listen to me + hear my thoughts

Ashtoreth was prowling the great forest closest to her home. She had been here only once before, and that had been quite the experience. She had run home quickly after, a bit afraid that Kerberos would notice her missing and tattle on her.

Anyway-- the hybrid knew that in this forest would be plenty of birds. Hopefully colorful ones. She was here to snatch feathers and so... She was on the hunt. Silent as a mouse. Or rather, a wiggly noodle.

The birds in this jungle wouldn't be able to avoid her forever! Ash the great hunter of Canis was going to get ALL THE FEATHERS...

tag;; @adeyemi

King Adeyemi

AND THEN THE EARTH AND THE SKY, THEY ALL FIT TOGETHER
AND CARRY ME AWAY AS LIGHT AS A FEATHER

Eridanus had been... quiet. For a good cycle or so, really. And frankly, Adeyemi was bored out of his mind. He fretted and fussed, encircled by bushes as he attempted to construct the Best Nest Ever™. It was a huge thing, big enough to fit both Willow and himself, made of dried grass, leaves, moss, and what looked disturbingly like decaying, moldy fruit peels. Nevertheless, it was missing something. So the turaco paced around it, digging trenches into the dirt idly with his gemstone talon, preening at his feathers like he hadn't preened them five milliseconds before.

See: bored out of his mind.

Nevertheless, he knew something was missing from the nest, and turned to stalk into the woods to go and find it, and finally acquire some peace of mind.

listen to me + hear my thoughts

WOAAAAH!!!

Ashtoreth's eyes went wide when she caught sight of a flash of green and red, bright and vibrant feathers unlike anything she had seen before. A sneaky, toothy grin, and the child crept forward, magic twitching through her feathers.

Hopefully this pretty birdy wouldn't notice lil old her trying to sneak up on him... She just had to snatch one of his pretty, beautiful little feathers!!!

And Ash did get pretty close before a twig snapped under her paw and then she made a wheezing squeaking noise of alarm. Oh no!! He was totally going to know she was there now!!!!!

tag;; @adeyemi

King Adeyemi

AND THEN THE EARTH AND THE SKY, THEY ALL FIT TOGETHER
AND CARRY ME AWAY AS LIGHT AS A FEATHER

Small, curved talons dug into the dirt with each of Adeyemi's steps, the bird's agitation at what amounted to absolutely nothing obvious in his slumped posture and wordlessly clicking beak. Unfortunately, he'd worked himself into an all-too-common fit of petty, directionless anger, and the snap of the twig nearby was the straw that broke the camel's back. Peering not at the noise but up at the sky, the turaco screeched in pure, one hundred percent done-ness. "One day! I want one day where nothing strange or odd or unexpected happens! One! Day!"

An exaggerated sigh later, and after dragging his wings quite dramatically down his face, the self-proclaimed king turned on his heel and stared, unimpressed, at Ashtoreth.

He had no idea what he was looking at.

Blinking widening eyes at the... thing... he coughed, smoothing down his crest nervously. "Uh. Aha. Well. Hello," he offered, one eyebrow steadily rising as he declined in a shallow bow of greeting. The thing did, after all, have wings, which made it one of his own, not matter its other... negative traits. "Are you... looking for something, my dear?"

listen to me + hear my thoughts

... Something seemed to be bothering this curious man with his brightly colored feathers, but once he looked at her adorable little face and toothy grin he couldn't help but be nice to her. He bowed and so did she, putting a nervous paw into her maw, chomping on it quietly while her tail wiggled and her wings twitched.

He wanted to know what she was looking for? Well that was easy! She was looking to snatch one of his feathers-- but maybe he could get a feather from him without snatching it. Maybe she could ask politely. She inched forward, wiggling closer not unlike an awkwardly legged snake, her butt wings helping her fumble closer.

And then she reached her nose forward and extended one small, slobbered on paw towards his breast full of feathers.

tag;; @adeyemi

King Adeyemi

AND THEN THE EARTH AND THE SKY, THEY ALL FIT TOGETHER
AND CARRY ME AWAY AS LIGHT AS A FEATHER

Cocking his head to one side in surprise at the returned bow, Adeyemi almost peeped out a tiny chuckle at the bird-weasel-thing's gestures. It seemed harmless enough - and though the turaco couldn't take wing to get away if it turned out not to be, he had a very loud, annoying voice, which tended to carry far enough to draw the ear of his other half, regardless of whether she wanted it to or not.

