AERIE: Book 01 Part 02

EARIE; Book one, part two.

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When I woke, there was a warm weight on my chest that I discovered was Eris. She was lying completely on top of me with her arms around my neck and head, and her legs splayed either side of my body. As I gently ran my fingers down her back, I found more of those little itchy lumps where feathers were coming in and I jolted a little when I collided with her tail.

"Hmmm." She groaned at the touch, so I explored the funny nose like thing. My fingers tested the skin of it and found the hard lumps where much larger feathers were growing in. Strong muscles twitched beneath the skin, and it shook in expressive little 'wags'.

"Tickles." She grunted from my chest. "No, don't stop, just press harder. I like it."

"Morning sleepy."

"Morning. Part of me thought you might escape overnight."

"Still here."

"I know. I wheel clamped you. Am I too heavy?"

"Hardly." I brush fingers through her hair.

"Twit, twit, twit... Morning lovers." A naked Eris explodes off the bed and pulls a pillow in front of herself.

"Morning Mum."

"Morning Todd."

"Oh my god, do you even remember about knocking?" There is a shrill screech to Eris's voice. The feathers on her arms and back are standing straight on end and her fingers are clawed threateningly.

"Someone's getting her feathers... Breakfast is ready. There is no knocking in Arcadia, and we are going home today. Liven up, chicky."

"Oh my god." Her face is beautiful when it's this beetroot colour. "She was staring at your dick, Todd."

From down the hall, we hear, "It's a good one. Think yourself lucky, young lady."

Mum and Dad are a little awkward as they wait for the portal shuttle. They've packed a suitcase for me and have lots of questions. They are silenced completely when Erry returns from customs and pulls close into my side.

Mum nods and bumps Dad with her shoulder, "They look like us heading off on our honeymoon."

"Yes well, I'm sorry we can't be with you through this, kids, but the expense and customs..."

"It's okay Dad. I understand. I'll send news through when I can."

"We'll be bloody well dead by the time it gets here." He rankles. "You'll be eighteen lightyears away. Messages will take years to arrive."

Teela makes her way over and puts a feathered hand on my father's arm. "They will return. Your son cannot live on our world for very long. They will both return, and it will be my flock missing Eris, soon enough. You must promise to send me many messages, no matter how long they take to get through."

"Yes Teela." Dad softens visibly.

Many tears and hugs later we sit silently on a quiet shuttle link. It baffles me with its quietness, but I understand that electromagnets in the rail propel it toward the terminal. Eris is fidgety and cranky. She has been since this morning when she woke. She scratches at her neck, and I'm kept busy helping with scratching her back.

At the portal dome, we watch our luggage being put in pods for separate transport. They will most likely arrive before us as cargo is transported less delicately. We are all nervous.

"Now no-one has eaten anything since breakfast, right?" Teela asks, resorting to motherhood to calm her nerves.

We all shake our heads, too nervous to speak.

"Right this way please, folk." Says a Sirian man with growled menace, as if his voice needs to carry threat because his eight-foot-tall lupine form isn't enough. Despite their imposing stature, they are mostly peaceful technological and scientific types. He leads us to a glass room that looks remarkably like a clear elevator except for the seats and belts within.

When we are all seated and strapped in, he growls lowly and says, "I'm sorry you two. Hands in your laps please. No holding hands during launch please."

Eris releases my hand and I rub at the nervous scratches she has left on my skin.

"Now, the lights will be dimmed, and I'd like you all to count backwards from six hundred and fifty-three, please." He smiles his two-inch-long fangs at us and bows.

Glancing over at Eris I'm reminded about counting as I watch her lips form numbers nervously. And then it doesn't matter.

There is a vertiginous shift like the lurching of an earth elevator but alarmingly, everyone vanishes for more than a few long moments. Suddenly, I'm alone in a chair in complete darkness and then what feels like hours later, pinpricks of light start swirling in the distance, growing slowly brighter. I become aware of a shape next to me. It's blurry and moving. My stomach churns and my thoughts plague me like a dream sequence.

I can see myself from outside. I'm somewhere above me looking down and panicking because I can't see Eris. I can feel her close by. My heart knows her nearness, but she is elsewhere. I watch as my seated form flaps around with his arms seeking contact with anything to locate himself in the upside-down-ness of his experience.

