Chapter Ten - Names
Closing the door behind them, the three of them moved into the beann enclosure easily, curiously studying the area. Unlike the barren land of her fellacai’s space, it was obvious a nature mage had at least gotten things started here. The floor was covered in tiny grain stalks just sprouting from the earth. They’d created a few hills for variety, and there were seven skinny saplings placed near the edge where the stream burbled by.
And that was it. To be fair, she’d only seen them living in the golden fields, so everything more than that was already extra. A few pathways lined in stone to make it easier for the caretakers to move around. You could see everything at a glance…for now. Once the grain grew, they could just bed down in it and no one would ever see the birds if they came to the glass.
“Well this looks like a decent start.” Hunter remarked casually, setting his raphna down so she could explore, admonishing the little tyke, “You can wander, but don’t touch the birds.” He probably felt they were less volatile than the fellacai, not to mention significantly less fragile.
Camille walked over to the floating cage, giving her a questioning look, to which Jade made a ‘go ahead’ gesture. She gave her bonded a pat, then unclasped the gate, pulling it open as she stepped back. A veritable flood of birds poured out, immediately flying out to explore the space. Many landed on the ground next to the grain, and she could practically feel the disappointment that it wasn’t tall enough for them to hide in.
The princess’ bonded had flown out with the rest, and unless she activated her mana sight, there was no way of telling which they were, although Cami’s eyes following their progress was a decent indication. They avoided the little raphna, though it merrily started chasing them around for kicks and giggles. She could tell it wasn’t actually trying to catch them, per Hunter’s order, but it was having fun getting close.
Looking at the flashing gold and blue feathers, Jade muttered softly, “it’d be a shame if people never actually got to see them.” Did she intend to grow the grain high enough for them to hide in? Absolutely. The saplings would be an option for people to spot them in the branches, but as she thought about Earth zoos, she realized what she really wanted were just…empty branches. Something they could perch on and be visible. Maybe a lattice.
She didn’t have anything like that in her rings. The closest options she had were the branches she’d stolen from the funeral woods, and she had zero intention of giving those up. Instead, she turned her attention to the sapling closest to the viewing glass.
“Are you going to grow the grain?” Hunter asked curiously, looking out at it. They’d left the barrel of blood in the other enclosure, but she had the brief thought that she could send a sprinkle of it like rain to help the plants grow. That was basically what they did outside the walls. Except it wasn’t really a sprinkle, it was whatever drenched the stalks. That still seemed gross if she thought about it too much.
“I’ll probably raise it up a little bit, but I think I’m going to start with one of the trees first.” She responded absently, moving towards her chosen target. Pondering the best way to do it, she barely noted the birds scattering out of her way. Dropping down, she sat next to the small tree. Rather than killing herself trying to crouch or kneel by it, she might as well relax as she worked her magic.
Pumping energy into the plant, she focused on the growth. Rather than only sending it along the regular path, she made sure there were low-hanging branches fanned out, then focused on a couple roots. They didn’t want to grow above the ground, but she forced them to arch through the air, creating small natural bridges over the water. She varied the heights, tiering them further away from the window so they would be more visible.
Satisfied that she’d created something they could sit or play on that would be interesting for the viewers, she let go of the magic, resting her back against the now fully grown tree, enjoying the shade. Once the tree stopped obviously moving, the birds seemed to lose some of their fear, ignoring her to explore the new feature.
“That’s an interesting choice.” Camille remarked, walking over to study it as well. One of her bonded returned to her shoulder, ducking in and out of her golden blonde locks as it shuffled about playfully. Several of the birds were overcoming their fear of her as she sat there growing things. Or maybe it was just that there wasn’t much else to explore and they couldn’t hide, so they were curious. They began to hop along the branches, which was gratifying.
She wasn’t about to give them tools, because crows were notorious for being clever and she honestly didn’t know what they might be mixed with to get that golden and blue color. There was no point taking unnecessary chances to help them get away, despite the lack of magical attacks they’d demonstrated. Having magic made everything both easier and way more complicated.
Looking at Cami, she shrugged as she explained, “On Earth, people always complained when they couldn’t see the animals because they were hiding when they came by.” Gesturing to the grain sprouts, she went on, “Once those are grown, they could just spend their whole time in there and not come out, so I figured if you give them an area to play, there’s at least a chance for people to see how pretty they are.”
“Huh. I could see how that might be problematic.” Camille casually agreed, reaching up to pet her pretty bird.
“Have you decided what to name yours?” Jade asked as she reached out to the nearest plants, sending her magic into them to give them some more height. She didn’t feel the need to grow everything completely, but had no problem speeding it along a bit now that she was leaving them here. Grinning, she added, “How about Aurora and Dawn?”
