Zephyr's fears had been abruptly set aside at the appearance of young Dusk and the innocent acceptance the girl appeared to have for him, even as a young one fresh out of the den. He loved his siblings unconditionally already, and having separated from his little black sister to give her a rest, went immediately in search of the next to play and bond with. This time he came prepared (as Dusk's first request was play, he assumed the other puppies would think similarly) with a toy. A very small ball made of compacted straw and grass, encased in a thin rabbit hide so it would not break apart if kicked too hard.

With his wing cupped beneath it he carried the small ball through the castle, poking his beak into various rooms and calling out in search of a puppy who might want to play.

"Zephyr"

Thorn had found himself a few sticks and was gnawing on the end of one of them, trying to make it a pointy end without fully destroying the stick.  Plenty of spliced pieces showed what had happened to two other sticks he’d tried gnawing into what his mind imagined.

He had found himself a nice spot in the great hall, his back facing the great fire and his head turned to face the door to keep an eye out for anything that might be even more interesting than stick chewing. Small ears heard a sound coming in his direction and the gnawing stopped as he focused on the door.  Grabbing his stick, which looked mostly like a stick with a moister splintered end, and peeked his head out the door.

“Brothe’?” Thorn questioned the sight of the big bird.  He knew Zeph in the sense of seeing and knowing he was family but he hadn’t spent any real time with his older sibling before.  After a second he dropped the stick, curious about his winged sibling.  Moving forward with his neck stretched out, “Wowwww, you really are big ya know.” Now, standing close to him with full focus it became apparent. “How come you only got two legs? And What’s that?” A paw gets waved at the ball Thorn spotted cupped in the wing.  

Thorn wasn’t sure what he was more curious in, his brother or the thing he had.  “Gosh, I bet you can see really far away being that tall.  Gotta be hard to run fast with only two legs though.” His eyes roamed from Zeph’s face to talk to, his body for interest, and the fuzzy ball with another bit of curiosity.  Focusing on any one part was too difficult.

"Thorn Carpathius"

Eventually, Zeph stumbled upon a pup sticking his head intently out the doorway toward him. This one looked the spitting image of Artorias, but like he'd been swirled around and his colors switched to different places and markings. He thought back to the tiny blobs he'd met when they were brand new and placed a name to it - Thorn. Thrilled with not needing to search too long, Zephyr pushed gently past the pup and let himself into the room, lowering himself as best as he could so he did not tower too tall over the puppy. It seemed the first thing any new wolf did was ask questions, but coming from playtime with Dusk it was not something that surprised Zephyrus in the slightest.

He bobbed his vulture like head in confirmation. "Yep!" Brothe', that was he. "Well, I have two legs because my front two legs are kind of my wings, I use them to fly not to walk or run." The raptor extended them slightly from where they were tucked against his body to show a bit of the wingspan. "Like mom and dad's companion birds." Onto the next question he moved with ease, churring in soft laughter at the comment of his height and how well he must see. "I can see a little bit higher up than you, yes, do you want to see?" At the pup's confirmation, Zephyr would lay down upon his back. It was an awkward position (but not one he'd never been in before, he sometimes laid down to sun his feathers in the courtyard) made awkwarder by struggling to maneuver his talons to lightly grasp the child around the midsection. With the pup firmly in place, he lifted his talons high toward the ceiling, letting the pup see how the world looked from up 'high' (a whole 70" ish inches off the ground.) "See?"

With the pup's curiosity sated and Zephyr's back growing sore from the position on the hard stone floor, he lowered and released the pup and rolled himself rightways up again, breathing out a contented exhale and giving his brother a grin. "One day when you're bigger I'll show you what it's like to really fly, but if I did it today mom and dad would be mad." He gave another bird-ish churring laugh and redirected the boy's attention back to the ball which he'd brought and placed down on the floor. Wrapping his wing around it, Zephyr pushed it gently toward the puppy. "It's a ball, it's for playing! You kick or push it around with your feet or your head and try to get it places. Want to play?"

"Zephyr"

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"