The dewy chill of the morning fought against the heat of the still ongoing fire. Breakfast, it seemed, would be warm.

Charles would be lying if he said he wasn’t at least interested in what was being cooked, especially after having eaten things raw for so long. As Ronald set up something over the flame– that something being his definitely-feathering-magical burner –Charles slipped off into the forest. He heard Skye shout out a question to him with a minor note of anxiousness in her voice.

Only ten minutes later, he showed back up with several roots and a particularly large specimen of sorta-rabbit, the former of which was held in his beak and the rest was held by his wings to his body.

Ronald laughed, “Hey! Breakfast! That’s good, I only have hard tack and some bouillon left.”

“Soup?” Dachna tilted his head and looked at the food items wonderingly, “I’m thinking soup. What about you, birdy? You want soup?”

Charles momentarily wanted to scoff at him, but decided to play along. He wasn’t sure how far his supposed gift for ‘tongues’ was supposed to work in reality, so realistically he shouldn’t probably already know what soup was. And so, tilting his head to the side, he gave a questioning trill.

“Ohmygoditscutetoo!” Mithel rattled out with a high pitched and nearly incomprehensible voice. Dachna only winced at the sound before he walked over to Ronald and pulled out his own pack.

“I have some leftover dried beef and some herbs,” Dachna looked around, “Ante up, whaddya all got?”

Ronald contributed some more cheese after some internal debate– ‘Oh, Alterra, yes! Cheese! Oh, I’d forgotten the glory of the cheese!’ –while Mithel offered a tough but savory bread she had some stock of. Skye actually hopped from one foot to the other in excitement after seeing what Charles brought, before darting away into the underbrush as well. In just as little time, she came back with a second sorta-rabbit and a bundle of green that Charles didn’t recognize. When he moved his head closer to the bundle, she beamed.

“It doesn’t taste like much on its own, but it’s a great filler and helps bring out the taste of meat more.” Charles accepted that explanation with great expectations. After the understandings they’d come too last night, he and Skye would try to act as if nothing had changed. Secretly, Charles intended to not allow her to get too far out of his sight, just in case she did try to tell someone, but as wary as he was of trusting anyone, he did think that she had her head in the right place now.

Reese unashamedly produced the most rock-like bread Charles had ever seen in his life, and Ronald appreciatively accepted it and quickly broke it into smaller parts to be added to the soup. Literally broke it, Charles watched as he took the hilt of his dagger to it while he had it wrapped in cloth and set against a stone.

Eustace was politely told to sit down and relax. He obliged, but watched the proceedings with a relaxed demeanor that Charles guessed came from realizing that things were going to be fine.

It was a very odd assortment for breakfast, but the big pot that Ronald pulled out of his pack, which from the looks of it also contained a variety of smaller pans and fixtures, was enough to feed them all. Admittedly, Charles could have stuffed down the entire pot himself, but he instead sat down with a bowl in front of him.

“Is soup okay for him to eat?” Reese frowned, “I never actually figured beasts ate people food.”

Skye answered with a shrug, “It’s fine. Beasts are a lot more robust than common animals.”

‘That’s a detail to file away, for sure,’ Charles blinked at the fact that apparently he was not in the same category as regular animals. She’d probably said as much more for his benefit than for Reese’s.

“My cousin works in the army. They feed the Phorus brigade better than their people,” Ronald laughed, “He’ll be fine. They don’t eat something they’ll get sick from. Apparently their senses of smell are ridiculously good, some of them even get trained to sniff out poison.” The others thoughtfully hummed at that, with Skye brightening up just that little bit more. She stealthily glanced at him, and he subtly nodded in affirmation. He did have a very fine sense of smell.

Charles stuck the tip of his beak into the soup, licking some up with his tongue. It was pretty good with all of the spices, though it was lacking in some depth. The meat was perfectly tender, though, and the various roots were almost exactly like potatoes. He had no real complaints about it, of course, anything cooked would have been delicious to him at this point.

