@Terance - I don't believe we have had a "face to face" mother/son thread yet, have we? :)
Ever since leaving Flightless Falcons, Osprey had only rarely immersed in the sea of memories about those first three years of life there. The circumstances that had forced her to go had been difficult and unpleasant to remember and the new life here had been so full of adventures and events that they overshadowed the past.
Yet now, when she spent her days together with her children - teaching, playing, exploring - she felt like she was reliving her childhood again. She saw ordinary and mundane rituals with new eyes and grasped them with just as much enthusiasm as the young. It was no wonder that the images from the past resurfaced more often.
It was late one night, when Osprey woke from a dream, where she had been a cub again, back at her first true home, seeing dear faces and feeling the love. And for the first time in very long, she suddenly felt fierce longing to be there again, where things - it seemed - had stayed the same. Where living the life was simpler and easier.
She carefullly raised from her spot between Dante and the pile of cubs - all sleeping soundly - and went out in the night. The star-filled sky greeted her there, winking cheerfully at the mortal soul on the Earth.
!! nope! <3
While Osprey may have thought her children were sleeping soundly, it was not entirely true. When his mother rose, Terance's eyes lit up in the dark den, his tiny tail tapping against the dusty earth. He leaves his sisters and waddles out of the den after his mom, green eyes filled with wonder and excitement-- they were up so late past bedtime!!!
"Mama?" he whispers into the night, his little body close to the ground. He doesn't wanna get in trouble for being awake so late, but he is totally psyched to join him mom under the nightsky.
"Why you up?" he asks, crawling his way to her feet.
Osprey should have known her kids better by now - even if they appeared soundly asleep, they still had a keen instinct of feeling, when she was about to leave. It was yet for her to master the art of sneaking away without them noticing.
For this reason Terance was not scolded for getting up and out after hours (they rarely were, for Osprey believed that in some things rather than forbidding and setting rules, it was more effective for the kid to learn life knowledge on their own - don't want to sleep, when you are told - so be it). She met him with a kind smile and beckoned him to follow her.
"We are going on an adventure," she whispered to him.
Terance leapt up where he stood, a single bounce with more enthusiasm then he'd ever had. "A advature?!" he said, butchering the word only slightly. "Where to mama? Where to?!" he asks excitedly, ignoring her whisper. He bounded after her, her legs were much longer and moved so much faster than his baby legs-- although the boy was growing fast. When he was at her side he puffed out his chest, walking like a true prince should, his head high and his little tail wagging fiercely behind him.
"Ahh... we will see," Osprey told, looking down at her son lovingly. Even at this young age it was not hard to tell that one day the boy would grow into a handsome and charming man. Both Dante and her father Aether were and had been good-looking fellows and, now and then, when watching the kids play with each other, she thought she could sometimes see the reflections of the former generations. In brief glance, expressions, emotions... even the way they moved. It was funny to think at those moments that you were nothing but a piece of puzzle, assembled from thousands and thousands of small pieces.
She slowed her pace so that the little one would be able to walk comfortably beside her and then said: "Perhaps fairies will be dancing in the moonlight tonight. Fancy to see that? Or maybe... maybe looking for the dwarf treasures was more for your taste?"
"Fawies?!" Terance squealed loudly. "No! Tweshure!" he answers sternly, having decided long ago that fairies were far too girly for him. They were much more up Wraen's ally-- though if she'd ever ask he'd gladly accompany his sweet sister on a journey to find some fairies. "Where do hide?!" he asks loudly, ignoring the peacefulness of the night and interrupting it with his antics.
"I guessed so," Osprey said, "let's leave the fairies to the girls." Wraen, more specifically, since Sarah seemed to be drawn to the down to earth stuff and was not particularly interested in fairy tales to begin with. Which was a little disappointment for the mother, but that did not mean she loved her eldest daughter any less.
"First we have to find the flying lights," she explained to the young one, recalling that just yesterday she had run into a flock of the said flying beasts and the sight had been quite amazing. Perhaps, they would find them in the exactly same place today too.
"Guwls," Terance agreed with a high pitched bark, still trailing alongside his mother. When she offers lights, his ears flip upwards excitedly. "Fly?!" he repeats, tail wagging quickly behind him. "In the sky!" he adds, proud of himself for knowing what the word meant-- and what it would cause to happen. Flying was what birds did, and flying was up! the sky was up! and birds lived in the sky. This all made so much sense to him. "Flying lights, biwds?" he asks hopefully.
"Right you are," Osprey agreed, though her answer would have been positive, even if Terance had proclaimed that earth-worms too were prone to fly in the sky beautifully. The boy was young enough not to have all his mistakes corrected. There would be plent of time for that later.
"They are also called fireflies," she explained. "Nice, little and magical things." After that she fell silent, keenly listening to the night sounds, focusing on finding the easiest paths for the little boy to tread on and stopping often to let him catch up with her.
A ghastly hoot echoed in the forest and a dark shadow flew over their heads. Osprey followed it with her gaze and then turned to see, what Terance was experiencing. "Do you know, what it was?"
