You Can't Always Get What You Want

Drift felt that the highlands suited her. The cool air rippling through her feathers and the fresh mornings that stung her eyes had become familiar at this point and she welcomed each day with the same sense of wonder. She had to admit, part of that wonder was reinforced by the presence of someone else, someone to watch her back and make sure she had a fighting chance. Brook wasn't built for combat, but neither was she, they were both muddling through life the best they could but it felt less haphazard with the two of them together. Drift hadn't expected having a brother to have such an impact on her life, she had been so used to being alone since she hatched. He had reassured her that he felt the same, a strange sense of wholeness that came from finding a buddy to face the world with. 

The pair had been navigating the highlands as it filled with snow, winter coming in full force for the first time in their lives. It was early spring with snowmelt fresh in the rivers when both had hatched, the ideal time for hatchlings to be born but it left the juveniles with little idea on how to survive the harshest months on the island. When they had asked others =about it, the few friendly faces they had seen around, it had apparently been their parents' responsibility to teach them these things. It stung, knowing that once again they had been left at a disadvantage by their eggs being abandoned. Nevertheless, they had each other and began to sleep in shifts, squeezing into the narrowest cave openings to shelter from the increasingly frequent snowstorms. Food was as scarce as shelter, and Drift was keen to find somewhere more permanent as she noticed her brother weakening from hunger. With a base of operations they could begin to find prey trails, learn their habits instead of chasing their tracks.

They had found an open cave, in hind sight it had been far too open, leading downward into a room so warm that moss still grew along its walls. Drift was taking the first watch as Brook tried to sleep next to her. It was always hard for him to fall asleep on an empty stomach so she was patrolling the room far from him to avoid disturbing him. She had barely passed the entrance of the cave when a shadow fell over her. The feathers along her back bristled instinctively and she turned to face the intruder with a low hiss, backing up so she could reach Brook and alert him. She had just kicked him when the intruder stepped forward into the room, revealing itself to be an adult Cryo.

He was enormous, featherless and unflinching in spite of it. The cold air didn't bother him, he stayed perfectly still as he looked down upon them. Despite being lit from behind by the low hanging moon, Drift could make out some of the colours on his face, especially the bright orange that seemed to match her brother's own. Even the shape was similar, though Brook's was more narrow, perhaps waiting for adulthood to grow in properly. The adult Cryo didn't move, his eyes gleamed in the dark as he looked over the two of them, like he was waiting for something. The markings along his body splattered like ink, just like Drift's did and his dark fawn spots seemed to match their placement to hers. Her crest rose in indignation as she finally let the puzzle pieces click together.

"Are you our dad?" Drift asked boldly. The sound of her voice so loud and sudden made Brook shrink back, like he was expecting it to trigger a violent reaction from the other Cryo. It took a moment for her words to sink in, and when they did his eyes snapped upwards. He saw a reflection of himself looking back, a wide orange blaze that stretched up to cover the older Cryo's crest. His eyes darted nervously to his sister, who was still staring defiantly at the adult. Realising Brook wasn't intending to attack, his amber eyes slid over to Drift instead.

"Perhaps. I have many children," the Cryo said evasively, his voice higher than either of the juveniles had expected.

"Maybe have less until you start looking after them," Drift snapped, a sudden fury boiling within her. Something about how off-handed the response had infuriated her, like their lives and struggle to raise themselves was so beneath this Cryo that he couldn't even be bothered to entertain the possibility they were related.

"You have my marking, on the forehead," Brook piped up, noting how the adult withdrew slightly under Drift's fiery glare.

"Then yes, I probably am your father, but I-"

"But?" Drift snarled, puffing herself up to her full height, barely reaching the adult's knee, "You think any excuse you have will justify letting two of your own starve to death."

"You're not dead," the adult protested weakly.

"Yet!" Drift interrupted, "We haven't caught anything in days because no one taught us how to hunt in the snow!" Brook stayed silent, not wanting to let her words sink in too much and face their grim reality. The adult seemed unlikely to retaliate with violence, if anything he seemed intimidated by the righteous fury of his estranged child., so the quieter sibling decided to let his sister go. It would do her good to get these emotions off her chest.

"I- I've seen deer by the lake, they break the thin ice to drink from it," the adult Cryo offered. Drift stared at him still, waiting for something else. "I could um, I could hunt one and bring it back for you?" Drift nodded, like he had chosen correctly from his available options.

"That's a start. You have a name? I'm certainly not calling you our father," the young female said sternly.

"Uh, it's Khan," he replied hesitantly. When Drift finally pulled her sharp eyes away from him, Khan took the opportunity to back out of the cave. He fled into the snow, and his white scales disappeared in a way that neither sibling could tell whether he had turned towards the lake or not. Brook chanced a look at his sister and was shocked to see her eyes welling up with tears.

"Drift-" he started but he was interrupted by her bursting in sobs, hurrying over to bury her face in his side.

"He's awful, he didn't care if we died!" his sister howled, her stern facade shattered and raw grief pouring from her in palpable waves. 

"It's okay," he tried to reassure her, "We have each other, we never needed a father and we don't need him now!" Drift sniffled as she tried to swallow the hiccuping sobs that kept breaking out from her throat, shaking her whole body every time. 

"I thought it would be different if we found a parent, I thought it would be better," she admitted sadly, keeping her head tucked down. Brook could understand, there had been a fairytale vision in his mind too, reuniting with one or both of their parents and finally having a parental figure to watch out for them. Khan had quickly put paid to any flights of delusion, they were as alone as they always had been.