Feathers puffed out, excitement thrilling through him, pride close behind. They would explore, together! Rainstorm trusted him enough, enough to explore, enough to land beside him (and the sudden closeness was a little startling, but he adjusted quickly).

"Okay... Let's go," he said, though he was hesitating, nervous. The words came more as though he were shoring himself up. A moment later taloned toes uncertainly gripped the new ground beneath, and Blitz pushed forward--shoving through the brush, forward past ferns.

He looked hopeful, and afraid, and he glanced back. "I wonder what we will find..."

stars: ESO/UltraVISTA team. Acknowledgement: TERAPIX/CNRS/INSU/CASU; Mike's Birds on Flickr credit for part of "Black and white hawk eagle"

totally gonna badger the other GMs for something to react to here!

@Rainstorm

She was also... baby! Standing at about a foot tall and only about five or six feet in length, Meissa had only just hatched a week or so ago; but her wings were big and floppy! She'd have to grow into them. Meissa has dark blue fur that glitters with glowing gold specks, and any other bits of gold also glow—like the ends of her antennae, ears, fins, wings... She liked to be glowy!

When she had been born, a gentle and loving figure greeted her: he was white, and smelled like flowers! She could understand his chirps and coos, even though he did not speak words. But she... she could speak words! As she found her voice, she declared she was called Meissa! And Meissa wanted to explore, stretch her legs, stretch her... her WINGS!

But father did not want her to—she was supposed to stay in the den and grow. Meissa frowned and complained, twisting and twirling in their den, throwing a tantrum. So Lyn agreed she could explore outside of the den if she stayed within sight!

That was in Orion. Yesterday..? She had successfully slipped free of her father's gaze and flitted off toward the smell of something nicer... but she had to take a lot of breaks! It was tiring flying so far and running so far, on baby wings and baby legs!

She had finally been greeted with the backdrop of lush green, and in her wonderment, continued to push further into the jungle. Meissa played a game where she hopped from rock to rock, gliding and fluttering to the next one with a chorus of giggles and sweet laughs. This was so much fun! Unfortunately, she still had a lot to learn about balance as her grip slipped free from the roughness of a pointed rock and she slid down its length into the lush ferns below.

A cacophony of tiny, angry snarls and chirps rose from her location. That was scary!

Rainstorm watched as the other bird pushed forward even if he was a bit hesitant. Either way, exploring would be fun! Rainstorm followed the other bird when he started to move away from the location they were in before- the blue victoria crowned pigeon had seen some of the place when they had gotten there, but not much. Rainstorm pushed through the ferns and brush themselves to stride alongside the other creature, only to hear a sound not far from their location.

Their feathers billowed up, and made them look bigger than they already were. Startled, Rainstorm turned to Blitz.

"Wonder what that was. Wanna go see?" The asked, with wide eyes.

@Blitz

Blitz flinched and blinked at the sudden chorus of small cries, and he, too, puffed up just a little. He exchanged a wide-eyed glance with Rainstorm, and then gave a little nod--and tried to find his courage. He did his best to sound brave, as he spoke, though he didn't exactly feel it.

He didn't know what rats or mice sounded like, or bats; he had no way of knowing if they'd just heard something harmless, or terrible and deadly. But... that was the fun of exploring, wasn't it?

...Wasn't it?

"Yeah! We'll find out what it was." His words--still new to him--were carefully-chosen.

Blitz was but a fledgling; he felt the instinct to fly, but he wasn't sure just how it might work. He hesitated, dropping into a half-crouch, and then hopped skyward: leaping into a short, flapping, clumsy glide. He fell, gracefully, vaguely in the direction of the sounds--and went crashing into foliage a couple yards short of their origins. He landed wings-up, face-down, feet in the air behind him, and it took him a moment to scramble to his feet.

There was a leaf in his head-feathers.

Blitz looked around for Rainstorm, and once he was sure she'd be close beside him, or at least behind him (he didn't want to leave her behind--it wasn't that he was afraid, or anything...) he pushed forward to see what all the fuss was.

stars: ESO/UltraVISTA team. Acknowledgement: TERAPIX/CNRS/INSU/CASU; Mike's Birds on Flickr credit for part of "Black and white hawk eagle"

@Game Master CJ

For a moment, Meissa twisted and turned to right herself and get back on her feet. She plopped down into a pout, using the length of her tail to brush debris off of some of her body; she twisted around to reach her backside and used her paws to free loose leaves and vines from her wings. Ugh! When she was clean again, she popped onto her feet and let out a triumphant call. That's right! Meissa had won that fight! The tiny fox-like dragon kicked at some of the leaves she had removed from herself, huffing at them in warning. Watch it, foliage scum!

