Fancy Rained Like Grace; Chapter Three
Title: Fancy Rained Like Grace; Chapter Three
Pairings: Jensen/Jared, Drew Nelson/Sandy McCoy, Misha Collins/Rachel Miner
Word Count: 2736
Rating: PG-13, eventual NC-17
Warnings: see masterpost for complete list thus far
Author’s Note: A fill for this prompt on spn_hardcore.
Summary: Orphaned as a child and heatless, therefore mateless, at twenty-seven, Jared has spent most of his life feeling unloved and unwanted. Jensen is the Dominus of the Ramiel Flight, strong, courageous and everything anyone could want in a mate, everything that Jared was sure he’d never have or deserve. Jensen is hell-bent on proving him wrong. But nothing is ever easy when love is involved.
Masterpost
Chapter Two
The breeding grounds weren’t far from the mountains that Ramiel Flight nested in, at least by dragon standards, anyway, and it wouldn’t take Jared long to get to them. They were nestled deep within a secluded valley completely surrounded by high mountains meant to deter humans too curious for their own good. Even the dragons weren’t taught where exactly the grounds were until their seventeenth year, when they were considered mature enough to be be trusted not to reveal the location.
After the Samhain that Jared turned seventeen, he was sent off with the other fawns in his age group to be taught by the older dragons about what coming into season and becoming a doe would mean for them. He learned what he could expect to feel and how he would and should react to it, and what he would be expected to do as per instinct and tradition, like build a nest. Their last lesson was the secret of where the grounds were.
And he was finally getting to use those lessons.
Excitement trilled across Jared’s skin, and with it, nervousness, as he drew closer to the grounds.
He’d been waiting for this for an entire decade, and he was so close to getting exactly what he had been waiting for. A mate. Hatchlings. A family. Somewhere he belonged. Someone that wanted him.
At least, he hoped so.
Growing up, Jared always had been the biggest of the fawns in his flight, even bigger than some of the calves, especially in his human form. When he was very young, he’d been teased because of it and more than one calf had picked a fight with him. Some perceived his size as some kind of challenge. As if he was tall just to spite them. As if he wouldn’t make himself smaller and more delicate if he could.
But instead of being a soft, small, curvy doe, Jared was tall and muscled. He wasn’t even the right coloring, his scales too golden rather than bronze, his skin too tan rather than elegant pale, all evidence of his Arael heritage, marking him as different from the Ramiel. His only slightly smaller body and lack of spines and heavier plating in his scaled form were the only clues to his nature as a doe compared to the Ramiel does.
Jared’s stomach twisted sickly. What if no one wanted a doe like him? Surely all the drakes would want a pretty little doe that they’d never feel physically challenged by. He couldn’t even find fault in that reasoning. Who would want to wake up in the same nest as someone they constantly felt they had to prove themselves to?
He shook his head, forcing away the negative thoughts, and as he rounded over the side of a mountain, he couldn’t help the little gasp that escaped him as he took his first look at the breeding grounds.
The land was beautiful, absolutely overflowing with various flora and fauna. Rich green grass blanketed the soft, rolling hills of the valley below. A few old, abandoned nests, composed of a swirls of grass, trees and wildflowers, littered the ground from previous seasons. Some of the does were picking through the remains for branches they could use in the nests they would build this year. Several drakes had begun to gather in the valley, watching the does appraisingly as they built up their mating nests.
Most of the action, though, was happening on the sides of the valley’s surrounding mountains. Many of the does were already picking their spots, shoving out the remnants of old nests to create room for their own within the sometimes shallow crevices of the mountainside.
The other does were taking up all the best places quickly, frantically rubbing their bodies against the rocks in their chosen spots to scent mark their territory.
A sense of panic overwhelmed Jared. He was already older than many of the unmated does, not to mention the size issue. The other dragons had grown out of picking on him, but had they stopped being intimidated? What if all the other does took all the best spots and all the best nesting supplies? What if none of the drakes could get past those things? What if he’d been waiting ten years for his heat, only to find himself mateless anyway?
Jared swallowed thickly, forcing his wings to propel him forward faster. He needed every advantage he could get if he wanted to attract a mate, and that meant getting the best spot he could, a deep, large crevice in the mountain that would allow him to make the biggest, best nest possible.
