Boartusk Heights Barn owl

tag for ref

Nymphora, as usual, was antsy and unhappy with her place in her family. Instead she lingered on the rocky flats nearer to the hunters, servents, all unlike her own self.

Bit of irony, trying to fit in with those she prided herself to be above.

Up there, in the rocky spires of the dark palace, she had competition; perfect Valeria, darling son Vincent, beautiful Candela. Down here, she had power, confined to her adolescent body, but power nonetheless. Nowadays, she was beginning to become a real menace. No more puppy teeth, now proper, flesh tearing incisors. If only she had the opportunity to use them.. If @Vincent crossed her path perhaps she would. Much as the two warred, and much as Nymphora would never dare admit, she did gleam some form of twisted enjoyment out of their spats.

This was what they had to bond over. Whichever one could hurl the meanest insult or draw the deepest cut. Was this what siblings were meant to be? Did the other youths also function in opposition to one another?

God, just once, she wanted their mother to look at her, and properly see her, not as 1 of 4, but as Nymphora, the superior daughter and definite heir to the kingdom. This was why she met her siblings with teeth so frequently. Beating them down was the only way to bring herself up to the standards that were set.

But she was frantic. She was undirected. She did not truly know how to fight. She wanted to look upon the newbloods, study the way they practiced and carried themselves.

It humiliated her a little, to know so many of them had skills she did not. All she had was a name. It wasn't nearly enough.