Author's Note –This is set in Children Of Dawn chapter 3 - Nestmates.
"See them yet?" Rain-Eater roared.
"Not yet!" Aurora barked back.
Rain-Eater grumbled, looking down on the forest while wondering where the ground-kin could have gone.
They probably would not go too deep into the forest. Ground-kin young were allowed to only go so far, and most of them obeyed the rules.
Aurora eventually roared and dove down into the trees. He followed immediately behind her tail and gently touched down at her side in a grassy clearing.
Ysmir Jorgenson had a bucket in his paws, and he was busily working at filling the bucket with the small blue and red berries that grew on certain of the bushes. The young ground-kin looked much like his sire-father, somewhat shorter than other ground-kin young, but he also had his sire-father's attitude: very liver-flamed, brave, haughty, boastful, and thinking that he knew all that there was to know. That was balanced by his dam-mother's thought-twisting and liking of pranking.
Ysmir was not alone. There was another ground-kin young, a small female, with him and helping him to pick berries. It was Faen Ingermandottir. Her head-fur was long and golden, and she was strong-thinking for a ground-kin young of seven season-cycles.
Rain-Eater chuckled, amused that she had seven season-cycles of life and was only that size, whereas he had only four and half but he was his full size as an adult. Ground-kin grow very slowly.
"Yssmirr! Faenn!" he barked, bounding toward them.
They both jumped in surprise and turned to face him and Aurora.
"Rain! Aurora!" Faen shouted.
Faen eagerly ran over to them and threw her arms wide around his neck. He put a forearm around her back and purred with liver-warmth. Then she similarly greeted Aurora.
"Hey there, you two. What'cha doing?" Ysmir asked.
Aurora hummed, "Lookinng forr you."
Ysmir suddenly looked very suspicious and held up his small paws, "For me? Did my parents put you up to this?"
"Nno. Onnly onne of them. Yourr fatherr."
Ysmir huffed and crossed his arms, "I'm a big boy! I don't need to be watched!"
Faen snickered and covered her mouth with a paw.
"What?" Ysmir scowled.
"You know that your mom has Blaze follow you to watch you?" Faen chuckled.
He knew that Blaze was Ysmir's pet little-nibbler-terror.
"Nope! I got him trained! He wants to follow me because he knows how amazing I am!" Ysmir explained.
He and Aurora yawned toothlessly.
Ysmir rolled his eyes, "Gee, thanks. Useless dragons."
Aurora crouched at Faen's side, "I will fly you home."
Faen smiled and even purred softly at the offer before grabbing her bucket of berries and climbing on Aurora's back, settling down on her shoulders.
He had noticed that the ground-kin who used the most time around sky-kin seemed to pick up sky-kin behaviors. That was good of them. He also wondered whether the reverse happened and any sky-kin ever learned ground-kin behaviors, other than things like picture-writing and talking.
He rolled his eyes as he realized there were several examples of precisely that sharing of life-ways.
We do that so much more. Smiling, walking on two legs even if only to be silly, crossing arms and paws, yes, we are becoming more like the other.
Amused, he walked over to Ysmir and similarly crouched down with a nod to his back. Ysmir, despite his scowling earlier, was not one to turn down an offer to fly.
"Alright, I guess I can let you fly me home."
Rain-Eater just huffed and waited as Ysmir got into position on his back.
"Careful with the flying. We don't want to drop the berries!" Faen implored Aurora.
Aurora barked happily, "Sso nno sspinninng?"
"Not now. Maybe after we get the berries back to the village," Faen proposed.
"Nno. We will fly you home annd thenn we wannt rresst," he explained.
"Was it good hunting?" Faen asked.
"Yess, verry good," he answered.
With their charges snug on their backs, he and Aurora walked out of the forest and toward a ledge. It was only a short flight across a chasm to the shared-nest itself, but they still wanted it to be a safe flight for the young ones. These ground-kin did not have the false-wings that their own life-bond ground-kin had. It would be very easy to catch them if they fell, but there was no reason to scare them or risk them being hurt.
They glanced over their shoulders to the ground-kin on their backs.
"Nnothinng sstupid nnow," Rain-Eater hissed.
"What? Me do something stupid? I take severe umbrel... umbri... umbr..." Ysmir grumbled.
"Umbrage?" Faen offered.
"Yes! Umbrage! Severe!"
Faen and Aurora silently snickered.
"Rready?" "Rready?"
"Yes, ready." "I was born ready!"
