeah?"

She nodded meekly, the gnawing hunger writhing like it could carve open her gut. Black feathers rustled as the bird leapt away into the air, the sound of wings blending quickly into the quiet slide of leaves and wind.

A twig popped upright, from where the bird had been pinning it down.

She realized with a some amazement that the food she was being offered was changing, as was her skin. Black down spread swiftly across her back and sides, softening the ugly lumps of flesh. She swallowed something crunchy, and something interestingly sour.

"Always so hungry…" the bird murmured.

I can't help it. She tried to respond, but only trilled a stilted melody.

Something is wrong, her brain whispered.

It was difficult to tell when the large bird was present, or if it had left yet to retrieve some other weird food. Sometimes she wondered if it even flew, or just appeared somehow. No, that was ridiculous. Maybe flapping just wasn't as noisy as she thought it should be.

She'd be introduced to a variety of long or recently-dead things, and a whole host of leggy, crunchy bugs. (To be honest, she preferred the bugs to the meat, but beggars can't be choosers.)

At night, black feathers draped warmly over her body, smushing her comfortably into the nest.

The crow's voice spoke softly of old gods, alliances between giants, and the birth of a world. She was enraptured by the stories, listening closely as the bird described a rivalry between siblings and the disgust that beget the gods' division.

"Amaterasu brought up the sun, and Tsukuyomi pulled up the moon. Susanoo directed the storms and seas…"

She forgot most of it, moments later, but remembered the joy in listening.

"Kuroko, wake up…"

The new-spring leaves unfolded before her eye, time passing in an odd haze of existing-without-direction. She grew restless as the night wind became warmer, and the melody of forest birds shifted tune.

"Do you remember who I am? My name is Ko-"

She focused on the dappled leaves, watching them shift and dance and cast twisting shadows upon the branches around her. Itchy feathers had begun to develop, and her body had grown nearly large enough to fill up the nest. The crow's presence became a bit too hot at night, making her squirm when the thick feathers became uncomfortably warm.

She started beating her wings, flexing the quills apart and testing how they caught the wind. It was a marked improvement on the bald, ugly stubs she had been born with. Her body looked more like a spiky sootball than a bird, but it was a marked improvement compared to the lump of raw meat she had been born looking like. The crow watched her progress, light shining green off black feathers, glinting like pale flames.

How did she know what fire looked like?

As her muscles developed, it became easier to look out over the forest, watching other birds and small animals flit around. She felt a pang of longing, and looked forward to the day she, too, could fly. The freedom her bird-keeper must feel, when leaping away from the nest…

Her claws gripped the bark easily, wings pumping absentmindedly as she tried to strengthen her muscles further. She wasn't sure if it was a gust of wind, or if she really had just lost balance, but she definitely noticed when she started falling ass-over-teakettle down through the branches.

She squawked and scrabbled at the branches and leaves, before landing in a painful pile at the base of her tree.

She lay quietly, panting and getting her bearings for a long moment. The world loomed around her.

She pushed herself awkwardly upright, hunching down and shuffling backward until she was sort-of protected by a large root.

Not good.

Her mind flashed to a dozen ways a baby bird could be gobbled up by passing wildlife. She had heard those stories, right? There were all sorts of predatory things down on the ground... snakes, cats or dogs. Hell, there might be bird-eating spiders laying in wait.

She eyed the half-decayed leaves suspiciously, heartbeat skipping.

She nearly jumped out of her skin at the dark rush sliding toward her, but relaxed when it settled into the familiar feathered shape.

"A bit impatient, are we?"

She shifted awkwardly, tongue sitting heavy and clumsy in her mouth. The apology came out garbled. It had becomes slightly easier, lately, to keep thoughts straight in her head. To remember how she was supposed to feel about certain things.

The other bird clucked at her, hopping around before stepping closer to her and prodding her sides with that sharp beak.

When she didn't yip or flinch at the prodding, the bird stepped back, satisfied.

"Find some bugs or something." The older bird instructed, looking distracted. "Your squealing pulled me away from something important, so you're on your own for this one."

The elder bird must have sensed her swelling terror, and flicked her tail in irritation.

"Not abandoning YOU, idiot squirt. You need to learn to feed yourself sometime. " The bird huffed, taking again to the skies.

She swallowed, watching the bird alight on a nearby tree, turning to stare down at her. She obediently stood up, wobbling a bit as she tried scratching at the leaves and dirt for a bug. She hopped over an oddly shaped throwing knife, and a rusty plate of metal in a half-hearted chase after a centipede before deciding it was too much work.

Centipedes were bitter anyway.

She did eventually find several black beetles, almost caught a mouse, and apparently that satisfied her mother enough to come swooping in and drag the little rodent back by its neck.

They shared a bloody meal that night, and the red eyes on her back felt much more comforting than the shadows around her.

This isn't right. Her mind whispered.

Of course it wasn't. She was grounded. Birds were supposed to be airborne, right?

No, why did she know about birds?

She paused, tilting her head to look up at the moonlit sky.

Why did she know about knives, or metal, or how soot looked, to compare myself to? Why do I feel comfortable around that bird?

That was easier - they were both crows, right?

How do you know what a 'crow' is? Why would this crow care for you at all?

She swallowed, the night feeling a bit darker, uncertainty creeping in on her sleep-fuzzy brain.

Those were… very good questions.

When dawn began sending a pink haze into the dark sky, she woke to find the crow was missing from the branch she had last been spotted on. A warm breeze stirred some leaves, and hunger rumbled in her belly once again.

She ended up flipping leaves over, hopping around the underbrush and kicking over half-decomposed sticks and bark to find little grubs.

One large chunk of bark flipped up, and revealed a coiled up little snake. She stared at it for a moment, frozen where she stood with wings half-open for balance. Then it was moving, and she shrieked, flapping backward and tumbling into a graceless pile. Leaves rustled as the brown snake fled, and she relaxed, rolling upright again with an ungainly flop of wings and flailing legs.

"Sometimes I wonder why I even bothered to let you live."

She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden voice, chirping in distress and whirling to find the crow standing on a nearby rock. The older bird jumped down, walking toward her with an aggressively lowered head. Where on earth did she come from?

"After all this work, you jump out of the nest like an idiot, and freak out at the smallest thing."

She blinked at the grumbled words, meekly pecking at a small spider crawling near her feet. Her feathers prickled, and she spread her wings in a futile attempt to show she wasn't weak.

"You won't be able to fly."

The crow snapped her beak with no small amount of irritation.

"Not before a damn cat gets you, anyway. You're too young and stupid to use the shadows properly, but I'd rather not have wasted all this energy for nothing."

The ruffled chick froze, feeling her mother looming over her, regarding her with one dark eye.

"You're the only one out of your siblings that had a lick of Chakra, so don't make me regret not eating your egg as well."

Undeveloped blue eyes widened, and she twisted to look at her mother - she must have been her mother. What else could that comment mean?

Darkness swallowed her.

And Darkness ignited.

Kuroko screamed, thrashing out of the shadows and squirming in the woven nest she landed in.

Electric fire lanced through her veins, starbursts exploding behind her eyes. Liquid shadows poured between her feathers, black claws twitching spasmodically as a billion images and impressions raced through an unprepared brain.

Her mother (That was her mother! Kokoro!) sat quietly on the edge of her nest, watching the fledgling flop around, before growing still.

Kuroko laid prone, panting as words rushed back through synapses. "The Northern Roost was laid to waste by humans-" "You were born on the eve of-" "She was jealous of her son's Chakra, and turned our script against-" "Kuroko, can you understand me? Can you-" "Susanoo, angry at his sister's insistence, lashed out and drove Amaterasu to hide in a cave, bringing an all-consuming night." "Wake up, little one, I can't tell if you're breath-" "They stole from us, so we cursed their-"

Kuroko wheezed, curling up a bit tighter, letting the sounds and images and thoughts, oh gods she could think clearly! Wash over her in convoluted, overlapping trails.

