Zabeth Firestone: Firebird

The firebird reappeared just outside and down the hall of the public hatching bay which housed the children of one Felittera Selamputo and one Aegre Egretudo. The cold fire simmered down to a wash of flame over his feathers, then a mere shimmer of blue. It would have been rude to merely appear within, or even appear right where people would be entering and exiting. The hallway had more people in it than most days might warrant, but as the bay just next door had only earlier that day held a hatching, Zabeth wasn't particularly surprised.

Shaking off a few ghostly sparks, he turned and started making his way down the hallway towards the door marked with Felittera and Aegre's names. Due to his slightly more humanoid appearance than the average bird, he actually managed to be somewhat graceful on the ground-- millennia of practice hadn't hurt, either-- rather than the disgraceful bobbing or waddling many true birds had to put up with. His tail-feathers trailed on the ground, but he couldn't really do anything about that, not unless he wanted to trim them-- which he didn't.

The door slid open easily-- the nestlings were open to the public's eye today-- to admit him, and he stepped within. Felittera was seated on the flood, surrounded by all eleven of her offspring, reading to them out of a book. Her voice-- telepathic, like her sister's-- was weak, from all the way across the room, but Zabeth bolstered it gently with his own magic until he could listen in. He didn't want to interrupt, and he had all the time in the world: he could wait.

Zabeth had visited this batch of children once already, several weeks ago, but they had been too young to really communicate with him or, really, to do more than blink at him, sleep, eat, and cry. He'd gained permission to hold those which caught his eye, once he'd assured the worried mother and slightly strange father his ghostly sparks-- he'd been in the early month of his winter phase, then-- wouldn't hurt any of them and once he proved he could hold a dragon-chick despite not having arms in the traditional sense. A couple of them had cried, and he'd willingly passed them back to their parents, but others had cooed and grasped at flames or feathers, or stroked his beak with tiny dragon-paws. It was those he hoped to get a better feel for, today.

Felittera seemed nowhere near to finishing her tale when the door behind him opened again, and he side-stepped to let whoever it was through, but half-turned as well, in case it would be prudent to warn whoever it was that the rather large family was currently occupied. He did not face a humanoid or ship-denizen, as he'd expected, however, but a vaguely familiar face: an Avengaean Askan dragon, completely iridescently white and with a surprised, silent snarl on his face. Zabeth stilled the alarmed flaring and sparking of his personal fires, recognizing Aegre, the brood's father.

Aegre, however, didn't seem to recognize him. "What do you want?" he asked in a breathy, rushed voice. "Who are you? You're here to hurt my kits, aren't you! Aren't you?!"

As the Askan hadn't bothered to keep his voice down, the story across the bay cut off abruptly. Felittera craned her neck around and quickly stood-- she, at least, seemed to recognize him. He hadn't changed at all since the last time she'd seen him, thankfully. ::It's all right, Aegre,:: she told him soothingly. ::He's just here to visit. Aren't you, mister--::

"Zabeth Firestone," he reminded her with as much of a gentle smile as his beak allowed him. "I simply come to meet some of the chicks again, to better acquaint them with me before I adopt one at a later date."

Aegre stared at him as if he'd simply been unable to follow that, but after a moment he backed down with a huff of a sigh and stalked the rest of the way into the bay. Zabeth gave him plenty of room before following. "I apologize, madam," he told Felittera. "I was trying not to interrupt."

::Oh, it's nothing... come in, come in. Say hello to mister Firestone, children.:: A chorus of "hellos", some spoken and some telepathic, answered her obediently. This batch was much more well-behaved than Peta-mari's batch-- or Zamah-aisi's, for that matter.

After introductions were taken care of, some of the chicks gravitated back to their mother, and others over to their father-- who now stood in a corner, where he could best see the rest of the room. Zabeth found him interesting, and thought that he might make a study of insanity in its various forms after his current experiment with dragons and bonding....

For now, however, he had still managed to retain the attention of a few of the hatchlings, and he didn't want to lose the opportunity. To his pleasure, a couple of those he'd held those weeks before and who hadn't cried were among those who'd stayed to speak with him.

"So let's see if I remember rightly," he began gently. "You are Hysoro," he pointed one long primary feather at the copper chick with the black feet.

"Yup," he grinned. "Are you really on fire, or is that an illusion?"

"A little of both," Zabeth answered. "It is fire, but it cannot harm you, and it does not burn in the same way most fire burns."

"I can make illusions," another chick exclaimed. "I've never tried blue fire before, though!"

"Shatyri, wasn't it?"

"Mmmhmm," the red and black girl agreed. "I'm not really all that good yet, but it's kinda fun. I can make pictures to go with stories!"

"I wish I had illusions," a third chick-- this one was a similar color to his aunt, Peta-mari, only with white on his tuftings-- sighed.

"Why is that?" Zabeth asked.

"Because-- because-- I don't know," he said, deflating. "Because it would be interesting? I don't know what I'm good at."

"Hmm. A moment, child." Zabeth cocked his head thoughtfully, then sketched a circle in the air with his beak, letting it fill with white fire. The chicks shrank back with wide eyes, surprised, but he hoped not afraid. "Eigu, was it?"

"Yessir!"

Zabeth peered into the flames, plucking out the knowledge he wanted. "You have gifts, never fear of that; some of them may require more effort than others, however, I must warn you."

"Can you see them?" Shatyri gaped, standing on her hind paws to try and see.

"After a fashion," Zabeth agreed.

"Do me?" Hysoro begged, bouncing. "What can I do?"

The hatchlings wouldn't be satisfied until he'd done a brief, if somewhat cryptic, reading on all three of them. Only the fourth chick, a copper child with highlights of opalescent white, remained silent. Her name, if he recalled correctly, was Ielta. She had been quiet in his grasp when he'd first met her, looking at him with wide eyes but not grasping or hitting. There was something odd about her, but Zabeth couldn't quite peck on what he thought it was, yet. "Would you like me to look at your magic, as well, little one?" he asked gently.

"No, thank you," she answered calmly, as if she was asked such things every day. "I already know my future."

"Oh?"

"Mmmhmm. I'm going to be assassinated."

"You... are. And how do you know that?" Zabeth asked, bemused.

"Because the circuits told me," Ielta answered matter-of-factly. "They're all over this station, you know, and they talk all the time. They know things."

Before Zabeth could do more than stare in confusion, Shatyri whispered, "Don't mind her, mister Firestone. She's just a little weird."

"Especially since she learned that word, a-sass-in-ate," Hysoro confided.

"Nobody's going to-- to-- assass-- er," Eigu broke off in confusion at the unfamiliar word before substituting, "Nobody's going to kill you, Ielta. You're safe here. Really."

"Maybe." Ielta did not look convinced, but she didn't brush off her brother's earnest reassurance, either. "But I'll just have to be careful, nonetheless. --But you seem nice," she added to Zabeth. "I hope they don't assassinate you, too."

"They won't," Zabeth assured her.

After that, though her three siblings dominated the conversation, Zabeth couldn't keep his curiosity entirely contained when it came to her. He rather hoped he-- or at least someone he or one of his charges knew-- wound up with her, so he could see just what she would grow into.