Chapter Text
Vallen slowly awoke to the sun just cresting over the hills, and the sounds of bird songs in the trees. He looked at the empty nest next to him and decided to look for Noir. He could practice tracking them down through their connection today.
‘Oh, I’ve just realized I don’t know the gender of my new feathered friend.’
Thinking back on all the books he’s read he doesn’t have a lot of books he has read just for fun. Sadly, that means he hadn’t read much about birds. Most of it was for studying or for staying ahead in his classes. He didn’t do a lot in general just for enjoyment, it’s kind of sad looking back on it.
Whatever he can go to a library after hours and read through the books about birds to read about blackbirds, and the differences between boys and girls in that species. Right now though he should look for Noir.
He started to focus on the connection he can feel in the back of his mind. And he starts to follow it to pinpoint Noir’s location. After a few minutes of getting the hang of even using this new connection he finally finds his friend's location. Luckily it’s not too hard to follow the bond.
***
A little while later quite far from the nest he finds Noir pecking at the ground looking for bugs or nuts. Meanwhile Vallen can see their colors swirl and swish around them showcasing the birds attention to everything around it on the look out for predators ready to fly away at a second's notice.
Watching a bird peck and flit around is cute at first, but it quickly got boring for Vallen who is used to constant stimulation whether it was through reading or working with his hands. Maybe he could try and communicate with Noir again now that they’ve eaten a good bit. So he doesn’t think it would be too rude to try and talk to the bird now.
Vallen focused on the connection between the two of them, and tried to send down a simple emotion to Noir. Happiness seems like a good one to use and really Vallen is happy to have someone to be with deep in the Forest of Dean rather than be alone. Even if his company is just a bird.
Noir jumped as if shocked by electricity, and quickly looked around for the disturbance. It was important to note here that Noir’s feathers were not ruffled and was not breathing quickly with adrenaline and panic. A step in the right direction.
He doesn’t really know what to do from here but he’ll figure it out. Probably.
Right as he was brainstorming he felt something coming from the connection on Noir’s side.
|Curiosity|?|
He was thunderstruck! Was the connection they had two ways! He felt so happy he just had to express it to Noir.
|Happiness|Joy|!|
Noir looked about and ended up looking around the area Vallen was in. He noticed the blackbird had a simmer in its eyes like an oil spill on black tarmac.
He wafted closer to Noir and tried to lightly poke them.
Noir jumped back and ruffled their feathers as if they... no the bird was a boy, and he didn’t know how he knew but Vallen just did. Noir looked about as confused as he felt.
He pecked the air with its small yellow beak where Vallen was floating.
|Surprise|Wonder|Confusion|
Noir hopped side to side as if trying to figure out what was happening, but as he was just a bird he didn’t have a clue as to what was going on.
Vallen watched as Noir’s color twisted and wiggled around him, and it seemed to get a bit denser as the feelings and emotions that came from his friend became more solid and coherent.
|Closeness|Belonging|Pleased|
Noir was now looking exactly where Vallen was hovering.
‘What the fuck.’
|Startled|Chastising|
Vallen would have jumped if he could at the sudden mind message thing.
‘Can Noir understand what I am thinking in words or is he just getting the feeling of my thoughts?’
|Confusion|Overwhelmed|
Vallen was also confused and overwhelmed, but as the person who made this bond he has to take responsibility for this and help Noir. He sent some more good feelings to help Noir with the many confusing emotions he felt from Vallen
|Caring|Compassion|
His new friend did the blackbird equivalent of cooing at him, but high pitched in the way most blackbird songs were.
‘Maybe I could lessen the strength of our bond to put less strain on Noir?’
|Confusion|
Vallen sighed. ‘I completely understand that feeling.’
He focused on the connection between them both and tried to get a better feeling for it. It felt like a string of color connected them both, but it just wasn’t visible. Perhaps if he put a light veil or block over it that would dampen the connection? It obviously wasn’t doing this before so maybe when he messed with it something just clicked and allowed for a deeper level of communication?
Then there is also the fact that Noir’s color has become denser once the link, for lack of a better term, switched on.
‘I have no idea what is going on. Again!’
|?|Concern|
He looked back at Noir and saw him trying to do something to his colors with his beak.
‘Are you trying to… Preen me?’
|Agree|
‘Ah, well um thanks?’
Noir tweeted at him still with a pearlescent sheen in his eyes as he tried once again to preen Vallen. And then got increasingly upset when he couldn’t do it sadly as he was not in a physical body.
‘Actually Noir how can you see me right now?’
|Unsure|Apologetic|
‘Noir must be getting the meaning of my words at the very least, but I’m not sure if he understands the words themselves. I am almost positive I won’t be able to communicate with others as easily as I do with Noir since I have an easier time communicating using our link as a middle man’
|Disoriented|Dazed|
‘I should try and shield my thoughts from Noir to keep him from getting a headache.’
|Confused|Thankful|
‘No problem little buddy.’
Focusing on the bond was easier now that he has used it. The string of color felt strong, and he didn’t want to weaken it; he just wanted to make it harder for his more complicated thoughts to go to Noir and hurt him.
He imagined a dome around his thoughts keeping it contained all in one spot. He took a moment to center himself as this was important and something this crucial needs a solid foundation. A house built on rocks was sturdier than a house built on sand after all.
