Robin could hardly keep still as she sat at the table that was in the middle of their kitchen. She was waiting for her pop-pop to arrive.
It was the next day and she was excited.
I haven't seen him in what feels like forever! Her tail twitched along side her wings. When ever he came to visit, he'd always take her with her flying skills and he'd teach her neat tricks she could do in the sky. Tricks he said that "only SkyWing's know how to do."
Which made it feel even cooler!
"Someone seems excited." Funnel spoke up as she walked into the kitchen with a basket hooked on her wing, the basket looking full of something but there was a cloth covering it, hiding it away from sight.
"I'm just excited to see pop-pop."
"In his letter he said he was just as excited to come see you."
"How come he's been busy lately?" The dragonet couldn't help but asked as she watched her mother move around the room, looking to silently be listening to a song in her head as she hummed.
"He's been trying to see if he'd be able to become a soldier again, despite his age." Funnel told her softly with a smile, though there looked to be little flickers of worry within her mother's gaze.
"For Auntie Scorpion and Uncle Meerkat?" She tilted her head as she watched her mother.
"Yes, but he's also trying to see if Queen Flicker would be willing to let him become a member of the royal guard once more."
"He was a member of the royal guard!?" She asked, her ears perking up as her golden eyes widened. She knew that her grandfather had been a soldier for the SkyWing's in his past, but she didn't know he was a member of the royal guard.
Robin saw her mother smile softly. "Yes, before I hatched, he had been a member of the royal guard and he was a member up until I was no older than you."
"Why'd be stop being a royal guard?"
"That's a story for another day I can tell you later." A new voice spoke, once that was warmly familiar in Robin's ears. Her head shot up as she quickly turned to see a familiar SkyWing standing in the door way.
"Pop-pop!"
The hybrid dragonet jumped from her chair and raced towards him before she collided into his legs, wrapping her forearms around him. She felt him stumble a little slightly as he let out a gruff chuckle.
"Hey there kiddo, great to see you're in top shape." He laughed.
Robin smiled as she felt him ruffle her spines atop her head between her horns.
"Well, I'll take this little one off your talons for a bit Funnel, I'll make sure to have her back before sundown."
"And no later, I remember last time you didn't bring her home until midnight."
"That's was one time."
Robin saw her mother raise a brow at her father, to which he chuckled. "Okay, okay, no latter than sundown."
"Bye mom!" She called as she followed pop-pop our of her hut, hearing her mother calling out to her in goodbye before they left. As they started to walk down the streets of the town, Robin made sure to keep pace with he grandfathers longer strides.
Pop-Pop was built similarly to Funnel. He had long legs with a long whip like tail, his horns were long but they weren't white like Robin's mothers horn, his were a dark grey-ish brown. His scales were a darker red-ish orange shade and they got darker closer to his tail. His talons also faded to the same dark red-ish colour, just like Robin's front talons. His eyes were just like Funnel's, a warm golden ember that seemed to glow like the sun. Pop-Pop also had Funnel's freckles, though his were darker and more red in colouration.
"What are we going to do today?" She asked as she tried to match his long strides, but since she was smaller and only reached a little bit above his mid bicep in height, she had a bit of trouble matching his strides so she just resorted to a speedy walk.
"Well, first I've got a present for you, some late hatching day gifts." Robin's smile widened. She'd been wondering what he'd got her ever since her parents told her he had gotten her some gifts. They wouldn't tell her what they were since they didn't even know.
"Do you think you could show me more flying tricks? Oh! Or we can explore a new place in the mountains?!"
"I think you've already explored every nook and cranny there in in all the Sky Kingdom." Pop-Pop told her with a smile as he spread out his large wings before he took a leap, his wings pushing him up into the air with a powerful flap of his wings.
Robin spread open her wings as well and took off after him. Her wings were much like those of a SkyWing's. Long wing arms with long fingers and thick wing thumbs for whenever they were on the ground and used as an extra set of legs if their front talons were full or occupied. The membrane that was between each of her wing fingers and overall made her wings help her fly, were orange in colouration but faded to black along the edges. There were speckles of white that looked like the sea had sprayed them with her own sea of sparkling tiny stars.
"I surely haven't explored every nook and cranny, right? There has to be more to explore!"
"It seems as though you have, you've probably almost memorized the whole kingdom by now."
"Not the palace." She pointed out with a smile.
"Maybe if I'm able to get back into the royal guard, I'll be able to show you around there."
"Can you tell me about the palace? What's it like? What does it look like on the inside!?" She asked, questions swirling inside of her mind like twisting winds.
It would be so cool to see the inside of the palace! It's probably impossible to keep all polished and shiny because of how big an open it is, she thought as she kept up with her grandfather, flapping her wings a little harder to keep up with him. Since his wings were much larger than hers, he could fly farther, his wings catching more wind to carry him farther.
"Hmmm, well, the palace is very open with tons of windows large enough for dragons to jump through. The palace is always full of light, making the white stone walls seem to glow."
The two of them continued to fly, the village now off behind them as they headed for the mountains ahead of them that seemed to be reaching into the cloudless sky above them. Robin continued to listen to Pop-Pop as he told her more about the sky palace.