Camille rolled her eyes, recognizing that she was parroting the potential names she’d proposed for Ramoth and Amber. “Huh? No offense, but those names don’t match at all.” Hunter piped up from behind her, and her only regret was that he hadn’t turned it completely on his sister by calling them lame. Maybe if he’d been there, he’d have known, but he was completely innocent as he helped her make fun of the princess. It backfired as he continued to mutter, “How did your fellacai end up with nice names if that’s your aesthetic? Maybe I’ll wait to ask Victor…”
The two girls broke down laughing, her magic stopping as she clutched her sides, trying to control the giggles. He looked thoroughly confused before Jade finally took pity on him, explaining, “Those were the names she,” she indicated Camille, “suggested for my fellacai. Victor suggested firefly for Amber. I don’t recommend asking Will, as his were by far the worst with things like Goldy, Midnight, Sunrise, and Sunny.” Hunter’s face had twitched in mild disgust the longer she talked, obviously judging his brothers for their bad taste.
Laughing, Camille added, “She ignored almost everyone’s suggestions. Eric almost named one, but she changed ember to Amber, and Stephen suggested Willow. The rest came out of nowhere and I’m pretty sure most are references none of us understand.” Jade opened her mouth to rebut, then shrugged and closed it again. She wasn’t wrong, although a few, like Cosmo, felt more obvious to her. However, given that there was more than one thing she was thinking of for even the most literal seeming…
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Oh. Okay. You can help me name my bond then.” Hunter seemed appeased that she had ignored his siblings’ help, and she could help but let out another laugh.
“Gee thanks. It’s such an honor.” She stuck her tongue out teasingly, even though it kinda really was. To her it was the equivalent of naming her children, even though she hadn’t realized that at the time and been far more casual about it than she maybe should have been. Thankfully, they didn’t seem to mind. Curiously she asked, “So do either of you even have any ideas?”
They both paused, exchanging equally helpless looks until Camille finally confessed, “Not really. They haven’t seemed to like anything I’ve tested so far.” When Jade gave her a ‘go on, what did you try?’ look, she admitted sheepishly. “Mostly names like Sunny and Sky…” Her voice trailed off as they both gave her ‘really?’ vibes. “What? I thought they were cute!”
Shaking her head, Jade responded as she thought aloud, “Well, if they’re not receptive to those… Let’s see. There were Huginn and Muninn, Nawat, Yatagarasu, Raum, the Morrigan, Nephthys, Sanzuwu… Hmmm. Associated names might be Odin, Apollo, Nemain, Shani, Horus, Quetzacoatl, Shani…Edgar, Aesop, George, Shakespeare, Maleficent, Alfred…” She’d reached deep into the recesses of her mind for any corvid mythology she could think of. Like any good American teenager, she’d had a phase when she’d been obsessed with it that came in handy now. Then she started grasping for any names she could think of that were remotely associated with ravens and crows.
“That is a weirdly eclectic group of names.” Camille seemed slightly overwhelmed at the choice, and Jade could see her calling her second bonded over as she sat down next to her, the beann taking up positions on her knees so she could look them in their beady little eyes.
Reaching over, Jade gently stroked the feathers of her little friends as she explained, “They’re from a bunch of different cultures around the world. Every country had their own stories and mythos centered around similar birds.”
“Is that how you named your fellacai?” Hunter asked as he too, settled next to them, his little raphna trotting over to curl up in his lap, obviously a bit worn out from her romping escapades with the loose birds as she silently demanded scritches. It honestly reminded her of a toddler returning to their parent’s lap. Which, to be fair, wasn’t that far off the truth.
“Sort of?” She made a so-so sign with her fingers. “There’s honestly not a lot of mythology around butterflies, the Earth equivalent of fellacai, that I can think of. Mostly stuff involving them taking or being souls of the deceased.” She paused, then added, “So I mostly made references to their elements and colors and random literary associations from fandoms. Or places. Honestly, there was no cohesion whatsoever.”
“What’s a fandom?” Hunter asked curiously.
“A toxic can of worms.” The reply slipped out before she could moderate it, but they just looked even more confused. Rightfully so. Letting out a small huff, she tried to correct, “It’s a subculture of people who love something SO much that they make it a facet of their personality.” She paused, then conceded because her run-ins with fanatics were not the be-all and end-all of trolls on the internet, “Okay, that might be harsh. But it’s just a very enthusiastic group of people who are super passionate about some form of media. Popular books, music, shows, which we still need to watch some of my favorites, by the way.”
