Family Bonding

Cassidy fluffed her feathers against the sandy wind as she finally caught sight of her home. She climbed the slope with her eyes shut, finally getting some respite from the aggravating grains since she knew the route like the back of her claw. The sandstorm hadn’t been entirely unexpected, the dark cloud had been hanging over the horizon for a while but she hadn’t expected it to be quite so... gritty. The smooth, worn stone was as familiar under her feet as it always was, and soon Cassidy found herself under partial shelter, some of the winds diverted from her face. She could tell even through her eyelids that it had gotten darker too and knew she had made it to the wooden structure that could once have been called a shelter. It was still enough to take the wind off her and allow her to open her eyes. The dark entrance of the cave was within reach and she let herself hurry the last few steps, shaking off her feathers and hearing the grains scatter across the ground. 

“I’m shedding a whole beach in here,” she grumbled to herself. She used her tail to sweep some of the sand back out to avoid provoking Hornet’s wrath, the Pachy was certainly house-proud and Cassidy was already on thin ice with her. 

“Mother!” a small voice called from deeper in the cave and Cassidy couldn’t help the smile that split her face when Prince came scrambling up the tunnel. His pale pink feathers mirrored her own, but his deep yellow belly was entirely the fault of the raptor that followed him.

“Welcome back, come on, we got some water ready for you,” Kaiwi told her.

“Water? For me?” Cassidy asked and tilted her head at them both.

“To clean the sand out of your visage, mother!” Prince chirped. His verbose vocab had certainly widened her own horizons, prior to his birth she may have stoved someone’s head in for saying something like that. Motherhood had been good for her, she decided, it didn’t dull any of her ferocity but granted her a greater sense of compassion. Somehow, she struck the balance between the two, even if her greater compassion was mostly reserved for her son and her mate. 

“Alright then, I guess I'll come clean up,” she relented, making Prince grin up at her.

Cassidy followed them both back down through the tunnels, into the dark until faint glowing deposits of ore began to light their way. The gang had never tried to chip off any themselves, fearing their potential explosiveness, but any that fell off independently were free game. They would gather them and stick them in the small iron cages that humans had left behind, turning them into makeshift lanterns. It was that orange glow that reflected on the surface of the bucket of water waiting for her. The water was otherwise an inky black in the darkness of the tunnels, but from her sharp glance over it she could see it was clear enough to see the bottom with the help of the light. Prince directed her to sit and she did so, settling herself comfortably and ducking her head to gently nuzzle the hatchling, who squealed in protest but giggled all the same. Kaiwi brushed his snout over the top of her crest and despite herself, Cassidy felt herself melt under his gentle touch. 

Kaiwi started with the water, it was pleasantly warm in comparison to the bitter wind that blew outside. Cassidy wondered how they had managed to warm it so far underground, she only knew of the brisk and fresh stream that flowed deep into the mines, and neither her mate nor child ever went that far down. Her feathers dampened under his claws, just enough to wash the sand away but not enough to leave the feathers soaked. Prince was naturally a little more heavy handed, but he focused on areas like her face and claws, less feathers to become completely saturated under his childish clumsiness. His little face was furrowed in concentration, the faintest tip of his tongue sticking out with the effort.

As far into the mines as they were, Cassidy could still hear the wind howling outside. The grains of sand being blown into the entrance echoed loudly enough that she could hear their faint tic tic tic and kept glancing up the passageway in case a flood of sand came pouring down at any moment. She distracted herself from the thought by regailing her mate and child with the particulars of her patrol. It hadn’t been very interesting, especially with low visibility, but they hung on her every word regardless. Prince specifically was so distracted that he was paying less attention to where he was splashing water on her face.

“Glad I didn’t send Cath out in this, the sand would’ve put holes through her wings,” Cassidy murmured, shutting her eyes as water began to creep closer to them.

“Really?” Prince asked, his eyes wide with awe, “But your journey seemed so uneventful, almost pedestrian!” Cassidy couldn’t help the sly smile, showing her teeth in a silent snicker.

“I guess your mother is just that tough,” Kaiwi indulged. He ran his claws through her feathers again, raking out yet more sand as he did so. “Cass, I think you’ll be shaking sand out of your feathers for weeks,” he moaned. Prince giggled and ruffled the tall crest feathers on top of his mother’s head.

“You’ll be an endless supply of sand! We shall tarry forth and make our own beach!” he exclaimed in delight.

“Saves the trip to the coast,” Cassidy said agreeably, “What’ll we do for the ocean though?” The question seemed to stump the hatchling but his brow furrowed as he thought, not letting go of the conundrum straight away. Kaiwi looked over her back to see Prince deep in thought and caught his mate’s eye, smiling. Prince was really the best of the both of them, Kaiwi’s effortless charm and Cassidy’s sharp mind. He could only hope that he would become even greater than the both of them combined. That was the point of parenthood, he supposed, to make the world a better place by raising your little prodigy to reach their full potential. He was biased of course, but watching Prince figure out how to transport the ocean to Outlook Ridge while he gently combed through his mother’s feathers made the older raptor feel like this hatchling could do anything he set his mind to. Cassidy was feeling something similar, holding her eyes open until they burned, trying to fully preserve this memory in her head for the rest of time. When she was an old, balding, barely lucid raptor she wanted to still have this memory within reach. Her mate, her son, her, all safe and warm inside the home she had made, being cared for so gently by the two of them. She wondered if Prince would remember this as he grew older, knowing that some of her own childhood memories were lost to time. It didn’t matter, she supposed, if he didn’t remember the moment, as long as he remembered the emotion. He was loved, so loved, and she wanted him to remember that for as long as he lived.