Chapter Text
"Athair!" Sparkling golden eyes shine in the setting sun when the little girl is thrown into the air with outstretched arms, landing shortly after in the safe arms of her father. She climbs onto her bed, jumping up and down with loud laughter, her thin plumage fluttering with every bounce, just waiting for her father's sign. Once again he stretches out his arms towards her, she pushes herself up from her bed, landing in Valon's arms and is thrown into the air once more. "It's like flying!" Xayah excitedly squeals, her cheeks flushed with excitement. Valon can't resist laughing, and drops his daughter on the bed again, giving her the signal to jump. "One more time, then it' s bedtime," he smiles and already grabs her, holding her tightly in his arms, turning around a few times and then letting Xayah fly again, answered with a loud laugh.
" Athair, would you tell me a story? I can't sleep otherwise." Xayah looks at her father with huge puppy eyes, a hopeful expression on her face. Valon moves over to a small table and grabs the comb on top of it, sits down next to her on her bed and kisses her hair gently.
"Which one do you want to hear?"
Gently he lets the comb slide through her messy, magenta-colored hair, taking care not to hurt her when he combs the small knots out. "The one about the Titans," she giggles and glances over her shoulder, right into Valon's face. Her eyes sparkle with anticipation, then she turns her head back again so her father can continue while he hums softly in front of her, soon she joins in his humming and follows his movements with her head.
After a couple of moments he puts the comb aside and places his hand on the first of her thin feathers looking at them proudly, from day to day they become thicker and stronger, the color more intense, what a few years ago was a soft shade of lavender, is now bright purple, just like her mother's. Her tips are in the same red as Valon's own feathers, he is sure Xayah will be as beautiful as her mother Sorcha once was.
Even her song reminds Valon very much of her mother's, whenever she is happy or curiously looking at something, he can hear her song playing an octave higher, like a playful or delighted violin, bathed in violet light. Sometimes he even gets the impression that he can actually see the changes in her song, as if the violet light is changing into a bright yellow or a shining green. As if a field of sunflowers touched his inner eye.
He carefully smoothed the feather with a tender hands, straightening the slightly ruffled plumage. At the same time he tells her the story of the Titans and how some humans went into the spiritual world to fight the Titans. When he comes to the part of the story where the Vasthayschai'rei and the humans live peacefully side by side, she turns her head to him again. "Why don't we live among the humans anymore," she asks him and puts her head slightly crooked while he straightens the last of her feathers.
Valon falls silent for a moment, then he gently kisses Xayah's temple and gently strokes her cheek. "Because it' s better for us to stay away from them. They aren't dangerous, you don't need to be afraid of them. But... they aren't like us, they don't understand our way of thinking and our magic, they don't see the beauty of nature, of magic and life." She nods slowly and looks through her window, the sun almost completely disappearing behind the trees.
He brushes her hair and cheek again, then gently covers her with her cuddly blanket. "Sleep well, Leanabh," he says softly and smiles deeply before dimming the candle in its holder and leaving the room in darkness.
"Athair?", Xayah asks softly into the night.
" Yeah?" He notices her golden eyes looking in his direction, still smiling.
"Are we really going to the Springfest tomorrow?" Her voice sounds excited, full of joy.
He nods slightly. " Well, I promised we would, my dear. Of course we'll go."
She smiles broadly and tries but fails to suppress a yawn, then rests down, drifting off into the dreamland shortly afterwards.
--- ~ * ~ ---
Eagerly Xayah runs from one stand to another, eyes wide open and absorbing as much as possible, all the new impressions, smells, pictures and foreign people. Not far away from her she can see some children painting the floor with coloured sticks, a little further away is a small stage with four people standing on it. Three people playing different instruments, while the fourth person, a young woman, sings to the tune. Her orange-red curls dance in the breeze while she sings a ballad where a woman sells her belongings to buy a sword for her lover so he can go to war.
In front of the stage some people are already dancing to the tender sounds of the singer, humans and Vastaya are next to each other in perfect harmony. Xayah looks over the crowd of dancers for a while and turns her eyes towards her father with big eyes again. " May I join them?", she asks excitedly and looks once more over to the place in front of the stage.
Slightly nodding, Valon crouches in front of her and puts a hand on her shoulder. " Stay in sight, I don't want to lose you here, do you understand?" He smiles at her, a little stricter than usual. She nods her head excitedly as she runs towards the dance floor, but then turns around briefly again and runs back to Valon.
When Xayah gives him a kiss on his cheek she runs back towards the dance floor, mingling with the other dancers and with slightly clumsy, jumping steps she moves to the music, not even slightly in time with the music, but with bright sparkling eyes and a big grin on her face.
He feels how her song changes, faster and more enthused than before, full of joy the sounds dance through the air and touch his own song. Her song tells about joy and freedom. He can feel how his heart tightens with bliss.
His gaze rises to the sky, a smile on his face. He wishes Sorcha could see her little girl right now, so fierce and free and full of joy for life.
Her song changes again, becoming faster and for a short moment unrhythmical. When Valon looks towards his daughter, he sees that she isn't dancing and jumping anymore but looking up to a boy, he is a bit older than her, Valon immediately notices that, he gets up and takes a few steps towards them.
Seeing that the boy is also a Vastaya, as well as a Lhotlan, Valon calms down a bit. The boy is around 10 years older than Xayah, which isn't a very big difference in human years. His little girl is probably around five in human years and he expects the unknown boy to be at most seven or eight in human years.
He has snow-white hair and his soft-looking feathers glow in a mixture of green, yellow and orange. When he tells Xayah something she giggles, Valon sees it clearly.
She looks at the boy with raised eyebrows as he holds out his hand to her. "Come, I'll show you how to dance well", he grins and his blue eyes light up. She giggles and grabs his hand, but after only a few steps she realizes that she can' t keep up with him. She laughs loudly and after a short moment the boy laughs too. He strokes a strand of his blond hair backwards and lifts Xayah a little into the air, setting her feet on his and leading her this way.
Xayah looks at her feet in amazement, her ears slightly lowered and her mouth formed into a slight 'o', which makes the boy start laughing again, even more than before.
Their songs meet for a flash, a delighted, purple violin meets a bright orange piano, playing in duet for a split second, and the image of two children dancing under a cherry blossom tree appears. As quickly as the picture was created, it has already vanished again.
"Rionnag sùla, come, let's go. We have a long way to go." The boy looks down on Xayah. "My Seanair calls, I gotta go. Thanks for the dance, maybe I'll see you again someday." The boy grins and small pink petals rain down on the two of them and on other dancers. Xayah nods eagerly and shakes some of the petals off her braid.
The boy rushes to his grandfather, stopping halfway and waving goodbye to her before he takes his grandfather in his arms and leaves with him.
Xayah runs over to her father where she falls into his arms. "Did you have fun, princess?" Valon smiles at her and receives a wild nod in response. Taking her by the hand, he leads her to a stand with pastries.
Once the two of them finished a snack, they also make their way back to their tribe, humming cheerfully to each other.