I was worried about Sister.

I tried to hide my worry because I knew what Sister was doing was important and I didn’t want her to worry that I was worrying. But watching as she flew inside the tear in space was scary. Sister wouldn’t let me come with her, and I was afraid that something on the other side might hurt her. Without me being there to help, Sister might even die.

I considered hiding inside her inner sea, letting her carry me along inside with her, but decided that Sister might think that a betrayal. She would forgive me. We were too connected, our fates tied together in a knot so intricate that it could never be unraveled no matter how much time and effort was invested for her not to.

But it might create a schism in that complete and absolute trust we had in each other, and it was not worth risking Sister’s trust over something that might wind up being nothing. The tear in space didn’t register as dangerous when I examined it with my sight, so I convinced myself I was worrying about nothing. That sight empowered and bolstered with the patterns to thought and energy flow that Sister had taught, allowed me to see more as I added Sister's own powers of perception to my growing skill.

I had decided to stop thinking of this new skill as a funny way of thinking but as a new way of understanding the world. A way of thought that Sister had taught me. I was growing up, no longer a hatchling, and Sister was teaching me the importance of words, so it was time. I had decided to label this new skill as [Sight] because it allowed me to see so much more. It was an instrument of our bond and would grow as we grew, and it deserved to be named.

My insistence on dismissing the importance and power of my [Sight] by calling it that funny way of thinking, didn’t do it or the contribution I gained from Sister’s knowledge sufficient honor and respect. It had taken me a while to create the pattern for what I was doing, but I’d finally created my first technique.

I had gotten the idea while watching Sister train.

As she practiced new spells and skills, I noticed the pattern of movement to Qi and the Dharmic energies that guided the dancing movement of her [Tessenjutsu]. I enjoyed dancing with her, in those moments when she attacked or defended using wind and lightning. That freedom is exhilarating. Sister spent more and more time fighting in the sky. I wasn’t sure that was a good thing. It would have been nice if she didn’t have to fight, but she was never so happy as when she was flying, and it gave me a lot of chances to dance and fly with her, so I was happy too.

As we danced together, as Sister practiced and mastered her techniques and skills, I began to realize that as we practiced, and as I adapted my flight and control over the storm to support Sister, my adaptions allowing me to create my own techniques. Techniques that I could label with [Names]. [Names] that were adapted and suited to me or the both of us as a team.

‘Be careful, Little Spark,’ a voice I had never heard before said, reverberating with blood and thunder across the clear sky.

I searched the area frantically, scanning in every direction, trying to identify who had spoken. The sky and weather seemed to respond to that voice. Dark storm clouds rolled in response to the anger and despair of the voice. I extended my [Sight] as far as I could, searching for who or what was speaking. I knew Sister was expecting either a missive or person to respond to a beacon she had created, and I thought that voice might belong to one of those people.

The longer I looked without being able to find anyone, the surer I was that this person wasn’t a friend of Sisters. It didn’t make sense to me that a friend of Sister’s would hide from me. And hide so well that they evaded my [Sight].

‘Over here, hiding in the rock formation,’ he said, allowing me to narrow my focus and finally spot him. He was a Roc, the first of my own species I had met since my birth. His plumage was all earth-toned feathers, shades of browns, greens, and greys that allowed him to blend in perfectly with the mountainside.

Now that I knew where to look, I realized he wasn’t alone. He was guarding a clutch of young Rocs, chicks just barely hatched. And from his condition, I would have to guess he was guarding the chicks by himself.

He was on the edge of going rogue. His hunger not yet reaching the point where he would abandon the chicks or eat them, but it was getting close. The chicks were barely alive. They were so hungry and so thirsty that they didn’t have the energy to beg for food anymore.

Something bad had happened, something bad that might be hiding and waiting for Sister inside that spatial tear.

‘Who are you? Where is your mate?’ I demanded, my fear making me brave enough to put worry aside and seek the truth.

Stolen story; please report.

For him to be abandoned while nesting and protecting recently hatched Roc young was unimaginable. He would have had to have committed an act of corruption of the vilest nature for his mate to repudiate him with young still in the nest. For a Roc, that kind of action was only possible, if he had done something so evil as eating one of his young. Only something that horrific would have forced his mate to flee.

She wouldn’t have tried to force him from the nest. Every Roc had access to the memories contained within our bloodline, and she would have decided to abandon the chicks, afraid they might be tainted with the same corruption. She would have known from ancestor memories, that the chicks would die if he was the only means of protection and hunting. And if they did live, they would be changed. Never accepted by another Roc. It would have been more merciful to kill the young herself if he was that lost to madness before fleeing, but that would have proven she was corrupted too.

