Adeyemi had wandered through the tunnels and rooms of Origin for what felt like days, having lost track of where, exactly, Willow had gone. Anxiety churned in his gut, the feeling new to the turaco, and he called out occasionally, always waiting for a reply - and never receiving one. With a nervous flutter of his wings, the bird trekked on, never stopping for more than a few minutes, paranoid that the jaguar cub he'd come across would return and take back their truce.

So lost in thought was the tiny chick that he almost ran straight into - another bird! It had to be, judging from the beak, the claws, the feathers, the wings, and, of course, the general aura of perfection that all of his feathered family gave off. Adeyemi puffed up his crest and chest, stopping a few feet from Gertrude, crowing out a welcoming kraw! with a beat of his multicolored wings.

"Friend! What a welcome surprise," he offered, tone genuine as it only was when speaking to one of his own kind.

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While the owl had lost her feathery companion (much to her disguised distraught) she had a clash with a strange dog-creature who seemed to think of her as some sort of weirdly-shaped sister.

Or a chew toy.

.. Didn't matter, really.

So she decided to backtrack to Orion - where she found nothing but the fascinating ceiling and the dusty buildings. Going back to Polaris was indeed out of the question - she saw the angry flames and every lick of sense in her told her the fire was to be avoided. There was only a brief sinking feeling of dread that Adeyemi had somehow got caught in there.

But she quickly dismissed that from her mind. He wasn't that stupid. Willow continued her way, deciding to try going through a tunnel to see if he was there and - if not, she'd check Eridanus.

And as luck would have it, the turaco was standing in the middle of the tunnel with another bird. Contentedly she fluffed herself up and made her way behind the brightly-coloured bird, idly sticking her beak to the back of his head, preening his feathers.


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If birds could grin, Adeyemi certainly was, flushing under his fluffy plumage. Nobility?! Yes... nobility. The title fit him perfectly, and the tiny chick's chest feathers fluffed up with pride. "Yes, well," he cooed, flustered, "it is always a pleasure to meet others of noble blood." He opened his beak to continue on with the spiel, but the soft tip-tap of talons caught his attention, and the turaco had but a moment to tense up before a gentle beak was at his neck, preening sea-green feathers.

Letting out a soft, relieved coo, Adeyemi turned his head, blinking in surprise and gratitude at his not-so-lost companion. "My friend! I'd thought I'd lost you," he admitted, turning away sheepishly with a cough at the sickly amount of emotion that had seeped into the words. The turaco almost missed his new noble friend's words, but returned to the here-and-now just in time, rustling his wings and puffing up his crest.

"I," he began, deliberately trying to lower and smooth out his croaky juvenile tone, "am Adeyemi." A few moments of silence, and a cock of the head: "Prince Adeyemi." Lost in the revelry of such a title, he almost forgot to introduce the owlet at his side, and quickly turned to her, spreading his wings wide around her, as if both showing her off and defending her from the other male. "And this is... uh... my lovely companion," he finally settled on, beaming.

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"Willow," said the owl, nodding at her friend. She was as soft-spoken as ever.

She wasn't sure where these birds had pulled talk of royality and nobility from, but she let it slide. She could trust Adeyemi to know what he was talking about - or rather, she hoped she could. She was painfully aware that the turaco had a tendancy to be horribly arrogant.

At length, she peered at 'Prince' Charmbirb. Her head tilted, and then swiveled to look behind her. Perhaps she wasn't even aware of the turqouise eye on the back of her head - or, perhaps even, she was.

Slowly her head turned back around and the owl nodded once, before fluffing up to listen to the two 'princes' talk to each other.

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Adeyemi tried - mostly unsuccessfully - to hide his surprise at hearing that his companion had found a name in the time they'd been apart. "Willow...? Well, no matter," he added, straightening up and turning to the other prince with a click of his talons. The turaco barely noticed her head turning about, beginning to grow used to the girl's strange movements. Her gem caught his eye, however, and he crowed out a laugh at the green bird's response.

"Willow has many talents," he went with, chest feathers puffing up with pride. "She can strike fear into the hearts of many, yes." The chick didn't seem to notice the barb about normality, instead turning to peer at the back of Willow's head, inspecting her gem. Adeyemi himself still wasn't quite comfortable with just how much the blue stone resembled another eye, but he shrugged it off with a rustle of his wings, turning back to Charmbirb with a flick of his crest. "Do you have a companion as well, Prince Charmbirb?"

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Willow was vaguely fluffy and dully coloured. At first glance, she honestly didn't look like anything that could frighten something else, never mind strike fear into their very hearts - though her talons looked a little sharp.

She gave an inward sigh, "I do not belong to Adeyemi. You do not have to talk to me through him - in fact, I advise you do not," the owl sounded only a little irritated, but she was still horribly soft-spoken.