Niko lifted his head up high, haughtily declaring, “Hah! Mine now!”

With little grace, Yak tackled Niko in the gut with a mighty flap, and a very surprised Phorus dropped the plushy kind-of-ball. Talon snatched it in mid air, twirling skillfully as she did it, and Niko knew– he just knew– she did it as a taunt.

That knowledge was confirmed when she twirled back around, releasing a guffawing caw at him.

“Hahaha! Niko’s too slow!” Yak laughed, plucking the plushie back up, “Mighty Yak wins again!”

Yak’s celebration was cut short by a blunted kick that sent him straight up into the air. “Hey, Yak, ever hear of hackysack?” Niko chortled, “Cuz Imma learn you a thing right now.”

Gabby crowed in laughter as Yak was carefully, but forcibly, sent spiraling in the air beak over talon by Niko. Admittedly, the elder brother of the bunch was impressed that Yak was still holding onto the plush toy amidst it all, and even more so when the closed-beek warbling of fear became a high pitched giggle.

“Me next! Me next!” Pecky shouted, with Owl standing attentively beside her, though he did his best not to look too interested.

Niko smiled warmly, ‘Yup, still just kids. And that’s fine.’

The Red Hawks were nearly full grown biologically, but that was normal enough. They’d take, assumedly, much longer to reach any point of full psychological maturity. (It was regrettable that they would be going separate ways again soon, Niko really wanted to see how they wound up developing over the long term. Perhaps they would be able to meet again soon enough, but given everything that the Guildmaster had spoken of, he didn’t know enough of the situation to make any assumptions about the timelines involved.

Dane hadn’t had much to say about the topic, but Niko knew from his siblings that the ex Oath Sworn had spoken at length to Orson while the Greenhorns were away. As far as Niko was concerned it was incredibly convenient to be set in a better position to carry out Alterra’s tasks eventually. As for the pilgrimage itself, the Greenhorns seemed unusually excited over what he felt seemed like an incredibly dangerous proposition. There were several reasons why he was interested in the Pilgrimage himself. One of which was what his siblings informed him of in regards to the conversation between Dane, Eustace, and a third mystery Oath Sworn and Orson; that they would group up and, with the hawks, begin the pilgrimage in roughly a week.

Niko figured that their group would be simultaneously a backup Champion team and, more importantly, the distraction. As much as he wanted to be able to all set out together, he was also aware that it would likely be safer for them to stay away. They were, as far as he understood it, the far bigger deal of the two situations. A tamed aberrant Phorus was, undoubtedly, an incredibly rare, even unique, situation for a team to find themselves in, and would attract a lot of attention. But, someone taming five Red Hawks of clearly superior intelligence and an apparently rare proclivity to several elemental styles of fighting was virtually unheard of ever in the history of the continent. Whether or not Orson's plan would work, Niko couldn’t say, but he was feeling pretty good about their chances. Perhaps in due time they’d all be able to adventure together, and Niko would gladly welcome that opportunity.

Niko had almost been foolish enough to question why it was such a big deal, but he’d recently been enlightened to a few facts. Beasts were, in general, stronger than humans, but usually lacked the intelligence and self-awareness to work around their weaknesses. Certainly, they worked to their strengths, but any adventurer, hunter, or soldier worth their salt either knew the ‘Bestiary Compendium’ enough to know their weaknesses, or at least had a source of said information nearby. They could then use the known weaknesses of a given beast against them, whether it be their tendency to run into certain death, which was Niko’s experience with Ironback Badgers, or a particularly glaring weakness to bright lights momentarily blinding them.

Intelligent creatures worked around those issues. An intelligent badger could theoretically attack from a position of strict advantage and never from a straight-on attack. Other creatures would potentially create countermeasures. Which led to the second thing that Niko had noticed.

Beasts and monsters both could create specific and powerful essence patterns. They only needed will, direction, and availability of essence to create them. They were still mostly limited in number at each tier, matching to a single essence pattern per additional tier of power. That was, frankly, wrong to Niko, but then he realized that each of the Greenhorns were only using a single essence formation, as they were only tier one.

‘Which begs the question… am I really essence tier one with three of the damn things?’ Niko pondered the question idly as he began juggling a whooping Pecky with the crook of his ankle. It was good fun, and he vaguely let essence flow into his eye formation to track her as she fell, making it as safe as possible. It was a powerful formation, for certain, and humans would be lucky to have even one of the facets of the essence formation he’d created.

