Fyrij: The Mini-Joyful's Little Avian

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Katta asked the little caroling about his preferred name. The avian told him Fyrij, the word for beautiful song in the ancient elfine language of Cante.
He does have a beautiful voice. That, combined with his small stature, belies the fierce fighter within.

Research:

Fyrij: the mini-Joyful's Little Avian

by our scholarly hero,
Lorgan the Curious

In this Research Document:

all images by Shanda Nelson
unless otherwise stated

Featured Image background by
Frances Gunn, Unsplash

How We First met

Known for their Darkness leaning, carolings find Veer Tul acolytes attractive. Originally curious about Katta, Fyrij accompanied his flock to take a peek at us as we traveled through the Dark. We didn't think much of it, but adventures ensued, and the caroling decided he very much enjoyed the fear-inspiring undertaking to Redeem Laken. After all, life flitting around a sparsely populated forest eating berries is not as exciting as one might expect.
But he did not attach himself to Katta. He found Vantra more interesting.

Fyrij is a typical caroling. He had black feathered wings and tail, a black-furred back and head, round dark eyes, a pudgy nose, and a giant fang in the front of his mouth. Carolings use the fang to amplify their singing, which is very sweet when they're in a good mood, and very piercing when they are not.

Fyrij

Fyrij is not intimidated by anything that leans Dark--and that includes the Darkness before Veer Tul, Rezenarza. The ancient nymph has stuck his nose into Laken's Redemption, and pops up at the most inopportune times. The caroling will attack any whom he works through, fluttering his wings in their face and diving at them. How many other beings would face an ex-deity without hesitating?
If Vantra's involved, he will be as fierce as any knight or mafiz, and he does not care if he is small and ill-equipped to combat larger beings with more teeth, sharper claws and magic.
It's not that he never gets scared. He does. When he suffers a fright, he flies right to Vantra and hides in the back of her hood. He will peek out, as timid as any small bird. His cowardice rarely lasts long, especially if she's in danger. He will dive at the enemy and complete swift jabs with his talons and fang before flying out of reach (do not underestimate the deterring effect of talons raking across a face, whether ghostly or not). If she's harmed, he refuses to leave her side. He prances next to her like a sentry and becomes huffy with anyone he deems a threat.
And by huffy I mean he relieves himself on them. He's an avian, after all. All he has to do is fly out of hand-swatting reach and do his business. As a ghost I can't smell, but from what I've been told, the stink is overwhelming (it must be a purposeful defense mechanism, but I need to delve into that further when I have access to a library).
Sometimes Katta orders him to hide, and he will make certain everyone understands his resentment. He never disobeys, though.

Vantra

Fyrij has a soft spot for Vantra. His favored perch is snuggled into her neck, and he often refuses to leave. At times, she must wait until he falls asleep before plucking him from her shoulder and cuddling him in her lap, even if he is as sticky as the fruit he ate.
He stands as her protector and companion, and he takes pride in his self-appointed role. If she asks him to do something, even if it's dangerous, he will do his best to see it completed. She makes certain the tasks are within his capability, though he will expand upon them if he thinks it necessary.
While he enjoys riding on Katta's shoulder, or planting himself on Salan's forehead and puffing up like a proud general leading troops, more often than not, he sits on Vantra's shoulder, snuggles into her neck, and stays there. I believe he plans to spend the remainder of his days at her side. In the evening land's Darkness circles, it is considered one of their highest honors to attract a caroling like that.

Fyrij understands the Reckoning. In fact, all the carolings we've encountered seem to. Since they can't speak, I wonder why this is. Katta and Qira shrugged when I asked, and I suspect they know but they love their secrets.

He loves food. LOVES food. Qira will share bits of fruits and berries, and he will gorge himself until he's completely round.
Mera and Tally make certain he is well-fed. They ended their lives as grandmothers who baked delicious sweets, and since they don't mind making the same for our caroling, they may spoil him into being too chubby to fly.

background by Markus Spiske, Pexels

I drew a pic of Fyrij to accompany this article. He saw it, rocked back and forth, snatched the paper, and took it to Tally. He hopped all over it and then posed. She dutifully drew a better image.

