Flock Together
- Chapter 3: Fly Together -
The feeling in her heart was nothing short of relief when her mother arrived at the Fox's den. She'd endured endless snipping and repeated instructions, with no clarification in sight. She had started avoiding them as much as possible, eating her meals away from their clearing and flying off to 'explore' as soon as the day's watcher had gotten bored and frustrated enough to let her go.
You'd think after the first time "Let go of 'you' and mimic your reflection" and "stop thinking so hard about feathers" didn't work, they'd try something else.
Apparently not.
She expected her mother to take her right back to the nest - Kuroko was already rehearsing the tale she'd spin for the Wolves back home, eager to share something new and equally resentful toward the foxes who had frustrated her so. Her mother, instead, simply flew with her until their shadows were far from the Foxs' den.
"Are we flying the whole way back?' She wondered aloud, partially looking forward to a trip with her mother, and partially dreading the memory of aching muscles. The old bird didn't quite look at her, but murmured something negative before dipping down and landing on a tall tree.
Kuroko landed on an adjacent branch, flaring her tail to stay upright as the thin stick wobbled under her weight.
"We will be traveling to the Southern Roost."
Kuroko perked up, immediately eager to see the location she'd only heard vague tales of. Kokoro wasn't much of a storyteller since her daughter learned to speak on her own, but she had whispered plenty of tidbits to the fledgeling.
"Your sister lives there, right?"
Her mother only made a small noise - not really affirmation, but not really a negative, either. Something like a hum of acknowledgement, with black eyes still refusing to focus on the younger crow.
"No. We'll be traveling through shadows. Before we go, I- …. There's something you should-..." Kokoro exhaled slowly, tucking her wings a bit higher on her body.
"Please be as polite as possible." She finally said, a resigned note creeping into her raspy voice. "Some may not be kind, but please know you are representing me, as well as yourself."
Kuroko tilted her head, feeling an odd prickle like she was missing something important. She opened her beak, wanting to ask …. Something, but not sure exactly what she should ask. For a strange moment, it weighed on her chest like a physical thing. This unknown, important question that she should be asking, but couldn't find the words for.
There were several questions she could think of, like 'Is there anyone I should know about?' and 'Will we have a place to sleep?' but they didn't feel quite right. She'd probably find those out shortly. Those weren't the important thing to know.
"Alright." She finally said, feeling the moment slip away like a lost feather. "Whenever you're ready."
Honestly, anything to get away from the foxes and their stupid inability to teach.
Kokoro gingerly hopped down, and Kuroko felt the slender stick bend precariously beneath their combined weight. The other bird still seemed to be favoring one of her legs, and she made a note to ask her mother about that, when things didn't seem so heavy on her mind.
Black feathers spread, and dark, smoky shadows seeped out from between them.
Kuroko lost herself in a whirl of endless void, held together only by the image of feathers and the warm thrum of her mother's heartsoulself pressed beside her.
When and Where they emerged, it had begun to rain.
Kuroko shivered against the sudden change in pressure and temperature, the warm humidity of the air instantly soaking into her feathers. She shook it off, spreading her wings and flying quickly after the shadowy figure of her mother. The landscape had become… a lot more swampy than she had ever seen before.
Trees stood like skeletal scavengers, perched above tall reeds and slow-moving water, bark mottled with age and diseases made fruitful by mist and determination. Willows hunched protectively over their earthen mounds, fingers trailing across eddies and reaching out for an insect to perch upon. A stifling shroud of mist clung lovingly to the waterlogged earth.
She instantly hated it.
Kuroko wasn't sure exactly it was about the place she disliked, but the area in general just felt stuffy and half-dead. Maybe it was the season, or the heat overlaying the thick humidity, but even the plants seemed to droop under the pressure. She already missed the bright sun and brisk wind of her home forest.
Kokoro led them between the boughs of a huge Ash tree, briefly creating a ghostly silhouette of black wings against pale bark. They landed in the shelter of leaves, and Kuroko was quick to shake her body, trying to shed the persistent dampness that fell in an endless drizzle from the gloomy sky.
"Let me introduce you," her mother rasped, giving her one last baleful look.
When broad wings pushed out between silvery leaves, Kuroko got her first look at the Southern Roost.
Huge was her first thought.
Surprisingly colorful was her second.
A grove of broad-leaved trees lay clustered together at the edge of a pool of still water. Under the branches was spread out a thick carpet of decaying pink flowers, their fleshy petals curling and turning brown. A few persistent flowers still lay tucked between the dark green leaves, but more remarkable still was the sheer amount of things strung up in the branches.
