Work Text:
Essix landed on Rollan’s window. Her talon’s scraped across the stone as she hopped down into the room and waddled across the bedroom floor to the boy’s bed. If Rollan had been awake he would have laughed at her awkward gait, she knew. But, of course, her boy found it difficult to wake up at a normal human time, leaving her to wake him up before the castle stopped serving breakfast. She would never hear the end of it. Rollan would complain until he managed to sneak his way into the staff kitchen for a snack. And then he’d complain some more about Essix not waking him up on time. Her feathers ruffled at the mere thought of hearing the boy whine all day.
Using a combination of her beak, clawed feet, and the occasional flap of her wings, Essix climbed her way onto Rollan’s bed using his blanket that was thrown haphazardly halfway onto the floor as the boy kicked through the night.
Carefully, she hopped onto his chest, her talons splayed flat against his sleep shirt in an attempt to not rip the soft clothing. Yesterday, he had made a fuss, as he often does, about her ripping one of his shirts when she landed on his arm. She did not want to hear him whine about it again.
Her beak opened into a soft chirp – the softest sound a falcon such as herself could make. No reaction. She chirped again. Nope. A third time. And he kept on sleeping. If she were human, she would’ve rolled her eyes and sighed. But, seeing as she was a bird, she only fluffed her feathers, nearly doubling her size, before settling them again.
Essix shuffled over Rollan to stand closer to his face. This time, she shrieked. So loudly that it echoed off the stone walls of his rooms and Conor could probably hear it next door.
Rollan jerked so suddenly in waking up that Essix was thrown to the end of his bed, nearly sliding down to the floor. Her wings flapped hard to catch herself before she fell.
“Essix!” Rollan reached out for the gyrfalcon, pulling her back to his chest where she was safe. “Why’d you do that?”
She jerked her head at his window, to the steadily rising sun, and wiggled out of his grasp to sit on his shoulder instead of being restrained in his arms.
She nearly fell again when Rollan gasped, throwing the blanket off himself completely and rushing to get ready for the day.