Heron Lake Plateau You know I had heaven and hell in the palm of my hand.

Niamh’s sparkling gaze was captivated by the reddish bird of prey on Towhee’s shoulders. She had a thing for birds- mostly eating them, but birds of prey she generally left alone because they were badass. There was an unrelenting severity to their gaze that made them look uncompromising and angry all the time- and it was a cool look for a bird to have. They were basically dinosaurs with feathers- and had Niamh known what a dinosaur was, she would’ve been even more enamoured.

For a moment, she thought she’d offended the bird who’d preened his feathers momentarily before he crouched and took off. Ahe was slightly startled, then, when he flew the short distance between them, and settled on her shoulders. She stayed as still as she could, bewildered gaze lifting to Towhee to see if that was OK. He was lighter than she’d expected, and used his talons to grip the loose skin and fur at her shoulders only as tightly as he needed to, to stay there. She felt him rake his beak through the fur at the nape of her neck which made shivers go down her spine.

Towhee, surprisingly, seemed pleased. Niamh could hardly contain herself; her eyes shimmered with tears that hit her unexpectedly. ”This. Is. Amaaazing!” She said in a half whisper. ”I’ve never looked or felt so badass in my whole life!” Safe to say, if X had a crush, he wasn’t the only one.