His leg formation was a whole separate level of blatantly and flagrantly flying in the face of all of the rules he’d learned about formations and their attached essence tiers. It was strength, endurance to a lesser degree, and the ability to muffle the sounds and signs of his passing. A compound formation doing all three was ridiculously difficult to pull off, but he had had immense difficulty creating it. There was the possibility that it had only taken so well because Niko had formed it so early on.

His third formation was predominantly in his beak, but it also spread throughout his body slightly. That had been an interesting revelation, to see that his pseudo-body formation was growing naturally through him. It had snuck up on him, and even now the newly forming essence channels were so dim and weak that he could barely see them.

Frankly, he shouldn’t have been tier one at all still, he should at least be tier two, moving into three. But, apparently, he had that part both right, and technically wrong. The number of formations was a hard rule for people, except the Chosen of the Gods–which Niko had to admit he fell into that category for Alterra, if she counted– and then it came down to how much essence one could successfully condense in their bodies. That was a natural process that could be expedited in many ways, but most people didn’t have to do anything and eventually they would strengthen. Over time, most people could rise in essence tiers simply by living in a likewise essenced tiered area. There were problems with that, though, the worst of which being that the absorption of energy in so long of a span actually made for weaker essence formations in general. Rapid gains were better in virtually every respect, leading to many younger generations striking out into the world to claim essence faster and strengthen themselves.

The Greenhorns, for example, would straight up age slower than someone without tier one, but most people in the world hit tier one naturally by the age of twenty-five or so, and that wasn’t much of a change. There was a great deal of ‘if this, then this,’ that Niko didn’t have the scope for, but basically he’d garnered that higher tier essence zones made the process happen faster.

There was such a thing as essence poisoning though, but no one talked at length about that. The only line that came of it was a scathing, mocking comment from Dachna saying, “‘Bout as dumb as those Empire nobles who tried to stuff their kid full of essence in a tier five area. Near killed the boy from poisoning.”

That statement had been vaguely enlightening, but Niko didn’t really need to know about that, especially if they were actively going on this pilgrimage thing.

“Brother… are you going to be okay?” Owl asked after Niko set him down, idly ruffling his head feathers with his beak affectionately.

“Hm? What do you mean?” Niko tilted his head questioningly, “I’m doing better. I have you guys back, and someday I’ll track down that last bastard that got away, but everything’s better, now.”

Owl wasn’t the only one of his siblings that shifted awkwardly on their feet on that, but Niko didn’t know why they did. “Well, other things aside…” Talon spoke up, gently speaking to the Phorus, “The reason why we’re worried about you is that we don’t know when we’ll all see eachother again. They said some pretty… scary things about the kind of bird you are now. We just don’t want you to be hurt.”

“Yeah, what Sissy said!” Pecky flapped expressively, “I don’t want to hear about you going on some murdering rampage when we leave! You’d be really sad, and we’d be really sad, because like you said, some of these people are good!”

Niko felt his breast warm, “You shouldn’t have to worry about anything like that. I’ll be fine so long as you guys are safe.”

“But you do feel that kind of urge, then?” Owl picked up the underpinning comment, “Is there anything we can do for you? Anything we can help with? I don’t know much yet, but we can figure something out together, surely?”

A heartfelt warble left Niko’s throat as he regarded his family. “It’s nothing to fix. It’s a part of who I am now. If something happens, I’ll–no, we’ll deal with it. That’s what a real family is about, right? We do right by each other and we’ll be fine.”

Gabby let an approving noise loose, “That’s right! Besides, Brother can just rely on Big Sister here, and everything will be fine!”

The rest of the siblings stared at her flatly, before Pecky voiced their collective thoughts, “I don’t know where you fall in the pecking-order, but you’re definitely not Big Sister. I vote Talon, personally.”

“Seconded,” Said Owl, followed by a nod from Yak, who good naturedly waved his stuffed plushie at Gabby.

“Accepted with grace,” Talon jokingly rolled her eyes, “In more important news, we’re expecting to be leaving in roughly a week, provided nothing untoward happens in the meantime.”

She straight up ignored the complaining chirrups from Gabby as Niko nodded, “Then I expect we’ll be along a week or so afterwards.” He tried to ignore the heartache at the thought, but they had their own path in life. Just knowing they were okay and going where they wanted was enough. And they did want to follow Dane, so that was enough. Niko was totally going to check in on them from time to time, though.