They extended their wings and gently leaped into the sky, gently ascending over the chasm and the mushroom-trees as they glided toward the shared-nest. Without even asking where to go, they knew where the ground-kin needed to be carried. They passed over several home-dens and storage-dens and dove down to the ground next to a large house filled with strong scents.
Faen and Ysmir carefully hopped off their backs and, still holding the buckets of berries, dashed inside the house-den.
Rain-Eater and Aurora glanced at each other, ears lifted in amusement.
One of the most important things in life for ground-kin was the happy-water-wine. They had learned that they could make berries go almost-rotted but in a good way that made the water taste... twisted but also very wanted. This drink led to amusing results in addition to being part of many ground-kin bonding ceremonies. For one, ground-kin would forget themselves and forget how to walk after drinking much happy-water-wine. Most strange though was how the happy-water-wine was used in ground-kin mating-ceremonies, wooing ceremonies to impress mates, or something like that.
It was twisted that the same drink was used to make new life and also to forget life for a short time.
Ysmir and Faen returned from inside the den, their mission of finding and delivering berries finished.
"Nnow we take you home," Aurora hummed.
"Alright, if you must, mom," Ysmir groaned.
Aurora huffed and gently slapped him with a tailfin, knocking him onto the ground. He, being the liver-flamed ground-kin he was, lunged back and grabbed her tail.
"Yes, I have captured the mighty..."
She flicked her tail and tossed him high into the sky only to then jump after him and catch him from the sky as he fell.
"I capturred the ssmall humann!" she purred after letting him go.
"Whatever," Ysmir groaned.
He and Faen just shook their heads as they followed Aurora and Ysmir into the main part of New-Haven itself.
There were ground-kin working the fields, using tools to fix things, making false-skins to wear out of prey-hides, and working on the Great Hall off in the distance. The main path was heavily beaten down from much walking.
Rain-Eater paused, stood tall on his hind legs, and looked around for a particular pair of ground-kin. Not seeing them, he dropped back down and continued with Faen at his side.
"Did you have funn?" he purred.
"Yes. He wanted to go outside the line, but mommy said no, so I said no."
"Good idea. Nneverr go that farr without yourr parrenntss orr onne of uss with you."
They caught up to Aurora and Ysmir, apparently waiting for them.
"I will take Yssmirr home," Aurora said from ahead as she and Ysmir wandered off.
"Bye Faen! See you tomorrow!" Ysmir stuck out his tongue at her.
"Gods, he is silly," Faen chuckled once they were gone.
"Verry ssilly."
Rain-Eater arrived at Faen's sire-father's and dam-mother's house-den. It was, like many of the house-dens were, small, having only one room for sleeping in and one room for family-pack bonding activities. The rock-belly sky-kin, Meatlug, was absent right now, but she was one of the bond-sky-kin that stayed much around the shared-range. The same went for Shimmer, the spine-tail bonded to Faen's dam-mother, Vistra.
Surprisingly, Skald and Vistra Ingerman were inside, sitting at the table and gesturing animatedly at something on it.
Faen put a finger on her lips to gesture for him to be quiet, so he restrained the purr and hum of warmth. They crept closer to the home-den while listening to the talk from within. He had a good guess what the pair of ground-kin were probably talking about.
"... and then I realized that maxing charisma is definitely overpowered. You can talk your way out of anything!" Skald explained.
"Not anything. Remember when you were playing the wild mage, rolled a one, and cast a field of null magic right above where the Ragnarok beast was magically chained underground!" Vistra said.
"Okay, ignore the doomsday creature secretly hidden underground. Yeah, persuasion checks don't matter there. Any normal situation, you can just talk your way out of. Guards run up to you after seeing you steal something. Just tell them that whatever you stole is actually yours, and then roll persuade. Easy!"
Rain-Eater laughed openly, breaking the surprise of being in hiding.
Skald and Vistra Ingerman were the leaders and mission-thinkers for a group of ground-kin who played a game called Crypts and Dragons. That game was a source of much fun and competition among many of the ground-kin, mostly younger ones. The play helped much to pass the idle time when nothing else could be done for pack-bonding.
He was the first sky-kin who was interested in playing such games and regularly joined in. He greatly enjoyed the thinking with numbers and pretending to be something he was not. It was very amusing to pretend to be a ground-kin in a mission.
More than that, he had convinced some of his nestmates to join on these game-missions.
"Rain! Was that you?" Skald shouted.
"Yess! I brrought Faenn!"
Skald and Vistra came outside and embraced their daughter and only child.
"How did it go, my dear?" Vistra asked.
"Good. Ysmir and I filled a couple buckets. Rain and Aurora found us and brought us back."