His eyes darted around the area, searching out every possibility, but the second he would see a spot he liked, another doe would snap it up. He huffed, frustrated, and flexed his wings a little further out, catching a wind drift and letting it lift him up. It was a little chillier at the higher altitude, but the sun was more obscured by mist, relieving his growing headache a bit. Not to mention the fact that there were more available spots too.
Jared finally caught sight of a deep dip in the rocks, and he drew his wings tighter to his back, nearly swan diving to reach it quickly, before another doe could swoop in and steal it. At the last second, he threw his wings open again, and he could feel the harsh strain in his back muscles as he brought himself to an abrupt halt. His feet still hit the ground hard enough to send an aching jolt through his legs, but at least he didn’t crash.
This crevice didn’t appear to have been used before, no telltale nesting branches or flowers to be seen. It was big, wide enough that Jared easily moved around in the area without fear of falling off the edge and tall enough that he didn’t knock his wings on the overhanging rocks, even with them fully stretched out. He looked out over the ledge and found that he could still see the entire valley below easily.
It was almost too good to be true. The crevice may have been a little high up, but it was virtually perfect in every other way, and he was sure that it could be seen from the valley where the drakes were gathered.
He lowered his head to the rocks, sniffing carefully to be sure that it hadn’t already been claimed, but all he could smell was earth.
Jared breathed a sigh of relief and smiled proudly. It was perfect.
But, of course, it wasn’t done.
Jared stretched out his wings, pumping them hard a couple of times to clear the decaying leaves and twigs that had gathered there over the years, ensuring that nothing would take away from his nest when he began building it. Then he started rubbing his face and sides over the rocks. Jared winced as some of his scales snagged and pulled free of his body but didn’t stop until he’d rubbed against almost every piece of the crevice.
No one was going to take his perfect spot. Not if Jared had anything to say about it, anyway.
When he finally stopped, his nesting place was spotted with the gold flecks of his scales, but he was content in the fact that there was no way someone could accidentally take this crevice, thinking that it was free.
Satisfied, he turned back toward the valley, spreading his wings and letting himself drop down.
As he flew overhead, he noticed that a couple of the drakes were already beginning to spar, taking their places opposite each other, then circling. One of them reared up, balancing on her rear legs as she stretched her wings out as far as they could go, making herself look bigger, more fierce. Her opponent stood his ground and hissed at her before rearing up himself, throwing his own large wings out, putting himself on display.
The female drake hissed again, lunging for the other dragon’s wings, the most vulnerable part of their bodies. He leaped up and out of her way, tilting his wings into an updraft of air to take their fight skyward. She happily obliged, darting up into the air after him.
Several does watched the fighting drakes eagerly, and Jared couldn’t tell which of them was the subject of the two drakes’ affections. They all seemed excited over the match, either shuffling their feet worriedly or talking animatedly amongst themselves.
She was bigger, but he was faster, and Jared gasped when the male drake caught the female’s shoulder between his razor sharp teeth. In a flash of crimson and bronze, the other drake fell to the earth with a sickening thud. Jared nearly landed, the urge to care for a hurting and probably devastated dragon too great to ignore, but some of the does that were watching the fight flocked to her side before he had the chance. With their help, she rose again, still bleeding but alive.
The other drake didn’t fly away unscathed. He slowly returned to the ground, and when he landed, he favored his left foreleg heavily.
One of the does, presumably the one he fought for, approached him slowly, cautiously. Though no drake in their flight would ever hurt a doe, she had just seen this drake take a large bite out of his opponent, and it was a frightening sight to behold.
He bowed his head to her when she came near enough, stretching out his neck and letting her sniff tentatively at his face.
It was the moment of truth. The drakes may have fought for the honor of asking a doe to be their mate, but the doe was the one that chose the real victor.
Slowly, sweetly, the doe nuzzled beneath the drake’s chin, accepting his proposal, and Jared released a breath he hadn’t known he was holding as she began nursing his wounded leg.
Jared wondered what his mate would be like, if a drake even wanted to claim him. His brow furrowed. He didn’t talk to many unmated drakes. Most of his time was spent with the mothers and the juveniles of the flight, though he sometimes spent time with the fathers too. He was sure at least a few unmated drakes knew of him, the heatless doe that ran after the juveniles all day. Would that be enough? He was good with the young dragons, and that had to count for something. Finding a good mother for their young would surely be one thing a drake would take into consideration when choosing a doe.
