your carcass brings all the birbs to the yard

The wolf's voice grew authoritative and Zephyr straightened immediately, spreading his underdeveloped wings wide for the wolf to inspect. What did his wings have to do with flightless birds? Did flightless birds not have wings? If that was the case, why did Sirius want to look at them at all? The warlord circled him slowly and Zeph's feathers shrunk in close to his body instinctively, intimidated at being so closely examined by the predator. "Who's Mortis? What kind of bird is he?" The chick struggled to take in the wolf's muttering, though he understood less than half of what Sirius was saying. "Does that mean I'm an eagle-vulture?" He blinked his aqua eyes in confusion, and then suddenly the vulture was given a command.

Zeph pulled his wings back against his body, hunkering down low to the ground as he was picked up by the larger bird. He let out a soft startled peep as suddenly he found himself in flight - or, sort of flight. His wings were still pinned beneath the vulture's gentle talons so he could not outstretch them, but regardless it felt like flying. Before he knew it, he'd been dropped upon the warlords' head with a small 'oof.'

With the recent memory of flight buzzing in his mind he was even more eager to try it himself. He adjusted his small talons carefully as not to hurt the wolf while he stood, stretched out his wings, and then attempted to leap from the head. It was messy and his jump lacked confidence, and as soon as he'd left the stability of the wolf's oversized head he was already regretting it.

He braced himself for a painful landing, but it never came. Was this flying? Hesitantly he opened one eye, finding he was hanging upside down just before the ground. Glancing up, Zeph saw that Sirius had managed to catch him gently by the leg before he'd finished falling. "Thanks, I don't think I'm ready to fly yet."


"Zephyr"