Family.

Chapter Eight: Saffron Thorn-Blood.

Flashback:

Amelia Flashblade looked back at her youngest son with concern. He was dozing in the back seat of the car as she drove him to her mother's to recuperate from a nasty bout illness which the doctors still couldn't figure out what it was, all they could tell her was that his immune system had broken down. It had been a terrible ordeal for the four year old little boy who had previously been so full of life, a little shy but full of life never the less. Her mother lived out in the country side where it would be nice and quiet for him to get his health back and in a few months time it would be spring break and her two other children Wildwing and Phoenix could also join them (so could her husband Max if he ever found the time). The familiar turning to her home village brought her out of her daydream and it wasn't long before she was pulling in at her mother's large country house by the forest. She quietly got out and took their bags in and then she gently shook the sleeping blonde boy.

"Nosedive dear we're here," he groaned and rolled over to face the other way, Amelia quickly undid the seat belt so he wouldn't strangle himself, "Grandma's baked you your favorite, apple pie with sultanas and raisins." With that he got up and ran into the house, mother in tow, where he promptly sat at the kitchen table propping his head up with his right hand and hanging the other lazily at his side. Amelia chuckled at the sight, at least he was able to walk around, it had only been a few short weeks since he had been in hospital not allowed to move, or speak to anybody who had had any kind of illness with in two to three weeks.

"Well it's about time you two got here," said Katrina feather-Heart, "I was beginning to think you weren't going to bother visiting your old grandma."

"GRANDMA!" Nosedive immediately woke up at the sight of her and flew into her arms, "Can we have apple pie now? Please Grandma?"

"It's still in the oven, but I swear as soon as it's ready you'll be the first to know." The elderly woman looked over to her daughter and smiled, "you both look tired why don't the two of you go upstairs to your rooms and have a lie down whilst I finish supper, I'll call you both when it's ready."

"Okay Grandma," Nosedive gave her another hug before starting for the door that would lead him to the grand old stairs up to the bedrooms, but just before he went through the door, "grandma are we having pizza?"

"Nosedive," said his mother scoldingly, "you know very well that the doctor told you you were not to eat certain foods for a while, you could get sick again."

"Yes mom." Nosedive's beak lowered and he walked up the stairs slowly making his way to his room that his grandma kept just so for him, she'd even been out that day and got a wide selection of comics from the local store. Amelia followed him but entered a different room and climbed into bed and it wasn't long before both of them were sound asleep. When Katrina went up to call them they both looked so peaceful that she didn't have the heart to wake them so she let them sleep and both slept well into the next day.

Amelia was the first up she stretched and went into the bathroom and ran the bath water determined to have and long luxurious soak, in there she found her favorite bath salts had been left for her and she mentally reminded herself to thank her mother. After about an hour in the tub (it is possible my mum spends longer!) she got out and changed into some clean cloths noticing that her mum had been in to collect her dirty ones. It never ceased to amaze her that no matter how old her mother got she still took care of her daughter like she was a child still. Amelia walked downstairs, stopping to check on the sleeping Nosedive on the way, to find her mother in a pair of old trousers, and checked shirt with holes in her reading spectacles and her graying hair tied loosely into a bun. Amelia thought that her mother hadn't noticed her standing there watching her but;

"Good morning dear," she said taking a cup of coffee off the side table and taking a sip, "nice rest?"

"Yes, thank you," Amelia walked over to the pot on the hub and poured herself a mug.

"Is that husband of yours going to be joining us?"

"I don't know, mother," she took a sip, "do you have to say it like that I know you don't like him but I love him and he's the father of my children."

"I know dear, but I just don't think he deserved you, I never did like army men, you know it's a shame you never did anything about that crush you had on Oliver Thorn-Blood, now he's a fine young man, you were ever such good friends at one time but you seemed to drift apart," Katrina sighed, "such a shame really, ah well."

"Mother." Amelia said in a warning tone not really wanting to get into 'that' argument again.

"Yes, yes I know." Katrina took another sip of her coffee and stood up, putting the mug and it's contents into the sink she went out to check on her cattle, saddling up her horse to do so.

Meanwhile Nosedive had woken up and was raring to go, he grabbed some warm cloths not wanting to be stopped by his mother or grandmother because he was underdressed making him loose valuable playing time. That done he rushed down stairs and out the door just about slow enough to hear his mother telling him not to go too far, and if he did only to go into town not into the forest. He shouted 'okay' and kept running. He got to the edge of the forest and skirted around the edge to where he would find the path that would lead from his grandma's to the town and then to the playground that had been built by the family that used to live in the next big house over from Katrina. When he got to the park the first thing he did was play on the swings he went as high as he could go until he got bored then he tried the slide, but he got bored, then the merry go round, then the see saw, and then the sand box. But Nosedive was an intelligent kid which meant he got bored of simple thing really easily so he went to the store to look at the comic books.

Whilst he was looking he realized he wouldn't be able to buy anything because he didn't have an adult with him so he went out side and sat on the front step.

"You all right young man?" asked a friendly voice behind him.

"Yes sir, I just forgot to bring my mommy to get a new comic book." Nosedive sighed dramatically and rested his beak on his knees.

"Oh hello Oliver," said a new voice coming from the store, it was the owner Mr. Davies, "I see you've met Amelia's boy."

