I change into formal attire and hop in front of the mirror. Damn, who’s that hot piece of sparrow meat looking at me? I admire my beautiful beige colored feathers that I inherited from my mother, yellow eyes and curved beak I inherited from my father. Seeing that I’m ready I head out of my room and enter the palace corridors.

As I walk along the corridors different birds of prey greet me as I pass by. Most of the birds tend to avoid me and only a few approach to greet me. I’d nod at them and give them a soft smile as I greet back. Those who avoided me were staring daggers at me and sneered at me when I look at them. *Sigh* what kind of royal treatment is this? I continue walking forward and suddenly I felt a tug pulling on my tail feathers. A cute baby eagle holding one of my feathers was behind me, and it was looking at me with fierce eyes.

It was my little sister, Isabel. She seems to have inherited most of her traits from father, she looks just like him except for the size of course, now that I think about it she’s a tad small for a baby eagle huh? She raises her arms and starts playfully shouting.

“Big brother! Lift! Lift! ”

I crouch down and put her on my shoulders. She starts flapping her wings vigorously and she succeeds to float above my head and after a few seconds she slowly descends back to my shoulders. She looked tired and was panting heavily, for a fledgling that was an amazing feat to do. Not all fledglings can maintain a few seconds flying in the air, this proves that she really has father’s blood flowing through her.

"Uhm Isabel, when are you going to go down?" I ask her while she was holding and pulling onto the feathers on my head acting like she was driving a sparrow around the palace.

"Big brother, no speak! Isabel do what she want to do! ”

“*Sigh* Yes mam.”

“Yay! Yay! Yay! ”

As I walk toward father’s throne room. Isabel was shouting with glee as I let her stay and play on my shoulders. The guards guarding the room can’t help but smile as they saw Isabel atop my shoulders pulling on my feathers. They open the door to the room and father is seen with a surprised expression on his face as he lay his eyes on me and Isabel. I walk forward to the center of the throne room. Did this room always have that hole in the ceiling?

As the sunlight hit Isabel’s eyes she snaps out of her playful trance and notices that I stopped and kneeled towards father. She starts looking around and notices father in front of us, she hops down my shoulders and ran towards father.

“Father! Look!” Isabel shouts as she holds a beige colored feather in her hand. I instinctively reach for the top of my head and start counting the feathers. Please not my crown, any feather but not the crown, I pray inwardly.

“Uriel raise your head and puff up your crown”

“Yes father.”

Eight Large feathers stood up on my head resembling a crown. I sigh in relief that Isabel didn’t take one of the crown feathers. As I raise my head I notice Isabel trying to climb on to my father’s lap. It was a cute sight, she was so small compared to father. Me and father share warm gazes and greet each other with a faint smile, he looks away to assist his daughter trying to climb up on to his lap before speaking.

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“Do you know why I’ve called you here Uriel?”

“Unfortunately. I do not know father. I was only informed that you have called for me.”

“Stand up. I’d like to give you a present.”

“What have I done to deserve a present, father?” I say as I stand up.

“No, no I’m not giving this present to you as a reward for your merits, but as a father.” He says with a warm familiar tone. He then proceeds to carry Isabel and puts her on his shoulders as he stands up from his throne. Father’s shoulders were broad so Isabel was only sitting on his left side, surprisingly she was well behaved as she sat there with wandering eyes. Her eyes stop at the hole in the ceiling, she raises her hand and points at the opening.

I instinctively looked where she pointed and I noticed a small dot in the opening above my head, the dot was gradually growing bigger and a whistling sound was heard in the distance. My body reflexively moved on its own and moved away from the opening above me. As I moved away a sudden gale of wind attacked the throne room, it was strong enough to produce a howling sound and knock the furnitures over. Due to this disturbance the guards outside hurriedly entered the room. The black dot fell on the ground without a sound. As the confusion cleared a bird with pitch black feathers stood in the middle of the throne room and looked at father. The guards assumed positions and surrounded the unknown trespasser. father raised his hand and told the guards to stop.

“Guards you’re being rude to my visitor”

The guards looked at father with confused expressions. They sheathed their weapons and their commander stood in front of the king and kneeled.

“We are sorry for the misunderstanding, Sire. The amount of power we felt and the sudden rumbling inside the throne room caused us to take action instantly. We thought the king was in danger.”

The commander, Morris, expressed his apologies genuinely. Father sighed and said.

“Stand up Morris, I forgive you. This was also partly my fault for wanting to impress my son”

He looks at the pitch black bird standing in the middle and said.

“That was over the top for a grand entrance you know?” He says jokingly, father then continues and calls my name.

“Uriel. I have appointed you an aide as a present. The tensions between the kingdoms of Ryvus are rising, and I can’t help but worry that a war might break out soon. The aide I have appointed for you will introduce himself.” Father stopped speaking and glanced at the pitch black bird.

The unknown bird stepped forward and knelt in front of me.

“I am Cole Acri, from the Shrike Family. It’s an honor serving the prince.”

As Cole introduced himself, the guards flinched when they heard that he came from the shrike family. One of them murmured “A family of butchers, tsk.”

“Please take care of me.” I reply to him.

The Shrike, Cole Acri has pledged his allegiance to you.

Synergy skill has risen!

“Shrike is cool!” Isabel shouts with glee on top of father’s shoulders. She glides down father’s shoulder and approached Cole. All the guards paid attention to the movement of Cole as he crouched down to pat Isabel’s head.

“Strong wind again! Again!”

Cole looks at father and me with eyes asking if it’s fine to follow Isabel’s request. Father nods to give consent and I also nod in agreement. The shrike stood up from his crouched position and unfurled his wings. With one strong flap from his wings he disappeared from where he was and a whistling sound was heard again in the distance.

I looked up at the opening in the ceiling and noticed that there was no black dot in the sky. He must have flown too high for a black dot to appear. Even with my keen eye sight I couldn't find any trace of him above. “Wow” I exhaled. I flew up to the opening to look further and a black dot was yet to be seen. Damn how far up did he fly? I flew out of the opening and saw Cole sitting by the opening whistling with his eyes closed.