Jared wanted so much more than to be a mother, though. Yes, he did want to have hatchlings of his own, to care for his young like he could remember his own mother caring for him so long ago. He’d been watching other does’ young for more than half of his life. He wanted to finally get to take care of his own.
But Jared also wanted to be someone’s mate. He wanted to be the one his mate could rely on to be there for them, to be cherished and loved like Drew cherished and loved Sandy, like his father had cherished and loved his mother. He wanted to have a family again, gain back what had ripped from him so early in life.
Jared landed near a cluster of trees, paws rustling through the soft green grass at their base. Nearby, a new couple were bonding, the doe tending to the wounds the drake had sustained in an earlier fight that Jared hadn’t seen. The doe was brushing debris out of the cuts in the drake’s skin, laving her tongue over the drake’s scales to soothe the open wounds. The drake purred her contentment, nuzzling her nose against the doe’s cheek.
Jared forced himself to look away and set his jaw as he reared up on his back paws so he could snap a few low-hanging branches off of the trees, gathering them a little awkwardly with his forelegs.
He was going to have those things, hatchlings, a mate, a family. He’d waited long enough.
*
Jared’s nest was huge, taking up most of the space on his ledge. It was mostly made up of the branches of young oak trees, still green beneath the bark and pliable enough to be woven. He took his time with piecing the branches together, alternating between his stronger scaled form to retrieve the supplies he needed and his smaller shifted form so he could use his hands to weave the branches in tighter and more intricate patterns.
It drained a lot of his energy to keep shifting back and forth between bodies, but it would be worth it in the end, he was sure. If he kept weaving his nest like that, he would easily have one of the biggest, most elaborate nests in the flight.
He decorated the nest by weaving wildflowers throughout it, carefully setting their stems tightly between the branches so that they wouldn’t move much if disturbed but still far enough out that their petals weren’t squished either. Vivid burgundy aster, deep blue lobelia and bright yellow goldenrod absolutely covered the nest, their pleasant scents filling the crevice.
Jared hissed as another splinter jambed itself into his finger. He stopped his work for a moment to suck the finger into his mouth, pulling out the splinter with his teeth. When the splinter finally gave, sliding back out of his skin, he winced, putting pressure on the spot until the surrounding skin nearly turned white.
His hands ached and burned, blistering even with the callouses that he had acquired over the years from running after other peoples’ children. One of the blisters had burst, and it kept getting dirt and other debris in it. Jared just hoped it didn’t get infected since he didn’t have a cloth or anything to keep it clean.
He swiped his hands over his thighs, careful not to bust anymore of the blisters before he shifted again, spread his wings and took off.
Jared ached everywhere. Most of it was probably from his heat. It was giving him a massive headache, making every muscle in his body feel strained and exhausted. Part of the muscle pain, though, came from the shifting and flying so much. He knew he should take a break, but he couldn’t bring himself to. There just wasn’t any time to do that.
A few of the does had already been fought for and their affections won, though some of them were still being fought over and still others waiting for someone to fight for them.
As Jared looked around, he had the startling realization that some of the does had barely made nests at all, especially those already beginning the mating process. They all had something, even the mated pairs that had just come to the grounds to add another clutch to their family and didn’t have to worry about showing off for anyone. But there were several new couplings that barely had more than a few sticks surrounding them, barely visible from any kind of distance.
It sort of made sense, Jared guessed. These were the first does to be picked, after all. They wouldn’t have had time to make a big, elaborate nest like Jared had. He could understand that, to an extent, but many of them looked like that hadn’t even really tried. When the older dragons had taken the does in his age group aside, they taught Jared how to build a strong, standard nest. These nests looked nothing like that, though. They looked like piles of twigs.
Jared’s nest absolutely dwarfed these things, and he had yet to get so much as a glance from a drake, as far as he could tell. It wasn’t as if their were too few of them to go around this year, either. The number of drakes greatly outnumbered the does. Quite a few of them would end up returning to the flight’s nesting grounds alone, having to wait another year before they could attempt to find a mate again.
Jared shuddered at the prospect of ending up just like one of those drakes, going home with his tail between his legs and hoping, praying that he’d get another chance next year.
But he couldn’t think like that. It wouldn’t get him anywhere. And it certainly wouldn't get him more flowers to decorate his nest with.
He concentrated instead on what flowers would go best with what he’d already found, both in smell and in color. If he couldn’t have the perfect appearance, then he would have the perfect nest instead.
