“Maybe Ignis can show you what his bird is like. Hibiscus hasn’t actually started with a rider on her back yet.”

And Hyne, he wasn’t even sure whether she’d throw him or not the first time he mounted. It was never easy to be sure. Not in the slightest. But there isn’t much more to talk about since he had to get the kid through feeding time. So while Ignis prepared, Nida guided Mono out, walking him through the cautious process of feeding the birds.

Cautious more because Hibiscus was very affectionate, and Nida was even more shy around Ignis’s bird. There was genuine fear there, and here was Nida, facing it every day like he always did. Once he had taught Mono where food was kept, how to change water and feed, and discussed briefly the finer points of bailing out the old straw to put down new which wasn’t needed at the moment, he brought the kid back in.

“And, after any time spent in helping the birds, we always wash our hands and arms, okay? For our health.”