Chapter Text
Avarias, Forest Behind the Castle, October 1st, XX01
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"Jimmy!" Pearl whined as she chased her brother through the trees.
Dad had had him sit out of a meeting with a a big meanie of a nobleman to spare him the mean words that were sure to be sent his way, and Jimmy had gotten mad, because he wanted to sit in the meeting like she did.
Pearl never knew why, those meetings were as boring as the abyssal edge where all souls face oblivion when their names are forgotten by their family! But Jimmy really wanted to sit in on that meeting, and dad had said no. Cause the Duke of Eastperch was big meanie, a big fat stinky meanie who had no friends and would definitely be rude to Jimmy for not being pure avian!
And while Pearl definitely wanted to claw the stinky meanie the face for being mean to her flock, she wasn't allowed (something about "trade route access", "royal manners", "retaining loyalty" and a bunch of other big adult words) and so Jimmy shouldn't go to a meeting just to get insulted.
Jimmy didn't agree.
"No! I'm not coming back!" The older avian shouted before jumping forwards, catching the wind in his wings.
Both of them were young, much too young to fly, but Jimmy's wings were big enough to help him flutter. This was obviously unfair, because he was older, and taller, and thus faster.
"Jimmy, please! You don't even want to go to those meetings anyways! They are boring!"
Jimmy didn't care, instead, he just kept running.
"Please! If you come back, I'll convince dad to let you vist Lizzie!"
Jimmy paused, considering. It must be a tempting offer, to get to see his twin.
"Lizzie's already visiting next week!" He yelled before running off.
Pearl chirped her annoyance and continued following.
It was late, the sun dipping on the horizon as the stars started to poke out the sky. Jimmy was now furiously climbing a tree, aided by his wings, a feet Pearl couldn't replicate with her dinky little wings.
The sound of a crash interrupted their chase.
"What was that?" Jimmy asked and Pearl shrugged.
"No clue!"
"What if it was a meteor‽" Jimmy theorized excitedly, "can we go check it out‽"
Pearl thought about it for a minute, "unlikely. A fox probably fell out of a tree."
"You're no fun!" Jimmy said, "I'm checking it out!"
"Jimmy, no! It's dark and scary! What if a zombie comes after us?"
"Or, what if the crash was someone falling out the sky? It's dark! They might've hit something!"
Pearl paused, "that's possible… and if were the case, leaving them to face the zombies would be bad… fine. We'll check it out to be sure, but when it turns out to be an animal, I will say I told you so!"
Jimmy chirped in delight before fluttering down from the tree and racing of into the woods, Pearl on his heels.
Eventually, they came upon a fox, stumbling about disoriented next to a broken tree branch.
"I told you so!" Pearl trilled, satisfaction lacing both her human voice and bird song.
Jimmy huffed, crossing his arms, clearly annoyed.
There was the sound of a groand to the right of the two.
"Zombie," Pearl muttered, worried.
Jimmy shook his head, "no. That sounded too people like."
The half avian croached down, golden wings pinned to his back.
"Jimmy!" Pearl wisper–shouted, coming up behind him, trying to walk as quietly as her talons let her, "be careful!"
There was a sound like that of breaking glass, or like a crystal shattering in the wind. The trees gave way, revealing a small clearing with a tiny crater in it. In the center of the crater was a person!
Now, he was a weird person, laying face down in the dirt and wearing weird clothes, though he didn't look much older than Pearl and Jimmy. He wore a dark grey covering that fell on the shoulders and traced down his arms, presumably open in the back, with a cape–like cloth clipped to his shoulders, allowing his big, white wings the space to splay out across the ground, twisted in unnatural angles. The shirt beneath seemed black, though Pearl couldn't be sure for this angle. He had a skirt like piece of fabric, the same grey as the cape, wrapped around his waist with pale yellow belt, with a thin slit from which a tail stuck limply out. Not the valluminous bird-like tail of an avian, but thin, long and wip like, and of the deepest black, darker than that of the night sky, save for the tip which was covered in fledgling feathers as white as his wings.
That was weird, but weirder still were his head and feet. His sandy blond hair failed to hide his thin, pointed ears, like that of an elf, but longer (or, no. Maybe it was the same length. Thinking about it, Miss Elenor had similar looking ears, Pearl was probably just used to all the half elves that visited the castle) which was strange, because he didn't have head wings! Pearl only knew 2 people with back wings and no head wings and those were Lizzie, who could shift and thus choose whether or not she wanted them, and the younger prince of Rivendell, and he was an outlier when it came to half avians, as most half avians had the head wings and not back wings, like Eloise, or both, like Jimmy! Head wings grew in first! This guy had to be a cross hybridization of species.
