I am Hers, She is Mine

Zephyr could hardly contain his excitement as the wolves of Boreas and Auster began to gather for the special event. With each new arrival his world was expanded further, lending credence to Artorias' assurance that he had more family than he knew. He'd imagined these wolves many times already in his young life, but nothing had prepared him for the sheer expanse of love and light that came from the oversized gathering. This was a special day for the Hallows, for its leadership, and for the family that had adopted him when he had nowhere else to go.

While normally the fledgling raptor was not shy, he found the pressure today had pushed him closer to the foreign feeling than he was used to. He had opted to hang back a distance while the first wolves filed in, uncomfortable with the prospect of being one of the first to seat themselves. While Artorias and Briar had never made him feel like he did not belong, Zephyr could not help but wonder what the others who loved his parents may think at the sight of the attending chick. He'd asked Lia why he couldn't just find space between his parents where he was the most comfortable, but it seemed wedding traditions spanned further than gifts. Zephyrus had received another lesson in tradition and ceremony, and had accepted that on this day, he'd need to stand on his own two talons.

Standing back from the gathering crowd had seemed like a good idea... right up until the seats began to fill, and Zeph realized he'd lost subtlety; he wasn't going to be able to make it through the crowd to his seat without risking notice, and the task grew monumentally scarier with every new wolf that filed in. Under-fledged and awkward looking (though Lia had helped him to look as presentable as possible, the young raptor was clearly in the stages of losing his juvenile plumage) he waddled with his head low, wings held tight against his side and talons scrabbling as quickly as possible through the gathered wolves to find his seat.

Finding security beside his fire-touched friend, Zephyrus maneuvered himself to her side and squeezed in close, hanging a wing around her seated spine and hugging closer for comfort. Lia had gone over his role in the wedding enough times that he assumed he could do it in his sleep, but still, as the chick waited, he found himself plucking imaginary pedals and practicing just one more time.

"Zephyr"