Backdated 3 cycles, a few days after we dream of stars tonight

There was a quiet moment that Wilder had found to rest for herself after a number of days of what she could only describe as chaotic bliss. She had wished a long time ago for a family that loved her, for children that didn't leave, that all hatched happy and healthy and were good, and that wish had been fulfilled. But she had very quickly learned that there was a caveat to that. Having three children that wanted cuddles and snuggles and hung off her every word and also various body parts made life...interesting. Very often she found her foot wrapped in Yume's coils or tripping over Beans looking up at her with wide-eyes, ready for more stories.

Exhausting, but she wouldn't trade it for anything.

Now, the three of them were asleep for a while and she found a moment to sit down next to Vaati and give him a long-overdue groom. Her pitch rat familiar had been a great second set of paws, playing with them when they needed, sharing food, keeping an eye on them if they wandered far. It was like having a very quiet live-in nanny. But she hadn't had the time to sit down and do their own grooming ritual, where Wilder would fight a losing battle against his ragged, spikey fur while he carefully groomed her in turn, his pointed incisors incredibly gentle as they brushed through her fur and carefully nibbled off grit and shed and dead skin.

They sat together against the opposite wall for a while, her soft purr and the pitch rat's quiet bruxing as two old friends basked in their peace.

@Cyg

Not long after hatching, the pre-feather fluff that Cyg possessed had dried, leaving the child as fluffy as a baby chick, and not at all flight-capable yet. Not that it had occurred to Cyg that he even could fly, as far as he knew so far he simply had two big unwieldly limbs that weren't feet.

Cyg wasn't the best at listening to the actual content of the stories his mama told, always getting distracted from the words she spoke with the attention span of a bird-kitten, but he loved story-time regardless, because even if he couldn't pay attention to the words, he loved hearing mama's voice directed at him and his siblings like that.

He wasn't sure exactly when he had fallen asleep, not the best at keeping track of anything yet, but Cyg woke up to mama's soft purr as well as Vaati's not-purr purring sound. Happy noises.

At first, though, he could only see his siblings, until he turned his head and his functioning eye saw his mama and Vaati grooming each other.

Mama groomed them often, but it hadn't occurred to Cyg that she might also want to be groomed.

Even if it had, without witnessing Vaati grooming with teeth and little hands both, Cyg probably wouldn't have thought he could groom anyone. His head was a different shape, with having a beak and all that.

But maybe, one day, he could groom Mama back, if he figured out what his method was.

"Mama," he chirped, his voice bright. "Vaati," he chirped out a greeting to his mama's quiet friend too.

He wiggled his way out of the tangle that was his siblings, and he approached on somewhat unwieldly legs, his head tilted to keep his mama and her friend in his vision as he moved.

"Mama groom Vaati, and Vaati groom Mama. But, groom different. Cyg groom different, too? How Cyg groom?" he asked, trying to pay attention in a way his easily distracted mind didn't always. Because this was important.

@Wilder

Wilder had just begun dozing a bit when the chirp brought her back to attention. She glanced over and smiled at Cyg as he stumbled over to them. Vaati paused his own grooming to watch the kid as well, his paws resting on Wilder's flank as he continued bruxing softly.

"Hi, Cyg," she purred, sitting up a little straighter from the lounging position she had been falling into. She hadn't known what to expect from this particular hatchling. None of them, really. They'd all been stones she'd found or been given. And, just like the last time, they'd all come out unique. But she could see herself in them - in Yume's cat-like head and paws, in Beans's shape and color, in Cyg's lower half and the bright pink eye that looked at her now.

At the question she paused, her tail flicking curiously. To be honest, she wasn't sure. Cyg had a beak instead of a more mammalian mouth so she started sorting through her memories, trying to remember the last time she'd seen a bird groom themselves.