That there were still three chicks was enough proof that he hadn’t resorted to something so vile. Rocs always laid a clutch of three eggs. The three young, without enough strength to chirp hungrily, meant something else must have happened. Something to his mate.

‘The Elves that guard that tear in space killed her,’ he said, sending me a mental image of five masked people.

‘I am Pluton. My mate and I have claimed this cliff as ours, raising two clutches since our first mating flight. This has been a good place. A safe place. Until the tear in space was discovered, and Elves decided to claim it.’

He was an earth Roc, rare among our people. We tended more towards affinities with wind, water, and lighting. His ability to shape and mold the earth was powerful, and it would have allowed him to attract any number of mates. That he hadn’t left already, now that his mate was dead to search for a new companion, was something I would have to ask Sister about.

I knew why would he stay to try to protect the young, risking his own life. But was death inevitable for him and the chicks? I’m sure there is another way, and Sister would know what we could do to help. He was as tied to his hatchlings as Sister and me. Family bonds are almost as strong as companion bonds.

‘This one is dead,’ I said, sending him back an image of one of the Elves I recognized from the group of five that he had shared. He was the masked Elf that had attacked Sister’s town and had died when the Ocean Spirit had attacked.

‘I and Sister helped kill him.’ I said, trying to be truthful while not seeming to brag.

‘Well done, little Spark. But you should still leave this area. They hunt for sport, always when they grow bored. Killing anything they run across. My mate was attacked when they noticed her, and it was only because she was able to lead them away from the nest that the chicks were ignored.’

‘Maybe we could have driven them off if I had been there to help, but I was hunting. She was able to send me an image of the one that had killed her,’ he continued, sharing with me an image of one of the Elves, the one with a mask that was shaped like a crow. ‘I have looked for him, watched as I have been forced to guard my chicks as they slowly starve.

‘I hope to get vengeance for my mate’s death, and the chicks that will slowly die by killing him before the rest of his people can protect him or kill me.’

‘Sister can save the chicks,’ I informed him full of conviction, ignoring his determination for vengeance and anger and focusing on saving lives. Sister said it was always better to protect and save, and that killing should only be done when there was no other choice.

I didn’t even need to wait and ask to make the offer for Sister. I knew she would agree. Even if Sister hadn’t been collecting flying beasts for a week now, she would have offered to save the hatchlings. Three more Rocs would only add to her collection, but three lives saved were what was more important to Sister. They would be safe in the torc until they matured enough to bond with someone Sister thought capable enough to protect them and love them.

‘Why would she do that?’ He asked.

‘Sister is trying to build a colony. She needs strong guards to make it safe and has been collecting Elves and flying companions for them. Sister is really smart. Sister takes the long view, and she does it without the guidance of voices in her blood that we rely on.

‘Sister says two are better than one. That the more there are working together, the stronger they are. If two are strong, then three are stronger, and an entire flock is strongest. Sister wants to get strongest so that her flock can live safely.’

I hadn’t understood why Sister wanted to build such a large flock until she explained it to me. Sister and I would live a long, long time. If we were lucky, we might even live forever. But Sister had pointed out that she had already made enemies.

Some people thought Sister was prey, and Sister needed more teeth and claws to protect what was hers and the people she had promised to protect. The voices in my blood agreed with her ideas. I had listened to them talk and argue after Sister explained what she was doing until one ancestor finally drowned out the rest and stepped forward, becoming my adviser above all others.

I was happy when that happened. The other voices were silenced, and although the other ancestors could still speak, his position as guardian and advisor protected me from being swamped with all those voices as they chattered and bickered over everything.

There wasn’t much prey around the base of the mountain. Either the Elves that were killing for sport had driven them off, or Pluton had hunted what he could without straying too far from the nest. I ranged a bit farther than I wanted. Sister had trusted me to wait for word at the tear in space, but Sister would understand the need for me to hunt.

It didn’t take long before I found a snake trying to hide in the heights of the tree. One large enough to feed the chicks. It would take more than just this one snake to feed Pluton, but once his chicks were eating, maybe he could go and hunt while I stayed to guard.

If he was going to let Sister help, this was the first test of trust, one of many tests that he would have to pass to save himself. Vengeance might never be possible, but he and his chicks would live.