Title: Feather-light
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: General
Length: 1300ish words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Post-canon, Eagle/Lantis, in that ‘Eagle is recovering in Cephiro’ kind of time after he’s conscious again
Summary: Eagle makes a new friend?

oOo

The first time Eagle saw a bird inside the Castle of Cephiro, he felt… strangely disappointed. It was up high in one of the garden-rooms he was now allowed to walk through to ‘get some exercise outside this room’ without actually being allowed outside yet – apparently there were spells in the very fabric of the building which would call the healers in if he needed help, and they weren’t yet happy with him stepping outside their monitoring.

It was, at least, a change of scenery; even the air felt different in those rooms, sharper somehow, not just because of the smell of the plants and the fountain in the centre. He had taken to spending an hour or so slowly walking through the closest couple, sitting down frequently at first, then less frequently as the days went by – but sometimes he sat not because his legs were threatening not to hold him anymore but because he just wanted to look. These rooms were similar in so many ways to some of those Autozam had in their domes, but at the same time they felt entirely different, in a way he couldn’t pin down to the difference in plants or architecture.

The day he heard the chirping was one of those; he’d taken a seat below a tree, where a smooth crystal bench had been formed in such a way it looked like a curled, gleaming shrub, full of little carved flowers. At first he thought the noise was the water in the fountain hitting something new, but there was nothing in the water for it to be ringing against – then he thought it was perhaps a spell, somewhere in the walls. He hoped it wasn’t his ears – and then he caught the darting motion and a flash of iridescent green-sheening-purple, and watched the little bird perch on one of the branches above his head.

“Oh,” he said, softly.

The bird looked down at him, tilting its head. There were a couple of little coiled feathers coming from the back of its head, and the tail hanging down from the branch was twice as long as its body and full of more coiling plumage. It chirruped again, sounding curious, and Eagle swallowed.

“Are you trapped inside this paradise, too?” he asked, softly, not expecting a response.

The voice from behind him almost had him falling off the bench. “There are windows, at the top of the arches.”

“Lantis?” Twisting around, Eagle tried to catch his breath, hoping it wasn’t obvious how badly he’d been startled. “You should not be able to move that quietly. Certainly not in armour!”

Lips twitching a fraction, the tiniest give-away, Lantis looked down at him. “These clothes are made to serve as many purposes as possible. Being silent serves many purposes.”

“Because even your armour is made of magic? I should have known that.” Eagle shook his head. “What did you mean, there are windows?”

Stepping about the bench, Lantis sat down next to him, and pointed up at the top of the room – up where the blue of the sky was visible through the branches and the swaying leaves, and the delicate-seeming tracery of the dome’s structure. “By the rim of the dome, those little arches – those are open windows. They have a field over them which keeps out more inclement weather and anything intending to harm, but the insects and birds and other creatures may pass through freely.”

Eagle looked up, at the openings to the outside, and indeed there was another bird very like the one which had come close perched on the ledge by one. He knew it was not the same bird, because even his exclamation had only startled that one a few branches away; now, as he looked at it again, it chirruped once more and hopped closer through the leaves.

“They chose to come inside, then?”

“Some of them, yes.” Lantis held up a hand; the bird regarded it for a moment, and Eagle held his breath; then a flurry of wings and the bird was clinging to Lantis’s finger, showing absolutely no sign of fear.

“Why would they-“

“The castle was safety for them as well, when Cephiro crumbled. It is warm and protected and dry, as well; many have taken to using these rooms as nesting grounds.”

“Ah.” Eagle nodded, as that made perfect sense – then stared as Lantis glanced at him, then pulled a small handful of what looked like seeds from the stone at the centre of his armour into his free hand, and held them up on a flattened palm.

The bird chirruped happily and hopped across to peck at the seeds, and two more of the birds swiftly appeared on the other side of Lantis’s hand. A smaller, shriller-sounding bird with bright crimson feathers appeared on Lantis’s shoulder to yell at the others, and a rustle in the plants had him looking over to see a small reptile, also with wings, skittering towards them hopefully.

“…Or of course they could be appearing here because someone is regularly feeding them,” he said, trying not to laugh as another small bird landed in Lantis’s hair, clinging on with a burst of chatter when Lantis turned to look at Eagle.

“Ample food might also factor into their decisions,” Lantis said, with a completely straight face. “Here, our small draconic friend would likely like this.”

He looked at Eagle’s hand, and Eagle recognised the faint tingling of something being summoned into his grasp. He looked down at the dried fish in his hand, and held it out to the small winged reptile. It hissed, scampered up onto his forearm, grabbed the fish and hissed around it at him once more, then leapt back down and vanished into the undergrowth.

Eagle had to grin. Then that first cheep which had caught his attention sounded again, and he looked around to find that the first bird was apparently done with the food for now, and was watching him again, this time from Lantis’s shoulder.

“Go on,” Lantis said, quietly. “They’re clever creatures, these birds, and she’s curious.”

“I am just as curious about her,” Eagle murmured, and held out his hand sideways as Lantis had, bracing himself for the weight as she eyed the extended fingers.

Another flurry of wings, and there were sharp pin-prickle claws pressed delicately to his skin, and she fluttered her wings a few times as they both adjusted. There was hardly any weight to the bird at all, nothing like Eagle had imagined. She must be nearly all feather – though he had read somewhere that some flying creatures had hollow bones. Still it was shocking how such a lively being could be staring at him so intently and weigh so little on his hand.

“Hello,” he said, bringing her slowly a little closer so they could regard each other. She chirruped at him again, and once more – and then, on some unseen and unheard signal, all the birds took flight back into the treetops – a few moments before the door at the other end of the room opened and two people came in, talking amiably with each other.

“Well,” he said, and stopped. What did he say about any of that?

Lantis smiled, brushed the last flecks of seed off his hands, and stood. “I will have to find a way for you to carry some, from now. She’ll be expecting a snack next time she sees you, now you’ve been introduced. That is, if you are intending to come back here?”

“Yes,” Eagle said, staring up at the dome, watching the birds hop through their little doorways to the outside. “Yes, thank you. I think I’ll be coming back here soon.”