Winds of Change

The First October: Family Ties

Unlike some birds, nothing made Pura happier than perching on a Skyloft roof and just seeing who was around. After meeting his partner Gael was often up for a friendly chat, and his new friend Sera was always a welcome sight in the skies.

It was that time of year when the children of Skyloft would dress up as various creatures and go on great night-time romps around the airborne town, knocking on the doors of their neighbours and collecting wrapped up edibles. She had never understood why they had done this.

The Violet Purple was pondering what exactly was going on with the paper Keese hanging over the Bazaar doorways when another bird landed beside her and settled down. It was a Rain Blue named Teki, whose partner was about a year older than Gael's. She was a few years older than Pura herself.

"Hey, Teki. Is Harry doing anything with you tonight?" she asked when the turquoise bird had finished settling.

"Not this year. He's going round to Nathan's, which means I have to put up with Alfo for the night," she sighed. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, allegedly Gael's partner is going, and he has to walk around with her."

"Wouldn't Kuro be better for that? He's a black Loftwing, right?" Teki hummed, amused.

"Well, I'm sure he'd rather die than be around here during this weird festival," Pura replied. "Remind me who Alfo is again?"

"He's that Pine Green who's boasting about everything twenty-four-seven. His wings this, his colours that. He won't leave me alone, especially now he's found out our partners are friends."

"I'm pretty sure Gael mentioned him in the nest. He kept saying that if Nathan would only be brave enough to jump off, he'd be halfway across the sky!"

"Good luck. He flies like a geriatric Guay on too many Mushroom Spores," Teki laughed. The younger bird joined in, a few bright purple and blue feathers fluttering down the rooftop. "How is Gael recently, speaking of? I've seen Harry about with his partner, come to think of it."

"Well... he's been being teased by the birds in his class... a lot. Sera's trying to stick up for him, and Kuro's shed more than a few drops of Loftwing blood over it, but they're all saying... he's not part of the family. Teki, how did they know?"

The blue bird sighed and looked down. "Maybe, with all the allegations, you should get your mother to tell him."

Pura glanced at her desperately. "But not even Kuro and Niva know! Kuro wouldn't give a s***, I know that, but Niva would go ballistic on both him and Ma! How would he handle it?" she blurted.

"I understand you want him to be safe, and I'm not even going to try suggesting telling him now. When he's more mature – when you all are. I would say that leaving it to your mother to decide would be the best thing at this time."

The purple bird sighed and looked down at her feet. "...You're right. Thanks, Teki."

"No problem!" she replied cheerily. "Harry's calling me, and unless I want him to hit the cloud barrier, I'd better go!" With that she was already off, leaving a delightful deposit behind her.

She was in a hurry, so Pura instead decided to forgive her and moved to a different building. When out of scent distance, she watched the sky to see just which birds were wheeling around.

Gael was trying to pull off some rather difficult manoeuvres with his partner in the air, and Sera was watching nearby. Alfo was stood in the plaza, loudly boasting to any Loftwing in earshot about his beautiful plumage. Her friend Jenn, a Berry Pink, was off somewhere in a hurry south of Skyloft.

Kuro was on the Bazaar roof, picking yet another fight with the Dawn Yellow Leon whose partner was in the same year as Gael's. She flew closer to have a look at what it was about.

"You're so strong, aren't you? You don't have a partner, and you don't even have a brother! You can't stick up for relatives so fiercely when they're not f****** related!" the offending bird crowed.

"We were hatched with him and raised with him. And even if, for some reason, he isn't actually related by blood, he's a brother to me!" roared the Nightsky Black, pouncing on top of the yellow bird and tearing out a beakful of feathers from his wing. Leon screeched in pain and anger.

"You think... you're so... tough. Flying into the Thunderhead... and dragging back Skytails... you've killed," he huffed.

"Well, I'm a sight stronger than you, in any case!" Kuro hissed. The Loftwing pinned under his claws was, in truth, kind of scrawny and thin. "I'm surprised Owen doesn't break your back when he falls." He stepped off the bird and let him go. "Get out of my sight."

Leon obeyed nervously, beating his wings faster to get away from Skyloft and fast. When he was long gone, Pura stalked over to join her brother. "What was that all about?" she asked.

"Yet another a**hole claiming Gael's not family," sighed the black Loftwing. "I wish everyone would just lay off us."

"Well, with all this ridiculous teasing going on, I'm glad he's got a brother like you," the Violet Purple smiled. "I don't think I've ever seen a bird fight fiercer than you over a loved one."

Kuro gazed off into the distant sky, praying that she wasn't hiding anything from him. Eventually dusk began to fall on Skyloft and the city sprung into life, the streets crawling with monster outfits and birds. It wouldn't be too long before the pair of them got a partner too, right?

--oo00O00oo--

This was late

really late

sorry

...invisible viewers

It might just be me looking at these pages a bunch of times, but if anyone actually is out there reading this crappy story please give me a heads-up :D