The late afternoon quiet of the watching deck was broken only by the soft, rhythmic clicking of Arthur’s grooming tools.
Arthur had spread a clean, white linen cloth over a low check bench. Beside him stood a wooden tray containing specialized beast-doctor instruments. Fine-toothed jade combs, potion-made bone scalpels for cleaning claw sheaths, soft badger-hair brushes, and a crystal vial of Solar-Marrow Feather Oil. An expensive balm compounded from cold-pressed mountain jojoba, crushed golden mica, and purified solar dew.
Pip stood proudly on the linen cloth, balancing with easy tripod grace on his three golden claws.
The young Golden Crow knew exactly what was happening. This was grooming day, his total favorite beast-doctor ritual. Pip puffed out his golden breast feathers, raising his head high and fanning his three brass-like crest plumes until they trembled with royal majesty. He opened his curved golden beak, letting out an urgent, demanding chirp: PEEEEEEEP-CHIRP!
“Hold your horses, Pip,” Arthur chuckled, setting down his magnifying glasses. “You can’t rush feather upkeep. If we leave any scorched barbules from the corona, your flight aerodynamics will drag by three percent in the outer solar wind.”
Arthur began with Pip’s wings.
Gently extending Pip’s left wing, Arthur used a smooth, wide-toothed jade comb to work through the main flight feathers. Each feather was a potion-made marvel. A rigid, razor-sharp blade of crystal-hardened golden light anchored to a hollow shaft of glass-fused solar jade. Arthur worked from the base of the wing outward, carefully smoothing down the tiny…
