I always thought about them. When asleep, when awake. It was there, like a permanent drug upon the mind. My beautiful family, split by fate and choice. Split because neither hardheaded parent would yield to the side of the other; yet, we continued to love. A strong tether held our souls, that harness was a daughter….

Beautiful, sweet Ranjiri. She had grown like Cera and with each new inch I felt my heart tug upon freshly mended seams. I couldn’t be around for each growing stage, the weight of such a choice was heavy. Despite the purest of intentions, I was living a double life. One filled with the wide eyes of children, and my beloved mistress. The other, a herd, the heartbeat of this desert. Neither could be ignored, and neither would. I visited often, though, lately it had become harder and harder to slip away. Kri had gone missing and a dozen other distresses were slowly befalling our clan. Fina flew with me, her comforting chirps often the only thing that kept me from screaming in rage at heaven. That simple orange creature, alongside Cera--had helped maintain some semblance of sanity.

Quietly we flew along the empty starlit sky in a comfortable silence. Every so often our eyes would spot something amiss, a shadow here and there. Nothing out of the ordinary. Finally, I broke the silence and whispered to the only one that was close enough to hear, “I miss them…” Fina, being the brasher of us two, wheezed shrilly and said, “See them!”

Rims twisted from their sternly held line into a distasteful frown, “You know it’s not that easy,” I murmur with mixed disappointment and regret. She cooed mockingly and said again, “See them!” It was then that Fina finally revealed something she could see ahead of us, far off in the distance. The eyes of a Pegasus would never match the gaze of a raptor in this mythical darkness.

A voice whispered on the wind, both ears rose to catch the sound with perked eagerness. Hope. "Daaaaaaaaaad!" For a moment her voice didn’t register, it bounced in my head for a moment. Dumbfounded I shifted one eye to stare at a rather amused firebird. “Ranjiri!” I mouthed and Fina dipped her head, a birdlike version of what we would call a nod.

Her voice came again, insisting. Lips parted and a rich trumpet emerged, a response to her cries. Dual sunkissed appendages pushed harder, speeding my body across the sandy dunes and over to the border she was likely stuck at. Soon a shape came into sight, Fina veered off, circling higher to give us a moment of privacy. I tilted toward earth, pressing forelimbs out to meet the ground. Wings shifted into a hard backpedal at the very last moment, this gave a smooth landing. Ranjiri looked tired and dirty, she must have run awhile.

I was breathing harder now, though to say it was from extra exercise would be false, “Ranjiri,” I breathed, a combination of being relieved to see her yet also worried of her intentions, “Are you well? Is your Ma well?”It was hard to hide the unspoken fear that fluttered in my breast like a caged bird.

Bottomless gaze did a complete check of all physical marks upon her flesh, searching for signs of abuse or malnourishment—signs of trouble. Gaze flicked to her face after a moment, I pulled my muzzle closer to run down her lean neck and growing spine. Her little horn had begun to sprout and already fight feathers were coming in, soon even the baby smell would vanish.