Godspeed, Wind Riders (Phoenix)

by **Sairque** on April 1st, 2012, 1:15 am

1 Spring, 512 AV

Like ants swarming a garden, Endal raced through a labyrinth of statuesque Wind Eagles. The silent birds, with heads tilted just so, and minds flung far beyond their own bodies, paid no mind to the raging Inarta. All activity at the lakes ceased when they’d descended, but once their Riders stumbled out to search the forest of feathers for their own particular bird, an alien experience that set their teeth on edge. Small angry and frightened voices clamored to reach the protectors. To plea, insult, or coax a response from the mute creatures, it was all the panicked Endal could do.

Sai jostled through a tunnel and rushed out into Syna’s fresh freedom with the rest of her caste. A man stumbled into a woman before her, and Sai’s boot dug into his back as she moved beyond them in search. Faces lost distinction, pale features and red hair, a mass of faceless bodies. The hair on the back of her neck quivered. Realizing the hopeless nature of their method, she struggled to the edge of shoving bodies. A snarl twisted her face into familiar disgruntlement as sharp hues cut through the stream of people.

“Jerle, Horpie, Trelka!” the flightleader snapped, and three heads whirled around, their single minded focus interrupted by the ruthless woman in charge of their wing. Iron determination reached into the throng and fished this man and women out. “Stay here, if you see anyone else grab them.” Before she’d finished the order, the little bundle of mettle and muscle hefted herself up the side of the mountain. She scrambled up a scree field first and finally hoisted up the face itself. Fingers turning into tempered hooks, latching onto stone lips and bubbles with a strength never before displayed. Her feet found holds without her guidance, and when she was about fifteen feet off the ground, she found her first good jug hold. Able to hang off this like a monkey, her body rotated out and frozen hues scoured the field of feathered statues.

“Jerle, east side, perched on the booby boulders! Horpie, with Jerle, at the lake edge in front of the boobies.” A cacophony of voices suddenly lifted up to her in demand, and people swarmed for high ground to gain similar perspective. Dangling, the unexpected hand that latched onto her foot for purchase rotated her beyond the ability of her shoulder and tore her off the rocks. Tumbling down the scree field, dazed, bruised, but oblivious to injuries, two more members of her wing collected and hovered with impatient and hopeful faces.

“I didn’t see anything else. I bet our entire wing is on the east side.” No one seemed to have a better idea, so the group fought their way in Jerle and Horpie’s footsteps. These Eagles spent the most time together, a good sixty percent of their time was devoted to hunting and working with their wingmates. It made sense to her that they’d seek one another out during whatever this was. As people let out cries of discovery, Sai burst through two Eagles, eyes lifting to Catabasis’ favorite lake perch. The grizzled creature molting there was a sight to smart sore eyes. Cursing, Sai shoved aside a dazed woman and darted further down the shore.

They’d been preparing to go for a flight, and it was only by pure chance that Sai had realized that Catabasis had fled the aerie where he’d been waiting. When she heard the sound, feathers rustling, feet shifting to test purchase, panic raised acrid in her throat. She wasn’t about to lose this chance. A man swung onto the back of his own bonded, but he quickly found himself used as a ladder to help her reach a seat, as well. He protested and would have knocked her off, but the Eagle hopped and he scrambled for a grip, Sai glared, daring him to say anything as the creature took off. As one, the great birds blacked out the sun, sweeping low over waters and pounded wind to gain altitude. A black stream of writhing feathers spiraling toward one particular vent.

A cry deafened her, but it was one of many, as the Eagles gave voice to whatever it was they battled with. Jerle and Horpie had found their Eagles, and clung to their backs just below Sai and her mysterious savior. Later, she would realize it was a fellow flightleader.

Without thinking, Sai rolled from her perch, sliding over grease feathers, catching the wing to adjust projection, and fell the short distance to Jerle. He shouted, elbowing her in the nose, but just as quickly secured both himself and his assailant. Just as she about gave up on making either a mental or visual connection with Catabasis, she felt his attention slide over her. A mere caress, only the smallest bit of focus given to her, but it was enough. His preoccupation allowed her to pin point him as well as any devoted conversation.

Repeating her first aerial maneuver, the little woman soon toppled onto the familiar leather of his gear. Ass in the air, feet flailing and hands scrambling to get resituated, Catabasis’ full focus abruptly assaulted her. As he opened her up to the situation, her small mind sifting through information much slower than he offered it, the entire wing broke off from the main mass. The Eagles of Wind Reach continued on, some with riders, most without, paying no mind to their fleeing brethren. Without a man there to break her fall and keep her mounted, Sai struggled to stay astride the furiously flapping Eagle.