Camille rolled her eyes. “And when exactly do you propose we do that? Or where? We’re still working on these theater spaces you spoke of, but they won’t be ready for some time with everything else going on.”
Jade pointed at the wall of the enclosure. “To be totally fair, with magic we could probably just put a couch down and project it onto any flat surface. I’m actually not even sure we need the wall because the illusion looks solid.” They could likely just let it hang in the air in front of them without any problem. She was used to the idea of screens, but illusion magic was not a projector. There was no need to hamstring herself with Earthly preconceptions or misconceptions.
The princess still seemed overwhelmed, so Jade pointed back to her bonded. “Don’t stress it. Let’s go back to names. Did any of the ones I mentioned resonate at all?”
“Uhhh. I wasn’t paying attention. Can you say them again?” She gave her an awkward smile, and Jade shook her head before looking at the bonded and repeating the names one by one to see if the birdies liked any of them. They perked up a bit at Yatagarasu, but didn’t seem to like any of the others.
Pondering, Jade repeated aloud, “Yatagarasu…it’s a bit of a mouthful and just one name. Yata… Gaara, Rasu… Karasu?” Didn’t that mean crow in Japanese? It was a bit on the nose, so she kept mumbling, “Kara and… Gary?”
Camille’s head was cocked, her brow furrowed as she did her best to communicate with her new bonded. Finally, she said, “They like Rasu and Gaara.” She’d followed Jade’s modified pronunciation and she decided not to mention that it was the name of a character she liked. However, once the names were decided, she could feel the bond settle slightly, deepening.
“I like them.” Turning to Hunter, she asked, “Now that they’re settled, do you want to brainstorm yours too?”
“Have you got any ideas?” He asked curiously.
Pondering for a moment, she listed, “There’s Meeko, Rocket…” Her voice trailed off. That was literally all she could think of. There was some mythological one that she always got confused and called Azkaban or Aslan, but it was something more like… “Azeban?” Most of the mythologies she could think of were coming up short. They just thought of them as bandits and didn’t give them names.
Deciding that trickster gods might be more apropos, she added, “Okay. Going down another track, we’ve got Loki, Anansi, Hermes, Set, Maui, Manannan mac Lir, Wukong, Mercury, Susanoo, Eris…” Her voice trailed off as the little raphna practically jumped to her feet. “Eris? You like that one?” Jade asked curiously.
Communicating with his bonded, Hunter nodded. “Yeah, she likes it. What’s it from?”
Jade paused, then cherry picked her response. “Uh…it’s the name of a goddess who liked to have fun. And cause chaos...because it amuses her.” She decided not to share the story about the Apple of Discord. Huh. Goddess of Discord. She’d never really put it together before, but did the name of the messaging service have anything to do with Eris? To be fair, any place where people gathered on the internet was a chaotic debate.
She tried to shake off those thoughts. She could absolutely say she missed talking there with people. It was a little sad to think about. Online communities were strange, because you could talk to people about so many things and know so much about them, and yet nothing at all. You could talk to them every day, and then one day they would just vanish and you had no way of ever finding out what happened, their memories solely preserved in conversations long past.
She wondered if anyone noticed when she stopped logging in, or cared that she was gone. Practical strangers whose only memories of her were shared insights and encouragement. Would they wonder? Did her family even think to leave a message, or was it just another mystery lost in the annals of the internet? A silent slipping away in the night.
If nothing else, she hoped they were doing well.
Unaware of the strange melancholy she’d slipped into, Hunter was still excited about Eris’ new name. Camille let out a soft snort as she responded to the explanation that felt like minutes ago, but was mere seconds past. “Being named after a trickster seems perfect for you two.” She teased her brother, who rolled his eyes but didn’t protest.
“And?” He asked pointedly, grinning as he was absolutely unashamed.
Yup. Their parents were going to kill her. Or the servants from the palace would at least want to.
Reaching out with her magic, she restarted growing things again, now that she’d taken a short break. Absently, she asked, “So when’s the next time you’re going to see your parents?”
Blinking at what she saw as a random question, the princess answered, “Not really sure. Probably tonight. Why?”
“So I can hide for the next few days…” she muttered. She considered it best that she stayed out of their way until any initial anger at her actions had had time to cool off. Who knew? Maybe it wouldn’t be a big deal and they would laugh it off. That was possible. Probable? Not so much.
Unlike the waving wheat she was growing for the beann, there really wasn’t anywhere in the city that wasn’t under their purview. There wasn’t a dragon to take her to the top of a tree for a night away.
She let out a frustrated sigh as her thoughts slipped back to Briar. Where had things all gone wrong?