"You didn't go beyond the line, did you?"
"No, mother," Faen said.
Skald bowed to him, "Thanks for bringing her back."
He had no chance to answer the ground-kin before a tiny blur shot from the side of the house-den and tackled Faen to the ground.
"Nibbles!" Faen exclaimed.
The little-nibbler-terror hopped off her and licked its nose. She had been training a pet as a way of learning some responsibility.
There seemed to be much still for Nibbles to learn. Faen was perhaps too... kind and not pushy enough with it.
She might do better to be more... forceful rather than try to be friendly only. She will learn.
"I musst go nnow."
The three ground-kin smiled and waved their paws at him.
"Bye!" "Thanks!" "Bye Rain!"
He smiled a toothless smile and took to the sky. Next, he had to find his nestmates and a pair of other ground-kin.
"Come on, do I have to?" Ysmir griped.
Aurora nudged him in the back, driving him onward toward his home-den while he tried to scramble past her.
"Arre you afrraid of yourr little brrotherr?"
"No! I'm just bored here! I'd rather be..."
"Ysmir Jorgenson!"
Ysmir gulped and spun around, "Mom! Hi! Great to see you!"
Sifa Jorgen strode toward them from the side-den where she had been cooking. Her paws were on her hips as she glared at her older young one.
"Where did you go?" Sifa scowled.
"I went with Faen to pick more berries."
"Which berries?" Sifa asked.
"The blue and red ones."
She grinned, "Son, I know what you were going to do. You were going to stain your brother's clean clothes so they never wash out."
Ysmir threw up his paws, "Why would I do a thing like that? Does that work?"
"Totally. You feel the natural pull of the prank. I... approve, son," she solemnly added.
Ysmir seemed a bit confused that he was not being told off. Sifa knelt before him and grabbed one of his paws.
"Let me give you some pranking advice. Doing a prank on your own is good, but pranking as a team is much better. You can reach new heights of pranking greatness and pull stunts that will be remembered even beyond Ragnarok itself!"
"Huh?"
"Instead of pranking your brother, prank with your brother. Get into trouble together and then get out of trouble together. You didn't hear it from me."
"I understand. Mom, you're amazing!" Ysmir grinned.
"I know. You still wandered off when I told you to wait. You're grounded," Sifa continued.
"Mom! How can I be grounded when I don't even have a real dragon to fly with?"
She shrugged, "Meh, it's more the principle of the thing. Feels like something I should say as a mom."
Aurora huffed, sitting back on her haunches all throughout this interaction. She was very amused by all this and had long ago concluded that ground-kin dam-mothers were twisted.
This one in particular had lost her nestmate brother and her two-head-gas-breather bond-kin long ago. That loss had apparently helped her and her mate, Thorvald, come together as mates because he also lost his sire-father in the fighting. They had helped each other in life after those losses. The details were not so clear to her, but she had learned some about the ground-kin of the Haven-range from those who knew more about the past.
"I told Thorrvald I would brrinng Yssmirr. Donne."
"Yes, Aurora, thank you," Sifa answered her.
Aurora turned aside, jumped for the sky, and began circling over the New-Haven-nest, eventually landing on one of the nearest light-rocks to pass the time. Then she again took flight when she saw Rain-Eater searching for her. They wordlessly agreed on where to fly.
However, they saw something that made them change plans and dive back to the ground in surprise and amusement.
A small flock of little-nibbler-terrors dashed past, one of them with a small piece of clothing-furs in its jaws. A small female ground-kin was chasing after the flock while waving her arms around.
"Please give it back!" she barked.
Aurora pounced and pinned the offending little-nibbler-terror, which wiggled and thrashed under her paw. She bent down and snorted in its face while growling softly. The others chortled at the pinned one and hissed. Then the pinned one dropped the clothing-fur, and she put a paw over the fur to stop the other little-nibbler-terrors from snatching it. The entire flock then dashed off to terrorize someone or something else.
Rain-Eater and Aurora snorted in their direction. Those small sky-kin were amusing and annoying at the same time. While they were no danger to any ground-kin, they could not learn good behavior the same way other sky-kin did. That meant they were problems with food-supplies and getting into places they should not be.
"Rain! Aurora!" the young ground-kin ran up to them.
Then she threw her tiny arms around Aurora's foreleg in a hug which made both of them purr deeply.
Stella Hofferdottir was only four season-cycles old. She had brilliant blue eyes, long golden head-fur with curls, and her liver was among the warmest of all the ground-kin young in together-life with with sky-kin. She was also a little chilled in her young liver because there were few ground-kin of her age. There had not been much young-making among the ground-kin since flying into the hidden ranges or even in the season-cycles before when all were in the Haven-range. Life had apparently not been stable before or good for young-making.
