“Niro! Niro!” the Takekuro girl cried frantically as she raced through the forest. Legs pumped quickly to run at optimum speed and she moved through the foliage with graceful leaps and dodges that were more of an artful dance than the anxious sprint that it was. She couldn’t see her brother yet but knew his scent was there on the breeze, and he likely couldn’t see her past the gates that surrounded the Chien Hotel and through the trees, but it wasn’t long after her call that Orin emerged from the thicket. She was in her Optime form, as usual, hands clasped carefully together as though she clutched something priceless between them.
When she reached the wrought-iron gate she could not be bothered to stop and open it, so instead she crouched and lunged, leaping into the air. One foot caught a tree branch and she pushed off again and sailed over the wall that enclosed the weedy garden. She landed lightly on her feet, knees bent to absorb the impact, and began running again. Her eyes were wide and she was panting gently, as though she had been running for a while - and she had been. Though she sailed through the brush quite easily, she had still picked up a miasma of forest bric-a-brac on her way – a thorny twig entangled in her pink tail, a leaf stuck to her foot. . .
At first it appeared that she didn’t even notice the little eagle chick crawling about on the ground, but just steps before she was about to trample the whelp she veered to the right and made an arc around it, stopping abruptly at Niro’s side. Her eyes were wild, her expression electric. “Niro!” She yelled as if he was still yards away. There was desperation in her voice, but she was hardly even winded from her recent exertion. “Where were you? I’ve been calling for you! For like an hour!”
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