Sparrow's paws hurt. The spooky old man at the festival said she would get claws like a cat's and so her mind thought that, yes, she must be growing her claws. Just like how her teeth hurt sometimes. She had to make sure she was right, though, and as much as she flexed her paws, no claws went in or came out. It was just her same old dumb dog claws.

Maybe they just hadn't grown in yet! That had to be it! Sparrow wondered if Tyrian remembered when his claws grew in, then maybe he could confirm that she, too, was getting claws. She was excited because not only did cat claws make her more special, but they made Tyr less special! They would be just alike. And also like that one girl that was apparently a part of their family too.

With that, Sparrow bounded in the direction of her cousin uncle, calling his name the whole way.

Tyrian was in the middle of a rousing game of checkers with Zahir when he began to catch the whisperings of his name on the breeze. He lifted his head to be sure he was hearing that correctly and sure enough, like a closing storm, his name kept getting louder. Hm. It was Sparrow; that became clear pretty quickly. Perhaps she'd found something cool she wanted to show him or she'd gotten one of the baby skunks stuck in a tree like he'd done not all that long ago.

He tipped his head to the side and waited. Though he was excited by the possibility of play, it was Sparrow so he wasn't allowed to show it. "What do you want, Not-A-Real-Pirate-Sparrow?"

Sparrow wasn't sure why a cat would want to hang out with big dumb Tyr anyway, but she did. They played a boring game that had nothing to do with anything you'd use as a pirate. He called her not a real pirate as she approached. She puffed up her chest, "Of course I'm not a real pirate yet, dummy. One day, though," she said, making a few small leaps and bound over to her uncle. "One day, I'm gonna be KING of the pirates. I might even invite you to join! If you're lucky."

Why did she even come to talk to him, anyway? Oh, yeah... the claws. "ANYWAYS," she said, changing the subject as fast as she could. "Whaddya know about growing cat claws?"

Tyrian sniffed dismissively in response to Sparrow's statement about letting him join if he was lucky. Yeah, she was going to be king pirate just like he was going to sprout wings and take to the skies like a hawk someday. Possible? Fire and ice jumped out of the sky sometimes so sure, why not. But likely? Nah.

He squinted at her after she asked if he knew how to grow claws. After a beat he rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation. ”You don't grow claws, Sparrow, either you have them or you don't, duh. God, you're such a baby sometimes, I swear.” Unable to resist needling her, Tyrian glanced slyly at Sparrow and then added, ”You're never going to be pirate king if you keep talking like a baby.”

Sparrow huffed at Tyr as he called her a baby. She made way to leap at the game of "whatever boring brain game" Tyr and Zahir had been doing. "I am NOT a baby!" she said, "You're the one who sits around with your big dumb idiot game with your big dumb idiot companion! I've never even seen you do anything cool even though you DO have cat claws."

Sparrow didn't move to mess up their stupid game, but she wanted to. She wanted the threat to be there. She wanted Tyr to run off crying because big meany sparrow knocked some junk the wrong way and ruined his game. "Yeah, and I bet you had big dumb teeth when you were born too. Maybe you're actually part cat- would explain why you're so mean. Maybe Zahir is actually your half-sister! Or maybe you want her as your giiiirlfriennnnd."

Sparrow snorted and bounced away and hopefully out of swatting reach. No amount of paw hurty was gonna let Tyr win the ragging contest. "You're not gonna be the only one with claws- just wait. The spooky man said I was gonna get some, so have fun being not that special with your cat girlfriend."