I wriggle my outstretched fingers before I close my hand around a stone andpull… immediatelydropped into the body of—
Her.
The Other claws at the black stone, gouging shards she nudges to the side, spinning to repeat the motion. Once there’s a jagged protective rim all around her, she curls within it, grunting softly.
A signal for her young to move close.
Allume doesn’t shift from where she’s coiled in a knot against the burrow’s wall, looking out on the ribbonless sky. Her gaze traces the fluttery motions of two young Moonplumes flicking through the crisp air like a dance, so luminous against the velvet black. Youths of similar size, chests full of energy they only ever burn through once the ribbons have long since fallen.
For a long moment, The Other watches, heart heavy. Certain there’s nothing she wouldn’t do to make Allume’s wings work as they should. Make the small one strong enough to lift her into the sky so she can play beneath the moons, feel the push of a rushing breeze and the thrill of a tight-tucked plummet.
If she could, she’d sever her own and gift them to her, despite knowing Allume’s on her own journey. That the argent light that’s given her life will only ever be …temporary. A shooting star she’ll nurture with everything she is until fate splits their paths again.
The Other makes a keening sound.
Allume finally uncoils. Tail dragging, she moves close and clambers upthe rim, stretching her wings for balance. As always, she topples to her heavy side.
The Other binds her tail around her young and tucks her close, sweeping her beneath the mighty shelter of her wing, cutting Allume’s view of the sky.
Not a punishment.
If she doesn’t, Allume will fall into slumber sadly, as she has before. Looking out on moons she believes she’ll never nest beside, watching the others play rather than feeling how cherished she is.
Despite her busty honk of disapproval, Allume softens, nuzzling down, her big eyes shadowed by long, sleepy blinks. She releases a yawn so wide the tiny bud of blue flame is visible at the back of her throat, then nudges her head against The Other’s luminous hide, seeking comfort.
All outside noises fade as The Other dims her light and fans her wing, encasing Allume, shifting her head so she can survey the burrow’s entrance. And she waits … for longer than she usually does.
By the time the soft thud of footsteps feed into the burrow, The Other is tight with worry that something’s wrong.
Elluin moves through the entrance with her hands fisted at her sides, boasting a new haircut that makes her look a little older than her twelve phases, framing her moonlit face. Still soft with youth, but tight with—
Anger?
Hurt?
The Other goes still.
If something has hurt her Little One, its remaining heartbeats are few. The Other will hunt this foe down, rip its skin from its bones, then feed its soft meat to her young. She’ll feast on what’s left, then boast its blood for many rises.
She.
Will.
Rage.
Elluin doesn’t look up as she bundles her fur-lined garb and clambers over the nest’s rim, past The Other’s crimping wing, and eases deep into her protective embrace. She wedges around Allume and tucks amongst her tendrils, going still.
After watching for a beat, The Other nudges close and takes Elluin’s scent, blowing a puff of air against the soft skin at the back of her neck.
“I’m tired,” she says, voice emptier than parts of the sky.
The Other tilts her head to the side, wondering if her Little One got hurt when her hair was chopped. Cutting so much of one’s self away must surely be …painful?
She doesn’t like to use their bond to pry into the things Elluin feels in her chest, but given this unusual behavior, she considers it justified.
She opens herself, flooded with an icy gush of—
Sorrow.
