"Wow, pretty!" Edelgard smiled and chuckled a bit as the tiny boy stood next to her. She held her eagle, Lara, toward her son and daughter. The boy reached out but Edelgard stopped him.
"Now, Ernst, remember to only stroke her chest." She showed him again how to gently stroke the keel. Normally Imperial children were only allowed to start handling birds around the ages of twelve to fourteen. She had never seen the birds until she'd been thirteen. Ueli had nearly thrown her and Hubert out that first day they'd approached the royal mews. She wanted her children to be well mannered around the birds, so she figured she'd start early. The twins were only six, but she really did want them to not be blindsided by how to handle the birds. She hoped she would be able to pass her love of the birds onto her children. Evelin, though long gone, had helped her through one of the darkest places in her life.
The tiny boy reached forward with his hand and started stroking the massive eagle's keel bone. His sister folded her arms and looked up at Edelgard, her cheeks puffed out. "Why does he get to go first? I was born first!"
Edelgard patted her daughter's head. "It's not going to take too long." She moved her son's hand away and held it out to her daughter. The little girl's bright green eyes lit up and she stroked the bird's keel. This...was something she wished she could remember forever. Her children's first interaction with the eagles. She had already started teaching them the songs on how to charm raptors. They would likely never use it, but she wanted to preserve the art... She had started her book on it a long time ago. Thankfully, she had Dorothea to help her with the musical notation... Her opera background definitely helped in that immensely. She would be forever grateful to her partner for all of the help.
Sadly, this day would fade into the ether of her memories like so many others. Despite everything...all of her partners still loved her. For so long, she had feared she would never find love, but she had and then some. Life remained difficult but she could look back on what few days she could remember and smile. The Officer's Academy had really just been the start of a better life...
The wind stirred her brown hair and Lara flapped a bit. "Would you like to see her fly?" The twins nodded excitedly. Edelgard tied her off to a creance and sat her on a fencepost. It wasn't a long flight to the glove, but the children's eyes gleamed brightly. "When you're old enough, you'll get to fly your own eagles someday." She would make sure of it. They deserved only the best after all she had suffered... At least she had never gone to war with the Church like she had thought she would for so long... Life was better without the senseless violence...
She remained outside with them for a little while until she could see them tiring. "All right; that's enough excitement for one day. Let's get you inside." She smiled at them and they both pouted. She handed her eagle back off to Annika and offered her hands to both children. With a smile, she turned on her heel and headed back up to the castle. Life was hard and being a mother wasn't easy, but it was better than the darkness she had lived in for so long following the Crest experiments... She wouldn't trade her life for anything now.