The strange noodle inched forward, and the king flinched back, only to stop and tilt his head to the other side at her pointing... which seemed to be directed towards his chest? "Uh. Well, if you'd like to eat me, I'm sorry to say I'll have to decline." Then again, they didn't seem aggressive, so round brown eyes simply stared for a moment, beak clicking in confusion.

Absently, he preened at the vibrant feathers adorning his neck, when a thought struck him, one wing raising as he cooed. "Aha! I say, are you asking for one my feathers?" Hopefully that was it - he was rather fond of... every meaty part of his body, but he already gave away feathers, and at least the beast hadn't tried to take one.

listen to me + hear my thoughts

Ashtoreth blinked as the bird flinched at her movement, slowly putting her paw back down and laying her ears back. Had she scared him? She hadn't meant to-- he was a rather tiny little thing, after all.

The bird suggested that she wanted to eat him, to which Ashtoreth shook her head firmly. She wasn't that dumb of a little gembound! It was one thing for Remedy to think she was some sort of rat, but her father was a bird, for Caves' sake! She couldn't eat him even if she wanted to.

Which she didn't.

When he came up with the idea that she wanted some of his feathers, however, the excitement in the noodle became tenfold. The child bounced up and down in a ferret-like wardance, wings flapping furiously and a grin on her pointy muzzle.

tag;; @adeyemi

King Adeyemi

AND THEN THE EARTH AND THE SKY, THEY ALL FIT TOGETHER
AND CARRY ME AWAY AS LIGHT AS A FEATHER

Thankfully, the strange, noodly creature shook its head firmly at the idea of eating him, and Adeyemi sighed out a short breath of relief, absently tapping the ground with his gemstone talon. "Well, that's a relief. I've had quite enough of strangers trying to eat me, really," he added, grinning as much as a bird could.

Instead, it seemed they did want a feather, and the king clucked, nodding in acquiescence. "Well, I can certainly part with a feather, especially from so polite a request," Adeyemi chirruped, balancing on one leg to pluck a blue-green feather from his chest, holding it out in offering. "Although I wonder what use it would be to one already gifted with wings," he added curiously, tilting his head and bobbing it in an attempt to catch a better glimpse at Ashtoreth's wiggling wingspan.

listen to me + hear my thoughts

Ashtoreth didn't have any idea how to explain the concept of being a feather hoarder, making a beautiful cape full of feathers from every creature she had ever met.

However, she did know some way she could show off sort of what she was doing. Twisting around on herself, she dug out a surprisingly large feather from her fluffy scruff, wriggling so that she could show off the large, striped turkey feather to the other bird. She didn't have a lot of other feathers yet, but...

The noodle waved a paw in the air, twitching her digits as she tried to gesture out the idea of collecting feathers from all around the caves. She waved him a bit closer, parting her fluffy, dyed feathers to show off how it was tied into her feathers-- it had took her all afternoon to make sure it wouldn't fall off!

In the end she shrugged and tucked her wings close to her body and grinned wide, taking his bright green feather. Maybe she could show how she did it? The noodle took a deep breath and gave the tying a try.

tag;; @adeyemi

King Adeyemi

AND THEN THE EARTH AND THE SKY, THEY ALL FIT TOGETHER
AND CARRY ME AWAY AS LIGHT AS A FEATHER

The little king watched, half amused and half curious, as the noodle-bird wiggled about, digging around in her scruff before showing off another feather, obviously not her own. At her beckoning, he hopped a step closer, bright red-brown eyes peering at how the thing was tied to her fur, hidden from plain sight. "Ah! A collector, eh? Jolly good! I do hope whatever fine fowl gave you that feather was gentlemanly about it," Adeyemi chirruped, beak clicking as he spoke.

She took his feather in tiny paws - which looked incredibly strange when combined with the image conjured by wings, in the bird's mind - and began to tie it alongside the other, while he watched, fascinated, settling down into a technicolor lump of fluff in the grass, head tilting this way and that. "My darling Willow would be rather intrigued by this... collection, I should think. She has a bag of stones, all carved, that she marked herself."

In truth, that was about fifty percent assumption - Willow hadn't exactly ever had his immediate fondness for children, but then again, she surprised him almost every day. It was probably what made their bond so strong, really; and besides, even if she'd never told him why she made the stones, a collector had to like another collector, right?