Strips of blue cloth, purple threads and countless little flashing beads were strung up among the heavy boughs. Shells hung from thin strings, flashing their mother-of-pearl despite the thick clouds overhead. Strings of thin needles were tied between some branches, and half-rusted tools of various shapes were hooked onto others. Where metal wasn't present, richly colored fabrics hung pierced by spindly branches, half-covered by sun-hungry leaves.
Behind it all, beyond the flashes of color and light, was hundreds of broad nests, layered atop and between each other. The branches and woven reeds created rippling platforms that shifted between the many trees that connected in the grove.
As the two passed the outer line of connected trees, Kuroko could see past the broad green leaves and spotted several birds perched in their expertly-woven nests, watching their travel from the dry spaces within. A few fluttered to follow them, but stopped just before the cover of leaves ended.
She hastened her wings as her mother whispered something like 'stay close', and followed right on her tail to land on a lower branch of the tallest tree.
Under the leaves and many nests, the air felt much warmer, and drier. She could suddenly hear the rattle of thousands of feathers, and the faint whispers that followed black eyes tracking them. The shadows practically hummed with shared voices, all of them wondering. She wasn't...connected to them, per se, but this close, with so many voices thrumming through them, it seemed to leak into the back of her mind.
Kuroko stayed otherwise perfectly still as a grizzled old bird hopped forward, but she couldn't help the sideways glance toward a silver key that bobbed every time he moved along that branch.
"So this is Kuroko." the bird croaked, somehow even more raspy than her mother. Kuroko dipped her head politely, not entirely sure about the etiquette of this sort of meeting. It inspired a small laugh out of him, at least. That was a plus, right?
"Welcome, at last, little one. We had hoped your mother didn't scared you off with stories of her misadventures." Kokoro feigned disinterest, but Kuroko could see the faint bristling of feathers in her mother's lower neck - a sure sign of irritation. It seemed the elderly crow noticed as well, and his chuckle crew a little louder.
"Well, make yourself at home, then. Not like I can stop you from doing what you please."
The last bit seemed aimed at her mother more than anything, and Kuroko was quick to follow her swift ascent through the branches.
She felt lucky that she didn't hit any nests or decorations on the way up, but the enormity of the nest didn't quite strike her until the two of them had crested the tree, and settled amongst the uppermost branches.
Below them, hundreds of nests spread out between dozens of trees, all woven and connected and filled with countless black birds, all fluttering between the leaves or watching them, or nestling down into soft hollows or little caves within the woven system of homes.
"When the rain lets up," Kokoro said softly, "We'll go out to find some food. If anyone asks about your bloodline, say you are 'half', and my daughter."
Half of what? She wondered, but did not press. The enormity of the crowd below her was already too daunting, and she preferred to just sink down on the bark she perched on. Satisfied that she was as small a target as she could make herself, Kuroko closed her eyes and tried to sleep with the faint heartbeat of her mother beside her.
She couldn't sleep.
She didn't know if it was due to the constant whisper of shadows around her, or the faint rasp of feathers, or the occasional but many-winged bursts of flight that kept drawing her attention. Leaves would shift, unfamiliar smells would waft up, and Kuroko wondered again if she'd ever get to go home. Back to her real home, anyway.
She ended up watching the other birds move about for several long hours before the dreary drizzle started to peeter out, and the constant drone of soft taps over hard leaves had faded.
At some point, her mother had slipped away into the shadows, leaving Kuroko only the vague instructions that she should find something to eat after the rain let up.
Sure enough, a group of birds were gathering at the foot of the tree, scratching in a familiar pattern that said they were hunting for worms. Reluctantly (for she enjoyed neither worms nor wet feet), Kuroko glided down to join them in the thick mat of decaying pink flowers. Her appearance garnered a few curious glances at first, but no one stopped her.
After a few minutes of mutually scratching at petals and pulling up worms, A young, raggedy looking bird hopped up beside her. She obligingly set aside the worms she had pulled up, more than happy to offer the food to an apparent fledgeling. His half-developed feathers stuck up cutely as he bent down to chomp down on another worm.
"Don't let him fool you, daughter-of-Kokoro." One of the crows huffed, flicking her tail in an unreadable gesture.
"Tero is quite capable of finding his own food."
