Meeting

The female was here earlier than expected.

I had woken at dawn, calmly sitting and watching as the sky began to lighten, and life began to stir on the earth. The world seemed even larger at this time of day, as life seemed to hold it's breath, awaiting the morning. It was a moment of all-encompasing stillness, that forced silence even from my brothers.

My view, a few minutes later, was abruptly blocked by a large, light form, and I scrambled to my paws.

Lumi landed, paws bringing up a slight amount of dust as she folded up her wings

Blinking in surprise, I took a nervous step back.
It wasn't her that unnerved me, but those with her.

She'd never mentioned any cubs, and I certainly never guessed.

Three of them, who had landed wearily onto the ground from their flight before their mother, looked almost identical. At first, I could tell little difference between them. The orange mark, reminiscent of Lumi's, on one of their shoulders finally caught my eye and distinguished the young female from her sisters, though it took many weeks before I could tell the other two apart.

Another female, who had landed with her mother instead of before, shook her ruffled fur slightly and looked around with curiosity and slight suspicion as her wings folded neatly against her back. Her markings, I noticed, were very different from that of her siblings, though the most like her mother's.

The fifth and final of the young females appeared to me as the last to land, diving into my field of vision with a graceful dive and spin in the air. She was simple and elegant; mostly black with but a scarce few markings. The simplicity of her appearance made her what I considered the most beautiful of all the fine young cubs.

I assumed that the five were older than my siblings and I by a good amount; almost grown, really. So that was why she brought them; more than likely, they would be leaving her soon.

As the last folded her wings to her side, I noticed that a few of my siblings had already noticed their presence; a gray, fluffed head poked out from it's shelter of wings to examine them sleepily, and my feminine brother had joined me, sitting with his tail curled around his paws.  

Though the adult cheetahs paw steps caused little disturbance on the ground, the excited chirps of the younglings got my father's attention quickly, and I scurried out of the way, casting a sideways glance to the females.

The two featherwings sized each other up, a silent appraisal of new allies, from a few feet away. Lumi met his gaze, I noticed, with a slight upward tilt of her head.

Finally, the tip of the slightly taller male's tail twitched, and he nodded, never breaking eye contact.

"Greetings, Lumi." The slightest moment of hesitation.

"Welcome to our home."
~~
I could tell, at times, that father almost regretted his decision to let her come. Though she sat in the background and was quite helpful most of the time, the times when she believed something needed to be done differently, she wasn't afraid to usurp his authority over his cubs.

Silas had much experience with cubs, though since he left, Darindir strained to raise us. Even I could tell; the dependence on his own mother caused him to struggle with leading and raising others.

Lumi, however, had already borne and raised another litter before her current one, and was stubbornly set in her ways of what she considered right and wrong for us to do. Of course, she was usually right, but this certainly didn't help matters. Father wasn't always annoyed, though, so the large family had many moments of quiet serenity in our home.

The two didn't love each other, nor do I think one could even call them friends, though they functioned together for a common purpose; the survival of their offspring. Both were loners, their mates gone, and as such had more chances of themselves and their cubs living if they stayed together instead of apart. There was no time for the deeper levels of liking or affection; only mutual survival.

We had problems, yes, but we survived, and grew because of the obstacles. And, eventually, as we struggled through trial after trial, I secretly began to think of Lumi as a mother I never had.

Author's Note

I love crits; rip it to shreds until it's nothing left, it'll be appreciated. As long as you're actually pointing out bad things and not "This sucks", because, frankly, the latter it not helpful.