"The Many-Eyed, corrupted, was pulled from their union, and split into the Great Tailed Demons. Kaguya was sealed-" "I know you can't understand me, but I'll be gone for a while, don't wor-" "The contract was meant to be a temporary agreement, but they twisted it to enslave-" "Kuroko, please eat. The Southern Roost is calling, I can't-"

"Are you dying, Kuroko?"

She sucked in a stuttered breath, squinting one eye open at the dark crow perched over her. Her mother's feathers were flat, red eyes dull in a miserable expectation that perfectly echoed her whispered words.

And the darkness of unconsciousness enveloped her at last.

When Kuroko awoke, she was alone.

Well, in the broadest sense of the term.

She could see birds swooping through the trees, and a pair of squirrels scampering from tree to tree, chattering at each other and weaving a graceful dance of travel.

For the first time, her mind was clear.

She could recall the legends her mother murmured to her in the haze of twilight, about the moon and sun, and the creation of demons. - and that word meant something now. She was a demon, not like the birds above her.

She marveled at the efficiency of her own mind, flitting from subject to subject, directed completely by her own willpower. She focused on the word, demons, and found countless mentions over the long weeks she had been alive.

"Humans feared us or worshiped us," her mother had said."It depends on the individual, whether they want to call us 'kami' or 'demons'. Every once in awhile, you'll find one who does both."

Kuroko stretched her wings, identifying the feathers that had been plucked and named while she watched in a sleepy haze.

"Coverts. Alula. Primaries." She whispered, stretching her wing this way and that, to make them shift. Her tongue sat fluid in her mouth, shaping the syllables with a hissing rasp of understanding. "Secondaries…"Kuroko twisted her head around, tilting her head and delighting at the strained position. It was new and novel just like the rest of her 'awakening'.

"Tertial…" She flicked her tail. "Retrices…"

"Remember all your feathers, so you can put yourself together again." Her mother had said.

Kuroko wiggled her tail, considering what that was supposed to mean.

She shrugged, having no idea whatsoever, and deciding that was alright.

The warm darkness still seemed to be pooled in her chest, twisting and pulling with every delighted movement she made.

"Chakra?" She wondered aloud, mentally prodding at it. The silky warmth seemed to ignore her touch.

"Chakra is your spirit's way of connecting with the world. It is your energy, your essence, your life. It's how we manifest, and how our kind can use the shadows."

Kuroko pondered that explanation for a moment, feeling the warmth shift around her body. She stretched, and the warmth stretched to her wingtips with her. Her mother had such nice things to share.

"I have to go again - I'll be back soon. The Southern Roost needs me…. I can't lose them again."

Kuroko paused, remembering her mother's words a few nights ago, before she vanished again within darkness. The roost was… "Our home, from the beginning of this world. The crows gather there to breed, and connect." ... Like a big nest, or a collection of a hundred smaller nests. She couldn't remember what it looked like. (Had she ever seen it?) but if something was wrong, then her mother was right to worry. That kind of thing was important.

Right?

Kuroko flexed her wings again, looking up at the mottled clouds beyond fresh summer leaves, wondering what she was supposed to do to pass the time. Existing in a haze and worked up until that point, but she wasn't eager to return to it.

She spent a few long hours waddling along the thick branch that held up her nest, stopping periodically to pump her wings and feel the wind stir her feathers. (And her Chakra. How interesting, the easy movement of that warmth to her will.)

Kuroko eventually fell asleep as the sun sank down toward the horizon. She remained blissfully unconscious when her mother came back, squishing against her in the tight nest, and fell asleep.

"Good morning, Kuroko. Are you hungry?"

She yawned, shaking her head with a flurry of bristling feathers. Kuroko blinked at her mom, and the unusually haphazard way her mother's feathers laid. Her memories of endless nights spent listening were still trickling in, but she always remembered the glossy black feathers had been neat and tidy.

She stood up, leaned over, and tugged one of her mother's back feathers (scapulars her mind whispered) into place.

"Yes." She finally decided with a little head-bob. "I am hungry."

Her mother froze.

"...Kuroko? Do you… know who I am?"

"Yes? You're Kokoro - my mother."

Something like a shiver ruffled up the bird's dark feathers, and she managed to hear the raspy words "-get you some food" before her mother swept away into the early morning fog.

She was more careful, from then on, trying to stretch her wings. She would waddle her way to different branches, flapping furiously in a weird glide to another branch, and then climbing her way back up again. She felt like a squirrel, using her beak and claws to grapple up the rough bark, but it worked well enough that her mother let it happen. (Once she found out it was happening.)

She probably looked ridiculous, flailing her wings to try and get enough lift that her beak wasn't so strained. Climbing a tree using your mouth and neck muscles is not fun. It was hard to spit when you didn't have lips.

"Alright, stop."

She slipped, whirling around to haul herself back up onto the branch she had nearly launched herself off of. Her mother hopped down from a higher branch, tilting her head and watching her daughter stand up again.

"Your feathers are developed enough. If you're still too weak to fly, pull on your Chakra more. Stop demanding so much from a half-made form."

Kuroko eyed her mother as the bird flapped her wings in demonstration, but didn't really know what difference she should be looking at.

"...how?"

Her mother hissed something softly, spreading her wings and laying one of them over the fledgling. Kuroko shivered, warm darkness dripping through her feathers and curling like curious little fronds against her skin. Something about it was welcoming, luxuriating. The warmth in her chest seemed to rise up to her skin to greet it. It reached out to the living shadows, and Kuroko puffed her feathers out a bit and closed her eyes to feel it.

The first prod at her own Chakra did still swirled absently through her body, pushing this way and that without reason.

Several minutes passed, and her mother's wing was starting to get heavier as the older bird lost interest in keeping her comfortable for the demonstration. Kuroko grumbled, trying all sorts of mental twists to try to get that liquid warmth to move in some magic way that could make her fly.

Finally, just as her mother's tensing muscles belied her desire to pull her wing away, she felt it stir.

It wasn't fantastic or colorful. No bright swirls or mystical wind brushing through her feathers. Just… a pleasant feeling of something flowing through her chest, solidifying - echoing back a sense of sturdiness and strength.

"I think I got it." She mumbled, and felt her mother rumble softly in approval as she continued to concentrate on moving it around.

She could shift it up to her neck, and enjoyed (read: did not enjoy) the sudden sharpening of the taste of bark still lingering on her tongue. A brief brush to her eyes, and the world sharpened and magnified in a way that made her a bit sick. Kuroko quickly dropped that enhancement. She could move it to her wings and chest muscles, and wondered if she really would be stronger. Couldn't really move it to her legs, though. Her circulation there was awful, so the lack of chakra in that area wasn't much of a surprise.

Kuroko shifted absently, digging her claws into the bark. She'd never have the killer grip of a falcon, unfortunately. No death-from-above for her. Maybe a hawk would be something to emulate… diving breakneck at the ground, only to swoop up and punch something to death from sheer speed.

Though, with her luck, she might not pull up in time. Better to focus on the present - just flying, for now.

With that in mind, she took a deep breath, spread her wings, and jumped.

The warmth pooled in her chest as her wings pumped, feathers catching the air and pulling strangely on the curves of her (bonestendonsmuscles) wings. The expected descent did not come, and she overshot the branch she normally would have aimed for.

Joy bloomed in her chest, and she flapped hard, tail flailing in awkward fans to try and direct her largely horizontal flight. She twisted her head, looking back at her mother to see if the old bird could actually show pride.

Oh wait, she needed her head to steer.

Muscles pulled sharply to follow her neck's movement, and her flight pattern was abruptly thrown off. It sent her flailing through the air and landing in a tangle of thin branches.

The leaves supported her for a brief moment, wings outspread to distribute her weight across the fragile hammock.

And then it gave way, and she barely managed to flap her way onto a low branch, instead of landing on the ground again.

She made it!

Well, completely off-course and probably goofy as hell, but it was still flight!

Kuroko turned around, hopping in place with delight as her mother casually (and gracefully, the show-off) swooped between branches to land beside her.

There was definitely pride in that squint.