The young crow cawed in protest, but under her curious gaze, his grey ruff of feathers smoothed together into a glossy black cape. She blinked, not sure exactly what she was seeing. Tero, suddenly an adult bird, hopped aggressively at the one who had spoken, but she ignored him despite the massive size difference.
When did that happen? She wondered to herself.
Tero, and a few of the other crows, now that she was looking for it, seemed substantially larger than the others. Possibly twice as large, with longer beaks and more hawk-like in head shape than the smaller birds that hopped between them. She had thought they were young, but perhaps not.
"Why is there such a size difference?" She wondered aloud.
The small group hushed, turning to look at her.
The small one who warned her burst out in a chittering little laugh, shaking her head and stealing a small beetle right from under Tero's claw. She half-flew away from his outraged hiss, only hopping back when the rest had settled down, and Tero had resigned himself to just glaring at her.
"She wasn't joking when she said you were young." The little one pointed out, hopping up beside Kuroko and gulping down the beetle with a satisfied crunch.
"It's the difference in bloodlines. Tero over there thinks he's hot shit 'cause he's a full blooded demon." She leaned in to stage whisper, "Though rumor has it, his great-grandfather was a regular crow, and he's just fat."
"You're the only one who says that, Chibi-chan." The larger bird hissed, irritation plainly showing. She just laughed at him, leaning down to look for another bug. Overhead, a group of crows flew out over the swamp, their numbers swirling together in a chaotic, synchronized dance.
"I could be right, though!" She chirped, reaching out a wing to brush a feather against Kuroko's side. "Right, daughter-of-Kokoro? His ego is bigger than he is!"
"My name's Kuroko."
"-eh?"
The smaller crow looked up at her, head tilted curiously.
"My name." She repeated, "Is Kuroko. Kokoro's my mother, yes, but… I have a name."
Black eyes blinked at her several times, and she could almost see the branches of thought shifting behind them.
"Alright… Kuroko-san, then. My name's Chiyobi."
"Nice…. Nice to meet you, Chiyobi."
The little bird bobbed her head, spreading her wings with a stretch.
"Uwaaaah, what a day. Anyway, I'm going to try hunting for frogs. You wanna join me, Kuroko-san?" Kuroko dipped her head, spreading her wings and hopping up to fly after her (new friend?) companion.
Their path meandered a bit over the slow-moving ponds and channels between marshy islands, heading into thicker mist. Kuroko briefly felt a flicker of unease when Chiyobi ducked out of sight, but the little bird was quick to reveal herself again. She flew down, joining the crow at the base of a gnarled tree, absently looking around for the telltale shine of a frog.
"Kuroko-san, are you-... Are you really-... Kokoro-hime said you were her daughter, so you shouldn't make a fool out of yourself pretending ignorance."
Kuroko looked up, noting how anxious the little bird seemed, shifting from foot to foot, tail fanned worriedly.
"Crows like Tero won't be kind, you know. If you give him a feather, he'll take a whole wing. Pretending to be ignorant only hurts yourself, and Kokoro-hime has been trying really hard to keep the Roost together."
She stood awkwardly, feeling a bit lost.
"Um, thank you? For the advice, I mean, I just... " The unsurity was back with a vengeance, and Kuroko felt the pressure building up. Would all the crows really be looking to her with expectations? Was she supposed to know more than she did? -hime wasn't something you called any old bird, and it was new information that she wasn't sure how to process just yet.
Chiyobi was looking at her with such an earnest face, she couldn't stop her mother's words from blurting out.
"I'm half! Just… just half. I don't know- I don't know what I'm supposed to do, or...what I'm supposed to know." Her mother said that was okay, right? Chiyobi seemed to be a mixture of relieved and worried anew.
"Wow- um, okay, you- You pass really well, I mean, not that you wouldn't- I just, yeah, okay. So… Do you need help? With anything? I'm kinda assuming you want to keep passing as a fullblood."
"What does that even mean?" Kuroko shrugged her wings helplessly with the question, sitting down on the damp moss when she realized Chiyobi was becoming more frustrated instead of less.
"What do you mean, what do I mean? Did Kokoro-hime tell you anything ? Ah, I'm sorry, I don't mean any disrespect." The little bird switched back to polite, still fidgeting anxiously.
"Chiyobi, please, I don't- Seriously, I don't know hardly anything. Or at least, I don't know if what I know is what I'm supposed to know, and the more I talk, the more I think I've been left in the dark!" She reined in the frustrated bark of words, wishing she had a more eloquent way of asking for someone to just help her understand everything, already!
