All I need is a head full of hope,

There was a strange theme within the Ostrega's, a trait that seemed to never pass a generation. Someone, one way or another, always collected bones. Many held unknown reasoning, even for Ara. She simply liked the idea of it coming together, like a hill top to show what she had gained through her hunts, and especially thought the skulls were rather interesting to see. Unfortunately she didn't have the most delicate of paws, and often her collection were full of broken ones. A few adults, were nice enough to give her some.

Eventually she moved the pile away from the home den and started to shuffle them under an open tree. But it was clear they were hers, and anyone knew that. None of her siblings yet to particular mess with it.. At least she doesn't hope so. At the moment within her maw was but a rabbit's skull, and yet the jaw went missing somewhere on the hills below, and a good chunk of the teeth were gone. Obvious knicks and cracks that were there..

But it was her skull, as she pushed it into the whole. Full of skulls and random bones, was nothing but a hoarding pile.

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^^Bones. Bones. Bones.

It wasn’t hard to tell who the hoarder was within the group; all the bones usually smelled like their master, and Cygnus was a guy who liked to use his nose. Today, especially, he had found an impressive collection of bones. Well, he’d found it before, too - but now - he had returned.

Only, he hadn’t expected to find his twin sister here. Okay, she probably wasn’t his twin, but aside from the body type and the eye coloring - what was different? He thought about it, he did, about leaving and coming back later - but ehh..

She’d know he was here already; she would have smelled his scent from before. It didn’t matter. He’d not come to disturb the peace of her collection, but to add to it. He liked to hunt birbs and frogs and wondered if they were good enough -

So he strode forward, with a freshly cleaned raven beak, though it was also missing it’s bottom jaw because he was kind of clumsy and it broke - he was still upset about it - but alas, he came forward and stopped a few feet from her and gently placed the skull down, glancing up at her with excited eyes as she slowly nosed it forward.

^^
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Might as well be twins, as they were the only two within the litter of Empyrean that were black in tone. Most of the alpha pairs children looked to be of the darker colors, and yet for the their first litter within the new land was blessed of majority of Dirge's colors. Though not Cygnus and Ara, who both were as dark as the midnight sky — yet still greatly contrasted each other. It was apparent that the brother was taller, an overall adding in mass she lacked. Not to mention green eyes unlike her own yellows.

She couldn't say she interacted much with her brother — or any. Ara tended to be a devil and bullied the rest into the point where they may not like her, and generally she thought it was boring to play with them sometimes. Though there was her sister that was relatively alright.

When he came strolling by, it was clear she on guard. Her skull firmly placed in and watching her sibling come near.. She thought he was there to steal her collection! Hackles raised, she snarled as her tail rose high in the sky and ready to pounce — before she realized what he was doing. Though still on guarded like a skittish cat, Ara narrowed her gaze at her brother as he approached with his own skull. A neatly bird one, pointy and cracked just like her own was ; as children were not neat with their play things. 

An offering? The young ostrega felt awfully smug about it and instead huffed with a smile as her fur slicked down, and she nodded in approval. It was a good skull! Maybe her brother wasn't useless. She wouldn't turn down a joinment to her collection, especially if her own kin wanted to contribute,

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^^You know, for being twins - it’s official now thank you - it seemed like they were on the opposite ends of the personality pole. She was aggressive and liked to bully her siblings; so much so that they tended not to be found around her, and Cygnus was everyone’s best friend, doing anything to get them to smile - which is why he was here, with a teeny tiny little birb skull to add to her collection.

But he almost took that skull and ran, seeing her grow defensive with her hackles rising like she was a cat, fur bristling behind her, and snarling.. making Cygnus feel like he had totally failed - and then she stopped, and nodded.

So he nosed it into her direction one final time and then took some several steps back, moving to lay down, with his head on his paws, watching her accept his little gift of love.

If skulls were the way to her heart, he would bring her one for every second of every single day until she loved him.

^^
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Though her siblings were a bore — there was always something in particular that she could bond with.. Eventually, anyway. @Raiden had a wanderlust as he was caught staring out, perhaps a desire to see beyond and maybe one day, Ara could actually talk to him about the stories itself. @Nysa and herself were brawlers, finding small puppy-spars.. @Scorpius was well, talkative. That was another issue altogether as she wasn't one for words, but at the very least — the brother before her understood that. It seemed a new bond would form ; one over the delight of bones. 

So with a delight, she of course took it with the slight tail wag within her view. They were children — and though she wanted to present as a cool front like her mother, their feelings were still easily seen upon their face and body. Happily snatching up this skull with a delight and to add to her delicious pile, and she decided.. To place it near the edge of so — more toward the front of her small cave of bones where it was specially seen. 

She was proud of her brother for giving her this — and would be more then happy to take more.

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