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Aspen was a bundle of nerves. It was evident by the way he seemed to shrink inside himself that he was in no comfortable with anything other than the Minder's Enclave, a place he wished to venture back to, or more specifically, the Minders themselves. The skittish wildtype had been dropped off by a helping Minder, one that Aspen had not known as well. He had been hoping Liam would have dropped him off, but with the man being busy with the newest hatchlings, he had no time to leave the Enclave. It was the only little boost of confidence he was hoping to get but without it, he sank into his feathers, letting his tiny talons hold onto the branch he was set upon and stood there, eyeing the door and debating if he should advance. As of yet, he was making no advances, but still felt just as akward to be out in the open and having no sure plan of what to do. Still a fledgling, he was as grounded as some hatchlings, not yet use to flight. The very idea reminded him of the ground and the teasing of the other fledglings of falling to one's death.

A series of annoyed shrieks and protesting shrills announced the coming of Crawly far before the little guy could be seen. Slowly as the sounds grew in intensity, a large Shadow minder came into view, a struggling fledgling gripped firmly by a powerful claw. The minder circled once as he reached the tree, lowering just low enough to toss the ghost onto a branch, and fleeing without a word.

"That's right!" The fledgling shrilled twirling into a stance. "RUN! Run you coward!" His chest puffed out in slight pride, and he began to preen a wing, as if nothing had happened, giving little if any attention to either the teacher or the fellow fledgling. Perhaps someone might bring a companion or something…he was kind of hungry…

Oh they all will pay… his mind muttered, and then continued on rambling hateful thoughts, and muttering revenge.

Fern glided silently through the trees, looking back every once in a while to check on her companion. They had flown a long way and she knew that Micah's wings were bound to hurt, but it was good for the little guy. "We're almost there, Micah. Her tree should be around here somewhere."

Fern slowed down to let Micah catch up and through his panting she heard him say, "Good good. I'm tired." Fern watched him with concern for a moment and managed to fly right by the tree she had come all this way for.

Micah quickly turned around and shouted, "Teacher this way, Fern!" Fern turned herself around and headed back to where Micah had stopped. "Thank you, Micah. I completely missed it."

Fern alighted on a branch next to the two oldest sentinels and nodded to them. Micah chose not to follow though, because he noticed a fledgling sitting on a branch on the next tree over that looked terrified. He stepped up to the fledgling and looked up at him. "You okay?" he asked, touching the other gently with his wing.

Fern spotted Granny and stepped over to her. "Hello, I'm Fern. I hope you don't mind me looking in on your class; I'm trying to find a task that I enjoy, and the minders told me that you were having a class today."

Granny's ear tufts twitched slightly as the noisy fledgling was flown in and unceremoniously dropped down outside the main teaching hollow. She exchanged a nod with the minder as he flew, but he wasn't staying to chat. It was busy days for the minders with new eggs and hatchlings needing care while the newly fledged were still not independent enough to be trusted on their own. The baby boom this winter had been unusual.

The little male seemed to calm down as soon as the minder was out of sight, and Granny trusted Rose to keep the young ones entertained for a while. Many fledglings were nervous on their first day in class, but they all showed it in different ways. Sometimes it was better to allow them to socialise for a while before starting the lesson. Granny sat back and observed from her perch, one tree over from the teaching hollow.

Rose fell silent and peered at the newly arrived fledgling. Deciding he was no immediate threat she whistled a new tune, puffing up her chest.

"Hello, I'm Fern. I hope you don't mind me looking in on your class; I'm trying to find a task that I enjoy, and the minders told me that you were having a class today."

"Good day Fern," Granny answered politely, "That would be quite alright. We will start talking about the different tasks today actually; you could perhaps tell the students a bit about being a watcher."

A second disturbance and a muffled call for help caught Granny's attention and she whipped her head around. Oh dear, the first crash-landing in class from the looks of it. Rose had vacated the scene and was sitting two branches up from where she had perched the last time Granny looked.

"Excuse me Fern," she said, "I'll need to handle this." It didn't take more than a few heartbeats to glide the short distance from the tree she was perching in to the tangled mess of fledglings. She wasn't worried that they would fall from the tree since a platform had been built a few talons lengths under the sitting branches outside the teaching cavern. This way her students could sit directly on the platform or perched on branches, according to taste. And since accidents did happen she liked to have a big landing area.