But then he looked across the now burning down campfire and saw that Mithel was passing Dachna a red-colored flask. He grinned, pouring some into the soup, before handing it back with a thank you.

“Really?” Skye turned her nose up at them, faux-disgusted, “Even for breakfast?”

“Of course!” “Wouldn’t have it any other way!” The pair answered without the slightest shade of shame.

Mithel was about to put it away, when she looked up at Charles. Unknowingly, he’d stretched his head forward in a prominent display of curiosity. She looked uncertain for a moment, but then collected herself.

“Uh… Want some? It’s really spicy, but it's not poisonous or anything.” She said, and then seemed to wilt as she realized what she’d said. Charles frowned at that, still remembering the fact that he had indeed been drugged by her once already.

“Maybe not,” she moved to put the flask away, trying and failing to not look hurt and guilty.

‘Now wait a feathering moment, I do want some, thank you very much,’ Charles let out a low chirrup to get her attention again. She paused, seeing him exaggeratedly look between her face and the flask she was about to put away. With a big smile on her face, she moved over, putting a few drops into his soup.

“Try that first, this stuff kicks.” She said, kneeling down such that she was sitting on her feet.

Charles looked at the stuff skeptically as he remembered at least vaguely that normal birds couldn’t taste capsaicin, but perhaps he could? With little enthusiasm, he stuck his tongue into the soup and sipped some of it. Immediately he knew it was different from the fiery almost-pain that he was used to; in fact he didn’t even know how to place the flavor without the tell-tale burning sensation. What he did know was that it was delicious, and he didn’t even have the issue of needing milk or anything in case it was too hot!

‘I can taste it! Albeit a bit differently. I don’t know if this is a normal bird thing, but peck yeah!’ He happily trilled, knowing full well that they couldn’t understand his ordinary bird noises at all, but looking at the bottle and Mithel with intent got the message across well enough.

Mithel laughed once, and then laughed much harder at Skye’s betrayed expression.

Eustace had stayed quiet enough for most of breakfast, offering quiet thanks and compliments now and then. He seemed content to just relax and stare at the embers of the fire. The Greenhorns left him be for the most part, as he seemed to need time to his own thoughts.

After enjoying a nice breakfast–a spicy one for some of them–Charles and the Greenhorns handed cleaning duties over to Skye this time, though Eustace insisted that he help at least with that much. It didn’t take her long at all to take care of the dishes with the man's help, while Dachna settled the fire. Mithel packed up the tent with Reese, and Charles…

Well, Charles sat there feeling distinctly useless at the moment. With a warble that Dachna must have taken as confused, the skinny man explained, “Oh, I’m just making sure we don’t leave something that can make a fire out here.”

After a few seconds of a nonreaction, Dachna frowned, and then seemed to recognize that Charles idly shifting back and forth had nothing to do with confusion.

“Ohhh, you’re bored. Got it,” he nodded sagely, before immediately returning to his duties.

Nonplussed, Charles tilted his head at him, at which point Dachna only gave him a big grin, “Welp, can’t help you there! As the director always said, ‘Find something to do before I give you something to do!’” He laughed.

Charles’ expression flattened. Dachna laughed more.

The two and a half meter tall Phorus smirked, and stood to his full height.

Dachna stopped laughing.

—------------------------------------------

Skye guffawed loudly, mercilessly in the eyes of Dachna.

“Why was the Phorus chasing you with a firestick?” Ronald had a completely deadpan expression, though the others behind him were between varying degrees of trying-to-hold-laughter-in, to Skye’s blatant, loud guffawing.

Dachna, now covered in ash, spluttered, “I didn’t do anything! He just–”

“Squawk, squuuuaaawwk, squuuaaaawk,” They heard the Phorus oddly off-toned squawking, lacking any essence shadow. If it were any other beast, they’d have assumed that to be random noises, but Dachna knew.

“Hey, you-you-” Dachna spluttered before being interrupted again.

