AERIE: Book 01 Part 04

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When I wake I am in a very bad mood. I almost consider finding an Avian to fight just because. That red mist that falls when I anger, it grips me now and I have no one to fight. I don't even know why, but I seethe inside.

Not even fishing and spearing some good large fish sates my lust for violence. Catching bugs in the long grass and searching for fruit and leaves just brings it to the boil.

It's only the wild burn in my shoulders and arms as I climb the rising thermal instead of gliding up it that satisfies my need to disperse the wild energy in my body. I washed this morning in the ocean. As it lapped at my feet, I used handfuls of sand to scrub at my skin but still I smell my anger leeching from my body.

It is nearly midday and I'm angry about that as well. It is time I could have used for searching, though I have no idea where to search anymore. All I knew was that I needed to get food and I needed to fight someone. So, I did.

My mind bombarded me with imaginations of bloody deaths and rogues raping and I tried to push down my rage and turn that energy into the moment and the things I had to do. I still burned with it when I landed on her ledge and made my way into our cave. The one she had decorated for me with our memories.

The fish that had been there yesterday were still there and beside them another three. Someone was bringing her food. That thought drove me further into the red mist as I thought about a rogue courting her. The food I'd left was gone and on the wall above it there was a picture of a cake with eighteen candles on it.

It dropped me to my knees with my remembered musings last night before sleep. Can she hear me? Did she know? A new picture at least means she is still alive and nearby. There are no tears for me. Just wild rage and no one to turn it upon.

The little cave stinks.

Hours later, I have flown to the third island and broken branches, lashed them together with vines and swept the little cave clean. The bucket I'd left on the beach, I fetch and use to wash the rock clean. The six fish, I toss on the ledge outside as a sign to whoever is bringing them that they are not required. For good measure I piss on them. It felt childish much later when I thought about it, but it was something I needed to do.

So distracted was I with this wild energy that I didn't see her return. But when I returned to the little cave, the food was gone from my basket and in its place, a feather.

A single red and gold feather from her tail. As I hold it, I remember how proud she was of her newly fledging tail; her little bum shake in the hut that morning and her father's light-hearted reproach. I think also of how Tching fanned his and his wild displays while he danced and wondered what sort of dance a human would do.

I was Erry's partner for her debutante ball when she was sixteen. It was a silly custom, long since faded from human history but one that our school liked to use as a social exercise. We danced the Pride of Erin, the Swing Waltz and some other thing I'm trying to remember as I shuffle around her newly cleaned cave like a wally, pretending she is in my arms as she was back then. Humming the remembered tunes and laughing when I misstep.

No idea... I have no idea how a human dances for an avian I decide, and return to my little 'human camp' determined to be up at her cave with food much earlier tomorrow in case I can intercept her visitor. Before I left, I took her egg from my basket. I held it to my heart and wished so many things. Then something told me set on the stone beside the water where she'd left her feather. Maybe it would remind her of our love.

I dream of storms and lightning. Of cold and damp and fear. Of thorough arousal and need. My heart burns in my dreams. My arms itch, my back itches and I toss and turn all night in my little sand bowl.

When morning comes, it's first green hints creeping over the hills and spilling onto the ocean, I'm already stirring coals and cooking fish. I plan on catching bugs on the middle island through the day and just want to at least leave breakfast and maybe catch the thief. The one who wants my Eris.

This morning is particularly warm, and I feel like I can 'see' the swirling pillars of warm air that rise off the shore. My fingertips twist me around them and my wing suit billows with their updrafts. In no time I am gliding down to her ledge with my fish. I wait inside the cave near the smokey smelling offerings.

I've placed them underneath the birthday cake picture as usual and my heart soars noticing she has claimed her egg. I spend my time looking at her other artwork. There's a sketch of her family. One of her scooter. Something that reminds me of my bike. So, I talk to her about them. I tell her of Ornhek's rejection. Of her mother's insistence I leave. How Ernst wanted to fly with me.

I tell her about the battery on her scooter and the work I did on it. Describing in detail the process of removing the old batteries and discharging them using an old flashlight bulb. I talk to her about all of her pictures like she is right beside and then suddenly someone is.

Someone furious and familiar.

"You!" He throws his three fish at me, and they flap about on the floor. "Human!"

It is the rogue I fought first where Lyrin held court. Before I broke the other's arm.

"Mine! Go!"

And here it is. The place for all that wild energy. The red cloud lowers and I hear my shrieks and screamed violence. When I am done, I heave deep breaths and look down on him at my feet. He lives. His feet hang strangely. His throat is a mess of wounds that should leave him no doubt as to my intentions.

