Little Birdie

[Lani Stranger]

77th-78th of Winter, 518AV

The thought terrified her, and so Lani’s midnight black eyes flitted between Narth and Evek, clear terror on her face. She had paid the Endal for the ride and had exchanged a few of her days off for this trip. Lani had even negotiated with Kavisan to twist the trip into the favor of her city. Her intended reason for accompanying the Endal on this trip was to collect knowledge from the Bhanari Library in Lhavit and to attempt to secure a trade of knowledge with them, or at least copies of scrolls and books that the Enclave did not have. Her personal reason was to see her old friend again. She wanted to lay her eyes on Madeira and touch the mad little girl in person, she wanted to meet her strange bondmate and new baby for herself and learn if her childhood friend remained close to her to this day. Lani was counting on the odd hours of the city to find her enough time to complete her job and visit her friend, the Chiet intended to get little to no sleep during her time in Lhavit, but she figured she would regain the rest time somehow afterward. In theory she could sleep on the flight to and from the city, but how likely that would happen, Lani didn’t know. Although she was no Endal and was sure she would never be, her nomadic spirit was blessed with living in the center of the Wind Eagle trade routes, and she had every intention of taking advantage of that option. She was filled with anticipation and excitement for the destination, but the journey still flipped her stomach whenever her eyes skimmed the giant eagle’s double saddle.

”C’mon, Black Eyes. I am the flight leader, so I need to be in the air first.” Narth spoke with urgency but not impatience, he seemed not to notice her absolute terror at what they were about to do, but Lani could see Evek staring her down, and she almost imagined amusement in the large eagle’s eyes.

Don’t worry, I won’t drop you. The Wind Eagle’s strange telepathic voice invaded her thoughts, and Lani frowned for a split second at the image of the large eagle shaking her off it’s back and the murderous descent from such a fall. Would there be anything left once she hit the ground? Shivering, Lani attempted to pull herself together, straightening the straps on her back and sticking her tongue out at the Eagle behind Narth’s back.

The eagle must have tattled on her to the man because he immediately turned around and glared at her. ”That is not how you get a ride in the saddle.” He said, and Lani winked at him and then stuck her tongue out at the man too. Suddenly the bearded warrior was at her side, one large hand loosely cradling her jaw, the other arm holding his covered sword by his side in a manner that she could only perceive as threatening. Fear spiked in her chest as her heart took off. She was used to Narth’s random displays of power, and while she had not yet been the receiver of any abuse on his part, it always scared her, which was surely his intention.

[Lani Stranger]

The steely blue eyes seemed to soften to amusement as soon as he read the fear on her face, and then in stark contrast to his intimidating posture the Endal placed a soft peck on her lips and turned away from her. Lani was left without breath for a second, trying to get her heart to slow when she remembered breathing tended to help with that. Her shock turned into a blush and the mixed blood forgot her utter terror at the flight they were about to pursue. Not thinking about it, Lani stepped toward the eagle who politely folded his wings and tilted his back towards her. She could see where she was supposed to climb on, and so she hooked her foot into the strap that belonged to the back most seat and hoisted herself up. Evek stood at an odd angle so that she could position her bum into the curve of the second seat, but she had to hold onto the front part to stay inside, otherwise she would fall backwards and out. It was a bit of a workout on her arms as well as her abdomen to wait for Narth to join her, and she realized that riding this eagle would be nothing like riding a horse. Well it could be compared to riding a horse, if the horse was vertical and so large she could not wrap her legs around it, and covered in stiff feathers that stabbed at her calved through her Bryda. And she wouldn’t even be riding it, simply clinging to Narth’s back for her dear life.

”Don’t you want to strap in?” Narth laughed, tightening the last strap on the cargo that Evek was to carry, and then waltzing over to her. He threw something at her, and Lani’s hands instinctively flew up to catch it, which threw her off balance and made her fall backward. Her feet her planted firmly in the stirrups so she did not fall off completely, but the Inarta flew forward to catch her back, hoisting it up while laughing heartily at her clumsiness. Lani inspected the thing that she had risked her life to catch, and frowned. A waterskin.

”You not drink water while fly?”