“Squuuaaaaaaawk!” The Phorus fluffed up and huffed at him imperiously. Skye rolled on the forest floor, laughing so much she was crying. The sooty marks on the arse of Dachna's once relatively clean pants were all that was needed to know exactly what the Phorus had thought of Dachna's "wittiness”.

Ronald finally couldn’t take it anymore, and started busting up too.

“It’s not funny! What if he burned my pants!?” Dachna was only half-outraged, the other half admittedly finding the situation humorous as well, though it would have been funnier if it had happened to someone else.

“Oh, ohhhh, I can’t breathe!” Skye wheezed out through tears and a rictus of a grin.

Reese brushed away a few tears of her own, “Here, let me help out.”

She walked towards Dachna and from a respectable step away, pushed essence out over the man's clothes. The bulk of the ash and dirt swept off of him like they’d almost been freshly cleaned. Ronald whistled at that, clearly impressed. “I think I need to figure out that one.”

“It’s more an expression of skill after a certain point, but if I’m in town longer, I wouldn’t mind teaching you a bit to get you started,” the paladin’s expression was lighter by several degrees from yesterday, Skye noted. The talk last night, and the events of the morning, seemed to have put a lot of her worries at ease.

“You’re a remarkably smart Phorus,” Eustace said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if you become something special down the line.”

Skye watched as her bird friend tilted his head at that, but Mithel was the one who asked, “What do you mean?”

The man gestured at the Phorus, though particularly to his feathers, “An aberration of a species tends to have more potential than their normal counterparts. Phorus… become Az’Phorus, normally, and I don’t see that changing. But after?” The man whistled, “You’re gonna have some veeeery interesting possibilities.”

“Are you a bloodline specialist?” Ronald asked the man as they began to walk through the forest, a slow and sedate pace.

“Something like that,” Eustace smiled in a way that said that he wasn’t going to go into depth on that topic, “It’s part of a passion of mine. Who knows, maybe I’ll look back on today and be able to say that I met the next Champions before they made it big.”

That got a few embarrassed but happy responses. Skye, though, clammed up like she had no idea how to respond to that, and shot the Phorus a ‘help’ kind of look. The bird clucked in amusement at her, and she stuck her tongue out with a ‘phbbt’ in return. Honestly, Skye was glad that he hadn’t taken any offense to what Eustace said, as it was dangerously close to inferring the bird was a tame. Perhaps she was overthinking things, but he had turned out to be a Chosen after all.

Reese cleared her throat then, drawing attention to herself, but she only briefly glanced at Skye. She stared in confusion at her before she realized what Reese was suggesting.

“Oh!” Skye started, “Right, uhh. So there’s something to know about the Phorus. You know he can understand us well, right?” Nods all around, she continued, “Well, apparently he can sort of communicate back.”

Eustace nearly tripped and fell flat on his face as he lost track of his footing, he barely righted himself and sputtered, “C-can he now?” Skye nodded, but didn’t say more. Not even Reese knew how true that statement was, and Skye didn’t trust herself not to trip over herself right then.

“It’s like an essence message, but a lot grainier and harder to put together,” Reese offered now that Skye had decided to come out with it. “It’s nothing concrete, but it bares mentioning.”

Ronald thought aloud, “Lots of tamers would go nuts over this combination. Usually only specific beasts learn how to do that.”

“Or beasts at a very high tier,” Eustace commented, eyes aglow with curiosity.

“Or that,” Ronald agreed, “Added in with how he can communicate with other beasts?...”

They left that unsaid, but the Phorus found his focus shifting between them all dizzyingly. To Skye, it looked like he desperately wanted this topic expounded upon, like a desert dweller yearning for rain. This much information all at once was great for him. Skye herself was glad he seemed to be getting more insight into how the world would look at him, along with the high possibility of his aberrant nature and the potential that brought with it.

“So, I have a question,” Dachna shifted unsteadily on his feet.

“I have an answer, probably,” Mithel stated with mock-superiority.

