(I've given myself some more liberty here, but not too much. Please PM me for any complaints or advices.)
Ruddy was lying on his right elbow on the ground slightly outside the nest in thoughts, his eyes not really focused on anything. In a moment he regained focus, this time on the nest in front of him. It was a pretty big structure, a round shape with a layer of rocks and sand covered with a layer of hard beaten dirt . Though swimmers were used to rain, they appreaciated dry sleeping ground just as much as the flyers, and this ground dried pretty fast. And when the family was on it, it was a very warm and cozy place indeed. They had expanded it several times during the years, but it was quickly becoming small still. Some of his siblings had asked to have nests of their own nearby in hte past, but mother didn't want to hear about it. There would be time for nests, she said. For now, they all slept together. What he found very annoying about the nest, but also understandable now when he was older, is that every time the siblings had a fight, not only were they not allowed to sleep at opposite ends of the nest, but mother forced them to sleep right by each other. Similarly, when the mother noticed some siblings were forming groups where they would always sleep together, she would break them up. Only Ducky and Spike were allowed some leeway, though even they had to separate once in a while. He didn't get why some of his more squeamish sisters avoided to sleep with Spike. He remembered he had spent quite a few awkward nights with Edmont as a punishment, each staring to the other side deep into the night. Both of them would doze off at some point, however, or at least Ruddy would, and in the morning they would never feel mad at each other anymore. He couldn't figure out why it was exactly so. Probably one of those ancient lores gathered through painstaking trail and error, he thought.
Thinking about the past Edmont brought his attention to the present one. Watching him rest in the nest after his day and after they had chatted about it a bit, he was glad his brother had been spending so much time around herds of all kinds, giving Ruddy the excuse to pester him with all kinds of questions about them, and sometimes Ruddy would even accompany Edmont and assist him in understanding the questions put forward in broken speech of other heards. He would listen to members of the other herds speak, where he would hear all kinds of dialects and sometimes even a wholly different language might appear, and intriguing sayings and phrases, over which meanings he ruminated a lot. Ruddy was somewhat annoyed with Edmont's respect for schedule. He prefered the arrangement where he would help out at one time, and be helped out at some other time. Edmont would sometimes accept this, but he would also point that you could clean an existing nest that way, but you needed more order to build a new one. And he was right. Something about undertaking such long works as building a proper nest freaked Ruddy out. Ruddy would always help others with their stuff or do small stuff of his own, but making a something that's worth a life's work put him off.
Soon he saw Edmont and mom looking somewhere, and there he noticed Ducky and Spike. Ducky seemed a bit cold, while Spike was apparently impervious to his environment. He noticed Spike was cooling himself with his wide strides and opened in the fresh air. They both seemed happy, if mom's look dampened their mood somewhat. He looked at them with curiosity and understanding. He let a small smile on his lips. He was prone to crazy adventures himself, though he would always have to make them himself, unlike Ducky and Spike, whom the hand of fate itself guided to new adventures, it seemed. He was eager to find out what they had been doing at the first opportunity.
