Birdwatching

Tiainen ran as fast as his legs could carry him over the frosty morning grass. He wasn't running from anything, instead he was hurrying to the frozen lake's shore, late for an appointment with a friend.

"Kaiwi!" he wheezed as he hurried towards the dark purple Utahraptor, "So sorry I'm-"

"Shhh!" the other raptor hissed, clamping his claw around the Oviraptor's beak to keep it shut, "You'll scare them away!" Tiainen brought his own hands up to his face to cover his mouth, eyes wide and scanning the lake for any sign of their target. To his delight, he could see faint black silhouettes against the blinding ice as it caught the morning rays from the sun.

"They're here," he breathed in delight. He flopped to his belly, ignoring the way the cold seeped into his feathers as he watched the birds on the ice with delight. They were short, stocky little things, pitch black heads and dark backs with white speckles. Their underbellies were a soft shade of cream and a band of white wrapped around their necks. It was like a reverse of his own head markings, and he was enraptured by their stoic little trek across the ice.

"They have anything like these guys down in that dome of yours?" Kaiwi asked, a notable smug tone to his voice. The raptor, once learning of Tiainen's fascination with birds, had been keen to introduce him to the native fowl of the islands. Tiainen had to admit, the raptor had yet to show him a disappointing bird. The jungle of Atlantis held all kinds of colourful fliers but the earth colours of ducks and the pitch coal of crows had captured his attention in a way the lurid parrots never had. He shook his head silently, not trusting himself to avoid bursting into tears if he spoke. Kaiwi turned back to the lake to watch the loons march in their little formations across the ice, finding his own kind of peace in it too. He loved these islands so deeply, his home in Dead City most of all, but his frequent travels across the islands made him fairly worldly, at least in his opinion. He was certainly worldly in comparison to Tiainen, the Ovi had spent his whole life living in a dome with elders that raised him who also had never left the dome. He couldn't imagine being stuck in one environment his whole life, even if it was the city. 

"They're called loons," he started once he was sure they wouldn't hear him, "They're water birds and they like the cold. Some birds will fly away for the winter but these guys stick around and wait for patches of the ice to melt. They tend to hang out in the lowlands, I'm pretty sure they'd be waiting all day in the highlands, it's way colder up there."

"Can we go see birds in the highlands?" Tiainen asked, his eyes sparkling with excitement. It was so intense it took Kaiwi aback for a moment before he regained his footing.

"Of course, lots of cool birds up there. You ever seen a snow owl? Sorry, dumb question, you haven't seen a snow owl," he rambled, "So, they're like a regular owl but white-" Tiainen did his best to listen to Kaiwi's explanation but he was once again distracted by a sound coming from the lake.

"What was that?" he whispered, shivering at the otherworldly call. It was followed by a similar but lower pitched call, like a gentle howl. 

"It's the loons," Kaiwi said, "That's the noise they make, I think it's them talking to each other but I'm no expert." Tiainen allowed his eyes to close and let the haunting tones of the loons carry across the frozen lake to him. He hadn't heard such a song before, used to the howling of monkeys and the sharp, aggressive squawks of parrots and their ilk. The loons sounded like music to him, their calling back and forth making him feel like he was privy to something ancient and secret.

"I'd love to be able to sing like that," he sighed eventually, "Imagine a song so beautiful, right at your own door." Kaiwi looked at him sideways, wondering if he should even make the offer.

"If- you know if you wanted to live up here, I'm always around to help you settle in," he offered.

"Oh no, I could never, Atlantis is my home," Tiainen insisted, his forelimbs flailing.

"Does it have to be home forever?" Kaiwi asked but he decided to not press any further, curling further into a ball as the cold insistently pried its way between his feathers. The oviraptor didn't respond, just returned to silently listening to the loons. Something turned mournful about their song, and he felt it pull at something inside his chest. Atlantis was his home, forever, and he could never imagine that changing.