Then a sudden tugging at my feet pulls me back into my chair and the straps pull tightly at my shoulders with another lurching jolt that threatens to make my bowels move. I squeeze my eyes closed at the nausea and with a final bump, I tentatively open them.

Mr Vogel is smiling. We are in the same glass room, only the outside has changed. There are people there in white coats with electronic things. Someone is groaning and I look sideways to find that Eris has thrown up on herself and is reeling as she tries to stay conscious. I reach a hand to her, and she swipes viciously, tearing long lacerations in my forearm.

Teela sings something soothing in a voice only a nightingale could imitate, and I watch as Eris settles and her eyes open. The door hisses open and our belts release. Staff hover over each of us and take observations with the machinery. Eris is distraught and slashes wildly until two Sirians restrain her. She is given a needle and taken somewhere.

I can hear yelling and smashing things. It's only when another two Sirians grab my arms and press me against a wall that I realise that the yelling is mine and the smashing is machinery striking walls. A stinging feeling pains at my neck and warm thick nothing flows through my veins.

"Todd."

"Todd."

"Todd."

"Mum?"

"Teela."

"Mum. You said call you Mum."

"Yes. Are you feeling better?"

"Groggy. Sore. Ache. Sick."

"Good."

"Eris!" I yelled it and I didn't mean to.

"Shh... She is safe. She is just a little sick from the jump. Nothing to worry about. These... pfff... Men... Want to examine you a little. Bloody nosey Sirians."

With a mean look and a hiss of distaste she backs away and the two giant shaggy men approach.

"I am Doctor blah blah blah..." My head is still reeling. They take blood and ask me how long I have known Eris.

"Lots of time. We were little. She loves me. I'm hers."

Sleep claims me again for a while and when I wake, I'm listening to the same two growled voices talking with Teela and Mr Vogel.

"His protective desire is instinctual, not emotional. That has never been the case in a human. Blood tests show alterations in dna structuring. The science of it is that he is altered by her. Their imprinting is far too deep to be simple human emotion.               It is biological. We want to run further tests. This is very exciting."

"You may not." Teela says.

"I'm afraid that you don't have a say in it. The Arkhaven project gives us power to hold and test such subjects as we wish. Section two hundred and thirty-eight. Investigation of-"

"The Arkhaven project be damned." Teela screeches at them.

"Excuse me." I recognise Mr Vogel's voice. "Perhaps a generous donation to your research division would encourage you to find other subjects."

"How generous?"

"Twenty thousand I.G.C.? Thirty? A piece?"

"I must speak with my colleagues."

I woke with a heavy weight on my lungs. I suspected the thick atmosphere but found a sleeping Eris. There were long feathers now in her eyelashes that tickled at my chest where she lay on top of me. I hurt in places, and something scratched at my nostrils when I tried to breathe the thick soupy air.

I was in an open hut of some sort. There was a thatched roof and Avian moved about here and there. Erry stirred on top of me and feathered her hand at my cheek before sitting up and kissing me like a human.

"Gross siss!" I hear from somewhere nearby.

"My flock... They're all here. Hey... Missed you. You've slept so long." Her dark blue eyes hold mine and a twinkle of mischief glints in them. "Oh, you're naked too. They're very jealous of your outside genitals. Apparently, you're a bit bigger than an avian."

"The hospital? They..."

"Shh. Dad took care of it. I'm okay. You're okay. We're home. My home. Our home."

"You look..." Different. Her face was aglow with health and some kind of inner strength she didn't have on earth. Her hair floated in the air with the lower gravity, and I lurched again when she rose from me. Her weight had been keeping me feeling normal and without it, every movement was exaggerated in the lighter environment.

"What's..." I struggle with the itchy thing at my nose and pull it out to look at it. It's plastic and looks like some kind of McDuckle's toy. Then suddenly I feel like I'm drowning. Thick soupy stuff fills my nose and mouth and then my fingers tingle and my head is light and a fire grows in me that I can't really name. I surge with energy and vigour.

"Put it back. Shh. Put it back. You'll just pass out again." She smiles from on top of me.

When I do, I find myself calming and relaxing back into a steady rhythm of breathing.

"I like what that does for you, though..." She wiggles herself on my groin where my erection presses greedily against her.

"Erry?"

