Later that afternoon just after lunch, I found myself sitting in the courtyard in a row, if you could call this disorganized blob that, of foals. Each anywhere between three to five feet apart in staggered order talking amongst themselves. Thankfully unlike some other children, these ones didn't bother to try and start up a conversation with me. Leaving me free to gaze upon the sight of Cloudsdale once more.
Unfortunately, Wings of Care was located at the edge of Cloudsdale, on top of that, the courtyard faced away from it; towards the rule outskirts and the infinite sea of white. While the free roaming clouds were pretty in their own way, they lacked the same impressive scale and structure of Cloudsdale. Everything there had a sense of grandeur too, that demanded to be noticed. They way it stood defiant in this sea of air and clouds, was almost poetic in a way. Though maybe that's just the rural urban dweller in me, whom had never really been to a city.
My thought process, as usual, was cut short however as a hoof suddenly jabbed me in the chest.
“You’re it first!” A filly squealed before dashing off with the rest of the herd. I let out a long sigh as I brushed my mane out of my face.
“Here we go.” I mumbled, as I realized I didn't even know what game we were playing. Probably some iteration of tag by the sound of it. But I couldn't be sure.
Though as fortune would have it, I wouldn't have to worry about that. As just when the game was about to start, Virulet Lesson came out calling my name. Causing me to freeze in place in bewilderment. What did he want now? well what ever it is, its got to be better than this dumb game, I reasoned. So I took my opportunity to avoid the game and waved the foals off as I made my way to Virulent lesson’s side. The other kids gave a groan in annoyance while Zeal and a Ribbon wished me luck.
“Best hurry up Phoenix, its not good to keep other creatures waiting,” he hummed.
“Keep who waiting?”
“A few very special guests.” My gut sank at the comment, did he mean Mirage? No, couldn't be he said a few not one. Then again I guess it could still be Mirage with a few others creatures at his side.
“Now Phoenix I need you on your ABSOLUTE, best behavior. Understand?”
“That's not exactly an answer,” I muttered to myself as we approached the office, "but fine."
“OH! This must be here!” A feminine voice squealed in delight as we entered the small office.
“This is her,” Virulent Lesson confirmed, “Phoenix meet the Grey-Feathers. Grey-Feather this is Phoenix. Now Phoenix, this couple is looking to make an adoption.” Great… I internally sighed. I had no interest in going home with some set of strangers, but then a thought hit me. I guess it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world at least, In fact I could use them so that I wouldn’t have to deal with Mirage again or all these other children While not the most appealing idea it certainly had its benefits.
The couple themselves was an… Odd pairing. A mare and gryphon to be exact. The mare was a lighter tree bark esk grey, with a long pine green mane, and a thunder bolt as a cutie mark. While the gryphon shared the same mute color scheme his upper half of a horned owl and the lower half of a darker colored lion. While the two shared a buzz of excitement, the gryphon seemed a bit more reserved than his wife. He held a sense of hesitation about him while the mare seemed full stop exited.
“Um, Hello.” I hesitantly replied as I continued to look over the couple.
“Hello dear!” the mare chimed again before turning to her husband, “Oh she's adorable!”
“As I mentioned earlier, Phoenix here is well meaning but can be skittish so please don't bombard her.”
“Of course!, ” The mare assured with a wide grin, “But I'm sure you'll grow out of it! You just need a good home is all!”
“So Phoenix, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself.” The gryphon suggested.
“There's not much to say,” I answered.
“Oh I'm sure there's something dear!” the mare interjected, “Do you have any interest, oh what do you dream about?”
“Storms mostly,” I sarcastically mumbled, more so to myself than them. This caused Virulent lesson to give me a cautious glance, as if probing my body for further detail. The mare on the other hand, er hoof, was thrilled, exacerbated even by my reply.
“OHHH! I love weather! That's what I got my cutie mark in as a matter of fact. What are the odds? I even work at the weather factory you know? It's a wonderful and special facility chalk full of all kinds of storms. It's why that, aside from wonder bolts headquarters, it's the only place in Cloudsdale to use magically enhanced materials to make its structure. Other than clouds of course. Mostly to prevent it from being torn apart in case one of the weather machines goes haywire. Oh I know! I could take you there on a trip! Doesn't that sound exciting?” The mare gushed with excitement as her gaze poured down onto me like a child watching an ant through a magnifying glass. The gaze caused me to reel back a bit while my mind processed a response amid the discomfort.
“Yea…” Was the only thing I could think up. This caused the mare factual expression faltered for a moment; morphing into something else for just a brief moment. Then just like that it was back to its normal wide grin. Confusion maybe? Though it was too fast to tell.
“Well come and sit down Phoenix,” Virulent invited as he took a seat on his own side of the desk. I glanced once more between the two creatures before taking the seat on the left of the mare, the one furthest from the two. The mare offered me a hug with her wing; trying to pull me in closer, but I politely declined.
“So Phoenix, what cutie mark do you hope to get?” the gryphon asked causing me to blink for a moment in surprise at that thought. A cutie mark? Oddly enough I hadn't really thought about it before. Though I guess that made sense, I never really considered myself to have a passion or calling. Not to say I was a complete talentless hack. I could do a few things here and some basic manual labor there, but I just never felt a calling to do anything. A fact that hadn't even changed since I arrived in Equestria. Maybe it was a human disposition of generalization that didn't translate well to equestrian logic. But on the other hand I knew people who would easily just as well define themselves to one talent back on earth.
“I don't know.” I truthfully replied causing a smile to crack across the gryphons beak.
“Ey. In a world of possibility sometimes it's hard to pick one, but I'm sure it'll come to you.” The mare gave a quick nod of agreement to this. Though the two disputations became discouraged when I gave a simple shrug at the concept of my cutie mark.
“Well! Phoenix has her whole life ahead of her,” Virulent interjected, “and she’ll have plenty of time to think on it.” Though based on the mare’s look she didn't seem entirely convinced about that sentiment. Unfortunately her concern would only seems to grow as the conversation went on.