The two of them were silent for a long moment, small feet pattering back and forth across dewy grass, while Kuroko's black eyes tracked her.
Maybe that was her problem, wanting to know everything all at once. But, it was incredibly frustrating as well. A sharp welling of need kept bubbling up in her chest, knowledge that should have been there just... absent.
Maybe if she just asked then someone would be willing to provide answers.
"Mother didn't tell me much about the Southern Roost." She admitted carefully, "Just that it was the North's counterpart, and the last bastion for the Crows. That... means, something, doesn't it? Why is it so important that my mom takes over?"
Chiyobi exhaled something meaningful, but Kuroko couldn't tell what it was.
"You don't plan on taking over after her, do you?"
Kuroko tilted her head as she reined in the spark of annoyance that her question was being sidestepped. The smaller bird elaborated.
"You're not trying to become the next leader, right? You're only a half blood, I don't think that's even allowed. But- If you're trying to pass, I wonder-"
"I don't have any plans for leadership." Kuroko interrupted, feathers prickling at the idea. She didn't even like having the foxes snarking after her tail. She definitely didn't want to know what an entire Murder of crows out for her blood would feel like. Chiyobi looked distinctly relieved.
"Alright, I'll just… I'll leave it at that, for now." She gave the larger crow a sharp stare. "We'll be talking about this later, you know."
Kuroko nodded obediently. Hopefully.
"Alright, great! Now let's hunt some frogs for real! Seriously, you've gotta try catching the little orange striped ones - they're super sweet."
She blinked at the sudden whiplash, but followed the black wings a few marshy lumps away, sharpening her hearing with Chakra enough to pinpoint the steady croak of a settled amphibian.
Chiyobi was quick to change topics, bouncing from explaining the nest structure, to the complicated web of interpersonal relationships.
It wasn't until she had gotten back to the nest that Chiyobi never had answered her question.
After that, her days passed fairly quickly, as Kuroko got into the rhythm of things.
In the morning, small flocks of crows would spread out, wings beating like thunder as they rose as one from the thick boughs of Mangolia trees that made up their Roost. Directed by Kokoro's keen insight, they'd spread to the corners of the marshland, sweeping the areas for unusual activity - both animal, demon, and human.
Chiyobi became a frequent companion, often yawning and complaining about long nights before bedding down in the early afternoon. Apparently, Kuroko learned, there were night patrols as well, and most of the Roost took their turn.
It was with some unease that she realized she had not been joining the others on their regular flights around the marsh. Her mother hadn't even spoken to her since they arrived.
It was with additional unease that she realized other birds were realizing this as well.
"Don't mind them." Chiyobi assured, slipping her an early-season blueberry, "You're not supposed to be on actual patrols, anyway." She paused, appearing to consider it. "Actually, it is kinda weird you're not even scouting nearby. That's something everyone does. I'd talk to Kokoro-hime. She probably wants you for something specific."
Kuroko opened her beak to ask more about the patrols, but Chiyobi was too busy giving the stink eye to a large crow above her to notice, and cut her off with a huff.
"-They get all twisted up about Fullbloods regardless - no point confronting the old crows about it. Did you hear what Tero said today? Professionalism on patrols my ass - He's such a-"
It really was amazing how fast her mind seemed to jump from topic to topic. She was learning it might be easier to let the little bird get it all out before trying to ask direct questions about the Roost, and how she was supposed to act around the others.
The other birds were polite, of course, but the more she looked for a friendly face, the more she noticed how quick they were to quiet themselves around her. How quick they were to find something that needed to be done instead of sticking around to chat.
"Just nervous," Chiyobi said. "Kokoro-hime is doing a lot for us, coming back. No one wants to upset her by stepping wrong with you.
"But I'm not sensitive." She protested softly, watching yet another group of crows excuse themselves for an impromptu patrol. "I won't get mad…"
That was a lie, though. The more it happened, the more she felt resentment grow, the quiet anger at being so left in the dark burbling up just a little more. She found herself flying in long, looping paths over the wetlands that bordered her new home. The marsh only extended a short ways on three sides, terminating in a drop-off as the water transformed into a wide river. It didn't take long at all to fly to the river, and she found she could skim around the entire edge of their little peninsula between the sun first breaching the horizon and settling high overhead.
Significantly longer was the path toward the mainland, and she assumed that's where the patrols were scouting.
Far, far in the distance, if she squinted, she could see the trails of smoke that signaled a human settlement.
