Journal Entry 9

It's been a couple of days since I last saw Leaf until they pop back up at my house today, it looked like they had another stressful day so of course I happily kept them company. Anything to try and help them relax.
Oculous came back as well to try and work on the shop some more, asking for our help once again. We set back out to their camp, only this time Leaf and Oculous were both now fishing and I was the only one getting dirty, Leaf let me borrow.. I think it was called a trident? A big fork honestly is what it looked like. I've heard small mentions of a trident but I've never actually seen one let alone use one, it was quite embarrassing having to quickly figure out how it works with the two watching me. Leaf at some point mention how dirty my wings were because of how long I was in the water for, I didn't even want to imagine how they look as I could already feel all the mud and dirt on them. They had actually offered to preen my wings, which surprise me but I accepted it nonetheless, I considered them as my flockmate after all, I'm ok with them touching my wings. Though as we discussed it more it seem that the two take dust baths and apparently they help Leaf's wings?? I told them that a dust bath would be absolutely miserable for me, with the dirt and rocks getting stuck in-between my feathers and it being so itchy. Even writing it now sends shivers down my wings, at some point I'll have to teach those two how to preen my wings. It will feel nice having someone else preen them for a change, I really haven't been able to fully and properly preen since I can't reach certain places. Though I'll admit, I'm a bit nervous as well, I haven't had anyone else touch my wings in a year or two now.
 
Anyways I'm getting off track.
After fishing for god knows how long we headed back, Oculous mention needing some leather which Leaf mention that Aremore had a cow farm. After dropping the stuff off we headed to Aremore and ran into Goose, who looked worse especially when I last saw them but I kept that remark to myself. Oculous didn't really seem too fond of Goose? I'm not exactly sure, I think it was just being impatient since he wanted to head home. Leaf ask Goose how to preen wings, and turns out Goose preens her wings differently, of course I should of expected that since we are two different bird species and her feathers are made to get wet unlike mine. But biting? Hard pass. If Leaf tries to bite my feathers I won't trust them to preen them ever again! Goose asked to take a look at my feathers and while I was a bit nervous about it, I let her take a look at them, mention a bird bath is probably what I need. Which now that I think about it, I probably do need a bird bath before properly preening them as they do have a bunch of fish guts, seaweed, and mud on them. After that conversation, Goose mention something which quickly cause Leaf to stop her, saying that they shouldn't make me worry more even though I was standing right next to them. Instead the two wonder off from us to talk though it wasn't far enough as we were still able to hear them, not super well but still make out most of the words. Oculous was getting rather impatient now but I didn't pay to much attention to him, I was too focus on trying to overhear the conversation the two were having which made me get more and more worried by the second. The two probably would of kept talking if Oculous hadn't interrupt them, finally being fed up I guess.
The four of us headed back to Ephyrae, back to Oculous' house. At some point, I made up my mind and decided to tell Leaf I needed to talk to them. We headed out to the lower section of the city to talk as soon as we were out of earshot I mention wanting to know what the two were talking about, wanting more details as there was no use in hiding it anymore. Still, they kept some things from me but kind of went into details about the things I overheard. They don't want me risking my life for them, saying too many people are doing that already. But I want to, they're part of my flock and flock sticks together through thick and thin. I'll be as noisy as I can be if it means helping or protecting Leaf. Their little bribe gifts they bring me won't stop me. I got through to them at some point, well not really through but enough that they let me help them with something. They show me to where they were currently living, and gave me a small tour around the amazing looking place. They also told me not to tell Oculous of this place as it's near Virkhagen, I think? Though With the mention of Virkhagen I decided to trust them with one of my probably most important secrets. I told them I'm actually from Virkhagen and they seem surprised about it mentioning how they haven't seen many like me in Virkhagen, which surprise me in return. I mean sure there wasn't a lot of us there but it wasn't rare, I guess thinks have changed. I will say that it was a relief to finally get that off my chest with someone and them accepting me no less. They explain to me what they needed to be mined and finished the rest of the tour. After that we said our goodbyes and goodnights, them heading to bed and I heading back to Ephyrae through the waystone. I'm glad I was finally able to help them in some way, sure it isn't exactly what I had in mind, but it's something! I'm just glad I can be useful to them in some way. I plan on getting started with the mining as soon as possible.
Though I confess this won't stop me from being noisy still