Stories of others' Avidae

Ouranos was yet again going out to look for precious items. Specifically, today he wanted to look for a four-leaved clover. At least one. And to find one, his best idea was to go to the Fields of Rhea. And as for why he wanted to find one...He wanted to gift one to Gaia, as a gift. 

Speaking of Gaia, Ouranos was not sure of what he felt towards the pretty Hunter, but he was growing more and more sure that it was some form of love, or at least infatuation. The signs were all there: Rushes of heat to his face when he spoke to Gaia, a feeling of unnatural awkwardness when talking to her, a fierce protectiveness towards her…

The only thing was how to be completely sure about it. After all, Ouranos wasn’t that good with emotions. He wanted to try giving her a gift and check on what he felt in order to see if he truly was in love with Gaia, if he was just infatuated, or if it was more of a brotherly kind of love. 

Would this work? Ouranos had no idea. He had never been in love before, after all, and therefore had no idea what to do to test if his love was...well, love. He was just trying things out, if he was being honest. 

However, then Gaia suggested she could come along for the ride to find a four-leaved clover. That threw a wrench into Ouranos’s plan-after all, it was supposed to be a surprise gift. However, Ouranos quickly realised that if Gaia didn’t know they were looking for a four-leaved clover to be given to her, the resulting surprise would be about the same as if he had went off to find the clover in secret. It would only be easier, in fact, to have an extra pair of eyes to help him look out for a four-leaved clover, especially since Gaia was so observant. 

At dawn, the duo of Avidae set out to fly to the Plains of Rhea, where Ouranos guessed there would be an abundance of clovers. The moment they arrived, it was easy to see that his hypothesis was correct. Clusters upon clusters of beautiful clovers grew upon the ground in a particular area, a trio of leaves sprouting from each plant. Ouranos and Gaia both spread their wings and glided down, coming to a stop gently, and tucking their feathered wings in. 

“There are so many!” Gaia exclaimed, her face pressed close to the ground. While neither Avidae voiced it, they were both thinking the same thing: How will we ever find a four-leaved clover in this place? 

Maybe the fact that Ouranos instinctively knew what Gaia was thinking said something about what type of feelings he had towards her…

“No need to worry, since we have a larger sample, there’s a higher possibility that there is a four-leaved clover amongst this bunch.” Ouranos comforted Gaia, gently placing his tail on her shoulder. 

“I know. Duh.” Gaia responded, but with no real trace of malice in her voice, instead with the abundance of sarcasm that told Ouranos she was joking. Ouranos gave a soft laugh, and they split up to look around, somehow communicating that idea without needing to say it out loud. They were already growing synchronised with each other. 

As they moved about, Gaia spotted something. A single, small four-leaved clover sitting there. With a gasp of surprise, she charged forwards, simultaneously calling out, “Ou-”

Before Gaia could even finish her sentence, a cat-like figure with feathery wings had slammed into Gaia in a blur of red. Gaia cried out-or tried to, except she found herself choking on her own saliva. Instead of shouting, she began coughing violently, which was much softer and failed to draw Ouranos’s attention. She lashed out with a claw, but couldn’t seem to make contact with her opponent. Somehow, every single one of her strikes just happened to miss. 

When her opponent finally stepped back, Gaia got a good look at them. A russet red Avidae with crimson, bird-like wings stood there, icy steel blue eyes glaring down Gaia firmly with a trace of triumph. 

As Gaia watched with horror, the Avidae plucked another four-leaved clover from the ground. Green light surged over the cat, rippling like water, a gradient of fifty different shades of green swirling over the Avidae. When the light faded, the fourth leaf of the clover had disappeared, leaving just 3 leaves. 

They were sucking the luck out of the four-leaved clovers. By turning the four-leaved clovers into three-leaved clovers, they were making themselves more lucky. In fact, the fact that Gaia was even realising this was an act of misfortune towards the opponent, but since being observant is part of Gaia, even misfortune couldn’t stop it. Besides, Gaia guessed that a single four-leaved clover can’t contain that much luck. It was likely this guy will slowly run lower on luck. 

It was easy to see this guy was not one who came looking for peace. Just by looking at the way they looked at her, Gaia could tell. Which meant she had to prepare for a battle. 

And how would someone fight a person who can be assumed to always have luck on their side? Well, Gaia figured she had to first wait for the opponent to run low on luck, then call Ouranos over to help her out. After that...They would need to attack in ways that can’t be stopped by luck, or they can just take advantage of their opponent’s luck’s low points and attack before they could use another four-leaved clover. 

Gaia’s opponent swooped towards her again. She tried to run but tripped, collapsing onto the ground as her opponent swooped in and slashed her fiercely down her back. A thick liquid dripped from the cut, the cool wind stinging against the injury. 