"Get back to the nest and practice." She rasped, but leaned forward and prodded a feather back into place, adjusting a few other feathers on Kuroko's wing in an impromptu preening assist.

"Once you can actually fly, I'll try to teach you to use the shadows."

The curiosity about her abrupt entrance into awareness still sat in the back of her mind, of course. Just… waaay in the back, behind the whole 'Holy shit I can fly' and 'Holy shit I can leave the nest' and 'Holy shit the forest is fucking huge.'

You might say she had a… Fowl mouth.

Kuroko snickered at her own pun, gliding in yet another attempt to learn how to use her tail as a proper rudder. It had all sorts of fluid dynamics and cross-currents to be aware of, and the slightest change in her body posture could throw her off balance. One needed a lot of concentration, to fly.

Her mother had left her mostly to her own devices after that initial Chakra-powered flight, letting her hunt her own mice and return to the nest without interference. It was a lot more fun now, than it had been when she was a squishy lump of pre-plucked bird meat.

There were always other small creatures in the forest around her, but never something she felt threatened by. A squirrel here, a rabbit there, maybe a few songbirds that peeped angrily at her when she crashed into a group of them. They didn't seem to be able to talk to introduce themselves, so she'd been calling them 'Borbs' in her head. Bird-orbs, because they were so round when sitting. Fluffy fat little borbs.

Too bad they couldn't talk properly - it'd probably be adorable. That was the difference between demons and normal birds. She wasn't sure what exactly it was, but the difference was there.

Something grabbed her attention, and Kuroko pulled up short, peering down to watch a small deer bolt through the sparse underbrush. Several wolves were close on its heels, long strides easily eating up distance between them.

Morbidly curious, Kuroko followed in the trees, jump-flying from branch to branch to follow the action. She missed the killing blow, but heard the cut-off wail of a dying animal, and the loud scuffle as they dragged it down. She watched them tear into the poor dead deer, rather desensitized to the whole violence thing after picking apart a live mouse for her own meal.

Kuroko startled, settling down again as her mother folded her wings to watch the group, suddenly beside her. She absolutely looked forward to the day she could use shadows like that.

"Good kill!" the older bird cawed out.

A few of the wolves looked up at the two of them, body language quickly shifting between alert and amused.

"Kokoro, fancy seeing you here. Finally give up on that ratty old guy?"

Oh? Did they know each other?

Her mother wheezed a laugh, flying down to land next to the wolf. And holy hell, that was a size difference. His head was the size of her entire body!

"Come down here and greet our friends, little squirt. Don't be rude."

Kuroko hesitated, but obediently followed her mother's example and landed on the leaves nearby. She stared uncomfortably at the young wolves that perked up to watch her walk awkwardly to her mother, already feeling vulnerable on the ground. Instincts were a hard thing to ignore, and these wolves had already demonstrated their ability to use those fangs.

"Akihito, this is Kuroko. Squirt, this is Akihito." She peered at the grizzled wolf, clacking her beak. "Play nice, both of you."

The big wolf huffed a small laugh, lying down and licking the lingering blood from his lips and fangs.

"I'm surprised you finally settled down. I thought we were going to see the last of our favorite crow demons eat the dust."

Kuroko fluffed up her feathers, only vaguely paying attention to the conversation. More interesting was how the forest looked from this angle. She'd gotten so used to flying above it and scooping her meals up into trees, she hadn't really looked around from this angle since she was a chick.

"It's hard finding someone willing to meet me halfway, you know." Her mother grumbled, flicking her tail in contempt. "Lazy bones wanted me to migrate to the mountains."

Akihito chuckled again, laying his ears back and grinning with his eyes, whiffing a soft "How dare they~" and grinning harder when her mother loudly agreed.

"Don't underestimate the other demon clans, Kuroko. They are all just as canny, just as motivated as we are. Trust their word, if not their intent. We cannot lie to each other."

Kuroko sat down, hunching her head to her body and listening absently as the two continued to gossip. She stayed still as a younger wolf trotted up to her, laying down and resting its head on a paw to watch her. It was almost considerate, to lower his body like that, instead of towering over her.

"Fresh outta the nest, huh?"

She shot the wolf a surprised look, and he explained.

"Kokoro would have told us about a chick earlier, if you weren't new." A wet nose pressed against her wing, mussing her feathers, hot breath whuffing over her.

"Plus, you smell like a baby."

Her feathers bristled up in objection, and the young wolf laughed, sitting upright and perking his ears as her mother's voice called over.

"What's going on?"

Kokoro was walking back toward her, eyeing the young wolf speculatively.

"She's just mad I called her a baby~" The wolf practically chirped, large paws throwing up leaves as he sprang up and loped away. Kuroko sat back down, feeling satisfied he had run from her lunging peck attempt. She wiggled her neck, pushing a crispy dead leaf off her shoulders from where the scamper had thrown it.

"Don't be rude." Her mother reminded, clearly not actually concerned and mostly amused by the event. "Eat up. The pack is graciously, " she stressed the word "sharing their hunt. Next time we'll have to help them scout for it, so thank Akihito for that." Under the sharp stare, Kuroko quickly stood up.

She gave a bobbing sort of bow to the grey wolf, still a bit uneasy to be pinned by those golden eyes.

"Thank you very much."

The wolf ducked his chin a bit in return, and rolled over to take a nap while the rest of his pack continued to routinely pace the perimeter.

Turns out, mice and bugs had NOTHING on fresh deer meat. It was so sweet, so juicy - it was hard not to gorge herself fat and stupid on the plentiful feast. She had to keep reminding herself that she had to fly home, and needed to be light enough for that. Her mother had no qualms about hopping up and letting loose on the animal's eyeball, but Kuroko... wasn't quite ready for that. It helped that her mother was greedy when it came to eyeballs, so she didn't have a reason to try it anyway.

With a fully belly, and a slowly growing ease around the larger carnivores, she plopped down to digest the huge meal. She didn't even protest as the young wolf slinked back to her side, laying down to watch her doze. Maybe he just didn't see birds up close, that often.

She didn't notice the keen stare Kokoro kept on the two of them.

Kuroko yawned, blinking her eyes open lazily. A warm breath tickled her back feathers, and a slow tilt of her head revealed the large, sandy-colored muzzle of the young wolf who had locked onto her. She reached out, nipping gently at the wiry whiskers in front of her, and hissing in amusement as the canine jumped and reared his head back.

"Rude." He huffed, laying his head down again and regarding her warily.

"What're you so interested in?"

She blinked at her own blurted question, but likewise unused to have someone that she felt comfortable talking casually to. Her mother always seemed to be watching her like she'd break at any moment, and trying to converse with her was like walking on sapling branches.

The wolf flicked his ear, smiling with his eyes.

"I just haven't seen a baby bird in a long time."

She peeked around at the other wolves, noting the dramatic change in location since she last had her eyes open. Maybe she had napped longer than she thought.

"Surely, it's not that interesting."

"More like… none of us thought Kokoro would survive the winter, so you're surprising."

Kuroko whipped her head around, but the wolf was already stretching his paws, mouth opening in a wide, tongue-curling yawn.

"Geeze, you're making ME sleepy. Stop thinking so hard." He pushed some leaves toward her, accepting the quick peck and waving his paw tauntingly at her, daring her to try again.

She lifted her beak, trying to give him the haughty, holier-than-thou down-the-beak stare that her mother was so good at. The wolf just sniggered at her, and Kuroko realized she had been distracted from the question she wanted to ask. She preened her beak through her feathers primly, trying to push her rumpled feathers back into place, thinking of how to phrase her question.

"What do you mean, Kokoro wouldn't-" "-Have you gotten to Chakra training yet?"

She clicked her beak shut, giving him a mild glare.

"Yes."

"Doing any shadowjumps lately?"

She squinted her glare.

"No… Should I have?"

The wolf flicked his ear, looking off and tracking one of his packmates through the underbrush.

"Kinda figured, what with the whole whole feathers thing. You're thinking about it too much. We're not really supposed to have a physical body, though we all kinda just assume that we do, and run with it. I guess... you're giving yourself away."

What on earth did that mean?