"Yes, my mate. Yes Todd. We are home. Look, I want to show you..." Her enthusiastic smile is contagious, and I sit up onto an elbow while my head spins.

She wiggles her naked backside at me. Her family are all around. There are three long feathers sticking out from her tail. They are easily a foot long and pretty. The rest of her feathers are black and shimmering greens and blue, but these are golden and red teasing things. There is a pattern in them like eyes or circles. They are spectacular.

"Stop showing off child, he is probably very hungry. It has been almost two days." I hear Mr Vogel admonish her. "Get him some food and stop fussing."

He was right. I was famished. I ate two servings of food that I couldn't identify. It was edible leaves containing a different style of grain than they used on earth and what I thought was fish and insects I did not recognise. Imagine a grass seed and bug taco. They were bloody delicious.

As I ate, she introduced her family. I met Ornkeh, her older brother and his wife Srianne, their three young who inspected my human body almost as thoroughly as the Sirian doctors had. Ornkeh was terse and almost dismissive of me. His wife asked Eris many questions about my penis and balls. Teela decided I should take a square of fabric she found and fashion a kind of loincloth before things became uncomfortable.

Strangely, the attention and questioning felt just as normal as the array of stunning avian women with their breasts plainly visible. Eris was curt and easily distracted. She angered suddenly when Mr Vogel suggested that Ernst take me for some flying lessons with the wing suit he had purchased prior to leaving the Arkhaven centre.

Teela managed to calm her with talk of preparations for her fledging and the need to spend some time with the other women folk to discuss experiences. When it came to the wing suit, despite the Sirian doctors suggestion that my DNA was slightly altered, I was one hundred percent human. I could glide short distances. I could crash spectacularly when I tried to land. Luckily the low gravity meant I was not injured too badly and mostly just the source of much entertainment for the extended flock.

The week passed quite quickly. My flight improved to the point where I could land on my feet. Mostly. But I still could not take off or climb. Directional control also eluded me. Ornkeh had started calling me, 'rock boy', saying I flew like a falling rock. He was mostly correct.

Eris's tail had filled out to be a beautiful thing that she fanned and displayed for me cheekily. Her arms had almost fully furnished with flight feathers instead of the downy covering they had before, and she was breathtakingly beautiful and obnoxious in equal proportions. Teela was quick to point out that it was the change. Eris was quick to tell her to shut up.

One evening, just as their green sun lowered over the mountains, she had wandered distractedly to a nearby hilltop, pulling me along with her strong small hands. We sat for long silent moments until she snuggled in close and started crying. She resisted my gentle questioning, so I simply held her.

As we wandered home, she stopped me and said, "I'm afraid, Todd. Look." And with a doleful smile she reached her arms out and simply stepped up into the air and hovered there looking down with deeply bloodshot eyes and tear stained cheeks. She flapped once and fell into my arms. Her kiss spoke of barely controlled passion, and she pushed my hand down between her legs.

"Can you feel?" She whispered on my neck. "I'm softening. I'm almost ready. I'm so afraid."

That night she hardly slept. She lay as always on top of me, with her head in my chest and kept me awake with her tossing and turning and frequent small kisses. When I slept, I dreamed of her flying. She soared like an angel and called out like an eagle.

In the morning she was gone. Beside me was my egg in its box. I searched frantically for her and called out over and over, but I knew she was gone. In my heart I could feel her terror and I was driven to find her. Nothing had ever been as important.

Ornkeh sat smugly with his arms crossed, laughing at my panic and confusion. Srianne put a hand on my cheek and said, "It hurts, no? The pull?"

I nod and Ornkey snaps, "What would a human know of the pull? It is best that she is gone. Perhaps another Rogue will mate her and save her from a life with him."

The red mist descends. It has always been like this. Whenever Eris is threatened, any harsh voice or adversarial taunt brings it down around me. His talons dig evilly into my forearm as he tries to take my hand from his throat. My fist is raised and drawn back as I try and use the pain from his talons to clear my thoughts. This time I struggle more to control it. I can't pierce the clouded rage. I can't hear anything except the rushing of blood in my ears.

"What did you say?" I shout in his frightened face.

"It is true." He gasps for breath. "You will only kill her. Your planet will age her. You can never give her children. It would be better for the flock if you went home. Fuck you, human. Fuck you and your bird flu."

