Chapter Text
Blake let out a breath as she looked at the crowd, ears straining. It’d be fine. It wasn’t like presentations were anything new. But the crowd was larger than any before. Presenting to young children for young children at assemblies, yes, but a large crowd out—
“Ow!”
Her amber eyes settled on Nebula, same colored gaze meeting hers. Damn owl. She really didn’t need the drama queen’s input.
“ You’re going to miss your cue if you keep freaking out like that. Edgar’s almost done .” The downy great grey owl ruffled her feathers and looked out at the commons from the tent. Kebels the barn owl flew from Edgar’s glove to Pattie’s, landing gracefully. The woman tucked him away in a dark box while Edgar spoke.
“Working with raptors can be rough, but it’s rewarding…at least when they aren’t talking back!” The crowd laughed and Blake’s ears twitched slightly. Yeah, that it definitely was. Aura breeds were pretty fantastic but they could definitely cop attitudes. At least Kuro and Noire weren’t like Nebula. Duri, the golden eagle, was always terrifying when he got in one of his ‘moods.’ As if working with a building full of aura breeds wasn’t bad enough…
Edgar jogged up and handed Blake the mic. “Here; good luck!” Her stomach dropped through her feet but there was no going back now. Plus, she’d waste the hours of practice if she backed out. Not to mention ruin the show and—
Another hip from Nebula brought her back. Right. No more time to reak out. Time to do it. And she so easily gave televised press conferences with Sienna…
With a deep breath, she jogged out to the center of the field. “Like Edgar said, aura breed raptors can have quite the personality. Nebula here is one of the biggest drama queens I know—animal or otherwise.” She held up the great grey owl on her glove who flapped her wings, earning a chuckle from the crowd. Good, good. Things were going well. They’d been practicing for weeks; things had to go on even if the crowd didn’t react well. Presentations in Atlas had well taught her that.
“If this little lady doesn’t get her rat at nine sharp, you’ll be getting an earful!” Nebula adjusted her head and let out some low, whumping hoots in rapid succession, getting a bit of a murmuring from the audience. Yep, there it went. None of the other raptors had done anything like that yet. Time to ramp it up a bit.
“Aura breeds are something that most of you have heard of but never experienced before. All of us have aura whether or not it’s active. So do animals. Over generations, selective breeding of animals with large amounts led to those targeted species to have some sort of reasoning and intellect like we do. So it’s a true marker of domestication even in animals where it seems like they shouldn’t be.” She smiled at Nebula who bobbed her head. The owl fluttered into the sky and began to weave back and forth, spiraling and streaking. Owls really were amazing animals… Nebula could be a pain and half to work with. She was quite the show stopper though. Her and Duri were quite the pair and always crowd pleasers. The magic and mystique of eagles and owls never failed to captivate.
The crowd murmured excitedly as Nebula flew low over them. However, a small child reaching for her tail feathers caused her to turn sharply. Silently, she landed on Blake’s glove, stomping her feet. “ I hate overly curious small children! ” She couldn’t entirely blame her there. Damage to her tail feathers and flying would become difficult and she wouldn’t molt again until the following spring.
“Want to move on?” she whispered, getting an emphatic head bob. Continuing on then…
“Nebula here is a bit of an anomaly. She was brought into Star of Hope when Pattie realised many of her behaviors were odd. Birds being docile is almost always a bad sign. As she recovered and gained strength, she remained rather placid and sought out affection. And that’s not a behavior even imprinted raptors display. It’s unique to aura breeds—even the ones randomly born in the wild. Science has yet to explain it.” Except…she could or she at least had ideas. But stating them would get her labeled a quick, booting her out of academia before she even reached college. Even mentioning advanced aura would get her shut down…
Right. Next part of the presentation…
♋︎
“Good job, Blake.” Her ears twitched as Edgar approached, Duri sitting on his glove. “You did great as usual. The crowd were eating out of the palm your hand like always.” He chuckled softly and her ears flattened slightly. It did help she had such a pedigreed history of leadership but still…
“Thanks.” A light flush colored her cheeks and she looked away. It really was nothing new for her, but still. It was so unusual to hear praise from anyone that wasn’t her parents or Sienna. The other Star of Hope volunteers were nice to her but…
“Hey Pattie, up for some drinks tonight?” Edgar smiled at the woman while Blake moved away. She sat Nebula on her perch, then stroked her head.
“I’ll see you on Sunday, okay, Neb?” The owl bobbed her head before Blake slipped off. Typical. So typical… Only the animals cared about her… At least humans not in the know didn’t (usually) treat her like the spawn of Kebron…
Animals were the only good thing in the world, it felt like. Nobody but them and Sienna cared. It was sad when Kuro and Noire were her best friends…
She dug through her bag, swiping the commuter pass. One ear twitched, though, at the sound of her mother’s ultrasonic ringtone. Wait, what? It was already past six in Vale…
How are things going, honey? Blake’s ears flattened. Seriously? She was going to pretend like everything was fine? She wouldn’t be awake so late if something hadn’t come up.
It’s four in the morning there, Mom . What was she doing awake? With as important as self-care was, Kali wouldn’t be awake like this. Not that she should be complaining with the CCTS signal actually working for once.
Leila had a fright earlier today and some nightmares about us leaving again. But I’m glad the message got through. Blake frowned thoughtfully at the comment. Her little sister always had been afraid of losing her parents. But she was in Menagerie with them now. And, as far as she knew, they had no plans to leave again for Leila’s sake. What could have happened to scare her so much? She was only twelve but still.
