Author's Note –This is set in Children Of Dawn chapter 4 – Festivities.
Moon-Dancer and Mist-Wings wordlessly agreed to walk together as they frequently did. They had always done much together since they had hatched only a few sun-cycles apart. Being the same size throughout their lives let them play a lot together like second-nestmates.
Together, they grabbed a couple fish from the pile saved for the few sky-kin at the ceremony. Then they settled down outside the large group of ground-kin that were busy eating food, drinking from their water-holding cups, and laughing. Some of them were even holding each other while spinning in place where others could see the dancing.
Mist-Wings hummed softly and nudged his shoulder, "Do you ever think about getting a life-bond ground-kin friend? Do you want one?"
Moon-Dancer was not sure how best to answer that. The possibility of sharing life-flights in that way was one he thought much about. His sire-father had told him many times that the together-life was a good one, and that he should at least think about finding a life-bond ground-kin.
However, those three Night Furies were different from him in many ways. Dawn-Singer was a confident, strong, and liver-flamed first-hatched. Aurora was a biting, stubborn, caring, amazing, and beautiful female. Rain-Eater was clever, relaxed, very imaginative, and useful to the range by doing much thinking and planning. All three of them were special in their own ways and had not had problems finding ground-kin whom they wanted to bond lives with as friends.
But he was nothing special. Why would a ground-kin want to bond life with him as a friend? He did not know how making a friend even happened. His nestmate sister, Hidden-Hope, was... maybe a friend, and his other-nestmate sister, Mist-Wings, was a friend. But they were kin to him, so it was not the same.
He curled his tailfins around his front paws and lay down his head on them, "Yes, I think about it. I do not know how to though."
She also lay down at his side while softly grumbling, "Me neither. I do not know how to see their life-fires. My nestmates did, but the ground-kin feel colder now... a little anyway."
He agreed that some of the young, not-mature ground-kin were not as eager to fly or be around sky-kin as they probably should be.
She sighed, "There are other problems too."
"What problems?"
"We are grown when we have... four or five season-cycles old. Ground-kin need two tens of season-cycles. Maybe we must wait until a ground-kin is grown before trying to be a life-bond friend with it. Why do they grow so slow?"
He was not sure, but the difference in growing speed was a problem. Ground-kin and sky-kin life-flights did not fly at the same speed. If a friend-pair was made between a young sky-kin and ground-kin, they might have problems.
He chuffed, "I do not know. Maybe they are not eating enough food. Rain-Eater is still working on the problem of how many sky-kin and ground-kin can live in this range, true?"
"He had me help him before, but I do not understand numbers like he does," she sighed.
"Me neither. I cannot do that work."
From what he remembered hearing before, the life-bond friend-pairs had grown to be from seeing each other almost every sun-cycle when the Night Furies were living in the Haven-range. However, it was hard to meet ground-kin and start to know them truly when work flew in the way of that good flight. On the other paw, there was an opportunity to do that, or at least practice bonding, right now!
He hopped to his paws and looked among the crowd of ground-kin, "Where is Skald-Legs-Of-Fish? He might want to do a thinking-game. His young one, Faen, could play with us."
Mist-Wings hummed and jumped to her paws, "We could do that! He might not be able to play now, but we could start a game soon. But there is something more important to do first."
"What is it?"
She hopped forward with a happy bark, "Eat food!"
He did not disagree at all. This meal would be different from the dried fish and meat-tasting-mushrooms that they usually had. And it would be a good idea to eat something before the food was all gone.
Hidden-Hope was so bored! Sitting here beside the ceremony and sleeping away the fish and mushroom soup in her belly was a good way to use time, but there were better ways to use time!
Almost all the ground-kin were here at the ceremony. None of them were watching the rest of the shared-range. This was an opportunity to have fun!
She hopped to her paws and dashed to Rock-Climber, nudging him awake with a paw.
"What?" he barked.
"We should have fun!" she whispered.
"What fun?" he whispered.
She looked up to the nearest ground-kin den. Hopefully it was strong enough, or it might break!
"A game: the dirt and grass is eels!"
She jumped and climbed up the den, her claws digging into the wood, until she was on top. Yes! She looked out over all the ground-kin below, none of them looking up. They were too interested by the happy-water they were drinking and the dancing with their kin. So twisted of them.
