— One day later —

As I woke up, I was filled with excitement and nervousness.

Tonight is my date with Osprey. Alright, act normal; don't want them suspecting anything. I left my room to get breakfast. Then I took Mountain out hunting for the day, which took most of the day. The sun was already halfway down when we finished, so I took Mountain with me to Swamp's Shop. I held him in my talon as I opened the door to her shop.

"Sandstorm, here for your flowers. I- oh, you brought Mountain with you."

"Yeah, I didn't have time to bring him back to the house."

"Well, either way, here's your flower head," she said, putting it in my other talon.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome," she said as I left the shop and flew home. When I got home, I went to my window and placed the flower in my room, then I went around to the front door and opened it.

"Sandstorm, how was your hunting trip with Mountain?" my dad said as I put Mountain down.

"It went well; he caught a few rabbits and some shrews."

"That's good. Now could you go tell your sister that dinner is ready?" my mom said.

"Ok." I went up the stairs to my sister's room.

"Hey Crab, mom said dinner-"

"You definitely love someone."

"W-What"

"I saw you drop off that flower in your room; if you get someone jewelry and a flower, then I don't know what else it is except love."

Quick, I have to come up with something to explain this.

"Uh, it's Winter's hatching day soon, and you know how royals are."

"Well then why did you get him a flower?"

"Oh, that's not for Winter; it's for uh, Qibli so he can uh, give it to Moon," I said nervously.

"Sure. Now let's get some dinner," she said unconvinced and walked out of her room and down the stairs. I sighed and followed her.

After dinner, I went back to my room and waited until the sunset, made sure Crab couldn't see me, and left for Jade Mountain.

—- A few hours later —

I landed at the main entrance, and Osprey was already there.

"Didn't keep you waiting too long, did I?"

"No, I have only been here a few minutes."

"Good. Here, I got you some things," I said, giving her the necklace and putting the flower on her ear.

"They're…beautiful. Thank you," she said, putting the necklace on.

"No problem," I said, sitting down looking at the moons, and Osprey sat down beside me.

"So my friends told me that it was obvious that we were in love," I said.

"That's what my friends said too."

"How did we never notice before?"

"I don't know; love is weird like that."

"Well, I'm glad I got the courage to ask you out because now we can spend all the time in the world loving each other," I say, intertwining our tails together and making Osprey blush (and I probably was too).

"I'd like that a lot," she said, leaning on me. We spent an hour like that, even though it felt like a few moments, before I said,

"Want to fly around the Mountain?"

"Sure, just don't complain when you can't keep up."

"Don't worry; I'll be fine."

"You sure? We wouldn't want our date to be cut short because you threw up," she said teasingly.

"It was one time, and it was because the boar I had was bad."

"You sure it wasn't because you just raced me 5 laps around the mountain? Who challenges their crush to a race anyway?"

"Well, it was after that race that I started having a crush on you because you were so sweet and kind after I threw up."

"Well, I fell for you shortly after the night you helped me with my homework; you were so smart and kind and didn't treat me like an idiot when I got a question wrong, unlike Octopus."

"Yeah, she is not a good tutor. Now come, let's fly."

"Alright, but seriously if you get tired just tell me, and we can stop," she said, taking off.

"I'm telling you it was the boar," but she was already gone, so I took off and caught up with her. We were up there for a long time before I got tired, and we landed at the top of the mountain. We were sitting watching the stars when I said,

"Hey, listen, there is something I should probably tell you."

"What is it?"

"Well, I'm an animus."

"Y-You are?"

"Yeah, Mason made me one who knows when; all I know is that it was before I was four."

"Does anyone else know?"

"Yes, Moon, Kinkajou, Qibli, Winter, Turtle, Frost, and Camel know, but only because Mason told them; you're the first person I have willingly told."

"You haven't told your family?"

"No, I didn't plan on ever using it since I didn't want to lose my soul, so why bother. I will probably use it for important stuff now though because Mason also revealed that we wouldn't lose our souls as long as we didn't do anything evil with it."

"Well, you should tell them now, but I'm glad you told me now."

"Yeah, you're right; I will tell them tomorrow," I said.

Guess I will have to put off telling them about Osprey for a few days until the shock of the announcement wears off.

"Good, you wouldn't want this to ruin your relationship with your family."

"Yeah, speaking of which, you're handling this well."

"Well, I know that this is probably a tough thing to go through, especially after the whole Darkstalker incident, so I get wanting to keep it a secret."

"Thanks for being understanding."

"That's what a girlfriend is supposed to be," she said, putting a talon on my cheek and leaning in a little closer, our snouts were inches apart, and then I kissed her, a favor which she returned. I don't know how long we kissed, but it felt like heaven. When we eventually pulled apart, Osprey said,

"We should probably go soon; it's getting late."

"Yeah, when should we meet up again?"

"Do you know where the Diamond river begins?"

"Yeah."

"Meet me there same time next week; I want to show you my hometown."

"Sounds good, well then bye, love you," I said hugging her.

"Bye, love you too," she said hugging me back, and then we took off heading home.

When I got home, I went through my window and went to bed. The next morning I woke up and was starving, so I went to get breakfast. Everyone was already eating when I walked out.

"Well good morning, sleepyhead," my dad said.

"Good morning," I said sitting down and picking up a goat from the table then eating it.

"Hey, I need to tell you all something."

"Well, go ahead; what is it?" my mom said excitedly, probably thinking it was me saying I got a girlfriend.

"Well," I took a deep breath and said, "I'm an animus."

"You're a What!?" Crab said, spitting out all the food in her mouth.