“Will you tell your flock-mates?” Owl subtly glanced to the table full of humanoids that had a few more drinks at the table than before, the mood going from subdued to something more celebratory.

Niko shook his head in the negative, saying, “No, I think that would defeat the purpose of the strategy. If they know, there’s a chance someone could say something or move in such a way that might hint at things elsewhere. The only reason I’m okay with even myself knowing is because, ultimately, it’ll be mostly on them to decide where we go.” Niko then added with a shrug, “I have no idea where in the world we even are, so that’s for the best, anyways.”

Gabby stopped complaining and exclaimed, “Oh! You’re right! That’s a thing! There’s more than just forest out there, right?”

“Oh, yeah. There’s lots of things. There’re those mountains you saw a bit of to the north east of us, and those get much larger and span areas dozens of times larger than our forest. Then there’s other places of mystery and danger, like the Daurghast forest to the south east,” Niko’s countenance turned sharp as he cautioned, “That place is incredibly dangerous. Do not go in there until you at least know what mind-affecting magic does.”

Owl perked up at that, and Niko continued for a very interested audience, “There are many kinds of forests, for example. Lots of different kinds of plants and trees. Some areas have no trees at all! Maybe you’ll see the ocean someday, too; it’s a body of water so large that you can’t see where it ends on the horizon.” He trailed off, before pulling his attention back, “Icelands with nothing but frozen water. Oh, and deserts where water is nearly nonexistent, or locked beneath the earth, save for the rare oasis in the sand. Who knows what else is out there, though? I’d personally like to see if there are any floating mountains, or maybe something like a waterfall, only flowing in reverse.”

Niko trailed off wistfully, remembering once more that there was the opportunity to explore this world that he didn’t have back on Earth. Before, he couldn’t travel due to his illnesses, but here? Here he could go nearly anywhere, and the possibility of fantastical sights thrilled him. The hawks excitedly cooed and twittered to one another, and Niko found himself buried partly under both their affections and questions. What was a desert really like? Did oceans really exist? Can you eat desserts?

That last one got a laugh out of Niko, and a mildly put out Yak pretended to play it cool when he realized that they were two very similar sounding words with very different meanings.

“You sound like you’re having fun,” a voice spoke with mirth, “We’re gonna eat soon, and Crowe said he’ll be serving up a lot of special dishes.” Dane smiled widely as warm thoughts flowed from his companions to him, and in the inverse. He looked at Niko and nodded to him, holding out a glass of alcohol to him.

“It’s milder stuff than before, but really good. Wanna try some? They called it a… berry something or other,” he shrugged, “I like ‘em.”

Niko nodded, and picked up the glass, holding it in his beak while he sipped it with his tongue curled up like a straw. It was… weird to feel, but quite handy. He’d already tried to hold a glass in his arm-claws before, but much like he imagined, the hold was awkward and not at all upright. Given that he was more like a hybrid between a prehistoric terror bird and a velociraptor, he suspected that much was to be expected.

Having thumbs would still be nice, eventually. Perhaps the next evolution would have them?

“Cheers!” Dane held up his glass and moved to sip from it.

Then a blur of feathers swooped over and snatched it with a victorious screech filling the air. Dane cursed aloud, “Gabby, I don’t think you should–Oh, dear.”

In short order, Gabby was fumbling with the drink spilling most of it, but had managed to drink a good third of it. The immediate response was a squawk of alarm and sputtering, before she paused and savored what little remained in the glass.

Niko snorted. It was good stuff, but he really doubted that his siblings were going to hold their liquor well. Dane rushed over, trying to get the glass back from her before she could finish it off entirely. She drained it, of course, long before he could intervene.

“Hah! Dane! Can’t catch me! Two legs are inferior to two wings, again!” Gabby tittered with bird-laughter in the air, but Niko knew that Dane could understand her.

He put on a vaguely aggrieved expression, “You should be careful flying around right now, alcohol messes with your body.”

“I’m fine! See?” Gabby flapped up and around easily, but Niko only shook his head. She had no idea that it would be a few minutes before it really hit. “I want another!”

Dane then launched an already-lost campaign to stop her from wanting more, but all of the siblings wanted in on the booze consumption. Niko followed him to the bar, where a flicker of a smirk passed Crowe’s face.

