I felt a stirring in my soul. Like a hum that never faded in my ears or a shadow racing from discovery in the corner of my eye. Lids widened, opening to reveal a pit of honey, a pit of gold. Irises unnaturally bidden to have a solid core. Gaze rose to the heavens, expectantly as if my soul was waiting for an answer. Would a god appear this night? Fina was also awake. She is lashed in a nearby oak whose branches have been thinned by Orangemoon and currently stood nearly vacant of canopy. The firebird followed my gaze, those startling aqua pools narrowed, then slide back to me with unreadable befuddlement lurking in our unspoken way.

Her body and soul felt it...

Instinct and a feeling urgency drew me from my bed. I turned to follow a familiar trail that would eventually lead me down to the water. Velvet ears swiveled round, picking up on the sounds of the forest. My companion followed overhead, slowly gliding in large circles and keeping a wary watch from above. A waterfall thundered ahead and moments later I caught sight of it through the timber.

For whatever reason a shiver ran down my spine and I trembled. Nerves? Anticipation? Anxiety? I didn’t pause to wonder. Patched limbs pressed forward nevertheless and after a second or two the trees broke their cover. The roaring of water and the pool that gathered below wasn’t what caught my attention first, nay, nestled beneath a tree was the body of an avian. I stopped, Fina fell from the sky like a flaming meteorite. Her talons found flesh to straddle.

“What is it?”

A question that I didn’t answer for many long moments and when the words finally came my reply was soft and sad, “A Zephyr, I think.” its fragile body was no less glorious even in death. Those beautiful blue feathers still seemed to glow, as if in remembrance of life. Fina shuffled from my spine and flew toward the broken bird, her gaze was surprisingly tender. “We should bury it, so it doesn’t get eaten…” Fina landed near the blue zephyr, her sorrow a mimic of my own.

Before I could reply, something in the tree above this fallen angel caught my eye; glancing up I noticed a thick bunch of leaves, sticks and bramble clinging to the corner of many lean branches. A nest? Calling upon magic I summoned sand from the basin of earth, drawing around the tree and surrounding the well-made nest in a sort of cradle. With gentle coxes and tugs I aimed to pull the nest free and lower it gently to the ground.

It was different from Fina’s egg. Yar, she had been encased in a creamy shell without markings to distinguish what creature rested inside. This one was white and blue, the hues of northerners. I gently lowered the bundle to earth, cradling it tenderly. From the moment I laid eyes upon this site my soul had realized the gravity of what was about to occur – it weighted upon my mind now. Questions, doubts. Was it even possible for a spirit to be split again? A bond was meant to last a lifetime, yar, and there was usually only one capable of forming such a bond in a single lifetime. Yet here was another little guide – it sought the mate to its soul and found mine a suitable receptor.

I frowned a little, glancing toward the broken mother and my brilliant companion who was now watching the egg with steady interest. It was in that moment that said mother vanished from our view; nay, not vanished. Melted! Into the ground. A flurry of ice and snow rose on the breeze, gleefully it came forward to tease the fur around my muzzle. Fina chortled, surprised. Her mighty wings spread as if to take flight; yet her talons are still firmly grounded.

After a moment the zephyr was gone from view and the feeling of her presence had also faded. We were alone. Fina turned to me, wordlessly I met her gaze with a small smile forming.

Looks like we were going to have more than one little voice in our minds…and soon.