She asked that aloud.

He looked at her, puzzled, tail drooping a little like he wasn't quite sure how to answer that. Like it should be something innately obvious, and he wasn't sure if she was trying to trick him by feigning ignorance.

"You're thinking too hard about all the fiddly bits, so you're missing the big picture? Like, missing the forest for the trees? If you want to pass as a real bird, you're doing a great job, but… "

Kuroko squeezed her feathers closer, wondering if she should be offended or not. Was this a demon thing?

He twisted around, lifting a hind leg and scratching at a spot under his chin, clearly feeling awkward. His leg dropped abruptly when a long, solemn howl started up from a wolf at the edge of their little group.

A ripple passed through the pack, awareness focusing outward as a new howl echoed back, several voices answering. Her friend stood up, ears alert and nose up to sniff the wind.

"Sorry birdie, maybe another day. Ask your mom. She's way older than me."

Kuroko hopped to her feet, still feeling heavy from the earlier meal, but hauled ass up into the branches anyway. Fear prickled through her skin at the sudden change in behavior, and the strange connotations from his words had unsettled her a little.

Her mother joined her, murmuring to keep quiet and follow her lead.

Dark bodies whispered through the trees, faster than she could properly follow at first. They were tall, strangely proportioned things with flat faces and furless skin stretched strangely over their muscles. She couldn't help looking around wildly as humans bounded from branch to branch, settling down in the limbs. One of them sat on the same branch she and her mother perched on, but appeared to ignore them.

They all seemed a bit… wolfish. Mostly brown or black-haired, with sharp eyes and strong shoulders regardless of gender. Something about them felt… familiar, in a way. The humans who approached the pack on the ground were likewise sharp-eyed, and stood beside huge dogs. Well, huge to her. Even the largest dog was head and shoulders shorter than the average wolf.

The wolves had created a loose circle with their bodies, gold eyes finding every one of the humans perched above, ears swiveled to keep them in their range of senses even when they focused on the group below.

"Well met," One of the dogs rumbled, tail tucking down as it stepped forward.

Kuroko watched Akihito stand up, prowling stiff-legged through the pack and staring down the smaller canine. The humans seemed on-edge, and it made her feathers itch something fierce. Probably smart, seeing as one of their heads could fit inside Akahito's mouth. Head and arm, if she was being generous.

The dog slinked forward, offering a small lick under the wolf's chin, looking a bit silly with the size grey alpha seemed satisfied with that, briefly leaning his head atop the dog's, before stepping back and staring at the humans.

Kuroko noted how they all immediately averted their eyes, but did not otherwise back down. Akihito snorted.

"Same as always, then?"

"Yes. We'd like to offer Akane. She is fast, and agile. She should do well in your pack. Please treat her well."

A long-legged dog stepped forward, likewise avoiding eye contact with Akihito's golden stare, and laid down next to the first. Her deep auburn fur stood out rather brightly compared to the browns and greys of the wolf pack. Akahito regarded her for a moment, before turning slightly back toward his pack.

"Koharu."

The tan wolf that had lain with Kuroko trotted forward, ears perked in interest.

"You'll stay with them for one year, and then return. Please accommodate their wishes to the best of your abilities."

Koharu wagged his tail, slowing to a walk to stand at his leader's side.

"He is my sister's-son, strong, and proficient in our Chakra arts. Please treat him well."

Kuroko tilted her head, leaning against her mother for some extra warmth. It all seemed so ritualized. She gathered they had some sort of agreement, but.. Were they trading pack members or something?

"What's going on?" She whispered.

"Hush, I'll tell you later." Her mother nipped at her with a quiet click, an extra incentive to stay quiet. Neither of them missed how the human perched beside them stiffened at the quiet words.

Kuroko was sure he was staring at them out of the corner of his eyes, and the gaze prickled in her down.

Why did they feel so familiar, though?

Their cheeks were painted with bold red triangles, fingernails more claw-like than she remembered her mother describing humans.

"Chakra has a transformative effect. If you're around it enough, your own chakra will change to mimic. Certain humans are particularly susceptible, with two types of Chakra to draw from."

She twisted to look down at the proceedings with new interest, a bit disappointed to have already missed the parting words. Both groups were already backing away from each other, humans and dogs (plus her new friend) heading away, while the wolves sat back to stay by the deer.

That's why the humans felt familiar, though. They felt like wolves .

The humans in the trees started leaving the area, retreating as fast as they had come. Kuroko peered up at the human beside them, meeting their dark red eyes.

"Creepy." She heard him murmur, before bounding away to join his cohorts.

"Rude." She muttered back, taking a smug sort of satisfaction out of the way the human stumbled and twisted to look back at her.

She pretended not to see, tucking her beak down to smooth a feather.

When they all departed, the forest seemed a bit quieter. Kohaku had left, and without him, the pack seemed once more a group of strangers. The idea that she might never see him again felt… oddly sad. She didn't think she'd get so attached, so quickly.

"Those are Contractors."

She tilted her head, tuning into her mother's words.

"A human who made a deal with one of our kind, for the sake of power" Her mother shook out her wings and ruffled her tail, adding absently, "Different from Summoners. Instead of forcing the issue, they continue treaties." She had an odd look on her face. Something like distaste trying to hide behind indifference.

The old bird hopped off and swooped down to speak to the old alpha, completely ignoring the dog now getting thoroughly sniffed by other wolves.

Kuroko, however, couldn't tear her eyes off the new dog. Now that they were right next to each other, something about the dog felt… off, compared to the wolves.

Empty, in a weird sort of way.

She shifted on her branch, distracting herself with a quick preen of her breast feathers. Was there actually something wrong with the dog, or was she just paranoid?

Her mother flitted back up to the branch, and stared her down for a long moment.

"Back to the nest." she decided, taking flight again. Kuroko sighed, spreading her own wings.

Kuroko shot one last look at the dog, before clumsily following her mother's wide wings.

In the days following, Kuroko improved in leaps and bounds. Her wings could carry her longer, her Chakra moved swifter, and her many-chambered lungs no longer felt quite as strained when she pushed herself to keep up with her mother's swift wings.

She practiced pushing Chakra to her nose, her eyes, experimenting with different perceptions of the world.

Once, she had spotted her mother returning through the shadows, a little dark patch between branches suddenly melting to pitch black. Her long black beak and head pushed through it like a thin membrane breaking. Kokoro noticed her staring, and asked if she was so bored that she needed to practice her groundwork again.

Kuroko cheeped, launching herself into the air and practicing the aerial turns that she'd been instructed to master. Groundwork practice involved a lot of landing and jumping into the air from the forest floor. It was exhausting . And tended to give her bruises. There was a certain technique to landing softly on the ground without tipping over, and she hadn't quite figured it out.

Her mother started to introduce her to the Shadows. She hadn't actually figured out how to DO anything with them yet, but patient instruction led her to at least be able to sense their potential. Larger, darker ones were easier to tap into. Shallow, pale shadows made by weak light were much harder to even sense.

Her mother seemed more and more distracted, and would pop away at the drop of a leaf, leaving Kuroko to practice alone without warning.

She noticed her Borbs also felt empty, now that she knew what to look for, and spent a long moment staring at the little songbirds flitting about. They were still cute, though. Maybe she could train one to be her pet….

After a few hours of chasing around terrified little creatures through the canopy, she concluded that no, they did not want to be her pet.

Damn.

She became more familiar with the wolf pack, following their steady path through the forest, calling out when she spotted something of interest. Akihito taught her how to identify a mouse's footsteps through the way leaves rustled, seemingly unbothered that Kokoro kept leaving her daughter alone with the carnivores. One of the darker brown wolves figured out she preferred the fatty rib meat, and kept setting some aside for her, after their hunts.

She felt incredibly guilty that she had forgotten his name, and couldn't muster the courage to ask again.

Kuroko helped the wolf pack hunt a young boar, flying hard above the beast, and calling out locations. She felt her heart race, ducking between leaves and dodging branches in a three dimensional space. There was nothing but air, between her and the ground. Nothing but her own muscles sending her flying across the world, eyes bright and feathers strong. She felt present. She felt alive. These were her wings, her strength. This was her life .