As time passed on, they soon arrived to a cave within a mountain side, one she'd grown to recognize. It was Pop-pop's cave. He had moved from the Sand Kingdom back into the Sky Kingdom but still wasn't fully comfortable moving back into a SkyWing village yet, so he lived here.
The two of them landed onto the cold stone. Pop-Pop took the lead inside of his cave, Robin trotting after him, listening to the tapping of their talons on the cool stone floor beneath them.
The cave was roomy, with the first circular stone room having a table and a small kitchen setup. There was a stone tunnel hallway that lead into two more rooms. Pop-Pops bedroom and then a small storage room.
"Why don't you sit at the table while I go get you your gifts?"
"Okay!" She said excitedly as she ran over to the table and was quick to jump up onto the singular chair placed by it. She nearly slid off of the wooden chair because of her excitement.
She watched as her grandfather walk off down the tunnel to go get her gifts.
I wonder what he got me? She thought, her wings twitching at her sides as her tail flicked. She started to think of the possible things he had gotten her, she was stuck within her own thoughts, so much that she didn't notice him when he came back with a pouch in his talons.
"You're lost in thought again." He chuckled, pulling her out of her thoughts and back into reality. She looked up and her golden yellow eyes met Pop-Pop's golden ember ones.
"What's that?" She changed the subject as she watched him walk over to the table and place the pouch her in front of her.
"Open it to find out."
She reached out with her talons and pulled the leather pouch closer to her. She could feel that something was inside of it. Something that wasn't hard and she could push her talons into it. What could it be? She thought with slight confusion before she pushed the button through the slit on the top flap that kept it shut so nothing would fall out.
She pushed the flap open and her eyes were met with tan coloured fur that looked soft to the touch. Her eyes widened as she reached into it and pulled it out.
"I remember you telling me about Avian's fur neck piece, so, I thought I'd get you one of your own made of wolf fur."
She looked at it and a wide smile broke onto her face. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She squealed as she put it on. It fit snuggly and the fur was soft and fluffy to the touch. In the front, there was a golden circular thing that looked to be what held it all together in the front. In her mind, she thought it was beautiful.
"Don't forget about the rest in the pouch."
There was more?
She reached into the pouch once more and found a small pair of leather gloves that's talons were missing, they were fingerless leather gloves. She put them on and the felt really comfortable.
"Do you like them?" Robin looked over at her grandfather and she gave him a wide smile.
"I love them!" She leaped from the chair and wrapped her arms around his neck, to which his forearms wrapped around her as he laughed.
"You know you also get the pouch to? I thought you'd like one since when you were very little, you'd always want to wear your parents pouches."
"Thank you so much Pop-Pop! I love them!" She told him once they let go of him. She reached back up onto the table and grabbed the pouch. It was a shoulder pouch. She tried to strap it onto her right shoulder but she struggled with trying to latch it together.
"Here, let me help with that." Pop-Pop said as he reached out with his talons and started to latch it together on her shoulder.
The dragonet's tail kept twitching in excitement. Maybe I can join mom or dad with their jobs and go with them across Pyrrha! Then I'll surely be able to explore more! She thought with a smile as her wings twitched happily at her sides.
Once it was on properly, she looked over herself with a smile. After a few moments, her grandfather stood up from where he sat.
"How about you stay here while I go get us something to eat? Okay?"
"Okay!" She nodded.
"I'll be right back, and try not to wander to far from the cave if you decide to go outside. I don't want you getting lost."
"I won't!" She called as she watched him leave.
While her grandfather was gone, she decided to wander around his cave and look around to see if he had anything new, but everything was the same. He never liked to change anything to much so it wasn't surprising. Because of this, she quickly started to grow bored and decided to leave the cave to explore a bit, which is what she was doing now as she flew around the mountain side.
Maybe I can find a secret cave full of treasures! She thought as she flew around, looking over everything with her eyes.
What's that? She thought as she noticed a strange plant growing on the top of a cliff face. She flew over to it and her wings fluttered and flapped as she landed beside it. It was round and cactus like in shape with seeds along its surface. That's a strange plant, she couldn't help but think as she poked at it, but nothing happened.
She walked around it a few times before she decided to pick off one of its seeds and looked it over in her talons. The seed was round in shape and smooth to the touch.
I wonder what kind of plant it is, she hummed to herself. Maybe I could show them to grandma Orchid next time I see her! Her wings fluttered happily at her sides at the thought.
The dragonet started to pick off more seeds until she had one talon full. She reached over with one talon to open the flap of her pouch and held it open to drop the seeds inside of it.
There! She smiled. Oh! I should get back before Pop-Pop starts to worry! She reminded herself. Without a second thought, she took off of the cliff ledge and started to fly back to her grandfathers cave, the strange plant now in the back of her mind like a quickly forgotten memory.
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Robin finds a plant she doesn't know, so why not take its seeds and then forget about it? Sounds about right to me.
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of BTS! We'll soon get to meet the other main characters soon so keep an eye out for that in the future chapters!
- MindlessTyper