”I do—“ He grunted while helping Lani regain her balance. He reached into the feathers just to her left and pulled out a woven strap and wrapped it around her waist, tying it tightly to the other end of the saddle, securing her in place. It didn’t seem like much protection, but the strap made her feel mountains safer than before. ”But I kind of like the idea of you feeding it to me while I fly.” He whispered in her ear and Lani turned slightly to look at him just in time to catch a mischievous wink. Again she stuck her tongue out at him, and the Inarta’s hand flew up to catch her jaw in his large palm, his thumb resting on her tongue and pinning it down. Lani paused, confused by two displays of dominance so close to one another. Narth was feeling feisty today, and she didn’t know why. Perhaps it was his excitement to show her his prideful duty to his people, or the knowledge that she was so out of her league and would be dependent on him for their whole journey, at least so long as they were in the air. She wasn’t sure what was causing it, but she decided to play along.

[Lani Stranger]

Lani didn’t fight his odd hold on her head, instead she closed her lips around the man’s thumb, tasting the salty sandy residue of work, and ignoring the disgusting grit of it. She sucked slightly on it, which made him loosen his hand in surprise, and she took the chance to attempt to gather more of his thumb in her mouth, as if it wasn’t his thumb she was sucking on, but something else. Narth groaned and then let out a breathy laugh as he pulled his hand away from her and walked around to the front of Evek. He patted the Wind Eagle’s feathers and glared at Lani with no sincerity. She grinned wickedly at the man whose bed she had shared so many times, and then invitingly patted the front of the saddle where he was to sit. He laughed again.

”Knock it off, you’re making Evek uncomfortable.” Lani pouted.

”Soooorrry Evek.” She dragged the apology out in a sweet reply and the bird gave a slightly hop which flung her balance off and made her shriek, clinging closer to the bird. Narth laughed at her, and Lani grinned, watching him climb onto the bird and fit himself in the front of the two-person saddle. As she wrapped her arms around his hard chest, lacing her fingers together under his sternum and pressing her cheek against his shoulder blade, the fear suddenly returned. She remembered his waterskin and tightened it to her belt quickly while the bird moved underneath her.

Suddenly, the wind eagle shrieked, and she heard the reply of the other monster’s behind them. There was a chorus of whistling, some of which came from Narth, and then she could feel the bird’s chest expanding and watched as the massive wings began to unfold and gather the wind underneath him. No matter how reckless Lani thought herself to be, the realization that this was actually going to happen now began hammering her heart at breakneck speed. Knowing there was no way out now and that she was going to be on this bird until it touched down again, Lani squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face into Narth’s back.

The Chiet felt his hand pat her hands on his chest in a manner that she assumed was comforting but she couldn’t make sure that it had actually happened. She could feel the muscles in his back rolling as he worked to help Evek start his flight, and she could hear the calls and whistles of the flight of Endal’s and their mounts. Fear threatened to stop her heart and she gripped Narth tightly, the rolling and sweeping of Evek’s wings making her stomach flip over and over. She felt the wind pick up and whip at the single braid down her back, catching any wisps that didn’t quite make it into the braid and slapping her face with the stingy needles. Lani wasn’t sure if it was the fear or the suddenly fast moving wind that caught her breath, but it forced her to turn her head slightly and focus on inhaling deeply to make sure she got all the breath she needed. While Lani was focusing on not suffocating, she could feel Narth continue to move about. The wind was so fast she could no longer hear any of the other rider’s, except the occasional screech of the monsters they rode. She found the breathing was helping relax her, and the thought itself made her worry. She didn’t want to be too relaxed when the bird took off, in case she lost her grip and fell.

[Lani Stranger]

Again the image flashed of Lani plummeting through the impossible heights that they would surely be flying at soon, and the mixed blood buried her face back into Narth’s back, not minding that his braids now whipped her face as well. It was then that she felt the intentional pat on her hands and could feel his saying something through his back, although she did not know what he said.

”What?” She asked, stretching so that her ear could be closer to his face. She felt him turn his head to speak to her, and just barely caught his Nari in the wind.

”You can relax! We are going to fly like this for a while!” His words shocked her, and Lani’s eyes flew open. She hadn’t expected them to already be in the air, but as soon as she took in the expanse of ocean that spread before her eyes she shrieked and closed them. They were flying! They were really not touching the ground! Far above the ocean below! On the back of a whole entire bird!