It only took a second for her thoughts to fly to Aure. Memories from her childhood when they would do something not too different from what she and Vaati did now. She'd seen him groom himself - or preen, he said it was called - running his beak through feathers and softly nibbling away dirt and bits of keratin from his pin feathers. Nostalgia - and sadness, of course - came with the memories, but Vaati's hands on her side and the sight of her son in front of her kept her present, kept her from falling too deep into that pit.

"Hm, well, you can try something like what Vaati does." She raised a paw and unsheated a claw, curling the toe down in an immitation of Cyg's upper beak. "Kind of softly pick out debris. I had a friend once that had a beak and that's what he'd do, if I remember correctly."

As a demonstration, she pulled up a memory and Cyg would see a slightly smaller version of Aure appear, preening the feathers on his chest as a demonstration on how he would do it as well.

@Cyg

Cyg listened, fascinated by more than just the idea of being able to groom himself or others, but he was also fascinated by the idea his mama had a friend with a beak, like his.

As the projection appeared, Cyg gasped, staring at it with fascination. "Mama made friend appear! Beak-friend!" he proclaimed, with the simultaneous wonder and curiosity that suited a child his age.

For a moment, he observed the beaked-friend with absolute fascination, watching as they did grooming motions with their beak, in a way that was indeed somewhat similar to Vaati's way of grooming with careful teeth.

But Cyg's curiosity was infinite, and soon he found himself wondering if he could make a friend appear, like mama had.

Unconsciously he reached towards his magic for the first time, wanting a friend to appear like the way his mama's had.

But nothing happened. "Cyg want make friend appear," he spoke with a dismayed air at his failure.

@Wilder

It was funny, watching the child's attention be completely ripped away by just the image of her magic. No longer did he seem interested in grooming, but in the magic she'd displayed. Like mother like son, apparently. She chuckled. "Yes, that's Aure. He was my friend a long time ago." She did not mention that they were not friends anymore and felt a lump trying to crawl its way up her throat.

With just a blink, the image of Aure vanished and she forcefully swallowed the sadness threatening to take away this moment. She moved a bit more, leaning away from the wall and more towards Cyg. "That was a bit of a complicated spell. But if you'd like to learn we can start simpler. You can always make a friend." She didn't know that Cyg was trying to conjure a wisp, but it was her go-to thought in that moment.

Between them, a pink wisp flared to life, dancing merrily between Wilder and Cyg. "It's okay if you don't get it at first. Try again."

@Cyg

Cyg was captivated by the image, and more than a bit sad to see it disappear. But his own sadness was fleeting, replaced with incurable curiosity. "Spell?" he repeated, fascinated with the word.

He gave a delighted gasp as the pink little wisp appeared. His tail flicked back and forth, an instinct to chase arising in him. But it would be mean to chase Mama's friend. "Mama's friend pretty! Like her eyes!" Cyg proclaimed with delight.

The child tried to visualize making a wisp specifically this time, like his mama had done, though he knew not what they were called. To him, they were simply friends.

At first, he worried it had failed again, then a weak light sputtered into existence, the color of the green-blue grandiderite that replaced his other eye, though he didn't realize that, having not really seen it. He gasped yet again. "Friend! Mama, Cyg made friend!"

Said friend bobbed up and down in the air, and Cyg gazed at the friend with absolute amazement.

@Wilder

Wilder nodded, her tail drifting across the ground and curling up over her leg. "Yes, spell. That's magic that you're doing. We can all do magic." Her eyes caught, quickly, the signs of playfullness. The twitching tail, the way his pupils grew round at the sight of the wisp. Her whiskers twitched and she flicked her eyes to playfully bounce her willowisp around, if Cyg wanted to chase it like a cat after a laser pointer, but said laser pointer was actually a hot pink will-o-wisp.

