Eyrie Quotes

“Hearing her mentor talk of genocide the way he spoke of plans or logistics made Kia uncomfortable.”
― K. Vale Nagle, Eyrie

“The nearest opinicus tried to grab an egg and fly away, but Jun launched himself into the air and caught the opinicus's legs, pulling him to the earth.

The egg hit the ground with a wet crack.”
― K. Vale Nagle, Eyrie

“Even the Crackling Sea Eyrie's reeve, whose consort and interests were exclusively male, had felt the pressure to father a small flock of children. She understood that pressure. She'd never been attracted to another opinicus - the power dynamic complicated issues further - but she'd found time to lay seven eggs.”
― K. Vale Nagle, Eyrie

“Staring at the soft fur of his stomach, listening to his heart beat, it required a different gryphon to have the strength of will to operate the saw. She was not that gryphon, and not a day went by when she didn't wish she'd pushed Mignet up at the cost of her own life. The way her pride ha treated her had made her cold and cruel like the ice that had taken her lover, but Satra was not that gryphon.

She stood up and kicked the saw away from Jonas with a bloody paw.”
― K. Vale Nagle, Eyrie

“The other had come from that very same taiga gryphon. They'd been young and playing on a frozen lake. Both were adults with their hunting grounds. Both were new adults with their first hunting grounds. The taiga gryphon had seen her try to pounce a bog hopper and miss. The light snow had concealed the ice underneath, and Satra had gone sliding. The taiga gryphon's name was Mignet, but Satra hadn't known that yet.
Satra heard the laughing and growled - well, squeaked, her voice giving out - a challenge. Mignet had flown down and landed daintily on the ice. She'd been beautiful, graceful. While taiga gryphons included several designs and shapes, she's been the one most strangers conjured up if asked to describe the taiga pride: white with black bars and rosettes. She was Satra's first, and only, crush.”
― K. Vale Nagle, Eyrie

“I never wake up to find someone in my nest,” Hatzel complained. She began the grooming process, starting with her face.
“That’s because you bite in your sleep,” Zeph remarked.
She balked. “What? No, I don’t!”
“It’s why we put Orlea’s sleeping nest closest to yours,” he explained. “She’s like a safe sleeping shield.”
Hatzel did not dignify him with a response but instead returned to morning preening with redoubled efforts.”
― K. Vale Nagle, Eyrie

“How was your trip?" Zeph asked. "Did they teach you how to hunt? You're growing up so fast."
"I'm older than you," Xavi protested. "And I know how to hunt. This wasn't for beginners. I killed a snake!"
Zeph stepped back and put on his surprised face for Xavi to see. "A real snake, not just a vine? Well, I guess you have your adult feathers now. What did you fall in? You're sticky."
“It was a big snake. Like, bigger than three gryphons.” Xavi looked around for a gryphon to illustrate his point.
Hatzel had glided down and was giving them a strange look. A tiny gryphlet bounded up to chirp at Hatzel and see if she wanted to play. While Xavi was trying to point at Hatzel, Zeph sat back on his haunches and measured out the size of the gryphlet from shoulder to shoulder, and expanded it by three.
Xavi sighed. “No, like three Hatzels.”
“Now you’re just telling tales,” Zeph protested. “Nothing as big as three Hatzels.”
“This is why I throw rocks at you,” Hatzel said as she took the gryphlet back to the nests.”
― K. Vale Nagle, Eyrie

“Kia knew of only one opinicus who regularly entered and left the headmaster's study: the black cockatiel with the ink-stained harness. In her own notes, she called him "the scribe" or "the forger".”
― K. Vale Nagle, Eyrie

“Kia would be the first to admit she'd led a sheltered life. She didn't know much about red fern abuse, but she'd heard that addicts could possess super-opinicus strength and speed when confronted.”
― K. Vale Nagle, Eyrie

“The prisoner was in bad shape. Broken, golden feathers over deep cuts and bruising. The very tip of his beak had been broken off.
"He's an opinicus?" Not just any opinicus, the missing opinicus, she'd wager.
"I'm Cherine," he gasped. "Thank you.”
― K. Vale Nagle, Eyrie

“for you and your pretty mate," Gressle said and flew back to her people.
"Wait, what did she say?" Kia asked.”
― K. Vale Nagle, Eyrie

“To a fisherfolk, everyone was a gryphon and everyone was an opinicus.”
― K. Vale Nagle, Eyrie

“Thirty feet up a tree that reached twice that height into the forest canopy, Zeph clung beak-down and surveyed the forest floor. Several large, flightless ground parrots pecked at crushed berries. Violet stains covered their green plumage. The berries were casualties of a conflict much higher up.”
― K. Vale Nagle, Eyrie