And his feet! Like Pearl and Jimmy, he didn't seem to be wearing shoes, but unlike the siblings, he didn't have talons, but paws. Paws. Like a fox hybrid! They were black and furry, slowly fading back into his pale skin as it went up his legs. Looking at his hands, what Pearl thought were gloves was actually black fur covering his hand, though he didn't seem to have paws on his arms, same as a fox hybrid.
Sooo… he was a cross between an avian, probably some kind of hawk based on wingspan, an elf, a fox hybrid, or wolf hybrid, and… whatever the tail came from. Wait! She remembered that demon who came to visit from Mezalea with Joel 2 years ago, the one Skizz got along with! He had a black, whip–like tail, but it was covered in scales, not fur, and tipped with a hard upside-down heart shape (Dad had called it a sfade? Shade? Slade? Doesn't matter) not feathers… maybe it had something to do with his other hybrid parts?
"He's hurt!" Jimmy said, dashing to the stranger's side.
"Jimmy! Be careful!" Pearl called, "remember when Skizz broke his wing? Doctor Legs said if you mess with it, you could make it worse!"
"You're agreeing with me?" Jimmy asked.
"Duh! We can't just leave him! That'd be mean!" Pearl said as she grabbed the stranger's paws.
Jimmy lifted his shoulders, and the two carried him out of the forest. He groaned and made those strange crystalline noises the whole way there, but didn't seem to wake.
"What the heck is going on‽" False, a hawk avian page who was assigned to tail the siblings demanded when they arrived, "where have you been? Everyone's been so worried! I got yelled at for losing you! Who is that‽"
"We found him in the forest! He must've crashed when it got dark! He needs help!" Jimmy insisted while Pearl flared her wings in urgency.
"I-I," False stuttered before tucking her wings back against her back and nodding, "I'll take him to the medical wing."
False helped the two carry the stranger to the medical wing where Dr. Legs was doing doctor things. Despite being human, he was the head doctor of the castle. Pearl and Jimmy had heard the story many times. When Jimmy and Lizzie were born, the latter was fine after hatching, showing her rare and unique powers of cross shifting immediately. Jim on the other wing, he looked entirely avian, yet there were complications with his hatching. He had apparently struggled to breathe and no one knew why. Dr. Legs, who was visiting on trip for the University of Medical Sciences and Magics at Mythland, had apparently deduced that it was because his siren half's instinct to intake water was overriding his avian half's instinct to breathe air. He then helped Jimmy's condition stabilize, and dad had hired him ever since. While some castle staff had felt uncomfortable being treated by a non avian, they had been fired because they were the type of castle staff to feel uncomfortable having a half avian in the royal flock.
"Oh my-" Dr. Legs said as soon as they entered, "ok, that's a badly broken wing. I'll take them over here. Can you answer some questions for me?"
Pearl and Jimmy nodded, while False told Legs that she didn't know anything.
"Ok, can you go get the king for me? Thank you~" Dr. Legs said as he turned to focus on the stranger.
Now that he was on his side, Pearl saw that he had a strange piece of fabric covering his face. It was white, with a pale yellow stripe near the bottom and a weird purple symbol, like that of a broken rectangle, on its center. The same symbol seemed to be pinning the grey covering to him.
The Dr. moved quickly, setting, binding and splinting the stranger's broken wings, "what happened to them? Where did you find them? What species are they?"
"We were out in the woods–"
"We? I was chasing you trying to get you back home!"
"Yeah, well that doesn't matter–"
"Yes it does! I don't want to get in trouble for your actions!"
"Anyways, we heard a crash, which Pearl insisted was a fox–"
"That's not an unreasonable assumption!"
"Yeah, well, you were still wrong, so, I told you so!"
"Can you two just get to the point?"
"Sorry!"
"We found him in a crater! We think he crashed when it got dark."
"Maybe he was hit by a meteor!"
"No Jimmy! There were no meteors!"
"You're no fun!"
The doc was finishing up with the wings, "that's quite the story. But they look too young to be able to fly… begs the question… wingspan too large for a chick… possible cross hybridization as the root?" he muttered.
"I think he's part avian, part elf, part fox hybrid and part demon!" Pearl shouted.
The doc fumbled with his monocle, "that's possible, but from what I know of demons, which is very little – they are the netherborn we know the least about besides the withered – their tails are scaly, not furry."
"Maybe his other traits are what made his tail change?" Jimmy suggested.
"Maybe… that's not how cross hybridization works normally, but our information on netherborns is quite limited, what with the small subject pool after the portals closed… I've never seen a nethborn–overworlder cross up close an personal before, seeing as most netherborn stick to other netherborn… they could work differently… I dunno. We shouldn't make assumptions until they wake up."
Footsteps came from the hall and False returned with dad in toe.
"I take it my children have been found?" dad said, looking regal as always, bright canary wings held in proper posture (which was tucked uncomfortably behind the back. Pearl would know, her edicate teacher had scolded her about this often)
"Yes your majesty," doc said, "and they brought with them an injured person."