Mel was impatient. She looked up at the tree above her head, green eyes fixed on her new feathered friend as she waited for her father. For the past few days, she had managed to convince the colorful little bird to stay close and while the bird seemed to trust her enough, he wasn’t particularly friendly – much less trusting – towards grown felines of any kind and obviously considered anyone other than Mel a potential threat.
Still, she hoped things would be different today. She wanted to surprise Nywelle by having the bird – who she hadn’t properly named yet – fly down to join her after she greeted the God. Surprise! Her new friend would see that Nywelle also had a companion bird (they could be friends!) and, hopefully, it would start trusting the people around Mel more easily. It never occurred to young lioness that the idea of a winged was even more threatening to a fearful bird than any other lion she had ever tried to introduce him to.
The little bird watched from above, not particularly happy with this turn of events. If Mel didn’t look like him, he’d never have granted her a second look before flying away to wherever the wind took him. But she was nice (for a lion) and their little bickering moments secretly amused him so the bird had decided to stay with the young lioness for now. That her father also had a bird with him certainly eased his worries but the idea of meeting a large male lion was still far from comforting.