During a hunt, the auburn dog Akane proved herself, long legs pushing her further, faster than the rest of the pack. She was able to bite the boar's hind leg, and jump away before it could gore her in return. The pause in running let the pack circle it, eventually bringing it down with a flurry of sharp fangs and terrifying snarls.

She still wasn't comfortable with the blank silence that Akane spoke with.

It was hard to describe - made of body language and animalistic gestures, with only the faintest hint of intelligence behind the movements. The other wolves seemed to understand just fine, and from the shift in the dog's figure, she had a sneaking suspicion that one of them had become familiar with her.

Kuroko landed easily on a thick branch above the kill and waited politely as the wolves feasted, knowing there'd be plenty left over for her.

Even a young boar was a large bounty.

She paused, noticing how the wolves had suddenly stilled, attention all angled toward one spot.

With small, dark paws, a brightly furred fox slinked out of the underbrush. Rust-colored eyes regarded the group, steady gait showing no fear.

They stepped to the side, eerily silent, but not aggressive. The slender fox seemed almost proud in bearing as it stepped between the wolves and began taking delicate bites of the boar's haunch.

The pack watched for several long minutes, only a few movements between them as heads turned and legs adjusted to be more comfortable.

Finally, the fox lifted her head, licking her lips. She ducked her chin toward Akihito, and murmured a soft "Thank you." before padding silently back into the brush.

Kuroko flitted down, landing on the boar's shoulder and peering out at the bushes. She already couldn't sense the fox. Creepy.

It took a few moments before the wolves started moving and speaking among each other again, eating at a more sedate pace. She took a few bites herself, before turning to the brown wolf whose name she forgot. Kuroko briefly considered asking the wolf his name, but once again decided not to, and instead asked what that whole weird ordeal was about.

He explained the pack was intruding on their territory. It's an understandable thing, during a hunt, though rude. Politely sharing the kill was a way to keep relations positive between their packs. Clans. Families. The wolf blinked, considering the terms for a moment, before repeating 'Packs' and nodded like it was the right word to use.

He swept his eyes across the brush around them, keeping his voice low.

"As soon as we step away, the foxes will claim their payment."

The prickle on her neck got stronger, and she realized with a start that the bushes really weren't THAT thick, and those were dozens of eyes staring out from the shadows, invisible to her other senses. Kuroko shivered, cautiously eating her fill before flying up into the trees once more.

True to the prediction, as soon as Akihito's pack left the scene, an uncomfortable amount of foxes slithered in, feasting on the remnants of the kill.

A silver fox stood at the edge, staring up.

No.

Staring at her

Kuroko shivered again, flapping away toward her nest.

She arrived back at home to find her mother sprawled across the nest's edge, looking worn-out and rather ruffled. The concerned question about the bird's health was flat-out ignored, so Kuroko asked instead about the wolves and the foxes, and why they seemed so wary of each other.

Kokoro considered the question, slowly pulling her wings back in, and preening her feathers back in place before answering.

"The pack looks to the moon. Foxes have a history with the sun. Tsukuyomi, Susanoo, and Amaterasu aren't really on good terms, and their devoted tend to be at-odds."

Kuroko remembered the legends her mother told her once, a long time ago.

"Tsukuyomi…."

"I'm surprised the pack hasn't raved about him, yet. He's the god of the moon, and the night. They'll probably drag you into one of their noisy ceremonies eventually." Kokoro shook her head, ruffling her feathers before flattening them back into place.

Is that why wolves like to howl? Kuroko wondered. Giving thanks to the moon god?

"Then, who do we worship?"

Kokoro gave her an amused glance.

"I don't worship any of the gods. Feel free to lay out offerings, though. I'm sure the squirrels will love it."

The crow immediately hopped out of the nest, flying slowly away in what was clearly an invitation to follow. She took the hint, keeping in her mother's shadow as they headed toward the shallow creek that slithered through the southern edge of their territory. Kuroko wondered if she was imagining the way her mother was keeping one leg more tightly tucked to her belly.

"Why don't we worship anyone?" Kuroko asked. "Is it really important?"

"Ask the wolves" her mom called out, without slowing down or looking back. "I'm sure they'd be happy to give you an earful. I try not to think about it."

Kuroko wondered if something had happened, to make her mother so callous toward the gods she described so beautifully in old stories. She had not forgotten the long tales told in her nest, stories spun about the three gods, and how they had created human and demonkind. The jealousy of Kaguya, and the Many-Eyes' downfall, corrupted for trusting the word of a human.

A dark storm brewing in her chest, Kuroko followed the older bird to the entrance of a cave, landing next to her on a boulder. The moss felt cool and springy under her feet, and she could feel cold air drifting out of the darkness within.

"Today." Kokoro began, now clearly favoring one of her legs, "You will begin learning how to Listen to the shadows."

Kuroko followed her mother to the edge of the cave, ignoring the way a few of her feathers flipped the wrong way from the little gusts of cold wind coming from inside. Her mother hopped to turn around, taking a slow breath.

"The first thing you should know is that the shadows themselves are just the absence of light. There's nothing special about them. The average bird could fly around a cave all night, but the best they'd get is a broken neck. You know this, yeah?"

Her mother shook her own head, feathers sticking up for a moment before slowly settling back down. Kuroko nodded.

"With that in mind, the shadows you see me travel through, or the the ones you'll learn to listen through - they're not real shadows ."

Kuroko nodded, though she wasn't actually sure what was being conveyed. Something metaphorical? Kokoro seemed to sense the bewilderment.

"It's more like-" Her mother paused, head tilted in consideration. "Like you're at the edge of a dark cave." She flicked her tail toward the cave they stood beside. "Down the tunnel, there's another room, and by traveling through the space you reach the other room."

"Okaaay…So caves are caves."

She reflexively ducked away from an anticipated peck, but only got an unamused stare from an unmoving crow.

"Once you step through the cave entrance, you can see the light of the other side, as the entrance you just stepped through is closed. Head toward the light, and you'll reach the other side. Or, listen at the entrance, and hear whoever's talking."

Kuroko dutifully remained quiet as her mother sat down, taking a moment to push a small stone out of the way, to nestle on the softer moss.

"So a shadow" she finally continued "Is a cave entrance, when you're focusing correctly."

Kuroko tilted her head.

"All of them. All the shadows."

Oh.

Oh damn.

She looked toward the forest, noticing for the first time the sheer number of shadows weaving between branches, under leaves, tucked up next to stems and roots and… anything the light touched, basically. The potential wasn't just the size and depth of the shadow, but the sheer number of places she could connect between.

"That's a lot." She whispered, and her mother nodded, still fidgeting in place and looking anxious about something. Either to get this lesson over with, or to be elsewhere in general.

"Too many to count. That's why you only travel to the shadows you've seen before. The ones you know exist, and you know what to expect coming out." The old crow flicked a bit of moss off the boulder. "It's a bit of a mess, coming through a shadow to a place that's no longer big enough for your body. They only go one way, after all. There's some risk, and half the time you're flying blind."

Kuroko eyed the darkened cave with a bit more wariness.

"Relax, squirt. No jumps for you yet. You've got a lot of sky to cover before you could even poke your beak into one. Today you'll just be listening in." She gestured with her head. "Hop on over."

Kuroko fluttered off the boulder, hopping closer to the chilly cave.

"Push your Chakra to your ears. Focus on the darkness. Imagine it links to the shadows around you, and listen specifically to those. Visualizing a tunnel might help."

The first part was easy enough. The world's audio sharpened, magnifying. She could hear the buzz of a dragonfly nearby, and the slide of blades of grass whispering as a snake slithered through. There was a woodpecker of some sort, far in the distance.

Focusing on the darkness, though…

She tried imagining some sort of spiritual experience, expecting to feel some sort of stretching, connecting feeling.

Kuroko opened her eyes, not sure when she had closed them.

The cave still looked like a cave.

