Smoky Skies

[Kyo]

33rd of Winter, 515 AV
night to morning

It was a day just like any other.

The first thing Kyo did was go see his Sky. He did this most days, visiting her, making sure she was still okay. When he was near her he almost felt normal, awake in a way he hadn't been for a while now. Without her, he felt asleep in his mind, never fully there. Tired and worn out.

Working was still hard for him, hard to concentrate on; living was worse, being without his bondmate a slow and sticky agony that never let him feel right inside... but there was hope now, too. His bonded Strider gave him that. She was the Sky, but she was also his sun, his light. She gave him hope that he would see her again later, after the day's work was done; hope that he and Merevaika could help her so that one day he might touch her without her startling or being wary; hope that if he could not free himself from sadness he could at least free her from fear; hope that one day everything might be right again. Right as the Sky.

After visiting Sky it was hunting with his dogs or training Pack or work. This day, it was work.

---

Kyo was on the outskirts of town, at the Pride. Ramsay was gone for some reason he didn't know, and the sky smelled vaguely of smoke. It always smelled like smoke in the tent-city, and so he didn't much wonder why it smelled different today, oily and close and sticking in his throat instead of the usual cleaner smell of baking peat or grass or even wood.

He rubbed at his eyes, which were watering. The air felt thicker.

It seemed to be upsetting the animals.

Kyo had tried to be coyote with them earlier, but they were unsettled today and were afraid of him and when he was canine they bolted away. Kyo knew why: they could hear, like he could, the strange slinking silent-thunder of sound coming from the south-city.

Come to think of it, that was the way Ramsay had gone before he had gone and not yet come back.

Somewhere inside, under the aching and tiredness and sleeping-mind of being away from his Strider, Kyo felt unease.

A group of the sheep made a sudden sprint for the grass and Kyo had to chase after them. Lightning was at his side, ears flat to her head as they had been ever since the thin, bad-tasting smoke had rolled in over the herds like fog, and she broke to the side as he split the other way. He thought about shifting forms as the group pulled ahead but there wasn't time to get out of his winter clothes. He ran on.

Lightning was true in form today, perhaps even faster and more nimble than usual in her haste. She moved like she wanted to get things done fast; like she too could feel the seeping unease in the air. She dashed in front of the sheep and turned on the spot, and they stopped short when they saw the stance of lowered head and light prancing paws that to them meant hunt and to her meant herd; she moved impatiently as if she wanted to get back to the rest of the flock in order to guard them, or maybe to wait for Ramsay.

The Dynakuva managed to steer the skittish animals back towards Kyo and he took one side and she took the other. But several times there was a drumming-up in the silent-thunder from where Ramsay had gone, once a noise coming like the wail of a human throat that caught at Kyo's skin like a shiver, and each time this happened some of the sheep broke away again and they had to be rounded up.

All along the line of the Pride, far as Kyo could see, other shepherds were having the same problems. The animals were scattering.

It wasn't even daybreak yet, and already it was not a day like any other. Today, something was wrong.

"Speaking in Common"
"And in Vani{descriptors}"
"And in Tukant [implications, descriptors]"
"And in Pavi" grassland sign

[Kyo]

It was hard to continue to work. Only moments had passed since he and Lightning had gotten their rebellious sheep back to the large herd and still it took a lot of effort to keep them all from turning and running away, back out into the Sea. Usually the animals, tame unlike any in the wild, would stand and graze. Now none were eating and all were making a clamor.

As Kyo and the others labored trying to keep the thousands of animals in place, the herds' noises grew louder. Louder. It got so that Kyo, even with his good ears, couldn't hear over them anymore; beside him, Lightning had given up and was letting the sheep do as they pleased, and she was pressed so close to his leg that he could feel her trembling.

Then he realized that her trembling was really a snarl.

The smoke was so thick that his eyes could hardly tell sheep from the dark night-morning air. He felt one of the woolly animals brush against him as it flew past. Then another, softer presence, sitting on his feet, scratching at his legs: Pack. Kyo bent to grab up the little quivering pup and when he stood back up he felt the breath knock out of him.

Because suddenly he heard it, what had been disguised before: all that noise wasn't just the animals anymore. It was Drykas. Everywhere there were Drykas screaming.

