One thing Charlie has learned to do while flying is scanning the world around and below her, cataloguing everything that she sees and hears, tune into her senses. That’s how the pegasus sees the little girl long before she yells to her. But when she does, Charlie can’t help but huff out a breath. It would be rude to ignore the filly, whoever she is, but the pegasus has plans at the docks.

She tips gently to the side and begins a slowly winding glide to the ground, Indy following after. The osprey perches upon her croup once Charlie lands, glancing down at the filly who… honestly looks way too young to be out by the ocean all by herself. At least when Charlie had been wandering she’d always had Indy with her.

“Name’s Charlie,” she responds, turning toward Denocte’s port. If she has to entertain this kid, at least she can continue to make her way to her destination in the meantime, “And thanks, I guess.” Her wings really aren’t all that fancy looking. Just roan colored like the rest of her, a little lighter on the underside.

“Where’s your mom… or, whatever?” Charlie cringes internally. She sounds old, and boring, like how adults used to sound to her when she was a kid. But her parents have pretty much always been absent, no solving that. She hopes this girl’s parents aren’t as careless with her. She’s not about to take up the role of babysitter, anyway.

When Charlie lands, the kid starts to go on and on about some bird—a hawk, apparently—named Rory. She can only assume it’s the kids bonded, and even though she gets a pang of nostalgia for the days when it was just her and Indy against the world she also can’t help but wonder if this kid has an off switch.

“Sorry to burst your bubble, but Indy isn’t just a friend or whatever,” Charlie says, as she walks along the shoreline. “She’s practically my sister, and she’s an Osprey.” She doesn’t much feel like explaining the difference between different species of hawks to a practical newborn, who really shouldn’t even be this far from the court, so decides to drop it there and hope the girl won’t ask any questions.

When they get on the subject of her mother, Charlie is suddenly a lot more interested. Regent, huh? This little punk is the kid of Denocte’s Regent? Charlie is somewhat familiar with the woman, as she’s spent much of her life in the Night Court’s streets. She can’t imagine how Denocte’s infamously, horribly ornery Regent, managed to convince anyone to knock her up.

Good for her, she guesses. “If you have to call it ‘sneaking away’ then you shouldn’t be doing it, kid,” Charlie says in response to the filly’s statement. Charlie never had to “sneak out” because nobody was ever watching her, or telling her not to do things. If this kid has someone who does care about where she is, then maybe she should listen.

Unfortunately for the pegasus, whoever this girl is, simply does not want to stop talking. Which she would greatly prefer at this point. If she has a mother somewhere, then it is definitely not her job to babysit. “Yeah… I’m from Terrastella.” Charlie braces herself for more questions, because she knows they are coming regardless of what she wants.

Charlie’s expression doesn’t change when the girl starts to correct me. She’s kind of a know-it-all, isn’t she? Not a very redeeming trait, to say the least. If she can’t respect someone who is older than her just letting her know what is the difference between a hawk and an osprey, or a “friend” and a “bonded”. The pegasus chooses not to respond, though the thin line of her lips suggests she’d very much like to.

“Oh I explored, but my parents never said that I couldn’t,” Charlie doesn’t elaborate. Her parents never told her anything. Her father had disappeared when she had still been young, probably even this kid's age, and her mom… her mom is still around even know but has never been part of her life beyond making sure she didn’t starve before she could feed herself. “You have your whole life to explore, and do it right, without putting yourself in danger and worrying someone who actually cares about you.”

Maybe that’s why she feels the way that she does about this. Because this kid has someone who actually worries where she is, and cares about her safety, and is still going off on her own at an age where she is completely vulnerable to the world around her. She could get hurt, or killed, and doesn’t seem to care all that much how it would matter to her mother.

“I come here a lot,” the pegasus says, “Have been for a long time. I have someone to meet in the port.” And Charlie knows as soon as she says it that the kid is probably going to want to tag along, which is the last thing that she wants. She’s already thinking of ways to get rid of her before it’s too late. Too bad she just doesn’t have it in her to be outright mean to a child.

She has to hold back an eye roll when the kid says that she has never seen Charlie around before. Like she’s been around that long. Like she’s not barely a season out of being born, if that. “Maybe you’ve been looking in the wrong places,” is all she says, with no indication of what that could mean.

When she starts talking about tagging along, that is where the pegasus draws the line. “Dangerous for you, maybe. Nothing is dangerous for me,” Charlie quips quickly, “Besides, I work alone.” Other than Indy, of course, but she does not want some spring lamb ruining her day.

Thank whatever gods are still out there when the kid’s mother calls out for her. Charlie watches the filly run off and shakes her head. I sure hope not, she thinks, as she finally makes her way—alone—to the docks.