Chapter Text
The sun was going down, and at some point, Thrush had subconsciously fallen into a patrol formation with Peregrine and Carnelian. He'd taken the left wing, with Carnelian spearheading. Garnet was zipping around, still full of energy despite being halfway along the Claws of the Clouds. Thrush’s thoughts were straying to Queen Ruby, and why had he been selected for this? Thrush’s tail flicked in irritation. He didn’t need this school of hugs, Skywing schools were better. Ridiculous.
Wanting to distract himself, he pulled away from Peregrine and Carnelian, and Thrush banked and intercepted Garnet.
”Oi! Whoa!” Garnet yelled. She flared her wings, narrowly missing Thrush, who had suddenly cut across her path. “What was that for?” demanded Garnet as Thrush circled back around, leveling out beside her.
“I dunno, being bored,” Thrush replied a little too quickly. “Fine, I wanted to distract myself,” he relented.
“Oh, ok,” said Garnet, absentmindedly doing a corkscrew around Thrush.
“The sunset is nice from this angle; the palace sunsets are never usually this good,” said Thrush, casually changing the subject. “The orange-peach is so rich.”
“I think the red rimming the sun is better” called down Carnelian.
“Oh dear…” sighed Peregrine, shaking his head. Thrush had to agree, fights over the best bit of the sunset could last for ages, well long past the sun’s disappearance over the horizon. That however, would not stop Thrush from defending his oranges!
“Look at that circle around the sun, I’ve never seen that before,” said Garnet.
“That’s called a solar halo, Garnet,” replied Thrush.
“It’s a sol- Hey! I was going to say that.” said Carnelian. Thrush caught " ’cause I’m smart and all.” muttered under her breath.
Peregrine wheeled in front of the rest of the party, cutting off whatever Carnelian was about to say.
“We should make camp before it gets too dark” before waiting for a response, Peregrine shot down towards a large rocky outcrop jutting out of the forest. Carnelian glanced at Thrush and shrugged, before following Peregrine. Thrush did a quick backflip into a dive. Landing next to Peregrine, he glanced up at Garnet, who was still hovering, facing the sunset.
“What do you think she’s doing?” asked Peregrine
“Dunno, not even going to try to figure it out,” replied Thrush “do you want to collect firewood? It looks like Carnelian has hunting covered.” Thrush gestured to where there already was a goat laid on the rocks, Carnelian’s tail was disappearing back into the bushes.
“Best not disturb her,” said Peregrine, turning in the opposite direction.
Peregrine was already leaping off the ledge, but Thrush took off. “You good with collecting fire wood? I want to check on Garnet,” he called down.
“Sure!” Peregrine yelled back.
Garnet had climbed higher since they had landed, and Thrush was not expecting it, and by the time he reached Garnet, he was panting. Though, that may be because of the thinner air. The sun was almost fully down by then, only leaving a waning indigo light.
“What’s up?” asked thrush.
Garnet ignored him for a moment, impassive and staring off into the fading light. But then she turned to him, and with a slight smile, she said “not the sun anymore”
“Indeed,” replied Thrush, “but you know that’s not what I’m referring to”
“I like the end of a sunset, the gradient from pale yellow to navy blue…” Garnet trailed off.
“What about it do you like?” Thrush asked gently.
“I don’t know… it makes me think, I guess.”
“As good as taking time to think is, thinking too much… it can get into your head y’know.” said thrush “do you want to come down to camp? It looks like Peregrine has just lit the fire.”
“Ok, big brother.”
“Sis.”