In the daze of Ivak, and prison, and magic wall, and breach, she never would know how she managed to form a plan and relay it. Before long her wingmates, and a few random faces that came to names only with difficulty, devolved to mere dots on the horizon and she turned her attention to Alvadas. They would warn the cities of Kalea that Ivak…who the petch was Ivak…was breaking free. Besides the obvious parameters—Ivak was in prison, therefore he must not be good—Sai had no clue why they needed to warn people. But still, one rider to Avanthal. Two riders to the spires. One rider to Denval. One rider to Sultros. Two rider’s to Kalinor. One rider to Lhavit. Sai to Alvadas.

by **Sairque** on April 1st, 2012, 1:16 am

Incoming, Catabasis warned in his first use of actual language, and then wantonly dipped and swerved, as though trying to catch some tiny bug to eat. In the middle of craning forward to see what he was going after, it was only pure reflex that caught the little blue and orange bundle whizzing past her ear. His awareness faded again, but not before she caught a distinct streak of displeasure and further worry. Her hand was bloody from small claws and baby-sharp beak when she finally strolled from their mental realm again. Not exactly an unfamiliar sensation, the hand holding the young bird was already textured with a matte of fine blue scars from another experience quite similar to this one.

And she understood his new feelings when recognition of their passenger registered. A flash of images slid through; flocks upon flocks of regular birds fleeing the area in mindless instinct. One little one struggling to keep up, noticing a shadow crossing over, and recognizing the duo flying toward it. It peeled off, strength renewed and safety in sight. And then there she was, Sai’s neice, protesting being held upside down by one leg. Grip a little too tight, Sai jerked the little body to her chest, turning it over and giving it a stern head shake of disapproval. Ascertaining that all the little parts worked, its struggles were quite convincing, Sai placed it on the saddle in front of her.

“Do your parents know where you are? You should be at home.” She struggled to keep her temper in check, but just as she was about to knock the young bird from its perch, sending it back to wing and Skyinarta, Catabasis’ voice sliced in.

She won’t make it in time.

Nothing else was necessary.

“Well, your parents are going to kill you. Sira is going to use you as a beak cleaner so Addy can heal you over and over again until they feel better. We’re going to Alvadas. Do you know where Alvadas is? You’re not going to see your parents for weeks and they’re going to think that you’re dead.”

The little bird didn’t like this. A high chirp accompanied a distinctly aimless flapping, little orange wings twitching and body hopping from foot to foot.

“I know, right? Sounds terrible. If you behave, and listen to me, we’ll make it back faster and I’ll make them understand that you weren’t out here trying to play in the storm. They’ll understand that you had no choice but to flee with all the other birds.”

Little black eyes anchored to her own rutilant hues, the little bird stilled, leaning forward slightly.

“Come on, climb in my katinu.” Sai made a little nest for her. Feeling the delicate weight against her chest, a slight increase in warmth, one hand cupped the small lump through the rough material of the coat. That little body settled against her with the mass of a baby whale.

Catabasis…what storm?

That storm.

His thoughts bit into her mind, pounding a rush of wet heat along her nerves. The irritation she’d felt at the worry this little baby had caused faded under the assault of pure ornery energy emanating from the Eagle. It seemed pointless to turn and look at the approaching front. If he said it was there, it was there. But…perhaps in a desperate moment attempting to understand why he felt this way, red locks swung forward, a thick red wall, as she glanced back. The turbulent cloud front tumbled over itself, racing forward in a crackle of ethereal power.

Needles pricked at the base of her skull. Dry tears pressed against the bones of her eyes. A thermal boom reverberated through her cranium, the stampede of divinity sucked in on itself, on Skyinarta, and exploded out. Dreams spawned from such a phenomena proved terrifying, after Catabasis reached back and knocked her mind about.

by **Sairque** on April 1st, 2012, 1:17 am

The storm coalesced around them, reducing a team of Wind Reach’s elite into nothing but one flapping dust speck. Catabasis, one of the largest and strongest, didn’t so much fight his way through the turbulence, as find himself leaping across dense waves of djed. They entered pockets of peace. They swam through aquamarine, a leviathan’s ponderous progress, feathers slicked down and melted into one black waterproof skin. Bones exploded out of that membrane in the tumultuous space between pockets, muscles reattaching and feathers sprouting, only to stiffen to bark as the Eagle popped into another pocket, this of verdance. Silvery brilliance tainted with verdant moss, the shed narwhal horn tumbled end over end toward what must surely be the ground so far below. Amber, magenta, colors that Catabasis couldn’t have identified even had his eyes been able to pick up their wavelengths.