Chapter Four
Pairings: Jensen/Jared, Drew Nelson/Sandy McCoy, Misha Collins/Rachel Miner
Word Count: 2736
Rating: PG-13, eventual NC-17
Warnings: see masterpost for complete list thus far
Author’s Note: A fill for this prompt on spn_hardcore.
Summary: Orphaned as a child and heatless, therefore mateless, at twenty-seven, Jared has spent most of his life feeling unloved and unwanted. Jensen is the Dominus of the Ramiel Flight, strong, courageous and everything anyone could want in a mate, everything that Jared was sure he’d never have or deserve. Jensen is hell-bent on proving him wrong. But nothing is ever easy when love is involved.
Masterpost
Chapter Two
The breeding grounds weren’t far from the mountains that Ramiel Flight nested in, at least by dragon standards, anyway, and it wouldn’t take Jared long to get to them. They were nestled deep within a secluded valley completely surrounded by high mountains meant to deter humans too curious for their own good. Even the dragons weren’t taught where exactly the grounds were until their seventeenth year, when they were considered mature enough to be be trusted not to reveal the location.
After the Samhain that Jared turned seventeen, he was sent off with the other fawns in his age group to be taught by the older dragons about what coming into season and becoming a doe would mean for them. He learned what he could expect to feel and how he would and should react to it, and what he would be expected to do as per instinct and tradition, like build a nest. Their last lesson was the secret of where the grounds were.
And he was finally getting to use those lessons.
Excitement trilled across Jared’s skin, and with it, nervousness, as he drew closer to the grounds.
He’d been waiting for this for an entire decade, and he was so close to getting exactly what he had been waiting for. A mate. Hatchlings. A family. Somewhere he belonged. Someone that wanted him.
At least, he hoped so.
Growing up, Jared always had been the biggest of the fawns in his flight, even bigger than some of the calves, especially in his human form. When he was very young, he’d been teased because of it and more than one calf had picked a fight with him. Some perceived his size as some kind of challenge. As if he was tall just to spite them. As if he wouldn’t make himself smaller and more delicate if he could.
But instead of being a soft, small, curvy doe, Jared was tall and muscled. He wasn’t even the right coloring, his scales too golden rather than bronze, his skin too tan rather than elegant pale, all evidence of his Arael heritage, marking him as different from the Ramiel. His only slightly smaller body and lack of spines and heavier plating in his scaled form were the only clues to his nature as a doe compared to the Ramiel does.
Jared’s stomach twisted sickly. What if no one wanted a doe like him? Surely all the drakes would want a pretty little doe that they’d never feel physically challenged by. He couldn’t even find fault in that reasoning. Who would want to wake up in the same nest as someone they constantly felt they had to prove themselves to?
He shook his head, forcing away the negative thoughts, and as he rounded over the side of a mountain, he couldn’t help the little gasp that escaped him as he took his first look at the breeding grounds.
The land was beautiful, absolutely overflowing with various flora and fauna. Rich green grass blanketed the soft, rolling hills of the valley below. A few old, abandoned nests, composed of a swirls of grass, trees and wildflowers, littered the ground from previous seasons. Some of the does were picking through the remains for branches they could use in the nests they would build this year. Several drakes had begun to gather in the valley, watching the does appraisingly as they built up their mating nests.
Most of the action, though, was happening on the sides of the valley’s surrounding mountains. Many of the does were already picking their spots, shoving out the remnants of old nests to create room for their own within the sometimes shallow crevices of the mountainside.
The other does were taking up all the best places quickly, frantically rubbing their bodies against the rocks in their chosen spots to scent mark their territory.
A sense of panic overwhelmed Jared. He was already older than many of the unmated does, not to mention the size issue. The other dragons had grown out of picking on him, but had they stopped being intimidated? What if all the other does took all the best spots and all the best nesting supplies? What if none of the drakes could get past those things? What if he’d been waiting ten years for his heat, only to find himself mateless anyway?
Jared swallowed thickly, forcing his wings to propel him forward faster. He needed every advantage he could get if he wanted to attract a mate, and that meant getting the best spot he could, a deep, large crevice in the mountain that would allow him to make the biggest, best nest possible.