There was something else about her past, or more accurately about her sire-father and dam-mother's past, which few spoke about openly.
Rain-Eater and Aurora had asked Shadowwing about it in the past, and he had deferred giving any clear answer, saying instead only that they had lost someone dear to them and to many others.
Aurora bent down and gently nuzzled Stella's head-fur.
"Sstella..."
Stella hopped back and beamed up at her, "Hi Aurora! Did you get it? My headband?"
Aurora lifted her paw and gently grabbed the headband, which she then held out to Stella. The young ground-kin took back her headband in a paw, and she frowned sadly after inspecting it.
"It is ripped..."
There were indeed tiny tooth-marks from where the little-nibbler-terror had been chewing at it.
"Bad Terrrrorrss," Rain-Eater hissed.
Stella huffed, put the headband in her furs, and smiled widely, "It is okay! My mommy will fix it!"
Stella briefly hugged both of their heads while purring softly her liver-warmth.
"I have to go! Bye dragons!"
"Bye Sstella!" Aurora hummed.
Stella ran off after waving a paw at them. They watched the young ground-kin as she ran between the home-dens.
"Maybe she will think differently about getting a little-nibbler-terror to be a pet," Rain-Eater muttered.
"Those things are twisted almost-sky-kin. Always causing problems," Aurora huffed in agreement.
"True. They chase the land-prey even when they do not want to eat. And they take ground-kin things only to watch the ground-kin chase them."
"Twisted. Any idea where our nestmates are?"
"We should find them."
Moon-Dancer dove down over the ledge and smoothly glided to land where they had been before. The bags with straps that slid over their heads were still there for them to retrieve.
He touched down and whipped his tail out of the way just before she closed her jaws on it.
The huff of disappointment she made was very liver-warming. Teasing her was part of the life-flight of an older brother.
"What are sisters for?" he sighed.
"Being better than our brothers, that is what!" Hidden-Hope barked as she bounded over to him.
"Sure, tell yourself that," he groaned.
He wiggled his head into the strap to pick up the bag while she did the same. Both bags came to sit against their chests. Then he and she flew again up toward the high ledges that they had not yet explored in a long time. A particularly thick patch of shrubbery and forest was where he intended to resume searching.
They landed and continued on through the forest and shrubbery only a few wingbeats later. Large bushes with leaves larger than his wings were shoved aside at their passing. Several small, orange sky-kin, which were not even the size of one of his paws; a single little-nibbler-terror; many birds and singing bugs; and many small, furry scurrying-prey were disturbed at their passing. Together, they went deeper into the forest: past vines that recoiled at the touch, and large-leaf plants that glowed with every color of the sky.
The air became more filled with a mist as they neared a small waterfall. There was a very faint red glow in the darkness of a remote area hidden under large mushroom-trees and between thick grass that also grew up almost like trees. It was unlikely that this place would be found by anyone only looking down from above.
It seemed that a new place in the massive chamber-cave was found in every waking-cycle of exploration.
Hidden-Hope dashed very quickly toward the faint red light, "Look, I found them!"
Yes, you did. Well done.
She bounced on her paws and pranced around the glowing plants while her teal eyes glowed with her pleasure. The grove of red plants was exactly what they were looking for: Crimson Glowroot.
He chuffed happily as he counted the plants they could take.
They both got to work as they had before, carefully digging up the dirt with their paws around the red plants. The Glowroot had short roots that did not dig very deep into the dirt, and that let them dig the plants up easily with their paws. These plants were also very hard to kill, which made it easy to carry the plants back to be grown in different dirt by the ground-kin.
Plant after plant was carefully dug up and gently nosed into the bags. Finally, with their paws covered in dirt, he considered the results of their work.
"I think we have enough. What do you think?" Moon-Dancer asked.
Hidden-Hope stuck her nose into her large pack, her ears went up, and she warily glanced at him.
"How many do you have?" she asked.
"Five."
"We have enough," she nodded and purred.
She was probably pleased that her catch was bigger than his. He did not care as long as she helped and contributed to this work.
"Good. We should go," Moon-Dancer hummed with a glance toward his own pack.
They both wiggled their heads around the packs and secured the packs against their chests. Then they carefully bounded back through the trees and bushes until they arrived at the edge of the ledge.