“Can you… make enough for them? Nothing too strong, though.” Dane looked mildly stricken as Niko likened Dane’s current situation to a parent in fear of looking bad by having their underaged children drinking in front of a barman.

“Certainly, Sir. I’ll whip something up for them, and for Sir Niko, as well?” He arched an eyebrow at the mentioned Phorus. Niko trilled in affirmation and nodded, before finishing his current drink.

‘Damn, I drank that waaaay too fast. It was delicious though.’ Thought Niko as he warbled in appreciation. Crowe paused at the sound before glancing over to him with a light smile.

“Go ahead and leave the glass on the counter, Sir, I’ll have your drinks out to you shortly.” Said the bartender as he turned back to his concoctions. Niko turned around with Dane, but not before seeing a collection of fruits leave one of the cabinets and several large-bore syringes.

‘The peck is up with that?’ A slight shiver rolled through him at the sight of them, but he turned his attention more firmly forward as they reached back to the group.

“How is it feeling?” Talon asked, curiosity warring with her sense of propriety as she invaded Gabby’s personal space, “You’re looking a little unsteady on your feet.”

“I’m fiiiiine~!” Gabby flapped widely before her stare fell on Niko and Dane a little too intensely for Niko’s liking.

“Gabby?” Niko frowned and was about to ask what she was staring at him for, when he noticed a tear falling from her eyes. “Gabby!? Hey, whoa, are you okay?”

He and Dane rushed forward as suddenly the siblings were even more in her space.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking how terrible it is!” She sniffed loudly, and let out a small caw, “I mean, nobody is really made the same, but there should be fairness, somewhere, right? But there’s not!”

Niko, Dane, Owl, Pekcy, Yak, and Talon all paused, besides themselves with the sudden serious words out of Gabby’s mouth. ‘What brought all that on? Is she one of those crying drunks? She's not allowed to be if she does this all the time.’ Niko cringed internally, but then heard her next words.

“I mean, you don’t even have wings! You’re just stuck walking, slow and clumsy! It’s just sooo… awful! Nothing can make up for that! It’s just the worst!”

Talon immediately slapped her upside the head with her wing, tone admonishing as she said, “That’s what you got us all worried about!? Pecky, do your thing!”

“Aye, Ma’am!” Pecky declared playfully before pouncing on Gabby, her beak clenching on the short little feathers just before her legs.

“No, no! Sis! Not like this! I can do bett-Ouch!” Gabby’s plea for mercy fell on deaf ears, especially considering Niko and Dane, who exchanged half-amused, half-affronted expressions.

‘At least she’s fine. Go at it guys! Do it for big brother!’ Niko kept the words to himself, but likewise kept his deep satisfaction at the ball of struggling, feathery mass that was the pecking-pile to himself.

A minute later, Crowe brought over a collection of fruits that looked something like large blood oranges to the group, setting one each on a small wooden plate for each of the siblings, while Niko was given a glass plate that–he guessed–Crowe was fairly sure Niko knew well enough not to break it. Presentability mattered, after all.

‘And damn does that look interesting.’ Niko looked at his cut open fruit, noting the orange and blue swirling patterns that were partly in the meat of the fruit.

“It’s quite good, and your siblings should be able to imbibe and eat at the same time.” Crowe then stepped in closer, conspiratorially with Dane and the Phorus, “Also, Sirs, this will help with any possible hangover issues. I’ve no experience with Red Hawks in such a state, but most beasts are less than amicable.”

Niko nodded at that, glad that he’d thought ahead on that. It was a nice gesture, too, to make it edible and accessible. He leaned down, gently holding the plate and fruit in place with his claws while he worked a section of fruit free and swallowed it down.

Instantly he warbled in satisfaction.

“Can I try some of that?” Dane pointed over to the fruit, to which Niko only blinked a few times. With a shrug, he pushed it over, and Dane tore a piece off for himself.

“Wow, that’s… different. Very good, though.” Dane blinked and looked at his nearly finished glass, then back to Crowe. The steward nodded at the wordless question, before catching Skye glancing over curiously.

She scrambled up from her chair before coming over, curiously eyeing the fruit beside Niko.

Niko warbled in amusement before plucking another piece of fruit out and snapping it up in his jaws. With silent assent, he pushed the plate slightly closer to her.