Long after he should have succumbed to the abuse, the indomitable Eagle struggled onward. Somewhere in the blizzard, he’d felt the bond to his unconscious rider snap. He couldn’t feel her, he couldn’t feel her niece. They still rested as one slumped mass over his back, but it was all gone. Skyinarta was gone. Carried on the backlash of the storm, their cries had made one mute note scratching against the scream of victorious rage bellowing out this chromatic hurricane.

It was all gone.

As the storm spit him out, or left him behind, Syna’s brilliance blinded as surely as a Dek coming outside for the first time in ten years. But he didn’t stop, he flew on with nothing but scents to clue him into location. Sai would have demanded he land, to take care of him, to restock and prepare to return home. After telling someone, anyone, important that Ivak was free. But there was no reason now. Ivak was free, everyone knew. That storm…well, most would still have to be told what, exactly, had caused it, and Sai could do that. But she couldn’t go home. It wasn’t her home any longer, she would work herself to the bone to keep the city functioning and be just one more body dumped into the volcano long before her time. He wouldn’t let that happen. So on he flew, eating up in mere chimes land that would take her weeks to traverse on foot.

But soon, too, the reasoning behind his actions disappeared. Only mindless mechanics carried him south.

He felt more than his vision struck, strength ebbed and he descended in as much control as possible. Hitting the somewhat giving ground was a relief in as much as he’d expected to be caught in trees or cliffs long before touching down. Great beak digging curiously into golden sands, the Eagle wondered if he’d landed on clouds. Clouds turned solid by the djed. How long he lay there, folded over his legs and wings stretched out, one large black smear, lava red streaks wavering along his coat, he didn’t know. Heat unlike anything he’d ever experienced didn’t even register over the steady ache of having been repeatedly rearranged at a molecular level.

Fire smoldered on her back, stinging enough to draw her out of strange phantoms, Catabasis’ past lives, she suddenly thought. Groggy and aching everywhere, fingers automatically pulled at safety straps, releasing her to tumble to the ground. The baby squawked, but she’d been protected from heat and squish. As Sai thumped against the ground, on her back, the bird weaseled out of the unbuttoned katinu. And the Endal thought she told her niece to stay close.

Volcanoes erupting, vents eeking burn, the flames of pain, and throb of strain. Visions and dreams, dreams and visions.

by **Phoenix** on April 1st, 2012, 9:41 pm

Catabasis knew that his life was forfeit the moment that the storm's first tendril licked his tail feathers. He knew, far beyond the scope of what any of the Inartan's could even hope to understand, what this meant for his city, for the world. He knew, without a doubt, that he couldn't let Sairque go back. She was too much a part of what was. He couldn't save Wind Reach, but he could save her.

It says a lot about a person, or in this case Wind Eagle, the choices they make when death is imminent, and Catabasis was a fighter. Struggling through a war on a molecular level, struggling to simple stay in one, solid piece, the great black eagle flew further than should have been possible. In their attempt to stay one step ahead of the Djed storm, the Endal pair had ended up riding the tidal-wave as it crashed across Kalea.

Neither of them felt the impact when the storm tossed them away like a bone, gnawed and stripped bare, useless. Trees, bare winter arms reaching for the falling pair, did little to break their fall as black and red tumbled together from the sky. Neither of them felt themselves scream, though avian and human voices were matched for pitch and strength, cutting off simultaneously only moments before they found the ground.

§ § §

It was hard to tell how much time had passed when Sairque awoke; the sun was in a different place in the sky, though that gave no clue towards how many days had passed since their departure. The Storm had sped that pair along at alarming rates, a trip that would have taken a handful of days taking only hours.

Pain like nothing she had ever felt before was the first and only sensation the hard woman felt when she came too. Fire seemed to sear through her veins, engulfing her senses until her mind could do nothing to process a thought or a movement, leaving the woman prostrate on the ground, a heavily feathered wing the only cushion between her abused body and the ground. Consciousness didn't last long before the inky fingers of painless sleep engulfed her once more.