The shield around his thought was pretty solid if the panic he was getting from Noir was any indication. How would he make it so he could pick and choose what he sent to Noir in his head.
He pondered over what the best visualization was. Then it clicked the dome around his thoughts vaguely reminded him of those papers with the anatomy of a cell on it with the big dome around the cells anatomy inside. The dome around his thoughts could be thought of as a cell wall letting only certain things in and out. Everything inside the cell wall doesn’t need to be imagined as the parts of a cell since he might mix things up. Besides he only needs to focus on the cell wall for this task.
The link is inside the shield but now the link goes through a filter in the cell wall that he needs to sort out what it does. He thinks that anything he consciously wants to say to Noir will successfully travel through the cell wall onto the bond into Noir’s mind. Then anything Noir wants to communicate will just come down the bond since Vallen doesn't know if Noir is smart enough to pick and choose his thoughts to send.
Anything he has done before was done with the power of his will and the colors so he assumes a similar thing is happening in his mind.
‘Alright let's see if this works.’
He waits a few seconds so feel if Noir sends something in response to his thought, but gets nothing in return. Just the panic of not being able to get his thoughts he guesses.
Then he tried to send some feelings through the filter onto the bond.
'|Reassurance|Apologetic|'
Noir perks up happily from where he was worriedly fluttering around him trying to get him to respond. He feels bad about worrying him so badly, but he needed to fix this sooner rather than later.
|Reprimand|Relived|Joyful|
He trills in excitement before flying up off the ground onto a branch. He was prey after all and being on the ground for so long grated on his instincts.
Vallen follows after him not wanting to be left alone after finding someone he can actually communicate with. Looking up through the canopy the sun has risen some more his internal clock guesses it is around 8am or so which means he was in his head for quite a bit since the sunrise happens at around 6 to 6:30am.
Now he really feels bad for how long he left Noir alone to worry about him. He’s just lucky a predator didn’t come along to see the bird as easy prey.
'|Apologetic|Sad|'
Noir did another high pitched tweet.
|Acceptance|Playful|
He started to quickly hop from branch to branch, but still slow enough to follow him. It’s one of the cutest things Vallen has seen since coming here.
'|Adorable|Amused|'
Noir seemed to stumble a bit at being called adorable so he ruffled his feathers in rebuke and started to move much faster through the trees.
Vallen started to chase after him while also being happy he could communicate simple words along with emotions with him.
***
After some time spent playing chase, which was much more fun that it the right to be, Noir went back to the ground and sent a message while he did so.
|Hungry|
Noir started to flip over leaves and looked in nooks and crannies for bugs which he ate with vigor. It was a little nasty to see them wiggling around while he swallowed them. But he was an odd bodiless entity that saw weird things all the time so he didn’t really have too much room to judge.
If he was going to hang around him Vallen might as well help him look for bugs.
Using his color seeing abilities he felt more in depth than he was seeing currently, but he did it very carefully thinking about the massive migraine that gripped him the last time he tried to mess with his color sight.
Going close to the ground he did his best to find colors different from the ground and felt bug-like.
The ground's color was much more than he thought before. Now that he is really looking, the ground’s color feels strong. He briefly wonders what it would feel like to be in the ground having that color all around him.
Having nothing stopping him he does just that, after all he needs to practice his ability to faze through stuff. The ground seems like a good start.
The moment he is covered by the ground it feels like the color just soaking the ground welcomes him. It is what he would imagine what a hug from his mother would feel like. Warm, safe, and so comfortable he doesn’t want to leave. It’s comparable to getting into a warm bed after spending the day outside in the cold.
He mentally shakes his head and focuses on his task of finding bugs close to the surface for Noir to eat. He extends his color through the ground interacting with the ground's color almost playfully until he finds what he’s looking for. As he moves through the ground the colors around him filter through him and they fill him with a comfortable thrumming energy. Similar to the feeling of having a nice full stomach after a big dinner.
He reaches the area where he saw some bug-like colors and they are all wiggly and nasty. Noir would love to eat these.
'|Pleased|Food|'
His message catches the attention of Noir and he can see his colors moving above ground looking for him.
He forgot others can’t see the colors he can. He feels he might have gotten used to them too quickly, but they were a useful tool and fun to look at.
He pokes a piece of himself above ground to show Noir where he is, and an excited bird quickly comes over to him. He helps brush away the leaves to show the bugs which Noir eats with gusto.
Yet again yuck, but at least he is getting a good meal today.
‘Wait how long do blackbirds live. Fuck. I don’t know a lot about birds but I don’t think prey birds live too long. I wonder if his colors getting denser helped extend his life expectancy? I sure hope so.’
Looking up at the sky he saw the sun was nearing the horizon on the other side of the sky. If the sun was going to set soon they should go back to the nest so any predators won’t get the drop on Noir in the dark.
On the ground Noir was almost done eating which was good cause they should be leaving right about now. He nudged him using some of the energy from the ground to interact with the physical realm, and floated up bringing Noir’s attention to the sun slowly going down in the sky.
Noir abruptly saw what Vallen meant and flapped his wings and got to flying back to the nest for the night. Vallen followed Noir back, planning to explore more later that night.