Lani lost her breath again, forgetting that she had to focus on her breathing at this height, and so she began to work on making sure she was getting the air she needed from the rushing wind. Flipping her head so she was looking the other way, Lani took deep breathes in, trying to match her rhythm to Narth’s slow and calm rhythm, since he was far more used to this than she was. Slowly she opened a single eye, peaking at the landscape around her. She could see the ceiling of clouds that seemed just above them, and the expanse of the ground below. It was so strange to her, it looked like a painting, but it was so much clearer. Her escapades to the top of Alvadas’ wall were nothing like this. Her journey’s to the world’s end in Lhavit was nothing like this. Looking down over Thunderbay from the top of the massive Mt. Skyinarta held not a single grain of sand to this extreme experience.

Loosening her grip only slightly in order to look at the world below her, she could see the mountain, clear and present where she had seen it would be on the map. But instead of a star with words being fed into it, it was an actual mountain rising above the whole forest, surrounded by the ocean in the seemingly little peninsula where it nested. She logically knew the expanse of land she saw was massive and scary and infeasible, but from this height it looked like nothing. It looked as if she could walk from Mt. Skyinarta to the panhandle in a day, not the whole moon she knew that it actually took. Her stomach started to flip and turn again as she tried to digest the impossible nature of what she was seeing, and Lani thought it was best to close her eyes again, finding she could only take this experience in small bites at a time.

[Lani Stranger]

Surrendering to her fear, Lani squeezed her eyes shut and adjusted her numb fingers that had gripped each other so tight they were tingling now. She tried to loosen her clasped hands while maintaining her grip and pressed her cheek up against her partner. The assault of both of their braids on her face became her only focus alongside making sure she was breathing. She was sure by now that it was not just the fear that made it hard for her to breath, but surely the height had something to do with it. Lani found her concentration focusing on matching her breath to Narth’s, and letting the sting of their hair whip her into numbness. Lani decided she would close her eyes for a mere bell and then open and check their progress. Ticks turned to chimes, and she counted those, losing track somewhere after thirty and just surrendering to the idea she would not know when a bell had passed, but she would try and keep her eyes closed as long as possible. Before Lani could decide if her bell was up, the wind on her face was slowing, their hair’s abuse growing more forgiving. Without warning there was a jarring impact as Evek touched ground, and Lani realized they had landed. Opening her eyes, which were crusted from the tears that the wind had managed to tear from her eyes, she looked around to see the massive Kalead trees surrounding them. The sun filtered through in an odd way that made her thing it was just after midday, which surprised her.

Had it been a few chimes or a few bells? Her survival-style meditation had worked far better than any attempted meditation before, and Lani was immeasurably grateful for her lack of consciousness on time. Narth was peeling her fingers off of him, and she remembered she was gripping onto him like a drowning cat, and so she pulled her arms off of him, holding her weight with her abdomen and trying to stretch out her arms and back.

”How are you?” She heard Narth’s words, which dragged a yawn out of Lani as she tried to process.

”I think… So scared I sleep.” She concluded, although she surely hadn’t slept, merely lost track of time in a strange state of meditation, still it was better than being aware of the whole terrifying trip. ”Where we are?” She asked him.

”Fifty miles out, we are about halfway through today’s journey but we need to stop and eat and relieve ourselves, and the birds want a break too.” She could hear the chatter of the other Endal now. With skill Narth hoisted himself further up on Evek’s back and removed himself from the saddle without bothering her. Lani began fiddling with the knot he had made on her strap, and he moved to help her, offering his hand so she could jump down. Gripping the sturdy palm in her clammy one she jumped down from the back of the bird, not nearly as gracefully as she would have liked. Narth didn’t laugh at her thought, merely took the hand he had offered her and began massaging her palms between his. It was a strange and caring gesture that she did not often experience form the man, but the mixed blood was still in shock and too stiff to acknowledge or even protest the action.

”Hey lovebird! Wanna give me a hand?” One of the other Endal called to Narth, and he looked over. Absently he patted Lani’s hand and then let it drop, walking over to help his fellow Endal. As soon as he left, Lani crumpled to the ground, the wet fresh spring morning chilling her bones. She didn’t care though as she started to reach for her toes, trying to stretch out every part of herself before they got back onto the Eagle and she was petrified into the same position for another four bells.