Also, there seemed to be at least three different moles snuffing around down there, and a rather large colony of some sort of insect, munching and squirming and falling over each other with little clicks. Chakra-enhanced hearing was no joke.

She heard her mother sigh behind her. "Keep practicing. I'll see you tonight." and the whisper of wings, followed by a silence she knew was the sudden absence of a bird behind her.

Kuroko swallowed, closing her eyes again and trying to focus.

The next time she opened them, it was due to the ravenous hunger growling in her stomach. Right, she hadn't eaten since the boar.

Shutting off her audio enhancement, Kuroko blinked at the sudden muffled quiet of the world around her. It was so…. Dull. Faded. She tried not to give into the urge to push her senses up again, and focused on finding enough bugs and seeds and little critters to tide her over.

After a quick meal, she returned to the cave, and plopped her ass down in front of it.

"Focus on the darkness, It links to other shadows." She repeated, wiggling side to side to get comfortable, and glaring at a shiny rock inside.

"Focus."

She closed her eyes, and let her ears wake up once more.

She didn't know how exactly much time had passed. Enough that the warm sunlight had become cold, and long shadows stretched across the ground. Between the faint snuffle-shuffle of moles and the click of still-unidentified insects, there was…. Something.

Encouraged, she tried focusing on it, straining her ears to pick up whatever that sound was. It whispered in and out of her range, almost-syllables, echoing and layering in ways she couldn't quite identify. Kuroko felt her heart pick up, as the 'voices' got louder, a little clearer. It felt like she was trying to eavesdrop on someone on the other side of a very long tunnel. The sounds were there, but almost unintelligible after resonating at such a distance.

"Can you hear me?"

Her mother's voice came from right in front of her, and Kuroko snapped her eyes open, rearing back with the expectation of a crow in her face.

There was only the cave. No, it wasn't just the cave. Like a black curtain had been draped over it, the shadows seemed deeper somehow, darker than they ought to be.

She looked around hesitantly, noting the shadowy landscape around her, and how the crickets that had begun their evening symphony.

"Should I head home soon?" she asked the darkness.

And the darkness answered.

"Not yet.. Listen as hard as you can - for my voice, and others, if you can."

Curious, she closed her eyes and listened harder, trying to pick out the raspy tones so familiar in her mother's tongue.

"-next sunrise we-...-rthern roost...borders cross-... -eryone, return for assis-..."

They sounded scared, She noted, straining a bit to listen more closely. More voices chimed in, words overlapping and becoming hard to pick apart.

"The Southern Roost has been compromised." came her mother's muttered voice, suddenly behind her. Kuroko pointedly did not startle, a bit more used to the bird's habit of suddenly appearing wherever she damn well pleased.

"We noticed humans pushing into the Southern territory before you were born, but their infighting has spilled into the Roost itself. You'll fly to the Foxes - they'll finish the introductory training, but I needed to know I could contact you, in case of emergencies."

Kuroko let her grasp on the shadowy whispers drop away, and the Cave's unnatural black faded.

She regarded the older bird quietly, not sure if she should protest or not. Her bones felt tired, chest hollowed out in hunger again. Her Chakra was getting low.

"If it's compromised, then you'll be-"

"In danger, yes." Kokoro flicked her tail dismissively. "Thousands make their nests at the southern site. A few humans, even Summoners, will have nothing on us, so long as our allies come to bear. I'll retrieve you when it's safe."

Kuroko tried to pretend to be casual, okay with it, but fear started to well up despite her best intentions. The idea of being completely alone loomed ahead of her. She wouldn't even have a familiar face to keep as reference.

"Fly West, Kuroko. You'll find a human road. Follow that north, and keep an eye out for a river. The Foxes should be at the tallest pine tree on its bank, after you've passed a tall human structure"

Kuroko pulled her head down, hunching a little on the branch. She remembered the creepy swarm of foxes, and the silver one staring her down. Their territory bordered Akahito's, but it sounded like their main nest - er, home - was far beyond the only border she had touched upon.

"You can't just take me there?"

A flash of irritation in blood colored eyes.

"You need to learn to navigate beyond our little circle of forest. If you get lost, call out to me through the shadows. I'll hear you."

Her mother rumbled softly, carefully pulling a small fluff of loose down off of the side of Kuroko's neck.

"West, then north along the road. Tall pine on the river. Got it?"

Kuroko nodded, repeating it back to her.

"Good. Fly well, little squirt. Don't worry about me."

She watched as her mother stepped back, one foot clenched strangely, spreading her wings in a rare display of showmanship. Darkness spread out from between the feathers, and she flapped up into the air, wings growing and feathers multiplying with shadowy tendrils, figure expanding into something huge and feathered and overwhelmingly dark. The world seemed a few shades dimmer, but the swelling Chakra in her heart reached out happily.

A monstrous approximation of a crow spread her wings between the trees. Three rows of red eyes glowed from the shadowy head, and her mother's voice croaked-

"I'll be fine."

Before the wings snapped inward, vanishing into what could have been mistaken for a curl of black smoke, tucked into the curl of a falling leaf.

Kuroko stared at the particle darkness, watching it writhe for a moment before disappearing. Reviewing her mother's explanation about shadows, she concluded the crow was being a show-off.

She glanced at the cave, and stood up. Something in her gut still worried that her mother was trying to bluff - or convince herself that things would be fine. It was too late to do anything about it now, and worrying couldn't do much at this point.

Right, then.

She spread her wings, glancing at the setting sun to find her bearings, and launched into the sky.

Food first.

Then, an Adventure.

After catching a small, harmless little snake and tearing it to tasty ribbons, Kuroko didn't get much further than the 'First a meal' plan.

The sun had already begun to set in earnest, and her eyes - no matter how much chakra she poured into them - were not built for the night. It was too overcast to fly by moonlight, and she was already anxious from the idea of being on her own. The world just seemed so much bigger than she wanted to really think hard about.

Also, owls were nocturnal assholes.

As night fell, Kuroko found herself in the nest she was born in, hunkering down in the familiar curve of woven branches. She guiltily tucked her head down, resolving herself to setting out early in the morning to make up for time lost.

She couldn't help but try to tune into the shadows, listening to the murmurs of familiar croaking voices, all calling out to each other in the night.

Sometimes she thought she could hear Kokoro's decisive call.

Before the sun had even reached noon, her wings were already starting to get tired. Even her neck felt like it was going to cramp into knots.

Sue her, she'd never just straight-up marathoned before. Did her mother expect her to just fly straight there, or was taking a break okay? How long was that, anyway… 4 hours? 5? She was supporting her entire body weight on just her wings, and balancing in the turbulent air on top of that.

Screw it.

Kuroko landed with a thumph in a pile of thick river grass, laying in blissful relief for a few glorious minutes. Her chest and shoulders throbbed in time with her heart, wings sprawled across the flexible stalks. Moving after that felt almost sinful, but she managed to drag her overworked body to the edge, dipping her beak in for several long gulps.

Yeah, that was good.

She absently pecked up a spider as it crawled through the grass beside her, crunching it with the tip of her beak before tossing it back in a little gulp. She kept an eye out for any frogs. Those were tasty.

Something moved out of the corner of her eye, and she tilted her head hopefully. She almost missed it, until a slight movement betrayed a forked tongue. A thick brown snake was sitting still, neck coiled up in preparation to strike. Bright yellow eyes stared her down, deep pits on its nose ringing several alarm bells.

Nope.

Nopenopenopenopenoepnope nooope!

She burst upward in a flurry of feathers, ignoring her muscles screaming pain in favor of not dying, thank you very much. She looked back, once she was safely in the skies again, but the snake had already vanished into the long grass.

Right.

Crows aren't exactly apex predators.

She took a deep breath, pushing through the ache and trying her best to ride currents for a while. She trudged on westward despite turbulent winds, wondering exactly how long she was expected to fly.

Hours later, that question had grown from a weary comment to an incredulous repetition, as each beat of her wings brought her lower and lower to the treetops.

This was insane.