She purred loudly when the little green wisp flickered awake. She reached forward and tentatively poked at the fire and was delighted that it had a lack of heat - her magic, then, the same spell but made his own! "Excellent! It's beautiful!" She reached forward to give him a quick congratulatory lick on the head. "This is a good spell to practice. I always liked to use it too when I was younger. Its a small comfort, but a good one. If you keep practicing, you'll be able to do even more cool things! Like..." She quickly sifted through her repertoire of magic and settled on another "friend conjuring" spell.

Her own wisp disappeared as, instead, a light pink and gold songbird appeared in front of Cyg, sparkling with cosmic dust. It opened its wings and let out a small chirp before fluttering up and flying around the home, its tiny wingbeats barely moving the air.

@Cyg

"Magic!" the little bird-kitten exclaimed with amazement.

Cyg could not resist the invitation of the pink wisp dancing and bouncing around, but clearly this friend of Mama's wanted to play, he decided, justifying his decision to go after it. Much like the feline he in many ways resembled, his behind wiggled, and then he leapt! He too was soon bouncing around, following the pink wisp.

His own first wisp came next as he took a pause from playing to gather energy for that friend, and he happily accepted the praise of his mama. The wisp did a happy zig zag when Cyg was licked on the forehead, and he purred happily.

Another gasp accompanied the sight of the tiny beaked magic creature. "'Nother beak! Like me!" he announced, happy to have noticed this. His beak was more curved than this songbird's, but he was happy all the same. He gasped as it took to the air. "Friend fly?! Can Cyg fly?!" For the bird used similar limbs to fly to the ones Cyg had previously thought of as unwieldly.

It was an exciting thought, but Cyg wished to make more friends, he decided.

He tried to channel his magic yet again, like he had when he created his first own friend. Mama had only kept one magic-friend at a time, but there was no reason he couldn't have another friend, he decided. It would be one like his first friend, so they wouldn't get jealous of each other, he thought, mind already in the future.

This time, the friend he summoned wasn't as faint, though. It was clear and vivid, if in the same hue the first one had. For a moment, he worried his two friends wouldn't get along, as they circled each other, but soon they were bouncing around together just as he thought about how nice it would be if they did get along.

"Mama, mama! Two friends!"

@Wilder

Wilder was delighted at the second wisp that appeared. "Oh, good job! You're already getting better at it." She thought back to quite a while ago, when this magic was first taught to the gembound of the caves. It was wisps, yes, but there were other uses for it. She had forgotten such a way to use it, as it had never been of much use to her, but perhaps Cyg would find more worth in it. "You know, if you keep practicing that, you may find that there's a way for your friends to defend you. Outside this house, things might be a little scary. But there's ways for these to help." She reached forward with a paw and touched the second wisp that had been summoned. "You will have to be careful, though, but I believe you can do it."

She tilted her head and nosed the wings at Cyg's side. "Perhaps! Come, we can try to fly together!" She stood from her spot and motioned for Cyg to follow her outside the hut. In the meantime, she summoned her cosmic wings, unfurling from seemingly nothing and laying at rest at her side. She paused just outside the entrance and waited for Cyg to join her.

@Cyg

He regarded his mama with delight as she praised his magic efforts. He gave a happy chirp, a simple noise that left him involuntarily.

He tilted his head at the idea of scary things. It was hard to imagine being scared, though, so long as he had his mama with him. Mama was so big and strong, at least to a tiny days old half-bird-chick half-kitten.

Eagerness brought Cyg to follow his mama outside, glancing around with his one eye wide, taking in the beauty of the cave. "Mama! Pretty cave!" he exclaimed.

He focused on the way his mama's bird friend had flapped their wings, and his own wings echoed the motions with great excitement. If he had been older, this would have worked, in all likelihood.

But unlike many of the birds that hatched in the cave system, Cyg had pre-feather fluff, not a full set of feathers or anything approaching it.

"Mama, 's not working," he stated with sad confusion.

Cyg tried to soothe himself with his magic, attempting to summon a third wisp.

A third little wisp, smaller than the others was soon bouncing around him, a bit slower as if echoing his melancholy mood.

@Wilder