He grinned at that, but then the expression faded somewhat, “Is it even remotely legal to enter the city like this?”

Skye frowned, “Like this?”

“Y’know… no-” he mouthed the word ‘tamed’ at her, as though not saying the word would keep the Phorus from noting it. Which, he supposed, if it were a supernatural ability to translate anything he heard, maybe that would have been a safe bet.

Instead, his feathers ruffled up uncomfortably while Skye’s countenance soured, “There’s no choice to be made there. I’m certainly not going to try to force anything on him.”

Skye had barely noticed the bird's feathers rise, but then stop. He gave a little chirp of appreciation at Skye. Skye smiled at him, but Dachna only sighed, “Well, shite. Alright. Ah, Bant’s arse, this is going to be interesting.”

Ronald laughed, “Well, he’ll just have to behave himself, then, right, big bird?”

The bird cheeped at him with a sharp assent, and also a mild glare that Skye recognized as a mild grudge forming at the nickname.

Mithel let out a short shout, making Dachna jump, “Ah! We forgot something!”

‘ “What?” The man grouched, “What’d we forget?”

“A name! We can’t keep calling him ‘big bird,’ ‘birdy,’ and stuff!” She beamed.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

‘Oh, feathering peck, this is gonna be bad…’ Internally cringing, Charles regarded her with concern.

“Fluffy?” Skye answered too quickly and with immediate regret, as Mithel erupted in a particularly scathing streak of cackles.

“Oh, oh no, honey, Skye,” She laughed, and redoubled it as Charles immediately huffed and started to put on some speed and distance, “Seems he doesn’t like it, right ‘Fluffy’?”

Charles shot Mithel the dirtiest look he could muster as he turned the group off their previously treaded trail. ‘This is gonna be a long day…’

They called him back, but Charles squawked at them insistently until they realized he was taking them somewhere. He had things he needed to pick up, and lacking thumbs, Charles knew he’d have to assign their aid.

“Sorry, you’re right, Fluffy is just inelegant.” Skye apologized, with a mortified expression on her face that Charles construed as genuine remorse for her abomination of a suggestion.

Mithel grinned, “Basic as fu-”

“How about Argus?” Reese offered, Charles perked up at that, not minding the name until she opened her mouth again, “He was one of the first Advarican Champions in the Dawning Era.”

Charles shivered and shook his head. “Huh, not that one then.” Reese frowned deeply, at Ronald, somewhere between upset and bewildered. “Dinno?” Ronald followed it up shortly before he immediately shook his head, “Nevermind, I think that was an ill-fated name.”

“Call him Drumstick, anyone?” Dachna grinned right at Charles.

Charles followed up with a saccharine grin of his own at Dachna that sent a chill right down the man's spine.

“You sure about that?” Eustace asked with bemusement.

“Nope, nevermind.”

“Saratasha’s wisdom revealed,” Eustace chuckled with mirth.

‘Am I really doing this? Taking a new name?’ A strange feeling in his heart stirred, like a blend between warmth and loss, ‘Is… is it wrong to leave that behind? I mean, what did my Earth life give me except pain? But it feels odd to leave it behind. On the other claw, how long have I really been Charles? I haven’t even corrected my siblings. Do I really care all that much?’ He turned, taking in all the green around him from a sightline too tall for a human. The scent of leaves and fresh water from the morning entered his nostrils, parsed from a dozen other scents that he could even now pick apart and dissect further. Sharp talons gently scratched against the soft grasses beneath his feet, the game trail they followed having been walked by many animals and beasts.

He was just one of them, and he found he didn’t dislike that designation at all. A hundred new memories propped themselves up, from the warmth of his inhuman Red Hawk parents and a cluster of his then floof-ball siblings, to his first and most dangerous conquest over a snake that had wanted to eat him. Seeing clearly magical beasts, like the deer that night in the forest when he knew that the world was so much larger than anything he’d had before. Where essence and wonder had replaced the mundane and the agonizing.