Right he was! His tiny chest swelled with pride and excitement for knowing that they were indeed birds-- how smart he was! "Fiarfwies," he repeats choppily, still proud of his ability to mimick words-- though he wasn't very good at it.
It was then that the thing flew by-- flew! indeed! He was not afraid, for Terance was strong and brave, never afraid. "A biwd!" he yaps happily, attempting to chase clumisly after the creature. "Will take to dorfs!" he decides.
"That was not just any bird - it was an owl," she said, nuzzling the boy's forehead affectionately. "They are smart, strong and skilled hunters - just like us. The only difference being their ability to fly," she explained, thinking now of March Owl and, how vast her knowledge of bird species had been. There had never been just a walk through the forest more often it was yet another lesson in ornithology.
"Would you like to fly - if you had a choice?" Osprey asked, while she searched the dark sky, trying to catch sight of bats, which she could hear flying and hunting nearby.
"Ya!" Terance woofs loudly, tail waving crazily behind him. "We are!" he yips in agreement, pleased that his mother understood just how brave and crazy strong he was-- not fully realizing that she meant their entire race.
"Fly?" he asks her curiously, squinting into the night as he pondered the life altering question. "Ya," he then says with confidence. "Would you, mama?"
"Definitely," Osprey nodded in agreement. Learning to fly had been her lifelong dream, though now she preferred to stick to the dear mother Earth. Years of experience had taught her that those, who flew the highest, usually hit the ground the hardest. Both figuratively and directly speaking.
"Have I told you the story about shapeshifters - creatures that can turn into, whatever being they wish?" she asked, because by now there had been great many tales her children had already heard and she wanted to keep the interest fresh.
With immense shock and absolute disbelief, Terance stared at his mother with a wide gaze. "What!" he yips, bright green gaze staring hard at Osprey. "No! Tell me!" he says loudly, unable to comprehend such a wolf. They couldn't exist... what if he was one? or his mother?! How crazy!
"There are two ways of becoming one - either you are born with the skill or..." Osprey stopped to look down at her son and then leaned closer so that she could whisper in his ear, "... or you learn to become one." Before fully retreating she winked at him, as if sealing a secret deal between them.
"Back in ancient times, when witchcraft and wizardry was very common, people came together to compete in the art. They would turn from creature to creature, fighting each other, until one surrendered," she explained and, since doing was key to better understanding, she invited Terance to play.
"On a night like this," she turned her gaze to the moon, "magic is very, very possible. What would you like to turn into?"
"Mama thas crasy," Terance says with disbelief, his green eyes widened with amazement. "Are we wizerds?" he asks her, gazing staring up with her in wonder. What would he turn into? There were so many things he knew about(only like 50, at most)! What one of those things would he want to be? There were too many options, it made his head spin.
He pauses to steady himself-- walking and thinking has done a real toll on the boy-- before he loudly states. "A beer!" he yips, tail wagging. He begins to waddle forwards again, happiness clear on his face. "Then--" he begins, "--I would be bigger and stwonger than Sarah! and Yn would never havta wowwy about anythin!"
"A bear is a good choice," Osprey retorted, having an "awww" moment, when Terance even at this young age declared that he was going to protect her. He reminded her so much of Dante and Peregrine at that point.
His competetive relationship with Sarah, however, was something that amused her and made her wonder, what would come out of it, when these two grew up. And just because she was Osprey and she wanted to challenge her kids a little, in order to make them strive for more and better, she asked: "But, what if Sarah turned into something bigger and stronger than a bear - what would you do then?"
"What!" Terance exclaimed with disbelief. "There's nufin bigger than a beer!" he says, still not believing his mother would even suggest such a thing. Bears were, afterall, the biggest and scariest things out there. Sarah would have to become a bear herself if she wanted to try to match him-- and she was smaller than he was anyway.
"You have got a point," Osprey agreed and smiled, deciding to tell the tale about the big fish of the Ocean and the Great tree-beasts that stomped around in the far South, for another time. For now - let him think he had conquered Sarah.
By that point they had arrived to a little clearing, which in contrast to the darkness around, seemed to be filled with light. With thousand little lights - to be exact. "We are here," she told her son in whisper. "Look at the fireflies dancing."
The boy was silent then, plopping himself down on his grey lil' rump and staring into the sky with awe. Was this possible? surely not. He wondered if it was that magic doing all this-- if someone or something had shapeshifted into these tiny little floating stars. After a moment, Terance leans against his mothers leg. His baby green-blue eyes stare at the clearing, clearly entranced by this beauty. He'd decided right then and there that he would show this to his sisters sometime-- they'd love it.
Osprey smiled at her son, nuzzled his forehead gently and then watched the fireflies in silence. Sometimes the greatest magic happening before your eyes should not be interrupted by words that could hardly do justice to the beauty and the quality. They would spend the next hour or so like this and then would the elder carefully guide her sleepy boy back home.