@Rainstorm

Rainstorm watched as Blitz hopped over the foothill, as if he were trying to take to the skies. Rainstorm themselves had no instinct to do that, in fact, their feet had stayed completely on the ground. Instead walking, and climbing to the area that the other bird had glided to. When Rainstorm got there, they did see Blitz scrambling to get back to his feet, and couldn't help but cackle at the sight. Though the bird moved to grab the leaf out of the other's feathers. It was the nice thing to do!

Either way, they did hear the call from the creature. The two birds were close, now. If they could hear whatever it was pretty clearly, then they had to be close! "This way!" Rainstorm called out, dashing in the direction of the sound from the strange creature.

@Blitz

Blitz was so busy peering off at the kicking sounds--and the rising blue fox-dragon-creature--that he nearly missed Rainstorm barreling past. 'This way!'

He scrambled to catch up, wings coming out to stabilize his childlike, stumbling waddle.

"Wait for me-!" He fell on his face once or twice, but as he came nearer he slowed, blinking large yellow eyes at Meissa.

They had gone exploring, and found something already! Awesome!

"Hello!" Blitz squeaked. He dropped into a sit, feathers puffing, and panted a little through parted beak. It was the first time he'd ever really moved in his life, and boy was it tiring! He still managed a proud introduction, though: "I'm Blitz!"

He looked Meissa over. She was beautiful--a baby, he thought, like them; but glittering and colorful. Then he eyed the foliage, which she'd been kicking at--fighting?

"Did the-... um. Grass, hurt you?" he asked, eyeing the leaves and vines suspiciously.

stars: ESO/UltraVISTA team. Acknowledgement: TERAPIX/CNRS/INSU/CASU; Mike's Birds on Flickr credit for part of "Black and white hawk eagle"

@Game Master CJ

(oh i didn't know it was my turn?? i'm sorry!! can you gm tag these otherwise my weak brain forget)

There was rustling and noises in the ferns; after she had successfully defeated the foliage she was wrestling, her large ears focused on the sound and she waited—until new faces popped right out of the underbrush!

An airy, squeaky hiss seeped from between her bared teeth as her back arched and her fur raised like a startled cat. But she was not, however, intimidating. At all. The winged creature greeted her and she listened, still as stone. Her eyes slid carefully to the other, inspecting, learning—and wanting to learn more.

"Blitz!" she decided to echo, finally. Did the grass hurt her? She looked down to her paws, flapped her wings a couple of times, and looked back up. "No. I hurt grass. I am Meissa, I win the grass!" Her nose lifted upward in a defiant, triumphant pose. She was Meissa! She was strong!

@Rainstorm

The long creature fluffed up with claws and teeth and fur. Rainstorm wasn't... Really afraid of the other child creature. Nor the ferns that it was wrestling with. Winning the grass? Grass hurting someone? What on earth was going on? The bird didn't really understand.

However they did stare at the other.... strange thing with red eyes.

"I'm Rainstorm!"

The blue colored bird looked over at Blitz before turning back to the other thing.

"We explorin'"

@Blitz

Blitz looked to Meissa, and then, once more, to the grass that had apparently tried--and failed!--to defeat her.

He reared back some, wings flaring out and beak parting, and then a small shockwave of energy tore through the foliage. The eagle chick then paused, head tilting jerkily (in a birdlike fashion) this way and that as he regarded the blades. None of the grass seemed about to retaliate, and so he folded them back over his back, uncertain now about the nature of grass but sure in its defeat.

"It lost," he agreed, with a nod to Rainstorm.

Blitz then looked over Meissa. In a strange way, he sort of fixated on her at once; she was pretty, in distress, and some distant and probably completely stereotypical protective, knightly urge fell over him at once. But he was polite, and not a pushy sort, mostly because he was exactly an hour old, and so he asked Meissa: "Can I protect you?"

The eagle didn't exactly know what that entailed; he didn't mean it to be insulting, either, or to imply that either Rainstorm didn't need help, or that Meissa did. Or that he, himself, was capable of even doing so. But somehow she was sparkly, and shiny, and he didn't want that to get destroyed by the evil, lurking... grass. So he asked--because, being an hour old, he hadn't really had anything better come up yet.

stars: ESO/UltraVISTA team. Acknowledgement: TERAPIX/CNRS/INSU/CASU; Mike's Birds on Flickr credit for part of "Black and white hawk eagle"

@Game Master CJ (and gm tagging)