Adira shook her head, "It's not a well-known fact outside of our people, but no. Not all subspecies have feathers, though Cave dwellers are the only ones that are known not to have feathers." She ran a hand over her wing and smoothed down the ebony feathers, shrugging, "I'm a mix. It's very rare for someone in one subspecies to mate with someone outside of their group but it has happened. Both my brother and I are mixes of Mountain and Cave."
She nodded once again, things falling into place. The mix of species made sense to why her wings were the color and size they were.
"You have a brother?" Raina asked. "Older or younger than you?"
"That idiot is older," She said, shaking her head and snorting as the memory of their bickering yesterday flashed through her head, "Plus he got the better wing combination, the lucky bastard. He got my father's wing type and a gradient mix of my mom's white wing coloring to my dad's black color again." Adira pulled her wing back to rest behind herself, pushing more memories of her brother away as she glanced at Raina, "Any more questions?"
Raina thought for a moment. "Not at the moment." She said as she stood up.
She grabbed the pastry off the tray and took a bite out of it. "Any questions for me?" She asked after swallowing. "Requests?"
Adira reached for some of the fruit that she had liked yesterday, thinking, "What am I here? Am I captive? Prisoner? What." She looked at the girl and then around the room. It was nothing close to a cell, but she figured she wasn't allowed to leave either, "Am I allowed to leave this room at all?"
Raina pursed her lips at the question. "I wouldn't use either of those words, because I don't want to consider you that. Think of youself as a guest for now." She asked the girl to consider.
"I would prefer if you stay in this room until I have a meeting with the Royal Advisors first. Though most of the castle knows I don't want them spotting you and freaking out. After that you are free to wander the castle if you'd like."
"When are you meeting with them?" She asked as soon as she was done talking, eager to spend as little time as possible confined to one room. Her wings were going to take forever to heal, but maybe wandering around would help her pass the time. Adira knew she was being impatient but she couldn't help it.
Raina chuckled when Adira perked up. "This afternoon, so it won't be too long." She told her. Once she said this abother question came to mind.
"What type of government do your people have?" She asked.
"We run our land as a group, two chosen 'ambassadors' of sorts representing each subspecies whenever meetings are called." She explained, unsure of the human terms for it, "The representatives from each group are different for almost every meeting, just to keep things fair." Adira nodded at her response to when she could leave the room, "Would you mind letting me know or having someone let me know when I can?"
Raina nodded her head. "The royal advisors are similar to that. Wish out system was a biy more like yours." She said, slight irritation in her voice as she talked about the advisors.
"And of course. I can already tell you don't like being stuck in here." She said as she made her way to the door and opened it. "One last call for questions or requests."
"Nope." Adira shook her head, having many more questions, too many to ask her without making her stay for longer. She nodded to Raina as she swung her wing out alongside herself once more, busying herself with the tedious task of going through feathers once again and plucking out the broken or unsalvageable ones. It was going to be a boring several hours to see what this Royal Advisors had to say.
Raina nodded before closing tell door. "She will be allowed to leave the room once my meeting with the Royal council is over." She informed the gaurds, who nodded at her request.
(Do you want me to skip the council meeting?)
(Yeah probably lol)
It only took minutes for her to finish her task, leaving her bored. Adira didn't waste much time as she started pacing around, working on keeping her wings off the ground when she walked. With broken wings, it was quite difficult but she made do, occasionally stopping to do random sets of pushups to keep herself busy.
(Got it!)
Raina let out a long sigh after all the Royal advisors had left the room. She tan her fingers through her short hair, frustrated. This, by far, had been the worst meeting she had ever had with them.
Immediately once she had mentioned that there was a winged creature in the castle, half of them panicked and the other half drew their weapons and demanded to be the one to kill it.
Once Raina assured them that it meant to harm and no harm would come to it were they able to actually have a conversation. Most of what the advisors wanted was for her to be locked away, but Raina refused because she indisted that Adira had done nothing wrong.