She ate one immediately, her eyes widening slightly, “Now, why haven’t I heard of this before today?”

Dane shrugged, “I was just thinking the same thing.”

Niko cast a glance backwards at his siblings, seeing that they were in varying degrees of consumption through their own fruits. Satisfied that they’d be fine, he managed to carefully pick up his plate and move it to the group’s table before sitting down next to an amused Skye. As they sat down the other people locked onto the fruit in front of Niko.

Niko shared, and the rest of the fruit went quickly, before Crowe came around with several more of them for the table.

“Where does this come from? Or did you make it?” Skye asked the man, “It’s delicious.”

“I’d like to accept credit for this idea, but it came from Some Little Place in the Republic, miss.” Crowe answered, “I’ll only serve one round though, Chef Camille would be quite cross with me if I spoiled your appetite too much before dinner.”

“What’s it called? I think I’d like to go there someday,” Eustace asked, giving an appreciative hum for the flavor.

Crowe said with a little joking smile, “Some Little Place, Sir.”

“Hm?” Eustace, frowning, thought about the answer before a short laugh broke loose from him, “Oh! Oh, I see, that’s their name! Very cute, I like it.”

The steward did a fractional bow before stepping away from the table, ever watching, but not interacting overmuch. Niko liked the man a great deal, and he found that he trusted him almost implicitly.

And as soon as the thought occurred to him, alarm bells went off in his head, but he immediately drowned them with several slices of booze-fruit. It wasn’t going to do him any favors to be dissecting why he was so relaxed around the man right then. And, besides that, he didn’t detect a single trace of essence entering him out of the ordinary.

Dinner, as it turned out, was served less than a minute later by a severe-but-warm walking dichotomy of a woman who scowled at the plates of fruit on the table and then to Crowe, but became leagues warmer to the rest of the people at the table. She was heavier set, but very clearly wore the weight evenly, and Niko noticed a clear frame of muscle beneath. The woman positively beamed at the sight of Niko’s feathered self sitting politely at the tableside without making a mess.

“Oh, good! You’ve table manners.” She nodded, “I don’t have to teach you much then. The rest of you…” she paused, lingering especially long on Dachna who had propped his elbows up on the table, “Well, adventurer manners are fine too.”

Eustance and Reese shared a congenial chuckle of amusement, both having likely received actual training in table manners. A suddenly sweating Niko realized, very gratefully, that a Phorus, even a sapient one, was not expected to know much in the way of proper etiquette that people did, it seemed.

“Anyways, I hope you’re all hungry still–” she shot a side-glare at Crowe once more, who professionally didn’t react at all, “–because we’ve got a lot of food comin’ in. Whatever won’t fit, we’ll put it on the other tables. Don’t be shy, eat up. And if you’ve got any dessert requests, let me know.”

Niko heard Yak let out a resounding ‘Caw’ at the word ‘dessert’, and the woman only blinked in confusion for a moment before Dane cleared his throat.

“We’ll definitely be having that later,” He emphasized the word with a look at the siblings in the grassy area of the room. “Thank you.”

She smiled, “Sure thing! Oh, Camille’s the name, by the by. Y’all let me know if you got questions!”

Niko watched as the woman strode back through the doors, only idly realizing that he’d never even seen the woman enter them. Probably there was another entrypoint elsewhere.

‘Yeah, makes sense. Wow, I should definitely temper this booze with some food.’

“After dinner, I will show you all to your rooms. Bathing will be available at your leisure as well through the doors to the right of the bar, so avail yourselves of the facilities here.” Crowe spoke before stepping away, “I’ll be back shortly, but if you need anything, another attendant will be by if you ring this bell.”

‘What bell?’ Niko looked around, noting he wasn’t the only one who did so.

There was a bell on the bar counter that he was sure hadn’t been there before.

‘Yeah, alright, sure. That’s normal.’ Niko pointedly turned his head away from the sight as a rolling cart full of food emerged from the kitchen, followed by another, and another after that.

“Oh yeah, here it comes!” Niko called out, far more excited than he thought he’d ever be at the thought of food that he didn’t have to chase, catch, or kill coming to him.

Skye patted his side, “Time to see what fancy food is like!”

“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this!” His chattering warble came out at Skye, though he knew she wouldn’t get it. The others only smiled at the display, assuming he was, rightfully, very interested in the smells coming from the carts.