"Speaking in Common"
"And in Vani{descriptors}"
"And in Tukant [implications, descriptors]"
"And in Pavi" grassland sign

[Kyo]

He was frozen. He was back in time; he was a pup again, and he was with a caravan moving slowly through the woods. There was too much snow. They had to stop. They were clearing it away. Then the people came --the, the, he didn't have a word for those people-- and then everything was cleared away. People were cleared away with the sweep of shining weapons, with ropes tying their hands. His boy was taken. He himself was stupid and he ran and he got away. He was alone and he was with the dogs.
He was with the dogs.
He was with the--

Lightning and Pack were pressed so tight against him that he knew where he was again. In the moments he had stood paralyzed, things had happened.

The sheep had broken into bleating clumps of terrified ovine. Some were fleeing; some, like Kyo and his dogs, stood still.

There was movement in the fog, taller than sheep. People running. Some, like the herds, were broken into small groups that rushed to the edge of the city and beyond, out into the grass, away from the roiling smoke. Some tripped and fell, unable exactly to see where they were going, running into each other or animals. Some moved more slowly, with purpose.

Bad purpose. There was something different between those who ran and those who walked.

Kyo was crouched on the ground. He didn't know when he had ducked down but he had and he was holding Pack to his chest, his other arm wrapped around Lightning. Holding her back. She was still snarling. He was trying to think what to do, but all he could think of were faces, old memories mixed with new. Friends and family. There was Merevaika; there was his father and mother and the sisters and brothers, uncles and aunts and all of them that he could remember from when he was a pup; there was Tulsa and little Lalo; there was Dravite and Pearl and the others in the pavilion, their children; there was Ramsay and his wives and his many adopted kids and grandkids, his little lambs; there was Kaitanu, his pale friend; there were his dogs and his bonded Strider and his bondmate, and for once he thought the name, Ulric, and terror broke through the veneer of confusion and disbelief and sleepy-mindedness within his head.

He had to save his bondmate, he had to at least find him. Then he remembered that Ulric was dead and what mattered now was his new bonded, his Strider-horse Sky. The terror twisted in his gut as somewhere far away he heard a horse let out a terrible, echoing squeal.

"Speaking in Common"
"And in Vani{descriptors}"
"And in Tukant [implications, descriptors]"
"And in Pavi" grassland sign

[Kyo]

Kyo let go of Lightning and stood to his feet, trying to remember though the haze of smoke and fear where his Strider was. Where everyone was. He would find Sky and Merevaika first. If he had to he would use his Strider's fear against her and chase Sky into the Sea of Grass and come find her later.

Then he would find whoever came next: Dravite and his or Ramsay and his or Tulsa and her child. He would find whichever was closer to where Sky was. His head was so muddled right now he couldn't think which ones were where.

But before he could figure out which way to turn, it was decided for him. Lightning gave a sudden bark that he heard even over everything else, and then she was gone. Pack, in his arms, struggled.

Without thinking to move he was chasing after her. She was a dark-and-golden shadow in the smoke; she was ducking in and out of sheep and groups of frightened people. He had to stop once and press his face almost to the ground because he had lost her, trying to catch the direction of her scent amongst the many others that were there; he was almost trampled by a stampeding crowd of zibri that swept by in a deafening wake. Pack was squirming so hard against him, and in a moment of clarity Kyo put the puppy down, pointed him towards the grass, and told him to "Run!" His dogs were out there somewhere; they would find Pack, like they always found Kyo, and would take care of him until Kyo could--

--and in a moment he remembered his Ulric telling him to "Run!" and it had been just like this, him as a puppy running into the wild to be with the dogs
--

--and he stood and went after the smell of Lightning with a strange feeling in his chest, a swelling inside much like understanding and love, that made him strong if only for an instant.

"Speaking in Common"
"And in Vani{descriptors}"
"And in Tukant [implications, descriptors]"
"And in Pavi" grassland sign

[Kyo]

He found her attacking a man's leg, latched on with sharp, unyielding teeth. The man was angry, hitting at her head with a fist, and Kyo barreled into the pair, taking them down in a heap. It wasn't until he was on top of the man that he saw who it was: Andre Sunshadow.

This was enough of a surprise that the Sunshadow was able to roll and throw the coyote-man off him.

Lightning was still biting into the Drykas' leg and and Kyo grabbed her and tried to wrestle her free. Whatever reason she had for doing this didn't matter, it wasn't the time. He needed her to be safe, maybe to go out into the grass with Pack and find Sister and Brother and wait there. But she wouldn't let go.

