Zephyrus had been kind enough to offer to take the pup out from the castle, to give her some much needed distance from the halls where her mother once walked and the bed where she once lay, withering away. The pair had arrived to the stone steppe to join in with another activity, with the offer of potential prizes laying at the end to those who did it right. Whatever that meant.

The pup settled before the bird (they had decided he would be the one telling her her fortune, as he was older) and watched him intently as he pulled from his wing a few colorful feathers. Today, it seemed, Vanta would be getting a fortune... avian style.

"Vanta"

Zephyr was all too happy to assist the puppies in a bit of away-from-home time, especially when they had recently lost so much. While Briar was his mother now, Zephyr had lost not one but two previously. His birth parent who had laid his egg and vanished, and the mother owl who had hatched him. It was something the bird could deeply empathize with, and he would do his best to ensure that his little aunts and uncles could find it in their hearts to heal.

He pulled from his wing a variety of feathers, near ready to molt, making sure to choose a bunch of different lengths, colors, and even a few patches of down. Holding them out to Vanta he fanned them with his talon and beckoned her to choose. "Pick six." He declared. Feathers - or so he was told from the birds in his life, and the birds who were no longer in his life - were more than they seemed, and a keen eye could find specifics in each that could tell the tale of a wolf's future.

"Zephyr"

It seemed an easy enough command, but Vanta felt the weight of it. Six choices with so many options? And the choices she made would reflect upon her very future? Could one stupid choice be the difference between seeing her mom again or not, or of whether she'd ever have children, or something else entirely? Vanta hesitated over the offered feathers, eyeing them carefully until Zephyr urged her with his words.

'Pick what feels right.' He suggested, and Vanta pushed out her paw to pull from his talon the first of them. It was blue and beautiful, like her mother's markings. Moving to the next, she picked another of a similar shade. On the third she grabbed for a black one - black, like her disappointment and pain - and on her fourth, a white one - her hope. The fifth and sixth she pulled pieces of fluffy down, soft and warm and inviting.

Holding the feathers back out to Zephyr to grab, the pup waited in anticipation for her 'reading'.

"Vanta"

Vanta's Reading Online! https://www.free-tarot-reading.net/readings/214315351

Vanta chose her feathers with only a bit of urging from his own beak, his words gentle and encouraging her to follow her instincts. Overthinking it would not bring any truth to her reading. She took her time but seemed to consider the choice deeply, making the raptor a bit nervous that he was not the right person to do this for her. He was just learning himself, this was supposed to be for fun and practice! Vanta's seriousness in it all filled him with dread and discomfort.

Pushing through the negativity, he cleared his throat and began to retrieve from her the six she chose. The first - the blue one - he held out and investigated. Letting the words come to him naturally, 'reading' the lines in the feather he had grown and trying to see her path through it. "You feel... judgement." He began slowly, uncertain. "This is an end to an era you feel, or the end of some phase of your life." He swallowed, thinking of the death she had so recently suffered. "You are taking stock and looking where you want to go from here. But this is not an ending for regret. You will rejoice, soon, as a reward for your past efforts."

Casting the feather aside with a spooky shudder, Zephyr moved to the next. "What you want more than anything in this world is... new love." It hurt his heart to say. Did that mean she wanted to replace the voice her mother left in her heart? Or something else? No more words were coming to him, so he did not elaborate.

The third feather he withdrew, peering into it's blackness and feeling his stomach churn in reply. "You are afraid of making the wrong decisions. There is a warning, that impetuous action may lead to problems later on. You fear the consequences of your bad choices, and feel out of control." Damn, this was getting dark. Why hadn't he just asked Vanta to fortune-tell something for him? He might have gotten some cute puppy interpretations out of it.

Pausing, he looked to the girl, making sure she was prepared for him to continue.

"Zephyr"

Every word of the fortune hit hard to the young pup, who yes, felt judgement, feared making the wrong choices, and wanted something to love. However the avian's feathers could peer so far into her soul the girl did not know, but Vanta would look upon her bird nephew with a careful eye from now on. The first feather read the end of an era or phase in her life - suitable, as this was indeed the end of her innocence. Her mother was dead and gone, her father swimming in devastation, her siblings lost and confused. Nothing would be the same after this season. Zephyr had said it was not a time for remorse or regret, which made less sense to the young girl. What could possibly be coming that would make up for what she had lost?

The second feather - love. Vanta had lost a large chunk of her heart and felt it's absence every day. But she had others to fill that hole, her siblings, her father, her nieces and nephews, the companions inherited down to her who had spent their lives at her mother's side. What more could she want? But still, she felt, there was truth in it. Vanta wanted something though she could not put her paw on what. Something to love, though not in the icky way a boy loved a girl. Deeper, more familiar and all encompassing. She hummed softly, absorbing the reading as he explained the next.

Fear. Vanta's ears pulled back in shame as he spoke on her darkest fears and how her decisions could lead to ruin. It was a thought often replayed in her mind - especially as she was one of the few disabled in her family tree - a thought sown and seeded by Azure himself and blossomed under the death of her mother. What if Vanta brought her entire family down? What if everything bad to ever happen to her was all her fault? How was she supposed to go through life without the guidance of her mother, to make sure she didn't choose wrong?

Vanta wasn't sure she wanted to hear more, but remained silent and let Zephyr continue, nodding her head to him.

"Vanta"

The puppy nodded and Zephyr took that to mean she wanted him to continue. He reached for the fourth feather - a bright white one - nearly holding his breath as he anticipated what next dark insight could come from it's light. "This feather shows how things are going currently for you." Zeph began hesitantly. He looked to it, drawing his gaze up and down the shaft. "Despite the fear and bewilderment you feel, and the seeming difficulty of the path you have chosen, keep going - all will eventually turn out fine." He let out a breath he did not notice he was holding. Good, some positivity to be found within this reading. Hopefully it would make Vanta feel better, too.

He moved to the next, a tiny puff of down. "And this one explains what is going against you. For you, it's your insecurity. Your insecurity is taunting you and you must learn to ignore it and push past it, else nothing will ever get better." That one was uplifting too, Zeph thought. He nodded his large head and moved on, feeling better about the second part of her reading as a whole.

The sixth feather - another puff of down he pulled up and spun in his talon. "The outcome." He began. "Help is at hand. You will find wise counsel and moral guidance if you put your trust in someone you have a lot of respect for, but don't allow others to influence you too much. You have to learn to be true to yourself."

With the reading complete, Zephyr gave a relieved exhale and threw the feathers off to the side. "Wow, that was fun, huh?? Okay, home time!"

"Zephyr"