"Amelia?" He looked at Nosedive a little surprised at this news, but not much, "well now young man we can't have Amelia's boy going without now can we," Nosedive looked up at the man for the first time, he had black shoulder length hair, but white feathers, he wasn't hugely built but he wasn't all that skinny either and he had unusual clothes on that Nosedive would learn later in life were called Gothic, "you go on inside' uh, what was your name?"

"Nosedive, sir." Dive wasn't sure he should trust a stranger but he knew his mother's name was Amelia and this man seemed to know her so he guessed it was all right.

"Nosedive," Oliver said as if testing it on his tongue, "well, Nosedive, I'm an old friend of your mom's so I'll treat you to a comic of your choice, you go choose and I'll be right behind you." Nosedive didn't need telling twice he ran inside and began the hard and grueling process of choosing which comic book he was going to get, he could read a little even at his young age, but not much so he liked ones with more pictures than words. As he did so Oliver walked up to Mr. Davies, "I didn't know Amelia was married already, I certainly didn't think she'd have a kid yet."

"Ah well that's her third," replied the overweight Mr. Davies, Oliver raised an eyevrow, "she's got three lovely kids her first's the spitting image of Katrina, but that one's be awful ill, so I'm told, so Amelia's brought him back here to recover."

"Poor kid, you know what was wrong?"

"No, you'd have to ask them that but I do know it was enough to send the little tyke inta hospital though, Katrina was quite upset."

"Really."

"You know it's nice that there's some Thorn-Bloods back in the village again your kind always did bring us good fortune, I hope you'll be here ta stay."

"I hope so too." Oliver looked down as he felt a small hand tug at his trouser leg.

"Please sir, I'd like this one, sir." Oliver laughed.

"Please call me Oliver, you make me sound like some old man."

"My daddy makes us all call our elders sir or mam, else we get in trouble."

"Your daddy here with you?" Nosedive shook his head, "well then in Ducaine Grove you can call people by their first name's, okay Nosedive." Nosedive nodded his head and grinned, "Say why don't I walk you home, I've just got to pick up my daughter from the hairdressers okay, I'd like to say hi to your mom anyway." Nosedive nodded again and Oliver paid for the comic.

The two walked over to the Hairdressers to find a little white feathered girl, about Dive's age with the same jet black hair as Oliver sitting on the doorstep.

"Hey cupcake, lets have a look then," she grinned, stood up and did a dramatic twirl to show off her new hair cut (a trim but you know what kids are like), "sweetie this is Nosedive, he's my old friend Amelia's son, you remember the lady from the picture?"

"Yeah daddy the really pretty one." She said enthusiastically.

"Well we're going to walk him home, okay."

"Uh huh, okay," she said quickly, then addressing Nosedive, "Hi I'm Saffron, you can call me Saffy, I hope you'll play with me, I don't know anybody here at all so it's going to be so boring!" Nosedive almost laughed at the speed this girl was talking but his shyness prevented him from doing so.

"Hi." he said shyly.

Oliver walked him home and had a long chat with his old friend telling her how his parents had died so he now owned the house and had persuaded his wife Miranda to move back here. All the while Saffy was playing with Nosedive, at first Nosedive was too shy to play properly but with Saffy's exuberance and his natural instinct to play he was soon having the time of his life.

End Flashback:

"And since them They've been the best of friends, at one point Saffy was staying at our house term time so that Saffy could go to school near us and they could spend more time together and then he'd spend the holidays out at Ducaine Grove. But when he was little he spent a lot of time out at my gran's suffering from the same weird illness"

"So what happened to her?" Asked Silver.

"Well, you've all heard of the Thorn-Blood clan right?" Wildwing looked around hoping that he didn't have to explain much.

"Yes, they were the last surviving clan of the Order of the Goddess," answered Grin, "they were a truly enlightened people who worshiped not only the land but all living things, the land being the mother Goddess, they also possessed great magickal power, legend has it that one of their ancestors helped Ducaine when the saurians first attacked."

"They're the ones, and that's exactly why they're not around any more," Wildwing continued, "when Draganus first conquered he knew the mask was supposedly no longer a problem but when he found out that the Thorn-Blood family was still alive and well he souk* out every last member of the clan, whether blood relative or not and slaughtered them for all of Puckworld to see." Wildwing clenched his fists at the memory, it hurt him enough that he'd seen it, he'd liked the family as well, but the memories of how Nosedive had taken it still haunted him even now. Lizzie came up behind her fiancee and started to rub his shoulders.

"Why?" Asked Tanya, a little confused, she had heard about the clan but didn't believe in magick so she had just assumed it was just some ancient religion.

"Because Oliver alone had the power to stop Draganus," Tanya looked at Wildwing in shock, "just think what the entire family could have done."

"If they were so powerful than why didn't they know it was going to happen?" Mallory spat, she didn't believe in magick either, considering it nonsense.

"I don't know," Wildwing admitted leaning back against Lizzie's warm body as she wrapped her arms around his neck, "Dive knew more about their powers than I did, but I don't want you guys mentioning any of this to him okay, he misses her a lot and he took it real bad in the camps, so bad that he got sick again and barely survived, so please don't mention it." They all nodded and gradually everyone drifted back off to bed. Lizzie and Wildwing were the last to go.

"You want me to stay with you tonight?" She asked, her arms still around his neck. He nodded, got up and they headed of for his room.



*(is that how you spell it?)

Hope you like it more to come!