Charles’ heavy gaze settled on Skye then, and he realized that he really hadn’t been thinking of himself as a human for a while now. He gave a noncommittal cheep at the worried elf before adjusting their route through the forest to his nest.

“Mmm, how about Timbob?” Dachna asked.

He paused under the combined weight of the others pitying gazes. “What? It’s a good name! I named my first pet rat Timbob!”

“You’re terrible,” Mithel shook her head, “I’m partial to Sapphire, but that’s more of a ladies name.”

He clucked a negative with a shake of his head. The conversation continued as they further talked about names and where some of them came from. Some were in the same category of name as Argus, bearing a connection to some great historical figure that Charles had no knowledge of and did not want to associate with. Others were the odd things like Dinno, but many of them were considered ill-fated names when, once more, they were attached to tragic figures in history.

Of them all, he started pointedly ignoring the inane names that Dachna came up with and debated the veracity of. At one point, Reese couldn’t help but to express her dismay at his awful naming schemes like ‘Chicken Finger,’ and ‘Pox.’

Admittedly, there was a bit of dark humor in that last one, if only it also didn’t remind Charles of his unfortunate end in his last life.

“Anyone want to take any guesses as to where the large predatory bird is taking us?” Eustace raised an eyebrow at Charles.

With a shrug, Skye answered, “No clue, wherever it is, it’s not too far off from the direction of the city anyways, so it’s not out of the way so far.”

Eustace nodded at that, “Excellent, I was worried I’d have to camp out again.”

Reese asked, “Not used to the outdoors?”

“Well, I do… Did work as an Oath Sworn,” the man touched his neck, the remains of the still fading tattoo yet remained there, “So I’m used to the outdoors, but frankly, I’d love a warm bed. A nice meal in fresh clothes, probably a long bath, too.”

Reese inclined her head in understanding, and it was then that Charles let out a low warble of noise.

The group had been moving through the undergrowth all morning, crossing over several game trails without much change in how Charles moved. Now, they stared ahead at a loose copse of trees that were oddly clustered closer than they ought to be. More than that, there was an abundance of branches, logs, and leaves that helped to obscure the profile of the trees from a cursory glance.

Skye was the first one to stand up a little straighter, “Oh! Your nest, right, I forgot that was out here.”

Charles walked forward, feeling at home in this clearing. He’d been here for… months? He couldn’t quite place how long it had been, only that it felt like a lifetime already. The ground was full of greenery, even the places where Charles had dumped non-edible parts of his prey when necessary. Already the logs and sticks that he’d laid across his domicile as an extra pair of walls was being reclaimed, slowly but surely, by the forest. Creeper vines were growing up around them, intertwined enough that it would be a considerable effort to disentangle them.

With a bit of excitement, Charles led them into the inner circle of his nest, and showed them into the much smaller confines within.

Someone whistled as they entered, but Charles only had eyes for what he’d left here. His bed of sticks, thatch, and a soft moss called him with the gentle ministrations of the sigils on the trees. The swords and axes embedded in the logs framing it filled him with a sense of joy and accomplishment, proud of his work. Other things that he knew were probably valuable were placed in messy bundles elsewhere in the space, but he also still had a few of the badger hides as prized possessions. They were each fairly well harvested, though Charles hadn’t really figured out how best to treat them.

Frankly, he’d cycled out some already that certainly hadn’t taken to his attempts well. Thankfully, nothing was rotting here, either too fresh or just barely prepared enough that it wasn’t an immediate problem. Against a fairly rough attempt at a basket– one that couldn’t hold things of any real weight – sat a bundle of berries and other edible plants. He couldn’t pick the thing up without it unraveling, but it was… passable as a basket when it was here.

All in all, he felt proud of what he’d made here, happy that he’d been able to stay as long as he did, and bittersweet that he would be leaving it all behind.

‘Well, not all of it…’ Charles chirped happily before turning his attention to the group.

Dachna looked at him warily, “Why does he look like he’s planning things?”