After the Mad King’s War, the Hawk King Tibarn decided that he would indeed watch more over the humans – at least when it came to Begnion. The rumors of Laguz slavery were more than just that, and even though the Apostle was doing what she could to dissolve all such treacheries there were plenty more going on, Tibarn knew full and well that not even Sanaki could flush all of them out. Thus, he had sent his own to take care of a group that had been found trafficking Laguz. Namely, he sent Ulki and Janaff to take them out. His Ears and Eyes would be more than enough with a small group of warriors to help.

“So, Ulki, how long do you think they’re going to be standing around like that?” Janaff asked with a sigh. It already had turned dark hours ago, and yet it seemed as though this group was much more active than others that they had seen in the past.

“I don’t believe that they will any time soon. They have a lot of beorc to change out the guards and those working on transport,” came the answer of Janaff’s comrade. “I believe that we can move on whenever, the situation isn’t going to change more in our favor.”

That caused Janaff to hit his left palm with his fist. “It’s settled. Let’s do it now so we can get this taken care of before dawn.”

With that, the two hawks motioned to their followers and transformed before flying out of the cover of the surrounding trees. Of course, that’s when a beorc scout finally realized that they were even there to start with, and caused the man to shout a warning to the rest.

That was when the battle began. Workers that couldn’t fight ran off, dropping whatever they were doing, while the brigades tried to futilely hit the offending hawks. In a way, the battle was over before it had even begun; the beorc were no match for the agile birds. Though, they obviously had prepared for any beorc enemies, so they weren’t all that stupid.

Once the last of the traffickers had either fled or met their demise, the two hawks entered the building to see what Laguz they could find – and to their relief, it wouldn’t take long at all. Cats, tigers, and a few of the bird tribe members were all bound in either chains or caged, some were drugged and didn’t rouse at first from their sedated state. Janaff looked around the room, feeling sorrow and anger at the treatment of their kind by ignorant beorc. There was also relief, however, that all of the Laguz they found were alive and overall unharmed.

That was when he noticed something in the corner. It was an odd sight indeed, and as the King’s Eyes, he certainly saw a lot! A little boy was the corner, with a chain shackled to his left ankle. However, what took him off guard was that the boy was notably of a bird clan, and someone had apparently dyed his wings. The boy’s feathers were colored a deep red, orange, and gold, and his hair was dyed orange and red as well, with green eyes that reminded him of the Heron Royal family. Though…how would that be possible? Could this boy even a heron?

“W-who are you?” the boy asked, frightened. This reminded Janaff that he hadn’t spoken yet.

He did his best to grin and let the boy see that he wasn’t here to cause any harm to him, or the others. “I am Janaff of the Hawk Tribe. We came to rescue all the Laguz who were captured. Are you okay?”

“Um, yes,” the youth replied. “My name is Fie.”

It was at this time that Ulki stopped beside Janaff to see who he was talking to. “We’re going to start back towards the camp now. We have everyone rounded up to get out of here,” he said, seeing Fie, but not making any comments upon his odd coloring. “Can you fly, little one?”

“O-only for a short distance,” was the boy’s reply as Ulki used a key to unlock the chain bounding the young one’s foot.

“That’s fine. One of us can carry you. Where do you live?”

Fie noticeably changed, and lowered his eyes to the ground, shaking his head slowly. The gesture was all they needed. He didn’t seem to have a home to go to. “I’m sorry…” was all he could say.

“Don’t worry. We will bring you to the Hawk King and we’ll find out where you can go after that. Now, let’s go,” Janaff stated, ruffling Fie’s head in a brotherly fashion. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what little Fie had been through.




It took a couple of days to get back home to Phoenicis, and not much else had been found out about their new friend. The boy wouldn’t answer any of their questions concerning where he had come from. This worried the two hawks, but nonetheless, a hatchling couldn’t be left alone. So, once they arrived, they immediately brought him to see Tibarn. However, the Hawk King was currently out hunting a meal, so they could only wait for his return.

Well, they could have gone to find him easily enough, but they had been flying all this morning and the sun was getting lower in the sky. It was dim enough that the torches for the rooms had already been lit, and Janaff had taken to leaning against the stone wall of the throne room and wait with his eyes closed.

It wasn’t too long after their arrival, that Ulki heard an interesting change in one of the torches’ flames. Knowing precisely the direction of the sound, he tilted his head to see Fie standing next to the torch. The hatchling was watching the small fire in utter delight, keeping very focused on the gracefully dancing flames, as if the torch was doing its best to entertain him. Being careful to not move abruptly, Ulki placed his hand on Janaff’s shoulder. “Janaff, look at this,” he stated.

Janaff reluctantly opened one eye, then once focused on what he believed Ulki to be talking about, both eyes opened. “I’ve never seen such a thing before… I mean the other torches aren’t that far apart for it to be wind affecting it alone so…” he whispered, then letting the rest of his sentence trail off. There was definitely something that they didn’t know about this hatchling. Before any more could be said however, Tibarn entered through the large window…