Beyond the river, mist always seemed to obscure her sight.
Kokoro wasn't much of a help, once Kuroko actually tried to find her. The older bird usually either completely untraceable, or busy talking to a small crowd of crows, and politeness dictated she not interrupt that.
For all that she was surrounded by peers, she felt more alone now, than she had at the nest.
At least then, her mother was there for her.
The news of the attack had come swiftly - First in the shadows, then on urgent wings.
"They've returned!' cried a messenger, breathless as he lunged up from a shadow, clawing up onto a branch. His feathers had barely collected from the darkness when another came stumbling in behind him, red eyes rolling and feathers splayed.
"A hundred strong." The new crow gasped, staggering to another branch as the group watched with sharp eyes. "Mindless as any beast, with swords of bone and bloodlust for anything that moves."
Kuroko was only peripherally aware of the flurry of wings that spread like wildfire around her, and the sharp snap of her mother's voice giving orders that resonated through the shadows around them.
She couldn't stop staring at the pain-wracked crow shuddering on the branch below, one wing in misty tatters that didn't quite want to reform.
"Kuroko-san."
She lifted her head, surprised to see Tero so close. He and Chiyobi were usually quite loud in their arguing, she was a bit unused to him sneaking up.
"Tero…" She echoed, looking back down to the injured crow. Her wing ached just to look at it. Somehow, the misty tendrils kept reaching out and collapsing into so much smoke. It seemed more painful than if he had been bleeding everywhere.
"What's going on?"
The large bird sat quietly beside her for a moment, grim-faced as he watched the crow below.
"He'll be alright, Kuroko-san. His heart is in one piece, and a bit of extra Chakra will let him mend. " She blinked, faintly startled at the gentle tone.
"Until then," He continued, "Kokoro-hime is launching a strike against the invaders. She's sent word to the Cranes from the East, and some of the Spiders have volunteered for tribute. A bit overkill if you ask me, but she's playing it safe, which many appreciate."
She was already lost.
"How can I help?"
He was quiet for a moment.
"Can you listen through the shadows?" He asked, spreading his wings to feel the breeze.
"I- Yes?"
Tero nodded.
"Then we'll watch, and send messages back to Kokoro-hime. How far can you hear?"
"Mother and I could hear the Roost, from my nest."
Teru flapped, checked himself, and scrambled back onto the branch in a rather ungainly maneuver to stare wide-eyed at her.
"Didn't she- you, live by the Foxes?"
Surely there was more than one colony of foxes, right? They're not that rare.
"About a day's flight away, yeah?"
Tero made a soft noise, shaking his head fast enough to fluff up the ruff, and letting it smooth down again.
"Alright, you stay here, and I'll pass messages back to you. Listen for my voice- You can speak just as far as you can listen, right?"
She nodded, trying to hide her hesitation. She'd never tried.
"Stick with your mother. She'll probably have you passing messages to others, so stay ready for anything" He flapped up a branch, and paused. Tero turned slightly, to meet her nervous gaze.
"I'm counting on you, Kuroko-san. Please don't let me down."
He lifted up a bit higher, before diving down and plunging into a black shadow in the crook of a branch.
Kuroko swallowed, and focused on the lingering darkness before it had a chance to fade away.
Like the night sky full of glittering stars, the darkness bloomed forth in her mind with countless voices, and a unifying hum of anxious energy
"Mother, I am here."
As one, she could feel the focus turn toward her. Her heart pounded staccato in her chest, breath catching at the feeling of a thousand ears turned toward her.
Looks like she COULD speak that far. Something about the prickle told her the furthest crows were grouped together, while the nearest were circling the Roost's clearing. She didn't know how she knew, and she couldn't really be exact about it, but the knowledge still sat there.
"Alpha, Beta, Theta. My daughter will act as my mouth. Send your reports to me as usual, and listen for her directions." The clipped voice rolled out through the darkness, comforting in tone and cadence. Familiar. The echoing expanse of it narrowed down, like a purred whisper in her ear.
"Good job, Kuroko. Be careful, now. Speak only when I've asked you to."
She nodded, stepping sideways so she could lean against the trunk of her tree. Already, she could feel the Chakra draining at her.
"Tell Omega to continue circling."
"Omega, continue to circle." A faint ripple of affirmative echoed back.
"Perfect." Her mother's voice was approving, a warm glow that spread from her chest.
She could do this.
Gods, she hoped she could do this.