"There, there," she said as she worked on helping the fledglings to their feet again. The wildtype male looked shocked by the whole ordeal and she preened one of his head feathers in place. "Is anyone hurt?"

It was only expected that these things would happen during the first few lessons, but it was better to address the problem now. The fledglings' poor flight couldn't be helped, but it was never too early to correct their attitude towards safety.

"You'll need to learn to keep a safe distance to others until you get better at landing," she said sternly to the big aberrant male. This must be Sirius aberrant grandson then, and over there was Orynn, Sirius daughter.

Mama... Wha'ssa "Mixblood"?

Orynn froze.

She had been busily sputtering apologies for her son's embarrassing landing, but they were instantly forgotten with the mention of that word.

Who... Where did you hear that?!

Ascari, his eyes wide with confusion, gestured towards a very smug-looking Crawly. Orynn whirled towards the bratty youngster and hissed vociferously, her viridian eyes glinting with enough fury to unnerve even the thickly-browed Ghost. She did not wish to create yet another scene, certainly, but she was not about to let such an ignorant fledgling insult her perfect son. She turned back towards Ascari - who now looked even more bewildered than before - while keeping one stern eye on Crawly, and hurriedly came up with a cover.

A "Mixblood" is... What one young Sentinel may call another... When they're jealous.

Ascari clacked his beak, seemingly satisfied with her truthless response. Orynn sighed inwardly, knowing that one day she would have to explain to him about his "Condition" - but he seemed so content to be as blissfully unaware as he was, and she herself was just not ready. He'd not even noticed that he was twice the size of the others... Had he? At this point, however, it was all irrelevant. Although it pained her to leave her beloved son, even if only for a couple of days, it was growing very late very quickly, and she needed to head homewards. She had so much work to catch up on - those dyes just wouldn't mix themselves - and she knew that it would be best for Ascari to finally learn his independence. She couldn't keep him completely sheltered forever, after all. Even if she almost wanted to.

It's late, and I need to leave... I'll pick you up in a few days, alright?

Ascari chirped and nuzzled his mother. He was a lot more confident about the situation than she was, but that was hardly unusual.

Don't worry, Mama. Miss Granny'll take care of us.

I know she will, honey-treacle...

Orynn sighed a second time, no less reluctant but at least reassured. She whistled for her wandering Pari and darted a final narrowed glare at the quietly-sneering Crawly - his intolerance would most surely prove to be her greatest fear over the coming days - before leaping from the doorperch and silently taking wing. Ascari watched intently as the green and white blur of his mother's barred feathers slowly vanished into the shade of the forest, and then cocked his head towards Granny and her one good eye.

Miss Granny... What does it really mean?

Aspen looked up with wide eyes as Granny walked over, seeming to come out of nowhere to untangle the mess of Fledglings. Aspen breathed out, glad to have the weight off his body of the other two fledglings and brought himself back on his feet, though his expression seemed to say that he was already done for today. He wanted to go home. Not only did he not want to be here, but now he had been slammed into and was now being looked at from the older Sentinel caretaker with concern. Despite not knowing Granny, he melted his defenses as the teacher showed concern, preening a feather that had been crinkled in the crash landing and straightening it out. It was the tiny assistance that helped him calm down.

Still, the whole thing made him feel apprehensive to the other fledglings. Getting crushed tended to do that, he guessed. “I’m fine.” He said, trying to muster up the courage to say so. It wouldn’t make his day easier if he complained. Stepping aside, he felt the branch was too congested with other Sentinels, instead stepping around and behind Granny in the security of the open space behind her.

A small, soft greeting hoot sounded as silent wings brought a former student.

Fjord was smaller than most sentinels and his odd markings, beneath his paint, announced his type as aberrant. The wildtype and mist hybrid perched in the back, at a distance from the youngsters and dropped a mus from his beak to his talons.

It seemed he had miscalculated his arrival and Granny was already starting lessons.

Well, he could wait until she was finished. It was nice being back and in the classroom setting, although he had recieved his fair share of insults in his fledgling seasons. None of them ever occured when Granny was within hearing distance and it seemed that she was already having trouble with similar issues.

His light orange eyes drifted across the small gathering of Granny's newest students and quickly picked out little Ascari.