This was the fic I had always wanted to write about Izuki and Takao as Hawkbrothers. And I finally got the chance by using this competition as an excuse. Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series was my childhood, I'm not even ashamed.
Regarding names: the kanji for Izuki's name mean - 'that one' 'moon' and 'sagacious', while the kanji for Takao's mean - 'high' 'tail' 'peace' and 'become'; so Moonsage and Calmtail. Washi is eagle in Japanese and Taka is hawk, I couldn't remember if there were any rules to naming bondbirds orz
Also, I have no idea if Velgarth even has an East Asia analogy, so everyone else is kind of vague.
Moonsage considered himself pretty normal by Tayledras standards. Sure, he was probably the only person to have gotten himself bonded to an eagle even though he couldn't lift poor Washi if his life depended on it, but he was just that eagler for a bondbird. Come to think of it, the others didn't really understand his interest in puns either.
But all that aside, as a normal Tayledras, Moonsage didn't feel the need to leave the Vale and did not understand why he was told to go to Valdemar. He might be related to Darkwind who's the envoy, but the two of them had never been close; they were, in fact, very distant cousins. Oh, that was a good one, he should remember that.
He wasn't like Calmtail – who'd never changed his name out of the sheer irony of it compared to his personality – who had curiosity in spades and was always trying to dig up excitement. Case in point, wherever Calmtail was taking him now.
"Are we there yet? I'm gonna start practicing my puns if we're not there soon." Soaring above him, Washi screeched in amusement at the idea of Moonsage using puns as a threat when he'd let one loose without any provocation at all.
"We're here, we're here! Knock that off, I don't want you to give them a bad impression of us."
"My knees are knocking already. Who's this 'them'? And what is that?"
That was the tall pole at the other end of the paved clearing they found themselves in; it had a square piece of board set on top with a hoop protruding from it. Dangling from the hoop was a net that had its bottom cut out, presumably so that the ball a man in a healer's uniform had just tossed would be able to fall through the net easily and be caught by the tallest man Moonsage had seen in his life. He was wearing a blue uniform that Moonsage vaguely remembered was from some kind of engineering school in the Capital.
"Just keep your mouth shut," Calmtail muttered out of the corner of his mouth before speaking up, "hey, I managed to bring someone. This is Moonsage, this way we'll have enough numbers, right?"
Despite the urge to saying something – and there were so many puns he could have made – Moonsage behaved himself all the way through the explanation for the rules of the game. He'd seen the looks Calmtail had sent the man in the healer's garb, Moonsage wanted things to go smoothly for the two of them.
Which was why Moonsage waited all the way until the herald with glasses – who seemed to be the unofficial leader, or at least acted like one – finished speaking before opening his mouth, "what about my bondbird? Can he join in too?"
"If you want him to." Glasses guy shrugged. "Taka always joins in from above when Calmtail plays, so it would be fairer if we've got you on the other side with your bird to even the scales. My Companion acts as Centre, so it's not like we'd care."
Looking in the direction Glasses guy had pointed at with his thumb, Moonsage noted another tall pole not far to his right; and right under it was one of the pure white Companions that Valdemar was famous for. This particular one tossed his – her? – head when he caught Moonsage's gaze and gave him a horsey grin.
"We are still waiting for some people to arrive, so you are welcome to practice for a bit." Yelping at the voice coming from off to the side that he could have sworn was empty of people, Moonsage found himself face to face with someone he had never noticed until then. Though Washi, who had settled on a tree branch near the Companion, pointed out crossly that the other man had been there the whole time – how did Moonsage not notice him?
But before he had time to think about it any further the ball came soaring towards him, and almost unconsciously Moonsage brought his hands up to catch it before it thumped into his chest. The shock of the weight of the ball felt pleasant and he threw it gently on the ground before catching it again as it bounced back up – the way he had seen some of the others do it.
The afternoon passed in a whirl of ball passes, bounces – which they called dribbling, and amazing shoots into the goals. It was the most fun Moonsage had ever had in Valdemar. Even if none of the rest of them appreciated his puns any more than the Tayledras did. At least the Companion seemed to have enjoyed the carrot Moonsage had on him, though he (not a she apparently) had rolled his eyes with the others when Moonsage had come out with, "it seems you really carrot a lot about carrots." It had been another good one too.