A gentle feathered touch on my cheek and Teela's song filter through the moment. It is the song she sung to settle Eris. I turn and release a gasping Ornkeh, who collapses frightened back into his seat. Srianne is admonishing him in Arcadian and I'm trying to still my breathing.

"You must go." Teela tells me softly. "You will hurt us if you stay. Follow her."

"Where?"

"Only you can know. Search yourself."

I look around. I'm searching for things I will need. I fold my egg into my wingsuit and wish I had some kind of weapon. Some map. Some fucking idea...

"You have everything you need inside here, my son." Mr Vogel puts his hand on my chest.

"Son... Tch Tchat." Ornkeh says and gets thumped by Ernst and Srianne.

"I will come." Ernst tells them. "My own fledging is upon me soon. I have not imprinted. Perhaps I too will-"

"You will not. This is Todd's flight. Let him meet her challenge." Mr Vogel says sternly. "She flew that way."

He points east toward the mountains at the rim of our small valley. Without thought or words, I simply start walking. Great, frightened steps that the low gravity insists propel me forward many meters at a time. And somehow, I know I am going the wrong way.

I pause atop a rocky knoll and sit. Perhaps she did fly this way, but it feels empty. She is not here. Despair and grief meld inside me. Fear at my unpreparedness and the possibility that a Rogue may take her from me fill my heart with horror and impotent self-loathing. Perhaps Ornkeh is correct. Perhaps my Eris deserves more than me.

Having children never occurred to me. Earth ageing her likewise. What was my heart cursing her too? Was my love to be her death? If I did love her like the man she deserved, should I not walk away and leave her to a long life with a flock of her own. Great sobs rack my stupid human body and through my fingers, I first see it, blown by the wind.

A single feather. It's gold and red and I know it's hers. Snatching it up, I fancy I can smell her body still. She was here. Perhaps her own fears gave her pause at this spot. I tuck it in my hair and turn north, knowing somehow that I need to be high up. High up where there was water. I know nothing else except fear and loss.

At the edge of the rolling plain that is her flock's home, I meet a wall of rock. There is a gentle slope to the west and east, but I 'need' to be up high. The rocks rise steeply into the clouds hundreds of metres above and challenge me to climb them. If nothing else, perhaps exhaustion will silence my racing mind.

The first hour is simple. Gravity does not tax me like it would at home. My fingers burn with abrasion from the rocks I cling to, but my legs are only just beginning to burn with lactic acid. Looking back, I judge myself past halfway up. My heart is beating steadily with exertion and my head is clearing with the action of climbing.

"Focus. One thing at a time. Just do this one thing now. Worry about other's when it is done." I can hear my father's voice whenever I was challenged with schoolwork or other stress.

The rocks are becoming more slippery as I approach the cloud line. Moisture gathers in the crevices I use for hand holds. Now and then my feet slip on the sharp black wall of stone. There is a cut on my left shin and my fingers feel burned. The egg on my back, the feather in my hair, urge me past the pain of my slowing progress and the uncertainty that nags at my brain.

When the clouds clear abruptly as I haul myself up onto a ledge, the view is both picturesque and alien. Islands of dirt float higher still. The mountains claw up towards them in jagged reaching gestures and I marvel at the scenescape briefly as I catch my breath. The air seems a little thinner and I test it without my nasal device.

A rush of energy fills me, and I feel my lungs labour against the thicker air. My breathing slows and my heart rate lowers. A strange strength possesses me, and the last twenty metres above me beckon. The cliff face is almost vertical, so I scan for anchor points. Without thinking I put the breathing device in my loin cloth and literally scamper up the wall.

My feet propel me upward with strength that frightens me. With one hand I pull myself to the rim and tumble over it onto cool green grass. I laugh with exhilaration and heady wild adventure. A feeling like I could battle dinosaurs washes through me and then my vision starts to spot. A heaviness crawls into my limbs as I scrabble for my breathing thing.

Night calls and I'm alone. Darkness swallows me as my fingers struggle to push the device into my nostrils. I fall into the deep.

"Twit, twit, twit... Good morning human." A voice pulls me from dreams of Eris. In them she is hiding. She is wet and cold and shaking in the night. I reach for her, and she slashes at my wrists.

"What brings you to an old woman's home?"

My eyes are stuck together with sleep, and I wipe roughly at them. When they open I see Sarika.