The second awakening was much easier. The pain had dulled to an excruciating throb everywhere, but her mind seemed to be working again. A cursory glance of her surroundings showed an open nothingness, a vast expanse of sand around her. The ability to lift her head and further explore was still beyond her; Sairque was left to lay and wait, more helpless than she'd ever been in her entire life.

As her body recovered, the Flightleader had more than enough time to assess the situation. There was a strange absence in her mind that took only a few chimes to place: Her sister. The connection with Aidara was completely severed. Thoughts of her twin bridged a mental gap to something equally disturbing: Natalie. Her niece had been with her, in her pocket when the storm caught them. Was she even still alive? But a bigger hole was there, in the center of her mine, of her being. A big, black, feathered hole. Catabasis. If the other discoveries didn't spur Sai into adrenaline-enforced action, this did.

The great Wind Eagle was only a few feet away, sprawled in the sand and unmoving. Next to him was his saddle, torn from his body and shredded past salvaging. Sai's packs were still there, along with all her survival gear and, as luck would have it, her coin purse. It seemed the Storm had no need for material things. Instead, it had stolen everything that really mattered.

When Sai reached Catabasis's side, she would find him breathing but barely. One of his wings was bent backwards under his body, clearly and completely broken. The storm hadn't been kind to him, either. The changes he had been forced to endure on a cellular level left him mutated and horribly disfigured; his tail feathers were completely gone, the rounded nub where they were supposed to be was covered in a fluffy black down. The un-broken wing was still the right shape, but the feathers seemed to have fused into one solid mass; even if both wings were undamaged, he wouldn't be able to fly.

Probably the worst, however, was the damage to his face. Those fierce yellow eyes were gone, replaced by the same kind of scaly skin that surrounded all of his orifices. His beak was fused shut, still sharp and deadly but never to open again.

Worst of all, his telepathy was non-existent. Only by sheer determination would Sai be able to reach into his mind and pull his voice out. Catabasis would be able to recap their flight, how they had fallen over the Unforgiving at one point and laid there for bells, unable to move until a monstrous creature, spawned by the storm, had come sniffing around. How he sent Natalie back home while Sai was unconscious and how he picked himself up despite the pain, grasping Sai in his talons and flew back into the storm in order to get away from the beast. He would tell how they were tossed around like a bottle in the sea, lucky to be a live though no longer in Kalea.

However, it couldn't last forever. Just ask quickly as speaking drained Catabasis of the last of his strength, so did keeping mental connection drain Sairque. He was dying. They both knew it, just as surely as trying to hold on to him would kill the stubborn Flightleader. Knowing Sairque almost better than she knew herself, Catabasis would pull away from the connection as he faded, breaking it for her.

Unwilling to let go, just as he had predicted, Sairque fought with everything she had to keep Catabasis with her, clinging to his mind with a tenacity unmatched. As the great Eagles body failed, so did his strength. Like a game of tug-of-war, Sai started gaining ground, pulling her companion back to her as best she could. There was a snap in both their minds, Catabasis using his last breath to caw in pain, and his heart stopped.

The mental connection was abruptly severed, the force of it laying Sai flat on her back again. Her head reeled and felt too full, those empty holes now filled with a new presence, one that had been there for years, yet was completely new.

In her struggle to keep Catabasis with her, Sai had, upon his death and the final severing of their bond, pulled a part of him into herself. The feeling of sharing her head lasted only a few chimes before it faded, leaving her completely alone. To Sai, it would seem like her emotions flooded her with memories of Catabasis, overwhelming her with his feelings and his thoughts in such an intense way that she had to be dredging up everything she had remembered of him all at once.

Though he was still there, Saique had no idea. The Wind Eagle faded back into her unconscious, a small part of him living on inside of the Flightleader.

Overgiving hit shortly after Catabasis faded away, leaving the Flightleader just as vacant mentally as a Drudge. It wasn't permanent, though it would take weeks for her mental capacity to return to normal. The storm, though it had rolled on past them to other parts of Mizahar, had still left traces of Djed around Sai and Catabasis. During their mental struggle and eventual absorption of part of Catabasis's soul, Sai began to change. Her hair darkened, losing it's red hue. It became black instead, with red streaks. Her eye sight grew slightly sharper, allowing her to see half again what a normal human could. And finally, as if for a farewell present, Catabasis left Sairque with a particular repulsion to cooked meat.