Bren

Bren had always known he'd had a way with words. Making others sway to his point of view had always been easy, instinctual like the flap of wings. He studied and watched, listening to all around him until he could even handle conversations with faes and coatls of different clans.

It wasn't hard to convince others that while he'd been born a female, that he was male in every way that mattered, thank you very much. No one contested him for it.

Despite all of his knowledge, he had never really come across someone who could test his own skills. Others always tried to either use their superior strength or degraded into throwing insults whenever he thought he'd found someone that finally matched his tongue as well as his mind. The populace at large was generally a great disappointment.

That was, until the day he met Tabini. Their's wasn't a story of 'love at first sight', nor even 'Brood with me? We'll make exceptional offspring', but more of a wrong step in a metaphorical dance that led to stubbed toes and bruised wing bones. He was a large fighter, cunning and single-minded, which usually would have placed him in the 'more muscle than brain' category for Bren. Then the insufferable male had opened his mouth and proved...he might actually have an interesting mind.

Despite their differences, Bren and Tabini found many things in common, and where they did differ it was only to the point where together they met in an oddly harmonious way. Where Tabini was flashing temper, Bren was a clear-headed calm, and where Tabini was quick to leave behind those who were no longer of use, Bren was there to make him sit and remember that others were made up of more than just their usefulness.

Their bonding was long in the coming if anyone else is asked, though the risk they take in breeding is a heavy one. Bren knows that whatever hatchlings he has, he will love, and so will Tabini in his own way. Though if he has time to actually be with them between fighting those threatening the clan and those within threatening the two of them, well that's another matter all together.

Things aren't as bad as they used to be now that Ikol has taken over leadership, but traditions are hard to break, even by those who understand the most why they shouldn't be.



The first nest had not gone as well as Bren had hoped. When they'd laid a nest of four eggs, he knew the chances were good, luck could not be that far off for them not to get at least one sought after hatchling.

They hadn't.

As their clutch had come into the world, Bren had felt Tabini's fear. For all of his love of him and his own hard-won strength, because of his upbringing he was almost instinctively aware of imperfection. Such a failure of a nest would not be something he could accept if Bren left him to handle this on his own emotionally, so Bren had done what he does best.

He talked.

As he spoke, a plan formed in his mind, connections coming to life as he realized that two of his hachtlings were in fact, an unexpected stroke of luck. They were coloured like Drift and Rewind, two fellow clanmates that if his daughters could not find good homes elsewhere, at the very least they'd have a breeding place in their birth clan.

That was what kept Tabini from tearing at their Triarch in a defensive fury when Ikol arrived, and was what kept their worth up and them together, for at least a little longer, in the clans eyes.



When the second nest was laid, it was both an excitement and a jump in the tension. Tabini was convinced they needed a majority for wanted hathclings, but Bren knew all it took was one. One coveted hatchling along with those they'd bore before would be enough to prove that they could consistently breed wanted hatchlings, that their pairing was valid.

Give Bren an inch and he would take a mile before you knew what had been given.

The third nest would be the true clencher, if he knew Ikol at all.

And sadly, he knew he did.



Ikol approached Bren the moment Tabini had taken their newest hatchlings from sight.

"If I didn't know better, I would say you planned to get by on only the edges of your claws."

Bren hummed thoughtfully as he flew up to settle in the enormous Imperial's horns, perching on them as the clan triarch wandered off to the market to search for new members of their clan to bring in.

"Luck and chance are only two sides of the same coin." Bren commented, ignoring Ikol's knowing smile. "But it's best to never leave it up to just them."