His eyes darted around the area, searching out every possibility, but the second he would see a spot he liked, another doe would snap it up. He huffed, frustrated, and flexed his wings a little further out, catching a wind drift and letting it lift him up. It was a little chillier at the higher altitude, but the sun was more obscured by mist, relieving his growing headache a bit. Not to mention the fact that there were more available spots too.
Jared finally caught sight of a deep dip in the rocks, and he drew his wings tighter to his back, nearly swan diving to reach it quickly, before another doe could swoop in and steal it. At the last second, he threw his wings open again, and he could feel the harsh strain in his back muscles as he brought himself to an abrupt halt. His feet still hit the ground hard enough to send an aching jolt through his legs, but at least he didn’t crash.
This crevice didn’t appear to have been used before, no telltale nesting branches or flowers to be seen. It was big, wide enough that Jared easily moved around in the area without fear of falling off the edge and tall enough that he didn’t knock his wings on the overhanging rocks, even with them fully stretched out. He looked out over the ledge and found that he could still see the entire valley below easily.
It was almost too good to be true. The crevice may have been a little high up, but it was virtually perfect in every other way, and he was sure that it could be seen from the valley where the drakes were gathered.
He lowered his head to the rocks, sniffing carefully to be sure that it hadn’t already been claimed, but all he could smell was earth.
Jared breathed a sigh of relief and smiled proudly. It was perfect.
But, of course, it wasn’t done.
Jared stretched out his wings, pumping them hard a couple of times to clear the decaying leaves and twigs that had gathered there over the years, ensuring that nothing would take away from his nest when he began building it. Then he started rubbing his face and sides over the rocks. Jared winced as some of his scales snagged and pulled free of his body but didn’t stop until he’d rubbed against almost every piece of the crevice.
No one was going to take his perfect spot. Not if Jared had anything to say about it, anyway.
When he finally stopped, his nesting place was spotted with the gold flecks of his scales, but he was content in the fact that there was no way someone could accidentally take this crevice, thinking that it was free.
Satisfied, he turned back toward the valley, spreading his wings and letting himself drop down.
As he flew overhead, he noticed that a couple of the drakes were already beginning to spar, taking their places opposite each other, then circling. One of them reared up, balancing on her rear legs as she stretched her wings out as far as they could go, making herself look bigger, more fierce. Her opponent stood his ground and hissed at her before rearing up himself, throwing his own large wings out, putting himself on display.
The female drake hissed again, lunging for the other dragon’s wings, the most vulnerable part of their bodies. He leaped up and out of her way, tilting his wings into an updraft of air to take their fight skyward. She happily obliged, darting up into the air after him.
Several does watched the fighting drakes eagerly, and Jared couldn’t tell which of them was the subject of the two drakes’ affections. They all seemed excited over the match, either shuffling their feet worriedly or talking animatedly amongst themselves.
She was bigger, but he was faster, and Jared gasped when the male drake caught the female’s shoulder between his razor sharp teeth. In a flash of crimson and bronze, the other drake fell to the earth with a sickening thud. Jared nearly landed, the urge to care for a hurting and probably devastated dragon too great to ignore, but some of the does that were watching the fight flocked to her side before he had the chance. With their help, she rose again, still bleeding but alive.
The other drake didn’t fly away unscathed. He slowly returned to the ground, and when he landed, he favored his left foreleg heavily.
One of the does, presumably the one he fought for, approached him slowly, cautiously. Though no drake in their flight would ever hurt a doe, she had just seen this drake take a large bite out of his opponent, and it was a frightening sight to behold.
He bowed his head to her when she came near enough, stretching out his neck and letting her sniff tentatively at his face.
It was the moment of truth. The drakes may have fought for the honor of asking a doe to be their mate, but the doe was the one that chose the real victor.
Slowly, sweetly, the doe nuzzled beneath the drake’s chin, accepting his proposal, and Jared released a breath he hadn’t known he was holding as she began nursing his wounded leg.
Jared wondered what his mate would be like, if a drake even wanted to claim him. His brow furrowed. He didn’t talk to many unmated drakes. Most of his time was spent with the mothers and the juveniles of the flight, though he sometimes spent time with the fathers too. He was sure at least a few unmated drakes knew of him, the heatless doe that ran after the juveniles all day. Would that be enough? He was good with the young dragons, and that had to count for something. Finding a good mother for their young would surely be one thing a drake would take into consideration when choosing a doe.
