As she and her siblings had breakfast, Ducky clamored higher up on a tree branch, shaking loose some more treestars for Spike that were out of her brother's reach before giggling and landing on the pile she made.
~~~~
"Hmm? O-k" Cera stretched as her father awoke her and walked over to where he'd knocked over the tree. She didn't say much as she munched. Tricia woke up soon too though and rushed over to joyfully greet Cera and rush about her in playfulness.
Cera gave her a small smile, but found even her baby sister she was more fond of than she'd let people know fully was just reminding her once again of her other sisters, the one who had been her age, and now weren't here...due to Pterano.
"Well thanks, think I'll go find my friends now...or most of 'em if I can help it" Cera muttered the last part as excused herself and rushed off across the Valley.
~~~~
As the light from the bright circle fell across the spiketail herd (about the only one in the Valley at the time) Ridge stretched and stood up. Although still considered a kid himself, the days to his own adolescence and all that boring stuff that came with it were quickly drawing near so he was at least allowed the privilege of not having to sleep in a nest anymore but more just right by his mother's side.
It was the part of feeling grown-up that the spiketail liked. He was still going to jog off to find something fun to do though, and didn't feel he was up too early as his father had already moved off to find breakfast.
Ridge of course went off to find either Harper or "the gang" again first, knowing anything exciting that was probable to come from this day would probably come from being around them.
He had a good idea where to look, too, heading towards the Rock Circle and meeting the grown-ups no doubt had up to discuss Pterano's return either in the flyer's presence or in the time they had before he made himself more known, but it was still early and plan probably hadn't been made on that.
As he wandered across the Valley he soon spotted his father. The adult spiketail smiled at his son, "Well, and where are you off to with such purpose?" he asked in amusement, "Going to show off more spiketail tricks to young Spike? I can't imagine you're rushing over to play a boring two person game of hide and seek with Harper?".
Ridge knew he should probably let his father find out about Pterano the same way everyone else did, even though their herd not knowing him he wasn't likely to care. "I...I just got bored...early" he smiled, "So yeah, I'll go see if Harper wants to do anything and if not I'll find something else to do" the pre-teen jogged off.
He soon reached the flyer's nest and grinned to himself. "Hey Harper, you up yet?!" he called up to the cliff. It was two of her other brothers and one of her sisters who peered over at him with frowns. Ridge laughed, though he was considerate and had it been too early in the morning he wouldn't have gone distrubing folks like that.
"Harper, that spiketail friend of yours is here" her sister told her in an annoyed tone.
Harper smiled as she flapped down, "Don't mind Ridge, he just likes to do that sometimes".
"Hi Ridge, did you already have a plan of what to do today?" she asked as she landed. She noticed Ridge glancing over to where her Uncle Pterano and Devon slept. "...or are you just hanging around so that whenever they do ask to speak with Uncle Pterano you won't miss it all?" Harper smiled knowingly.
"Uh, yeah, that" Ridge admitted. He hoped Harper wasn't offended, but she laughed, showing she wasn't.
"Well since you probably rushed over here without breakfast, here, want my last treesweet?" she rolled over one of the smaller one's she'd found to him. He ate it, but then knocked down another from a nearby tree and bat it over to Harper to start up a game. She flew and kicked it back and they kept this up for a bit.
~~~~
Meanwhile, in her nest, and catching that Harper had already darted down to one of her playmates, Petrie's mother kept an eye on both her son and the other of her hatchlings as they either slept still or awoke. She gathered her own thoughts on this self appointed mission for Pterano.
To say she was at a loss as to how to go about what she was about to attempt, would be an understatement, she felt. Asking about a strange flyer seen by and now seemingly the obsession of her brother? But she had said she'd do it. Truth be told, she wanted to do it. Something in Pterano's whole manner last night, for once genuinely focused on something other than himself, gave her more hope of perhaps some change in character having had to have taken place out in the Beyond.
If her brother was on the way to being better, than by the night lights she would help that endevour however she could! She'd try Grandma Longneck first, she assumed, though given how she knew a meeting about her brother's return was probably in the works she feared she was going to end up having to question less familiar sources. Still, she didn't worry on it now.