She landed clumsily, letting her wings hang uselessly on the branch as she sucked in gasping breaths. Apparently her stamina sucked. A curling growl in her stomach reminded her that she hadn't exactly eaten much, aside from breakfast and a random spider. Her body was not used to going without.

Using Chakra to enhance her ears only made the hunger worse, but it allowed her to pinpoint the shrill peeping of some baby birds in a neighboring tree.

…. No, she wouldn't….They were babies… and birds. Wasn't that cannibalism? Should she even have morals about eating another bird? She'd never done it before - surely, her mother had the opportunity.

A few moments later, she was perched on the edge of their nest, looking down at the wide red mouths and eager little peeps, wondering if she had ever looked that lumpy and useless. (Yes, yes she had.) Thank goodness there was no swelling of maternal instinct. They were just birds. Noisy, limp baby birds.

She clacked her beak, not sure where to start. Mice always seemed like straightforward prey. They ran, you caught them. And then ate them. These little guys…

They continued to peep, reaching up toward her. They trusted her.

Damn.

Quite suddenly, her vision snapped sideways, and pain bloomed in her neck and the back of her head. Her ears were filled with the furious scream of an angry songbird parent. Her stomach growled, and the sparrow wheeled around for another run at her head.

Screw it.

She grabbed one of the babies in her claws, swooping away and dodging a very angry second songbird parent in its murder-dive. She pumped Chakra into her chest, sprinting through the air with her squishy prize. The sparrows eventually lost the determination to hunt her down, and she was able to land to eat it.

She couldn't tell if it was still breathing, or if it was her own pounding heart warping her sight, but she was quick to snap its neck, just in case.

For all that effort and angst, the flavor was disappointing.

In the middle of rubbing bits of gore off her beak, Kuroko paused to grip her branch a bit harder as the forest seemed to rumble. A plume of dust rose above the tree line, buffeted by an unusual sweep of wind.

Since when did wind blow straight upward ?

Kuroko waited for a few long minutes, the active ache in her wings fading to a persistent tiredness. Good enough.

She flapped up into the sky again, heading toward the plume with no small amount of curiosity. She blinked open Chakra-enhanced eyes, scanning the leaves as she flew over the site. The enhancement was as uncomfortable as always, sharpening the world in a way that seemed to stretch her mind, everything seeming too intense, all at once. A flash of silver caught her eye.

Her wings almost missed a beat in surprise as a column of fire raced through the trees, swirling bright and fierce across the trunks. They were moving too fast for her to follow, but she caught the moments when they paused. Someone screamed, and she turned slightly to see a human collapsing to the ground, blood spurting in an arch as a long sword pulled out of them.

Someone leaped at the swordsman, but fell to the ground after their head jerked sideways with a gleam of dark steel. Somewhere in her brain, she cataloged the terrifying speed they were moving at. Somewhere else, she wondered why she had no trouble following them despite that.

Several spikes of rock shot up, and one unlucky person didn't get out of the way fast enough.

Fire consumed the area.

Kuroko felt herself buffeted upwards from the rising heat, and flared her tail to keep balance, closing her eyes against the bright flames. "Dual-core Humans may not be the majority, but they make up for their small numbers by sheer power and bullheadedness. They take the demon half of their heritage and use it to harness powers meant for our kind. Creative, but power-hungry and self-destructive."

When she opened them again, the fighting had stopped. Only the green-clad people remained, walking around. She couldn't see the detail on their outfits from this distance, but she definitely noticed when one of them looked up at her.

She quickly averted her gaze, dropping the enhancement and carefully keeping her wings at a steady pattern.

I'm just a bird, flying around. Nothing suspicious here, ignore the perfectly normal crow, la de da~

Her thoughts were strained, forced lightheartedness belying the jolt of adrenaline racing through her veins. She knew that if they decided to hunt her down, she'd be officially out of luck.

A few minutes later, she still hadn't been struck down, and allowed herself to relax a hair.

Up ahead, the forest parted to reveal a wide dirt road.

East to road, then north to follow it. Thank goodness.

She angled her tail, gently curving to begin following the dusty tan slice through otherwise endless green forests and shining rivers. (and the occasional battle, apparently) There was a faint updraft from the heated earth, and she thankfully used it to glide between wingbeats.

When the sun was just starting to set, and there was no river - or unusual pine - visible from the road just yet. Or maybe she missed it, and was screwed. Who knew?

So many possible bad endings with just… flying around with vague instructions to a final destination she'd never visited before.

A generous berry bush, a small nest of voles, and several grasshoppers later, Kuroko tucked her head under one wing and hunkered up next to the trunk of a tree with particularly thick foliage.

Before she fell asleep, she had a sudden, certain realization.

My body is going to hate me in the morning.

She woke in the morning with a low groan, resigned to the fact her prediction had been 100% correct.

Kuroko lingered to eat roadside bugs a bit longer than strictly necessary, opening and stretching her wings until she was sure the ache really wasn't getting any better. A familiar cawing drew her attention, and she was in the air in a heartbeat.

Her heart lifted at the sight of wide black wings, and she hurried to head off the familiar bird.

"Have you heard anything about the Southern Roost? Or Kokoro? She's my mother, I-" The bird wheeled away, cawing reproachfully at her.

Kuroko opened her beak, but the bird was already flying down into the forest again.

Oh.

"Just a normal crow…" she murmured, trying to ignore the way her heart sank, a bitter taste on her tongue. She didn't realize how much it had been weighing on her, until she brought it up again. The way Kokoro had been favoring her leg - She had been injured, hadn't she?

How long had she been traveling to the roost, before that day?

Since before I was born?

A small part of her wondered why she cared so much. She'd only been alive for what, Four months? Maybe? How long did it take crows to learn to fly, anyway? Four months was nothing. Kuroko exhaled, focusing her eyes forward and keeping pace alongside the long road. It'd be pointless to insert herself into danger. Living day-by-day had kept her alive and well. She was just a bird…. If her mother wanted her help, she just had to ask.

The ache in her heart said otherwise.

A demon, Kuroko thought. With shadow powers. That's something, right? She could help… somehow.

At long last, she spotted a pine tree sticking up out of the regular variation of trees, and the glint of a river close by. She wished she could be more happy for making the journey, but her worries and aching muscles weighed down her mood.

The branches were uncomfortably prickly to land on, and hard to get into without getting poked to hell by blue-green needles. Still, she managed, settling down to wait for a fox to arrive and bring her to the next stage of training.

And waited.

And waited.

She flew off for a meal, and circled the tree before returning to her perch, beginning to feel a prickle of unease. Was she too late? Was she too slow? Was she supposed to have the stamina to just fly straight here, and the foxes got bored of waiting and abandoned her?

Kuroko fluttered down to a fallen branch, looking around from ground-level. A twist of unease had been growing for a while, along with a low-simmering resentment that she kept being left out of the loop. Her mother always seemed fine explaining things to her, but there always seemed to be a half-second of surprise, like the crow expected her to already know these things.

She settled down, deciding to wait a bit longer before freaking out in earnest.

A faint crackle caught her attention.

She turned her head, perking up at the sight of a fox's broadly furred face staring at her from the underbrush. She checked, and could sense the 'presense' of it. Thank goodness.

"I'm here to learn from the Foxes." She called out, eager to get introductions over with. Her mother hadn't really told her any sort of etiquette things, so she wasn't quite sure why she wasn't getting an answer. Was she supposed to introduce herself first?

"My name's Kuroko?"

The fox prowled closer, shoulders moving smoothly under its thick coat. Kuroko shifted uneasily, the copper eyes focused with an unexpected intensity.

"My mother sent me - Kokoro - I…"

A presence behind her.

!

She sucked in a breath, launching herself into the air and flapping hard to get up into a nearby tree with a distressed squawk.

She whipped around, heart racing, mind whirring with the idea that this was a trap - that she was going to be stranded here, or hunted down.

The second fox chuffed a laugh at her, sitting primly while the young crow bristled angrily and hissed .

"Aren't you going to introduce yourself first, little one?"

Kuroko swallowed her hiss, watching the first fox lick a black paw.

"My name's … Kuroko." She had already introduced herself, was he being dense on purpose?

