New Beginnings
The heavy snow falling was almost covering the high-pitched cry that was resonating in the clearing. At the bottom of Ravenflight, located near one of the giant roots — it was isolating it in a perfect circle —, a large white clearing was opened to the world. A hole between the root and the ground had been dug to form a simple den, and a bit of dead foliage was hardly covering the entrance. The cry was coming from there, from this dark hole in the ground that no one had noticed - but us. If you could step inside the dark den and if your eyes had the time to adapt to the darkness, you would notice a small, blue katragoon rolled up in a ball and shivering in a corner. It was barely a few months old consider its eyes had trouble to say open, glancing around the room and the freezing snow that was slowly falling a few meters away. The light of the day was probably too much for this poor little thing. Who could have left it alone in there? No one could hear its cry for help. The nearest city on Ravenflight was some hundred of kilometers up and the snow was covering all noises.
After a few days, the child katragoon stoped crying. It wasn't making any noise apart from a vague snorting sound every few minutes. Sounds like it caught a cold. It had stoped snowing so heavily and only a handful of snowflakes were lazily falling, the wind pushing them inside the den. A snowflake ended up on the katragoon's snout. It opened its eyes and stared at the white bit that was between their nostrils. A simple warm sigh melted it. Surprised, the katragoon touched its nose. It was wet. What kind of magic could have made this little thing disappeared? The blue child glanced at the entrance where snowflakes kept falling. It didn't have lots of energy, but still after a few attempts to get up it managed to walk up to the threshold.
The touch of the sun warmed up the katragoon's fur. It felt so nice! Never they would go back inside, in the dark and cold den. That ball of light in the sky was what they wanted. The ground was covered in powdery snow. It was hard to walk through it, but the little guy had a lot of fun, playing with snowballs and jumping everywhere to catch the last snowflakes. A weird noise they had never heard caught the attention of the young katragoon. It kind of sounded like the noise their belly was making earlier. The sun disappeared. They yelped. A big engine was flying over the clearing, observing what was happening. The door on the side opened and a light blue katragoon appeared then jumped on the ground. The child was more than afraid, hissing toward the stranger that had took the sun and that had dared to enter this newest clearing they had just discovered. It was theirs! Their discovery! And this stranger had no right to be there! Standing on their hind legs, the stranger crouched in front of the kid.
- Since when have you been there? When did your mother leavez?
The stranger's voice was soft and warm. The child felt appeased even if they didn't know why. It sounded... familiar.
- You don't know how to talk, do you? You're so young... Well... My name is Francesca. You can call me Frances. I'm here to help you, Avery.
Their heart knew they could trust this flying katragoon. Avery slowly walked up to the stranger, sniffing their scent to try to remember it for later. It remembered them of someone else's scent. They weren't sure who or what a mother was, but they felt like this stranger must have been related to them. Quickly, the stranger grabbed the blue kid and ran on a hedge of the clearing. The weird and noisy engine touched the ground for no more than three secondes, enough for Francesca to jump through th open door with Avery. The noise was too much for the small child and soon his hands were covering his ears. They didn't know if this discovery they had made was a good one of not, only the future could tell.