Beastly, they spook one another as they weave in and out of the trees.

They like this forest, have played in it for almost two years and never once, have they been afraid of the things that go bump in the night. It might be foolish of them to lack that fear, but they are naturally aware of one another and the world around them and they trust blindly in the fact that together, they can overcome anything. They already have, in fact - the separation from their mother, the finding of their father, the waking up on a mountain to learn that everything is changed and can never be the same again. But they push those thoughts aside and it is their laughter and shrieks that pour out of their happy loud mouths as they stomp about and try to scare one another. Of course, it is mostly Spear just scaring Spark because that is what brothers do to their sisters.

The cold pushes at them, ushers them forth from under the trees into the bright gray of the day. Cardinals fly over their heads and they pay them no mind even for all that they are chirping and red and ought to have caught the pairs of their eyes, also half red and half black - as mismatched as their skins are, painted in an array of colors, bay, white, and black. They tumble out of the trees, still laughing and now trying to nip at one another, or pull each other’s lengthening tails when they spot her - she is blue-eyed and black, imposing in her solitude and stillness. She almost looks unreal against the trees, and she has wings just like their friend Lily does but she also has a lot of lines on her skin - scars, they realize as they come closer to her, and she’s too young to be so marked up by the hardness of life that they almost pity the lessons she’s had to learn.

“Hello,” they say together, almost as one voice from two mouths.

“You look like you’re about to fight something…” It is Spear who talks first, singularly, his voice starting to deepen but still coltish.