She wasted no time and jumped from the ledge. He crouched, flung his dark wings wide, and followed her, losing awareness in the simple, repetitive act of flight. Down off the high ledge, past a small patch of mushroom-trees, along a massive waterfall, and down toward the water they flew. Bright light-rocks in the cave's walls and sticking up out of the ground illuminated the entire flight.
Their flight turned around a small corner in the range, revealing the brightest inner-chamber and the world that had been built over two and half season-cycles, as the above would count. Ground-kin house-dens had been built on various ledges or down on the ground among trees. Walking paths made of rope and vines led between several ledges. Most of the house-dens were smaller than those which he could remember in the Haven-range. Everything had seemed much bigger back then, probably because of how small he had been at the time.
The light-rocks in this part of the chamber were the brightest in the entire length of the range. That is what let the plants and trees grow so much.
The largest group-den Great Hall where many warming ceremonies were to be held was being built off in a distant corner. There were several ground-kin and their bond-sky-kin working at that largest group-den. A few others were off in the fields and rows of food-plants where they worked.
He saw where they needed to fly, so he adjusted his flight toward the fields. Hidden-Hope thankfully followed after him without being told to. A smooth dive followed as he glided from the sky, touched down, and pranced up to the ground-kin to whom they were supposed to bring the plants.
The former sky-kin trapper, Eret son of Eret, was now responsible for the food plants in the fields. His work also meant doing certain undesirable tasks, such as collecting waste and spreading it into the dirt to feed the plants.
Something he always wondered about Eret was that the ground-kin seemed nervous and twisted around him, especially so whenever dam-mother was nearby. That was very twisted of Eret. True, he was a sky-kin trapper once, but he was not anymore. Not only was he warm to sky-kin, but he was now bonded to the spine-tail named Stormfly.
Eret saw them padding over to him and walked to meet them.
"Moon-Dancer," Eret greeted them with a frown and a bow.
"What iss wrronng?" Moon-Dancer hummed.
"Besides the usual," Eret muttered.
His ears lifted along with a questioning warble. Maybe Eret was just tired from working a lot.
Eret shook his head, refusing to answer or explain, and pointed toward a far corner of the fields.
"You got the Glowroot?" Eret asked.
"Yess, we founnd ssome," Moon-Dancer explained.
"I brrought morre thann him!" Hidden-Hope smirked.
"Alright, I'll take them. Thanks a lot! Oh, Thorvald wanted me to remind you to tell your father about the wedding next cycle!"
"I will nnot forrget," he promised.
He and Hidden-Hope bent their heads and let the bags of plants slide onto the ground. Eret collected them and turned for the place in the field where the Glowroot was being grown.
Moon-Dancer rolled his shoulders and shuffled in place, pleased that he was not carrying any ground-kin things. Having those things off felt good since he could freely wiggle and roll on the ground now. Carrying bags and other carrying-things always fouled flight slightly.
Hidden-Hope stood beside him and grumbled about something.
"What is it?" he asked.
"I am hungry!" she huffed.
"We should get some fish," he proposed.
She evidently agreed since she jumped for the sky without answering him. They flew into the center of the nest-village to one of the larger building-dens. That place was where they would probably find the ground-kin named Gobber. He could help with providing a small meal right now.
They landed and trotted up to the large open door beside which Gobber stood, talking with another ground-kin inside. Gobber saw them and paused the talk so he could help them.
"Moon! Hope! Here fer some fish?" Gobber asked.
"Yess, two each pleasse," Moon-Dancer requested.
Gobber nodded, ducked inside the building-den, and returned a few wingbeats later with four dried fish. He gave him and his sister two of the dried fish each.
"Thannk you," Hidden-Hope hummed after quickly snapping up her two fish.
Gobber smiled widely and nodded to them while rubbing his face-fur, "Glad ya liked em'. Alright, gotta get back to it. Always somethin' ta do! I've got my ax and got my mace..."
Moon-Dancer nodded to him as Gobber left to resume his food-preparing and singing. Gobber helped with cooking and preparing foods for the ground-kin pack. There were many different meals, some of which he made for sky-kin also, though the mushrooms were not the tastiest.
A tail whipped his side.
"Sister!" he groaned.
"The work is done! We should play now!"
He sighed and faced her, "Fine. What do you want to play?"
"Tail-tag!"
"Unsurprising. I will be the tagger."
"And no fading!" she added with narrowed eyes.
He held a paw to his chest, "I promise no fading."
"Count to ten first!"
She eagerly spun around and leapt for the sky, beating her wings fast to fly from him. He was willing to let her get a first-flying start. She would need it. Now that all the work-duties were done, he could properly enjoy the games. It was going to be a fun waking-cycle of chasing and playing.