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Dark was cowering down, feathers ruffled up as he quietly listened to the verbal exchange. He was only slowly calming down when a loud screeching and squawking made him jerk back, startled.

What is--

Then there was a soft thud, and for a moment Dark feared that whatever it was, had died, perhaps fallen from somewhere high? Falling hurt, after all--but no, he heard a soft scrabbling and scratching.

Sudden enthusiasm surged through him. It sounded like a bird! It sounded small! Would it be a new friend? Was it hurt?! With a couple of awkward bounds, he raced forward in an attempt to cuddle the maybe-new-friend. All the while he squeaked cheerfully, his fears forgotten. He missed at first, his final leap bringing him crashing down just past the juvenile crow; a moment later he'd turned, unharmed, shuffling back to squat right up against it it in a ball of feathery fluff. His gem eyes were half-closed joyful crescents, his ear-tufts fluffing up as he faced back toward Bevy.

"Bevy Bevy friend Bevy bird Bevy friend!

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Oh! Oh dear... There was another bird. This one was black, like... Like Krakarak! Except much smaller, she supposed, because it just hatched... And Dark was already on the poor little chick, chirping away eagerly. "Yes, yes, bird friend," she cheeped patiently, approaching the new gembound with bright, curious eyes.

"Hello there, little one. My name is Bevy. Are you alright? Did you hurt yourself?" She asked, keeping her tone soft and gentle-- she didn't want to scare the little crow. Just in case, the pitohui bird decided to try and sense bacteria... She didn't have the firmest grip on her sense, but she knew that her powers gave Life and Healing, so if there was pain maybe she would be able to see it... Nevermind that wasn't how her white sense worked.

;; post roll

She blinked as the white fuzzies appeared in her vision, though they were faint and she couldn't seem to focus on any one spot. She could see Dark had collected a mess of white things, but they didn't look too harmful, and the new bird has some too-- there was bacteria all over the floor and every surface.

Bevy ruffled out her feathers as the white sense faded and left her just with the puffball of owl and the baby crow.

Oh no. This may have been the first thought of the crow. The tiny black ball of fluff scrambled and scratched at the ground in an attempt to avoid the charging owl - though luckily he flew over her. She squawked quietly a moment after Dark hits the ground, perhaps in concern. She too had just fallen and if there was one thing she had learned in her life, was that falling hurts.

He was getting up. He was unharmed? Good, thought the hatchling. She had began to scramble away again when the owl sat next to her and began calling to someone presumably above, but he carried a certain warmth that her own fuzz did not. She squawked and nestled a little further into the owl. She craned her neck when she heard the other bird - motherly, would be the first thing that came into her mind.

But she was silent for a fair few moments. She shifted under Dark, croaking a little, before she shrieked out one simple word, "Hungry!"

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Dark was... perhaps not the most useful bird in the entire cave for asking for food. He had "gone hunting" a grand total of one time in his short little life--and that had been practically stumbling across a sick or possibly wounded mouse. Now, perking his ear-tufts and listening to his new friend-little-sister-tiny-Bevy say "hungry," he knew EXACTLY what to do. Or well, no he didn't. Or--sort of. He did the smart thing any very young thing might do--he looked to "mom" for help.

Dark called to Bevy, looking vaguely toward her. His voice wasn't the normal gentle quiet voice, either--it was a loud, very excited screech, so loud that his sightless eyes had to squeeze closed while he cried out.

"MOUSE?!"

Possibly he simply assumed that Bevy carried a stock of dead rodents with her at all times--certainly he seemed to expect immediate feeding for both of the young birbs.

What a strange show the wolf was getting.

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Bevy blinked as the small crow expressed her hunger. Right, of course, she would get her something to eat, that would be-- MOUSE!! Startled, the pitohui bird looked towards Dark. Now, it was one thing for her to eat insects and beetles, another for her friend Cancer to eat fish... But... Mice? Mice were harmless, tiny little furry things. They didn't speak like the larger gembounds, but they weren't bad or even necessarily stupid. They were fluffy, gentle, with bright eyes... Mice reminded her so much of her friends. Perhaps Cancer would find that funny.