He had her by the scruff of the neck when someone, a child, grabbed him by the shoulder and Kyo turned, looking into huge, dark eyes: Merram, one of Ramsay's children's children, still young enough to play with straw dolls. Then he saw the rest of them, huddled in a small group, some crying while the older ones --young teens not quite men-- were trying to be brave. These kids must have been the ones that had also been working the herds today; many of Ramsay's lambs took turns helping out at the Pride.

Sunshadow here with Ramsay's kids? Suddenly it made sense why the she-dog had run here to attack. Kyo didn't know exactly why Lightning had bitten Sunshadow, but knowing the man --a bad, mean man who hated Ramsay-- and seeing these scared kids, he could guess.

It took much effort to drag Lightning off Sunshadow, who pushed himself back away from the growling dog, and then pry little Merram's hand from his shoulder. She gripped his fingers tight and he had to pry her loose from those, too. "Listen!" he shouted, then signed rapidly, fear, no stay, go please. "You hurry, that way!" He pointed to the grass, to the groups of people they could faintly see retreating out there.

One of the boys, the eldest, looked like he wanted to resist, giving Sunshadow a dark look very much like Ramsay's, but when Kyo pushed Merram into his arms and the girl clung to him like she might to her own mother, he gave up and nodded his head. Then they were off, disappearing with the flocks out into the smoke-darkened night.

"Speaking in Common"
"And in Vani{descriptors}"
"And in Tukant [implications, descriptors]"
"And in Pavi" grassland sign

[Kyo]

The kids left just in time. No sooner were they gone than there was the sound of gritty laughter on the air. The clash of weapons. Cries and screams and wails, louder this time. Here.

Kyo had to lug Lightning away from Sunshadow to keep her off him. He needed to get out of here. He wished the dog would just stop, but she was livid, trying to break free of his grasp. He needed to get her under control. The sounds were getting closer. He glanced up.

Around them, most of the fleeing forms were gone, instead replaced by battling storms of fighting Drykas and attackers.

"Speaking in Common"
"And in Vani{descriptors}"
"And in Tukant [implications, descriptors]"
"And in Pavi" grassland sign

[Kyo]

He had looked around for an instant too long. Lightning's yelp brought his eyes back to her. He looked down at the animal gone weak in his arms to find--

--no, it wasn't--

--the dog had been stabbed. He didn't know where the knife had come from, but it was sticking from her side. He reached out to grab it, as if pulling it out might make her better, but before he could he was hit from behind. He went down to the ground face-first.

There was a knee on his back, between his shoulders, a sharp weight that was almost like pain. Then there was real pain as the person pummeled him from above, hard blows landing around his head and shoulders. Kyo's arms went up helplessly to protect the back of his neck, but it was an awkward position and he felt his fingers being smashed. Desperate, he tried to get up, wiggling and kicking his legs, trying to buck the weight off. He managed to turn a little, and it was the Sunshadow on top of him, and the man leaned over to tug the knife from Lightning's ribs.

Kyo's hands went to the Sunshadow's arm, the one with the knife, as it pressed down towards his face. The coyote-man was still kicking his legs, trying to get more room, more leverage; he kicked particularly hard and the knife dipped down with the motion, scoring a mark on his cheek, cutting deep. He screamed and thought he saw the other man bare his teeth. The knife was coming closer. It nearly marred him again, this time nearer to the throat, and for an instant Kyo remembered the cut, that feeling of something at his throat when his boy had died.

Sunshadow was looking into his face and Kyo had never realized how big the other man was before now; not as big as Ramsay, and maybe not as tall as Kyo, but underneath those loose green clothes there was much muscle. The knife gave a jerk forward and cut into the side of Kyo's neck, and he pulled his head away as far as he could, gasping, feeling blood hot on his skin--

And then the man was off him, and Kyo lay there stunned as the breath whooshed back into his lungs. But he couldn't just keep lying down. He struggled to move, to look at what had happened.

Lightning was on top of the Sunshadow. Her fur was matted with blood on one side, but that hadn't stopped her from ripping into the man's shoulder, and he was screaming as she tore at him like Kyo's dogs might at a kill. The coyote-man saw her go in to clamp her jaws around the Drykas' throat--

--and then there was a thwoosh and thundk and Lightning fell to the side, limp. An arrow stuck from her back. She moved once, then again, uncoordinated pitiful motions like she was trying to get up. Kyo reached out to her, and another arrow whizzed past. Sunshadow screamed again, clutching his belly and the wooden shaft sticking out from it. Then his eyes went blank and fuzzy and he went as limp as the dog; Kyo didn't know if either of them were dead or alive.