Tell her I hope she feels better. And I should be able to visit once I graduate in about a year and a half . Taking a gap year wasn’t the smartest idea but…she wanted to see her parents one last time. And properly meet her little sister. Plus, she needed to speak with the few remaining elders that remembered the pre-War era…
I look forward to seeing you again, Blake. And I’m sure Leila will be excited too. I’ll pass your well wishes to her when she wakes up . Blake smiled faintly. She’d wanted to keep it a surprise but there wasn’t much she could about it now.
How’s Dad? Ama? Abo? Oma? Nonna? Nonno? Her great-grandparents were getting so old… They’d be such a great primary source once she started her studies… But still… How were they doing? Talking to her parents was hard enough, let alone the aging generations that shunned the few amenities Menagerie had…
Cacilia had a bit of a scare earlier in the year… She got pneumonia but she recovered well. Outside of that, things continue on as they always do. Ferdi still refuses to step down from politics entirely despite your father, Casmirio, and Cacilia telling him to . Even over the vast distance, she could see the twinkle in her mother’s eye and hear the levity of tone. It almost brought her back to the bygone globetrotting days.
Almost.
She couldn’t suppress the small as she stepped into the train car. Even if the news about her Oma was concerning, the woman had recovered from far worse. She still bore the brands place on her by the cruel humans that had owned her. So did her Opa but the worst treatment in the world hadn’t killed his Menagerine spirit.
Well, tell them I love them and they’re in my thoughts, okay? Blake hit send then frowned after nothing else came through. Not surprising with as shoddy as Menagerie’s signal was but still disappointing. Hopefully it was just her mother’s message that hadn’t gotten through… And she hadn’t gotten to tell her she loved her either. SHe knew, of course, but still; getting to say it was so important with the intermittent contact.
Hopefully they would talk again soon.
All she had now were her birds and Sienna… If only Lute and the others hadn’t been swayed by anger and prejudice… What would they all be doing now?
♋︎
And Sienna was gone.
Fantastic.
Not a word from her about it. Then again, for her to be gone like this probably meant it was an emergency… Especially with no word. Had the White Fang done something? There was no telling.
With a shake of her head, she opened the door…which only signaled incessant cawing. “Oh High Mother, can’t you two even wait for me to get my slippers on?” she muttered, ears flattening. Why were those two such fucking drama queens?
Oh right.
She’d hand reared them and they had a healthy does of inspiration from Sienna. Two high-Grade advanced aura users made for a…dynamic environment
Slipping out to the back yard, one large beak and two beady eyes gazed through the bars of the mews. “ You took too long to get home .” The raven cocked his head to the side, Blake’s ears flattening again.
“For one of the smartest types of birds on the planet, you sure are dumb. I told you I was doing a presentation and wouldn’t be back until after six thirty.” She pointed to the large clock on the wall. Seriously, Kuro? How could he be so stupid sometimes. She’d told him that morning and she hadn’t promised him extra time that day or anything. She really did love the raven, but he could be so stupid sometimes. Yes, dinner was late that night, but it wasn’t like he’d been off feed for four days.
Oh no about an hour and a half later than normal; what a tragedy.
Then again, it was to him apparently.
“You don’t see Noire complaining.” The crow’s head snapped up from her preen before she fluffed up. Always had been the calmer of the two.
Kuro ruffled his feathers indignantly.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll get out you out of there.” She undid the padlock and held out her arm, Kuro landing softly with Noire fluttering onto her shoulder. Even with as much as she squabbled with the opinionated corvid, she really did love him. Kind of hard not to when she’d hand reared the pair.
She kissed his head and started prep. Enrichment was always better than bowl feeding but when somebody was so testy, quick was preferable. Some meal worms from the grower, some papaya and pear… Fish for protein and oil for glossy feathers… Maybe she should stop by the fish market to see if she could find some live fish for them… They always did enjoy the challenging enrichment. They’d never live in the wild, but she enjoyed offering them things to stimulate their base instincts.
“By the way, do you two have any idea where Sienna ran off to?” Where had her mentor gone? It wasn’t like her to just run off with mary a word. Some emergency, no doubt, but still…
“ All I can think is she was on a call with Winter when she left. All I caught was something about a sister. So all I can assume is it being something to do with Weiss .” Noire ruffled her feathers and Blake sighed. Right, the new SDC president. She probably should get involved there herself, but High Mother.
Talking to snobby Schnees ?
Well, Winter clearly wasn’t like that. Her dedication to making right the wrongs committed by Jacques Gelé were evident. Even so, the two younger ones? No thanks. Even if the middle one had been spotted at Band meetings for several months now…
Hard to believe it’d been two and a half months since Gelé’s arrest.
“So how does a movie sound tonight guys?” She smiled as Kuro raised his head then nodded. With as testy as he’d been, it only felt fair. Her undivided attention for over an hour? She needed to cook for herself first but after that…
A pair of excited squawks made her smile. Well, that certainly answered that question.
And so she found herself settled on the couch, a croaking raven under her left hand and a pair of chopsticks in her right. A simple movie, some animals finding their way back to their owners after being separated. Aura breed actors were always interesting to watch compared to normal…
Huh?
Her ear twitched at the hypersonic ringtone. An unknown caller? Couldn’t be a spam caller; she’d put the fear of the High Mother into them with her name alone. All of them from all kingdoms knew better by now. So who?
“Hey, Dorothea, I don’t think I’ll be able to introduce you on Tuesday—”