The pitohui bird did not think that she could catch a mouse, much less kill one. She didn't want to disappoint her little owlet and the crow chick, so she put on a brave face and chirped, "I'll see what I can find, little ones. Just wait here." She hoped that flying off wouldn't result in Dark wandering off again but she supposed if he had a crow friend he probably wouldn't get up to too much trouble while she tried to quickly find a meal for the babies.

;; post roll

Oh thank goodness. Over by the throne, Bevy found a great crumbly pile of rocks, and overturning one she found a great variety of insects-- some worms, even a tasty beetle. The bugs mostly scrambled under more of the rubble, but thankfully she managed to at least snatch up a worm. She swooped back over to the babies and offered the worm to the newly hatched crow, hoping she would like it.

"There's plenty more where that one came from, just over here," she chirped softly. Almost pointedly she gave Dark the offhanded comment of, "no mice though, sorry little one."

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The hatchling semed confused as she was presented the worm. She was horribly loud for such a tiny thing as she shrieked and squawked at it before taking it into her maw.

Mouse! Mouse!

She seemed content enough, even though what she had just consumed was not, in fact, a mouse. It's entirely possible she didn't even know, in fact. After eating she simply nestles further into her new-found owl friend, beak grinding contentedly.


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At some point during their whole interaction, Majesty had quietly slipped away. He had realized that the little owl was in good hands (claws?) and felt no reason to stay. At one time, he may have decided to try and bring Dark into his small pack, but he felt that at this point that may have just been seen as intruding. So, he sort of slowly backed up out of the room, and went off to explore some other part of the Origin Cave.

[Exit Maj]

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Dark stared, sightless and unblinking, off at nothing. He seemed lost in thought, for awhile, at Bevy's words and at the entire situation. And his thoughts were pretty simple, really.

Hungry. Hungry. Mouse.

His exit from the situation was not dignified--it was a bumbling, flapping, screeching rush with the scratch of talons and thump of a careening owl banging into boulders marking his passage down and away from the Throne.

"MOUSE! MOUSE! MOUSE! HUNGRY-MOUSE! BEVY-MOUSE! MOUSE!"

Dark seemed to be getting a great deal of joy from raising his voice as loud as he could--possibly the crow had had some temporary influence on him--and his echoing cries receded surprisingly quickly from the area, regardless of whether the others would follow.

He was on a mission, now. A mission of mice. AND NOTHING COULD STOP HIM. (Except most things.)

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((ooc -- exit Dark))

Bevy flinched a bit as the pair of babies insisted on mice, but to her relief the baby crow seemed to take to the mouse worm quite well and probably wouldn't starve to death now. What was worse, however, was that now the baby owl would not stop chattering about mice and even started to wander off. Keeping up with a blind, flightless owl should have been easy but no. It was exhausting. She sighed and shook her head as Dark wandered off, noticing only for a moment that the strange wolf had disappeared. She didn't even know their name, though she swore she knew them somehow.

Not much she could do about that though. Spreading her wings, she glanced at the baby crow for a moment, wondering if she would follow. The bird wasn't hurt, and most gembound could handle themselves, so if the little one decided to wander off it would probably be fine. If she wanted to follow, that was okay too, she supposed. Still, she couldn't hang around. The little owl could move surprisingly fast-- so she took to the air and flew after her hatchling, determined to keep the blind baby gembound safe.

Why did her baby have to eat mice?

;; bevy exit

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And almost as soon as the crow had been surrounded, she was left alone. The bird hadn't even noticed it, even when that owl had taken the warmth with him. The crow began scratching the cave floor in an attempt to get up. Somehow, it almost hurt to suddenly be alone. The bird croaked some discomfort, scrambling on her talons.

The hatchling stood, with her neck craned upwards to the ceiling. She watched - unaware of just how long for - the glistening quartz that littered the ceiling and the walls, mesmerized. She wasn't sure where she was, but perhaps this would do for a 'home.' Her gaze drifted over the ledges where she had previously fallen and spat, somewhat. If there were another to hatch from up there they'd face a similar fate, and perhaps it wouldn't even end as luckily as she had it.

((eve exit))

She decided to ignore this, for now, as she turned and began bumbling her way along. Not in any particular direction, of course, but it was somewhere to start. A better place to start, she later decided, would be to look for more food, somewhere. She was still hungry, after all.

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