Curiosity Killed the Caroling?

Fyrij and Kjaelle have many things in common, and the most egregious is their curiosity. He will sit on her shoulder, or take the opportunity to plant himself on her head, and watch as she rummages through cupboards, cabinets, boxes and crates. He tweets many opinions about what they find, and I think we've become better at judging his tone when he does.
His mischief when we stayed with Drowned Dough in Merida might have ended in a songbird's cage, if not for Katta's intervention. He dug through the pirate's belongings and carted a very embarrassing something out into the open. I didn't get a good look, but by Dough's flabbergasted screech, it wasn't something I wished to ask after.
Katta scooped him up and gave him a stern lecture on nosiness, of which he greatly disliked. He hid in the blankets next to Vantra's essence, shrieked the rest of us out of the room, and refused to leave her side until Tally over-sugared pieces of pink minfruit and offered them to him. He shredded several of the poor slices into oblivion before sucking on the remainder.
Kjaelle offered to take him sightseeing, and that cheered him up, though he did not accompany her until Vantra re-energized enough to wake up.

He has a fascination for wagon travel. He will sit on Vesh's shoulder and observe him hook the horses up to Kjaelle's wagon, drive, water the steeds, and prepare camp. His interest intensifies when Vesh brings out his bow for maintenance. He even nipped an edge of cloth once and helped polish the wood. I don't think he cleaned much, but afterwards he plopped into Vantra's lap with a weary trill and promptly fell asleep.
It is advised, if you are near an exhausted caroling, to insert earplugs. If you do not have this simple precaution, you will remain awake all night listening to them snore.

The Snarliness of Being

He gets along with all of us. I suppose he's most ambivalent to me, though he shows an interest when I get books out to read. He'll plant himself in the middle of the page and rock back and forth, as if he is reading the words. Maybe he is.
He treats Laken as he does the rest of us, being sweet and snarly at turns. I have no doubt, once he regains shoulders, the caroling will plant himself there and make tweety comments about the Redemption. He seems to understand that, while he hops about on top of Kjaelle and the two vulf's noggins, Laken is too sensitive about being just a head. The base is not built for avian perching, so instead he parades around the front, fluttering his wings.
His relationship with Qira is interesting. While we traveled harsh, muddy roads to Sunbright, he did not appreciate some comment or other the Light acolyte made. I heard his cacophonic response in the wagon I rested in, which was three behind that one!
Qira, in turn, did not appreciate the response. He stormed from the wagon, planted himself in another, grumbling. Up until that point, he and Fyrij had shared nightly meals mostly consisting of a red, fleshy fruit called koom (I have no idea how he and Katta absorb energy from the stuff; even ghosts with a superb ability in Physical and Mental Touch have a hard time extracting power from mushy fruits). That night Fyrij waited for him, and he never showed.
At the end of the third day, Qira was leaning against a wagon speaking with Rils, the caravan master, and Fyrij struggled up, over-laden with a koom. He crashed into the ground at Qira's feet and cheeped the saddest sound I've ever heard. He drooped, and one tear rolled down his cheek.
If anyone's gut-punched the Light acolyte harder, only Katta knows about it. He picked up the fruit and caroling, and found a spot at the campfire. He cut the koom into caroling-sized slices and they shared the meal as had been their custom. I don't think he's going to miss another, considering all the cuddling he did in remorseful guilt. They even sang together, and I doubt the Evenacht has heard anything so beautiful, before or since.

I think the damage Fyrij can do to hearing is underestimated, and is his strongest offensive attack. Enemies don't expect a piercing scream many times amplified by his tooth, and it will cause havoc in certain situations.
Katta made an off-comment about carolings and bleeding ears. Having been on the sharp side of his tweeting, I think we would be remiss, if we did not train this unique gift as an attack.