Jared wanted so much more than to be a mother, though. Yes, he did want to have hatchlings of his own, to care for his young like he could remember his own mother caring for him so long ago. He’d been watching other does’ young for more than half of his life. He wanted to finally get to take care of his own.
But Jared also wanted to be someone’s mate. He wanted to be the one his mate could rely on to be there for them, to be cherished and loved like Drew cherished and loved Sandy, like his father had cherished and loved his mother. He wanted to have a family again, gain back what had ripped from him so early in life.
Jared landed near a cluster of trees, paws rustling through the soft green grass at their base. Nearby, a new couple were bonding, the doe tending to the wounds the drake had sustained in an earlier fight that Jared hadn’t seen. The doe was brushing debris out of the cuts in the drake’s skin, laving her tongue over the drake’s scales to soothe the open wounds. The drake purred her contentment, nuzzling her nose against the doe’s cheek.
Jared forced himself to look away and set his jaw as he reared up on his back paws so he could snap a few low-hanging branches off of the trees, gathering them a little awkwardly with his forelegs.
He was going to have those things, hatchlings, a mate, a family. He’d waited long enough.
*
Jared’s nest was huge, taking up most of the space on his ledge. It was mostly made up of the branches of young oak trees, still green beneath the bark and pliable enough to be woven. He took his time with piecing the branches together, alternating between his stronger scaled form to retrieve the supplies he needed and his smaller shifted form so he could use his hands to weave the branches in tighter and more intricate patterns.
It drained a lot of his energy to keep shifting back and forth between bodies, but it would be worth it in the end, he was sure. If he kept weaving his nest like that, he would easily have one of the biggest, most elaborate nests in the flight.
He decorated the nest by weaving wildflowers throughout it, carefully setting their stems tightly between the branches so that they wouldn’t move much if disturbed but still far enough out that their petals weren’t squished either. Vivid burgundy aster, deep blue lobelia and bright yellow goldenrod absolutely covered the nest, their pleasant scents filling the crevice.
Jared hissed as another splinter jambed itself into his finger. He stopped his work for a moment to suck the finger into his mouth, pulling out the splinter with his teeth. When the splinter finally gave, sliding back out of his skin, he winced, putting pressure on the spot until the surrounding skin nearly turned white.
His hands ached and burned, blistering even with the callouses that he had acquired over the years from running after other peoples’ children. One of the blisters had burst, and it kept getting dirt and other debris in it. Jared just hoped it didn’t get infected since he didn’t have a cloth or anything to keep it clean.
He swiped his hands over his thighs, careful not to bust anymore of the blisters before he shifted again, spread his wings and took off.
Jared ached everywhere. Most of it was probably from his heat. It was giving him a massive headache, making every muscle in his body feel strained and exhausted. Part of the muscle pain, though, came from the shifting and flying so much. He knew he should take a break, but he couldn’t bring himself to. There just wasn’t any time to do that.
A few of the does had already been fought for and their affections won, though some of them were still being fought over and still others waiting for someone to fight for them.
As Jared looked around, he had the startling realization that some of the does had barely made nests at all, especially those already beginning the mating process. They all had something, even the mated pairs that had just come to the grounds to add another clutch to their family and didn’t have to worry about showing off for anyone. But there were several new couplings that barely had more than a few sticks surrounding them, barely visible from any kind of distance.
It sort of made sense, Jared guessed. These were the first does to be picked, after all. They wouldn’t have had time to make a big, elaborate nest like Jared had. He could understand that, to an extent, but many of them looked like that hadn’t even really tried. When the older dragons had taken the does in his age group aside, they taught Jared how to build a strong, standard nest. These nests looked nothing like that, though. They looked like piles of twigs.
Jared’s nest absolutely dwarfed these things, and he had yet to get so much as a glance from a drake, as far as he could tell. It wasn’t as if their were too few of them to go around this year, either. The number of drakes greatly outnumbered the does. Quite a few of them would end up returning to the flight’s nesting grounds alone, having to wait another year before they could attempt to find a mate again.
Jared shuddered at the prospect of ending up just like one of those drakes, going home with his tail between his legs and hoping, praying that he’d get another chance next year.
But he couldn’t think like that. It wouldn’t get him anywhere. And it certainly wouldn't get him more flowers to decorate his nest with.
He concentrated instead on what flowers would go best with what he’d already found, both in smell and in color. If he couldn’t have the perfect appearance, then he would have the perfect nest instead.
Chapter Four