Suddenly, Gaia spotted the telltale green light that told her her opponent was recharging. “OURANOS!” she cried out. 

From far in the distance, Ouranos’s head snapped up, turning towards where the call came from. By chance, he had been too engrossed in searching to glance over to Gaia, and now he saw it was a mistake. Gaia was on the ground, wrestling a red tabby cat with feathery wings. In a flash, the other cat’s head snapped up, looking towards Ouranos. A shiver went down Ouranos’s spine, and he felt fierce anxiety rush up within him despite him usually being a very calm Avidae. 

His opponent leapt off Gaia and raced towards him in a flash. Ouranos found himself frozen to the spot, his reflexes simply refusing to kick in as the tabby raced up to within a leg’s reach. A slash across Ouranos’s muzzle came, and with that, the tom started and dashed back, only to find himself tripping over as well. 

Behind the opponent, Gaia was struggling to make her way towards Ouranos. A fierce wind had started up, so for every two steps she took she virtually slid back one. It also made it almost impossible for Gaia to fly. Gaia tried digging her claws into the dirt, only for a heavy downpour to begin, turning the ground into a mud slushie. It was getting harder and harder for Gaia to make her way over, and worse, Ouranos was still under attack. Gaia braced herself, waiting for the next low point of their opponent’s luck. 

The moment the tom started backwards in surprise and reached for a clover, Gaia had spread her wings and shot towards Ouranos. “THEY DRAIN LUCK FROM CLOVERS!” She cried out, before diving down for a swoop attack on the opposing tabby. Unfortunately, their luck had just been recharged, which meant a fierce blast of wind swept Gaia out of the way. The rain went back to beating down on them with a renewed vigour, sending Gaia right back to where she was before. Ouranos had been trying to get up, but with the combination of the wind and the muddy ground, he fell right back down and was back to being beaten into a pulp by his opponent. 

At this point, it was easy for Ouranos to see that his opponent would nearly always have luck on his side, and if he was going to even come close to beating them, he would need to make use of the time period where they were recharging their luck in order to defeat their opponent. 

The thing is, their recharging time had to be like two seconds or something. How was he going to do enough damage to defeat this opponent in such a small window of time? It would be impressive if he could recover fast enough to reach his opponent in the span of time they take to recover their luck. 

The only other option was to wait out their opponent. In other words, wait until every four-leaved clover had been used up by their opponent. That didn’t sound good, so Ouranos went for the next best thing. 

Negotiation. 

“Why are you attacking us?” He called out to the figure standing over him. The wind died down for a moment, letting the enemy listen to Ouranos’s words. “I meant, why are you attacking us? We didn’t do anything to you!” 

“Why else would you be here but to steal my lucky clovers?” Ouranos’s opponent snapped back. Ouranos could guess they meant the four-leaved clovers. “I’m not letting you take them! I need that luck. Like, really bad. This field’s running out already, I won’t let you take any more!” With a screeching yowl, the opposing cat sprang at him. 

Negotiations have failed, and with no better choice, it was the best Ouranos could do to curl up and protect himself with his limbs, hoping he didn’t get attacked in any vital area like the head or the chest. 

Taking advantage of one of the breaks, Gaia was able to zoom to Ouranos’s side at top speed, but the fierce wind sent her crashing down right afterwards. That meant that the two of them were now in the mud, being battered by the wind and interchangeably attacked by their opponent. There was very little they could do to fight back, since they were well and truly trapped by the mud by now thanks to lying down in it for so long, and their opponent had relaxed enough to stand back when they knew their luck was running out and give themselves another recharge. 

Thankfully, Gaia had successfully gotten the idea that Ouranos was going to wait it out. She had tucked herself in and even thought of wrapping her wings around herself, which Ouranos quickly copied the moment he got a moment of not-so-luckiness. Gaia was finding her theory of a single four-leaved clover not containing much luck to be perhaps not too accurate, as they have been shown to be scarily powerful so far. 

However, suddenly the storm stopped. The red Avidae stepped back, a look of panic coming over their face, before they suddenly turned and flew away. 

Behind them, the duo of Avidae slowly got up. Miraculously, most of their injuries were mere scratches that, while they flared up painfully, were actually far less fatal than expected. Gaia had a sprained wingbone, but that was the extent of the injuries. It was as if the luck had extended to them as well, protecting them from injuries that could have been far worse. 

And then, much to their surprise, the two found that they had been sitting on a four-leaved clover this whole time as they were waiting out their opponent. Ouranos plucked it out and turned to Gaia, holding it out. 

“For you.” He explained, before quietening down and awaiting Gaia’s response. And to his surprise, Gaia began laughing. A soft, light-hearted laugh that was so infectious, he joined in quickly. 

“You know what’s funny?” Gaia asked after the laughter had died down. “That was what I wanted to do with the clover after we found it. Only you beat me to it.”