The Bird Chronicles

Rio remembered his brother. He remembered laughing with him in first grade and making fun of the companies as they explained them.  He remembered laughing about their parents in the back of the car while they drove home every day. He remembered everything.

What he didn’t remember was where his brother had gone.

The day he had gotten the ‘bird bug’ as they had called it so long ago was the last day he ever saw him.

What Rio did not expect was to hear his brother’s voice, all these years later inside of his and Dominick’s room.

It was deeper than before, but still recognizable…and it was coming from Dominick’s phone.

“…Guys! Sorry for the abrupt stream cutoff before, family issues came up. I need to further address the March situation, which I know I’ve been getting lots of birdsong about from that very special social media app that most of you delinquents call home.”

Rip spun on his feet, staring at Dominick.

“Who is that?!”

Dominick startled.

“Sorry, Rio, I’ll turn down my comm, I didn’t know that you didn’t like Four streams.”

Rio started.

“Four? No, no, I thought I heard my brother, Devyn. I don’t…”

Rio trailed off, staring at Dominick’s comm then turning away with a sigh.

“You don’t need to turn it down. I’m happy to listen.” He finally finished, wings drooping.

Dominick stared at him.

“You have a brother, and he sounds like Four????”

“Had a brother. I don’t know if he’s still alive now, I lost contact with him after I got Aviaitis. He’s probably gone now.”

Dominick snorted at his somber tone.

“You never tried to find him? God, Rio, for all we know Four is your brother!”

Rio considered this, then shook his head.

“Didn’t you hear him say he was dealing with a family issue? My parents are dead, and I didn’t have any other siblings, so that can’t be him.”

They both paused to listen to Four’s blaring voice for a couple of moments.

“…you all know that I pride myself on transparency here, especially when it comes to my romance life. That’s why I’m here to tell you guys that I’m officially dating someone now! Her name is Lilly and she’s the loveliest girl on the planet. I’ll be taking most of March off to go on a trip with her. She-”

They both looked up at the sound of Dominick’s door opening.

“We found Six,” Atlanta said, “Well, I did. She’s staying at her brother’s house in California. Lyrus and Val are trying to get into contact with him via Trystam’s comm line, because he should be associated with TerronX. They said that they’d call him, and-”

Dominick shushed her suddenly.

“Guys, listen to this.”

Atlanta huffed.

“Dom, we’re trying to find Trystam right now, not listen to your goofy streamer.”

Dominick shook his head.

“No, listen.”

It was then that they all heard it.

The sound of a phone going off.

“Whaaaat the fuuuuck…” Rio said slowly, trying to process this.

“That’s gotta be a coincidence.” Atlanta said quickly.

They gathered around Dominick’s comm all the same, watching Four pick up his phone. Whatever he saw on there startled him, and he looked back up at the camera quickly.

“Hold on, I’m getting a company call, I need to take this.”

They all watched him mute, saying a couple of things to whoever was on the phone and then calling someone else into the room. When the door opened, a girl with blonde and pink hair, blue eyes, and a serious expression on her face came over and leaned over the phone, listening in on what was being said.

“This is scary as shit. It can’t actually be him that’s the brother, right?” Rio asked, looking up at Atlanta.

“I highly doubt it,” she replied.

Lyrus poked his head in through the door, startling all of them.

“Hey, Four wants t-”

“FOUR?!” Dominick practically squealed, making Rio’s feathers stand on end.

Lyrus stared at him.

“Is this gonna be a problem?”

Dominick blinked, collecting himself and shaking his head.

“No, no, I…no, it’s not.”

“It must be a different Four.”

Rio shook himself out of his shock at Dominick’s words.

“What other Fours do you know?” he asked, feathers flattening as he grinned impishly.

“Well…we know the 480TA model from Litech…and…uh…okay, you’re right, we don’t know any other Fours.”

Dominick surrendered the question, looking towards Lyrus.

“Sorry, continue.”

Lyrus sighed, and it was a heavy sigh that seemed to make them all feel a little bit closer to the floor. Rio grumbled. He hated it when Lyrus did that.

“Anyways, Four wants to know if you want to come over, he’s already got a ride prepped and Six has been looking for Trystam for ages and she’s super excited to hear that she’s not alone in that.”

Rio blinked, looking at Valari as she appeared behind Lyrus.

“I already said yes,” she said, smiling gently as Lyrus spun on his heel.

“So we get to see Six?!” He asked with excitement, bouncing up and down.

Valari smiled and nodded.

“Indeed, we do, now get packed, crew, Four’s ride should be here shortly.”

Rio gulped as they left, turning to stare at his suitcase.

This was going to be a very interesting day.