puppy fever

Zephyrus was a fascinating sight but the realization struck him that part of what made his brother strange was never seeing anyone else like him. Delight came to the boy's eyes as Zeph offered to show him what it was like to be tall.  Thorn had imagined that Zeph was planning to let him on his back or something like that.   Thorn's head tilted, watching curiously as his winged brother lay down.  His parent's birds never laid down like that, not that Thorn had ever seen.

With Zephyrus fully lying down he looked really funny but Thorn decided not to say that, it might come off as rude to laugh at him.  The boy's eyes widened as Zeph picked him up.  Thorn didn’t resist and instead, looked about with wide eyes as he was lifted up high in the air.  Everything looked the same but different.  It sounded strange but it was true!  “Woah!”  Thorn imagined what it must be like to be even higher up than this.  

He imagined the map recently drawn with Ash and how much better it would be if he’d had a real view of the area from the sky.  Before he could ask about the idea Zephyrus offered to take him flying someday.  “Yes! Please! I need to fly, I want to be really high up.  I want to see what the castle looks like from above so I can draw it!  How big do I need to be?  The bigger I am the heavier I’ll be though, right?”

Thorn’s feet ended up back on the ground shortly and he got another show of Zeph rolling back onto his feet.  Flying sounded great but two legs still seemed awfully awkward for getting up and down.  It made a lot more sense in Thorn’s mind that Zephyrus should just have four legs and wings.  It was true dad’s birds also only had two legs and wings so obviously it was a bird thing.  Why though?

His attention went to the ball as Zeph mentioned it again. When the ball was pushed to Thorn the blue boy nosed it, scenting the rabbit fur.  Thorn nodded at the concept of putting a paw on it, feeling how the ball gave a little pressure but not overly.  Thorn put his jaw around it, feeling a need to bite it at least once to see how that felt.  It was kinda crinkly’sh inside the rabbit skin.

With the taste test done Thorn nudged the ball with his forehead.  Each test was made thoughtfully, a grin spread on his face after a moment.  “Coming at ya!” Thorn spun about and used a back foot to kick the ball towards Zeph.  His paw clipped the ball, he had imagined kicking it straight at his winged brother but instead, the ball did take off at a decent roll but sideways.

"Thorn Carpathius"