Rock-Climber climbed up the side of the den after her, his head poking up over the side as he faced her. The ground-kin den did not break under their weight.
"What are we doing?" he growled as he climbed up beside her.
"We are safe from the eel-ground!"
"I see that. No flying, true?"
"True."
"Where are we going?"
She spun around and looked across the nest toward the distant fields with prey-animals in their pens. There were large stretches of space that had to be walked across... unless one had a special plan that did not use flying!
"We can make the ground not eels! But we must free the trapped prey-animals first! That is the game!"
This was a very good game. Watching the ground-kin run around to catch the freed prey-animals was so fun and always left her rolling on the ground, laughing! Not being able to touch the ground made the game much more fun!
"Are you sure about this?" he warbled.
"Yes, are you scared?" she laughed.
"Never! But... can we just race to the prey-pen? We do not need to let them out."
Grr... why was he so worried about that? They should just have fun!
"Fine! Go!"
They spun around and ran across the ground-kin nest, jumping from den to den while staying on different dens. This was also a race which she was going to win! She had a secret plan!
One of the dens cracked under her weight, but that was not important. What was important was the different path she was taking: over the dens toward the stream.
Grass and dirt were eels for the rules of the game, but water was not eels!
Unsurprisingly, he was bounding to the far side of the shared-nest so he could climb and jump on the cave-wall. He was so much better at that than any other Fury-kin, probably because he was smaller and thinner than most. She was also smaller than she should be, which was very grr... annoying!
She arrived at the den by the edge of the water. Ground-kin washed their furs and themselves below, but they were not doing that now. She jumped into the water and started swimming with the water. The stream would flow straight past part of the pens. The water then flowed down a deep fall that went... no one knew where that fall went.
Nothing could go wrong with the plan, and she would win!
Winning at something might warm the liver a little...
Finally at the rocks on the edge of the prey-animal fields, she climbed out onto boulders without touching the sand or dirt. Boulders and rock were safe to touch. A few more jumps followed until she was on the rocks that formed part of the prey-field wall.
The gate was visible across the field filled with mushroom-trees. How to get there? Easy!
From one mushroom-tree to another she jumped higher and higher, leaping and bounding across the field and scaring the prey-animals below. They brayed in fear and ran wildly. Good!
A dark shape was running ahead and aside, but she was much closer to winning. Very good! He was usually faster at these races.
She jumped down and landed on the rocks that held the strong gate trapping the prey animals inside.
"I win!"
Rock-Climber dropped down beside her and huffed, "Yes, you win! Good race!"
With him acknowledging her win, she hopped down from the rock as he did the same. Despite having won the race, it did not change that she felt... a little trapped, almost like one of those four-leg sheep or pigs the ground-kin kept in the field. The prey-animals were kept in there for safety and so that they could not escape.
Almost like how she was kept in this shared-range! Sire-father and dam-mother did not let her fly beyond yet, but Rock-Climber could go beyond with his nestmates! His sire-father and dam-mother let him fly with his nestmates beyond. So unfair.
"It was a good race! What happened to you?"
He rolled his eyes, "I slipped on the rocks and had to climb back up."
"Ha! Should we call you Rock-Faller?" she chuckled.
He stuck out his tongue at her, and she barely resisted the temptation to nip at it.
"No, I am... getting too big. It is harder to climb like I did... before," he grumbled.
Grr, he was growing bigger. Maybe she was too... but not fast enough at all! So unfair.
"Still better than me," she snorted.
He huffed and turned his shoulder on her, "You do not need to. You will have fade but I will not."
"Fade needs fire, which I do not have yet." she grumbled.
That was the worst part of being her other than being small! She could only fade and hide from eyes if someone else flamed her! So stupid.
He yawned and stretched, facing the distant ceremony, "Want to go back to the ground-kin?"
"Sure."
He jumped and turned his flight for the shared-nest. She also stretched her wings, but she paused, glancing over her tail at the closed gate. None of the prey-animals were nearby right now, but...
She smirked, darted to the gate, and lifted the gate-lock with a nudge of her paw, leaving the gate slightly open. There! Now the prey-animals could escape, and she could laugh at the ground-kin running around trying to catch them!
Ha! Take that!
Satisfied, she jumped into the sky and flew back toward the ceremony and her kin. She also yawned widely, feeling sleepy after all the play and fun with Rock-Climber. A nap was a very good idea now.