"Kuroko, huh? It suits you. I'm Shun."

She dropped down a branch, hopping a bit closer to the fox, but still wary about actually landing on the leaflitter. Shun seemed to notice, and flicked an ear in clear amusement.

"Paranoid little bugger, aren't you? Slow, too. Kokoro contacted us days ago." Well, that answered the 'Fly straight there or not' question.

The fox stood up, curling her tail and trotting away, the silent fox close on her heels.

"Come on, then. We'll get you situated, and figure out a schedule so I don't have to wake up so goddamn early all the time."

Kuroko blinked at the sudden swearing, but figured her own mind was probably filthier.

Still, there was a sweeping feeling of relief, that she wasn't actually abandoned.

Or maybe she was just relieved to have someone order her around again.

Neither dependency boded well for her.

Apparently, foxes in general were not pleased to wake up before sunset.

Several slinked out of a large burrow, squinting at the sky and retreating to slightly-darker patches of underbrush as the rest of them came out.

Shun slipped out from the burrow, two more foxes on his tail, and addressed the small gathering.

What was a gathering of foxes called, anyway? Crows were a 'murder'... wolves were a 'pack'. An Intrusion of cockroaches…

She decided to call them a 'pack', just to be simple. That's what Koharu had called them, it was probably fine.

She kinda missed him.

"This is Kuroko, daughter of Kokoro. She'll be staying with us until she learns to shift her form."

Oh? That sounded promising.

One of the foxes flattened their ears, speaking up with a note of incredulity.

"Why doesn't she just go to a Roost?"

"Because the Southern Roost is being attacked" Shun replied smoothly, not even batting an eye. "Kuroko needs to learn the shadows before returning."

"It's not like here is any safer." another murmured, but ducked their head away when Shun turned to them.

"It is what Kokoro has asked of us, and so we will proceed. Of course, since the lady sleeps at night, it'll be up to you to wake up early."

What… What was the weird emphasis for?

Kuroko lowered her head as the foxes began muttering among themselves, clear expressions of resentment flickering across their sharp faces. The one who had spoken up in the beginning, especially, looked outraged.

She had a bad feeling about this.

Shun dismissed them, and ignored the groaning and huffing that the foxes didn't try to hide as they returned to their burrow. He turned to Kuroko, stepping lightly around fallen leaves.

"Since there's still plenty of daylight, are you well enough to begin, or should we stop to get something to eat, first?"

The fox perked up his ears and smiled in a canine sort of way.

Something about it… seemed fake.

She couldn't tell how exactly, since every movement of the sleek fox practically glowed with friendly helpfulness. But… something about her… voice, or the quickness of his support, didn't sit quite right.

"N-no, I'm fine. We can start whenever you're ready."

Shun nodded his head, still smiling that slightly-off smile, and turned to pad down a well-walked little grass tunnel through the underbrush.

Kuroko took a few hops after her, before taking flight and just following the fox from above. Copper eyes flashed up at her, and Shun broke into a quick trot, matching the speed of her slow flight through unfamiliar branches.

Her stomach grumbled at her, but she didn't mention it.

They ended up at the edge of the river, in a shallow area that acted more like a quickly-cycled wetlands. Patches of long grass were interspersed with tall reeds, and wiry trees growing despite the waterlogged soil.

Shun hopped between the grassy little islands, before sitting down by a particularly calm patch of water.

"Your mother wants you to learn how to travel by shadow. Apparently, knowing how to shift your form around a bit helps with that, and there's no better shifter than a fox."

She wished she knew fox body language a bit better. That tail flick probably meant something, but Shun's face and voice gave nothing away but pleasant conversation.

"So we'll start with the basics." He tilted his head toward the slowly-moving water. "You're going to look at your reflection for a while. Get a good picture of who you are, What you look like, what you believe in." That tail flick again.

"Feel free to let some of your shadows leak out, I've heard that helps. Let me know when you've got all your edges identified."

The what does what in where now?

Shun gave her a nod, and slinked over to flop onto some grass. Copper eyes turned to her, and Kuroko hopped over to get a look at her reflection. Yeah… those instructions weren't confusing at all.

Please note the sarcasm.

Her reflection was as-expected. A black bird, with a thick beak and black eyes. Black legs, black claws, black everything. Just like her mother, some of her neck feathers gleamed green, though her eyes seemed a little grey when the sunlight hit them just right, instead of her mother's bright red. She'd seen her image hundreds of times before, drinking from little puddles or the slow-moving creek on the edge of her mother's territory. Nothing new.

Shun yawned, a tiny whine escaping the back of her throat before she plopped her head down on the grass.

Kuroko took a deep breath, and exhaled.

She pushed some chakra around, not really sure what difference she was supposed to see. After a few long, awkward minutes of this, she spoke up.

"What did you mean by 'Shadows leak out?'"

A slow blink.

"Mmm...No clue. Ask your mother."

"She's not here right now." Kuroko stated, trying to contain the building frustration.

"I can see that."

She couldn't help the irritated bristling of her neck feathers, but exhaled slowly, smoothing them back down after the fact. Even if she wanted to screech and lash out at the infuriating demon, it would only reflect poorly on her mother.

"I know what I look like." She muttered, looking down to glare at the sharp-beaked reflection looking up at her.

Shun jumped to his feet.

"Great!" He chirped, "Onto the next step!"

What the fuck?

"Here, check out your reflection over here."

Kuroko obediently hopped over, looking down at the distorted ripples that only sometimes formed a crow.

"Now, that's still your reflection, right?"

Kuroko shot her a look, but nodded.

"So if that reflection is 'You' and the other reflection is also 'You', what's different?"

That weirdly sweet teacherly voice was definitely starting to rub on her nerves.

Or maybe she was just hungry.

"Water pressure?"

That damn tail flick again.

"Hmmm~ Almost, not quite, but close. It's the movement of the water, yeah, but also the light bouncing off of it. If you twist the surface a bit, the image changes. Both the reflections are 'you', but the real you doesn't have four heads, does it?"

Kuroko was silent, waiting for Shun to get to the point already.

"Get it?"

Fuck you.

"Yes, I get it."

"Good! Now you just need to let your form twist around a bit. It's still 'you', but different!"

Oh, that's all, huh?

"Ohkaaaaaayyyy?"

Shun didn't take the hint, or ignored it, and trotted back to his grass.

"Well, get to it. Keep an eye out for hawks. I'll be taking a nap 'till you get it right."

Get WHAT right? You haven't explained anything!

Kuroko exhaled slowly again, digging her talons into the grass and staring down at her rippling reflection. How on earth was she supposed to spontaneously become something else?!

Maybe it was about visualization? Just... imagine herself looking different and it would happen?

She tried imagining herself as a fox. Probably all black, with nice white teeth to growl with. She wondered what it would be like, to have proper teeth. The sharp beak and talons were nice, but the wolves just seemed so effective with their jaws.

She blinked, trying to concentrate on the rippling reflection.

Nothing.

Boredom picked at her mind, and the angry swirl continued to snarl quietly in the back of her head.

She looked at Shun, who looked convincingly asleep.

This… was going to take a while.

And it did.

She was getting pretty accurate with them, but she really ought to stop predicting such pessimistic futures.

The sun set, with still no idea what she was supposed to be doing. As crickets started chirping in earnest (and frogs - she was definitely going to eat one of those) Shun woke up from his 'nap' and asked if she had made any progress.

At her negative response, the fox didn't seem surprised.

"You're probably just tired. Go get some rest back at the den."

Kuroko sighed, obediently heading back, and finally grabbing a bite to eat before nestling herself in a tall, white-barked tree.

The next day was no different. Three different foxes sleepily watched her glare at her reflection, basically repeating Shun's words back at her whenever she asked for help.

You're still you, just give up the outside and look like something else. Right, she'll just DO that.

With zero progress and mounting frustration, Kuroko slept the next night a bit closer to the ground, tucked almost petulantly against the pale trunk of her chosen ash tree.

The foxes either didn't hear, or ignored the trail of muttered complaints slithering out from her branch.