"Don't move," someone said in accented Common, and Kyo held completely still, an animal under the bow.

"Speaking in Common"
"And in Vani{descriptors}"
"And in Tukant [implications, descriptors]"
"And in Pavi" grassland sign

[Kyo]

The man --he was one of the attackers, and there was another just beyond him, holding the bow and arrow at ready-- tied Kyo's hands behind him so tight that his hands quickly went numb. It was hard to hold still while someone was tying him, and each time he moved --sometimes without even trying, like his body by itself wanted to resist-- the man would hit him. The last time it was hard in the stomach with his booted foot, and Kyo lay still after that, fighting to breathe.

After his hands were tied he was yanked to his feet, and when his legs tried to give out beneath him he earned another hit, this time a slap to the face that stung the deep wound on his cheek. The man grabbed him by the arm and then he was being pulled away.

He saw many things as they walked. He saw more men like these bundling other Drykas up. He saw them taking sheep, cattle, goats, horses, any animals they could get. He saw them hurting women and beating men in front of their families. He saw them setting fire to tents and once heard the awful noise of those dying by flame within.

"Speaking in Common"
"And in Vani{descriptors}"
"And in Tukant [implications, descriptors]"
"And in Pavi" grassland sign

[Kyo]

When he looked over and saw a small body burned to a blackened, flaky crisp it was the first time he actually noticed the rain that had been coming down on them all morning. He watched as the corpse sizzled and steamed while the sky poured down; Caiyha, a person called a goddess that Kyo did not yet understand, was weeping.

Looking up, feeling the rain like the weight of all that was happening, he said, "Please. Help. I scared. I scared." Then the man behind him stuck something sharp to his back and told him to shut his mouth, and Kyo did as he was told.

He was tied to other people in a line, women and men and some children, and they were marched under leering glares in straight and staggering rows. They went from the city where there was still the sound of battle into clear, wet sea air. It was a long walk, tied like this, prodded by harsh hands and sometimes weapons. Down to the shore, icy water slapping against their shins and threatening to knock them over as they stumbled to boats, where they were loaded up.

Kyo had only ever been in a boat once before, with Dravite, and the water had been bad that day; it was choppy again, bobbing them up and down, rocking the boat, and more than one person was sick over the side or down their front. Out here it was quiet save for the chatter of the bad-men, the crying of children, and the sound of retching, and the mist in the air was water not smoke. After breathing in so much polluted air, Kyo's lungs seized at this fresh, salty kind, and he coughed and sputtered and spat dark. Eventually the rolling of the boat on the water and the dread in his belly were too much and he threw up over the side. Fish were darting around the boats here and there, pecking up the human mess left in the waves. Once a man was killed in front of them, and his body was cut free from the rest and dumped overboard.

They rode the smaller boats to a bigger one out in the sea, one of many that were large and black. Here they were unloaded and ushered towards a cage built into the deck, all wood and metal bars. At this, something --some new fear-- rose up inside and Kyo stopped walking, holding up the line. Something cracked against his back and he fell forward into the man in front of him, and in the pain of it he was pushed into the cage.

Being locked up, actually locked up with nowhere to go, brought dull horror. Kyo huddled in the back of the cage, unsteady and shaking-pale, only moving enough to flinch when someone who fought against the bad-men was whipped bloody and tossed into the cell wrapped in heavy chains.

"Speaking in Common"
"And in Vani{descriptors}"
"And in Tukant [implications, descriptors]"
"And in Pavi" grassland sign

[Tribal]

G R A D E S

Kyo

Experience

• Observation: 5
• Running: 1
• Animal Husbandry: 2
• Stealth: 1
• Logic: 1
• Planning: 1
• Unarmed Combat: 1
• Body Building: 1
• Endurance: 2

Lore

• Sky: A bonded strider
• Endrykas: Always smells like smoke
• Animals often sense danger before humans
• Merram: Ramsay's granddaughter
• Observation: The sound of clashing weapons
• Lightning: Stabbed and shot dead?
• The sting of a knife's blade

Penalties

Kyo's cuts will leave light scars


Notes

Beautiful work, thank you for putting so much time and effort into your writing, I always enjoy your stories.