The council didn't seem to be wanting to budge, but neither was Raina so the adjourned the meeting for time to think on the matter until a later time.
Raina finally got up and left the room once it was empty. Only when she passed by a window did she realize it was dusk.
"I should tell Adira she can leave her room now. She must think it's a cage compare to what she's used too." With that thought guiding her, she found herself at Adira's door.
She dismissed the guards before knocking on the door.
"Come in," The girl called, sprawled out completely over the bed with her eyes closed. Her wings hung off a substantial amount but she ignored it, opening her eyes and looking over at Raina with an expression of pure boredom. "Come to tell me I can't leave this room?" She asked, knowing it was a rude comment. She didn't even care at this point though, being stuck in one room for hours on end was making her boredom affect her overall mood.
Raina opeed the door to find Adira splayed out. Everything about Adira just didn't seem to fit in the room.
She chuckled a bit at her remark. "Yes. You are free to leave the room now. I'm sorry it took so long." She said, stepping out into the hall to give her a clear path out. "Would you like me to show your around the castle or would you like to do that on your own?"
"A tour would be greatly appreciated," She decided immediately, sitting up in the same motion. Getting out of this room was the only thing she wanted to do right now, besides maybe giving Rain a hard time about making her wait so dang long. Adira was up and out the door within another minute of getting up, though she waited outside for her, "C'mon slowpoke, I want to see some of this place before they lock me back in there all night."
Raina chuckled as she lead Adira down one of the halls. "Sorry it took so long. The advisors were…less than receptive to the idea that you were in the castle." She explained.
"I don't doubt that, given the history between our people." Her eyes flicked around the entire time she followed Raina, taking in every detail she could. This place was much bigger than any home back on the Island, but it also seemed to be built more for looks than for function, another difference between the homes she was used to and this one.
(Merp)
(Sorry!)
Raina nodded. "Unfortunately." She mumbled, slipping into thought as she navigated the hall purely on memory, letting her legs carry her. She couldn't stop thinking about the council. She let her mind wander until it decided to focus on the subject that she had found her mind wandering to all day, Adira.
Everything about Adira fascinated her. Maybe it was because of the stories her Grandfather told her about, but she couldn't help but be curious.
(It's ok)
Every hallway they turned down, she tried to memorize, her face filled with amazement now that she was able to see just how big this place was. "Are every one of these rooms used?" Adira asked, her stride matching Raina's as she walked through the halls. Living somewhere so roomy and spacious was something that caught Adira's interest and she wondered if all human homes were giant. Nothing in the tales she remembered from childhood had mentioned any of this, and it just made her more curious about Raina and her life.
Raina perked up at Adira's question. "Most of them are but some are guest rooms for when we have guests." She explained. "Let's put it this way, every room in this place has a purpose, but not all of them are needed or used at the moment"
"Wow…" Adira muttered softly, letting her eyes flick around as she took in more of the palace. There was plenty of room for her to spread her wings out behind her as she walked through the halls with Raina, something she was quite thankful for since they were still both broken. "This place is so much bigger than any place back on the island.."
"Really?" Raina said curiously. "How large are the buildings on your island?" She could understand that the castle was quite large but it wasn't too impressive by her standards. Maybe that was because she grew up in the castle though.
"Most of the time they're small," She explained, "We don't spend a lot of time indoors usually, so they only need to hold the essentials and provide somewhere to come home to at the end of the day." The sheer amount of space in the castle was amazing, as well as the fact that somehow they had built this place big enough to add rooms that weren't used constantly. Adira glanced over at her guide, asking a few questions of her own, "How many people live here? There have to be a lot of people for somewhere this large."
(Quick! Pick one of these animals! Fox, Snake or Raven?)
"Really? I thought because of your wing size your homes would be bigger." Raina thought aloud, raising her hands up to mimic Adira's wingspan. "They are absolute massive!"
"Most servants live here, as well as my father and I." Raina said. "So if I had to estimate, around around fifty people live in the castle at the moment."
(Uhhh fox lol)