"My name is Todd. Her name is Eris. She is mine, avian. Do not come again." I seethe at him, inviting him to rise again with a gesture of my hand. His feathers litter the floor from my wild slashing, and he bleeds in countless places, flowing onto the rock. He crawls back to the edge of the ledge and falls over and I watch him glide away.

It is a long time before the pain clears a path through my rage. And then I look at my limbs and discover my own wounds. They are quite frightening, and I quickly pull the breather to allow the alien air to help. Some close. Most don't. My head swims but not with stars. I weaken slowly as my chest heaves against the thick air.

A noise startles me.

Turning I see her. She is crawling through the crack in the back of the cave. Her eyes are red and timid. Her tail dances behind her. She is here, her egg cradled close to her heart.

I am not sure if it is my wounds or the emotion that drops me to my knees. I cannot see her properly, but she nuzzles into my chest and offers me her neck. I cradle it gently and by god, she stinks. There is blood on her arms. Fish scale in her feathers. Excrement on her feet and ankles. Her hair is matted and lank with oils.

But she lives. I have found her and my heart flies higher than even I have. Then she is gone again. The cooked fish gone. Her touch gone. Her gone. The cave is empty, and she has slipped back through that tiny fissure in the rock.

No amount of pleading, of talking helped. She would not come out and I could not squeeze in.

Again, I raged. She was so close and yet so far.

My rage fades and I tire. Far too quickly with my breather out. Something is wrong. I bleed somewhere. There is a pool under me of my own blood. My leg is thick with it. Consciousness is failing so I take to the ledge and fall.

With every last ounce of concentration I have, I twist myself toward the medical outpost. I remember seeing it. I do not remember landing.

~*~

"Twit, twit, twit..."

"Twit, twit, twit..."

My eyes blink and open. "You know on earth it's not nice to call someone a 'twit'. It means stupid."

Mavisk laughs. "Here, it means hello. But perhaps stupid is more suited to you. You nearly died, foolish boy. You had a nick to your femoral artery. You have required a lot of plasma. It's Avian plasma, so we weren't sure if you would reject it, but by the look of these... It shouldn't hurt."

"Ow!" She shows me a stupid ginger feather. "The mother has taken a shine to your story, Todd Parker. I take it by your injuries you have found your Eris?"

"Yes! I have to... Go! Now!" Again, I am soundly strapped down.

"Haha. Yes, you do, but not yet. You are weak and your combatant heals. You need to heal."

"He is here?"

"Hmmm. And not very well. He tells everyone of a human who is the size of two avian and fights like an Arcadian god. A feathered human with talons and the strength of three avian. His friend with the broken arm laughs at him and calls him a poor loser. Haha. It is lucky he can fly because he may not walk again."

"Mmgrrr..." Her hand settles on my chest.

"Calm now warrior. Shh. You have found her. You have done more than any other human could. You need to become well now and then you can go and win her."

"What is wrong with me? What must be fixed!"

"Shh... Todd. You are mostly healed. Your body needs to replace the plasma with the blood cells your own body is making. Where is your breather?"

I rubbed at my nose. "I don't know."

Her smile is infuriating. "I told you to watch your back, but you didn't see these coming, did you?"

She waves the stupid feather at me again and says, "You are not aging like a human in our atmosphere. Leave it out for now. I will be back later to make some observations. You will sleep now."

"How am I supposed to slee-" Warm nothing flows into my arm, and I wander the dreams of gods.

I dream of washing. Of scrubbing myself with sand, shrieking at the night sky while I tug talons through my hair. I scratch at lice and fill a bowl with urine to clean the filth from my legs. I laugh at things. At memories from earth and with small hope. A small hope that I let fester in my chest. I eat grain and bugs and sneer at fish. I curl into a content quiet ball on new bedding in a very clean cave and listen to the lightning and thunder outside.

"Twit, twit, twit."

"Good morning Mavisk." I rub my eyes.

"It is not Mavisk, I am Relle. There is someone wants to speak with you."

A small avian lady in a nurse uniform points to the side and I see the male I flew down from the pinnacle that day. He looks darkly at me with his red eyes and wild demeanor.

"Hello." I tell him. Sitting up painfully from my bunk.

"I am Norst. They will rape your woman. They are planning."

"What?" Anger boils like a storm swept ocean, deep inside me.

"Terser. The man you fought. He plans with others to restrain and rape her. To mate her."

"When?"

"Tonight. As the sun sets. Before the storms."

"Why are you telling me? Is this a trap?"

"I am telling you because you did what was good when it was against your instincts. Now I return the favour. I will not thank you because I am cursed until a woman wants a broken rogue. But I return the gesture."

I am ripping drip lines out when Mavisk returns. "What are you doing, Todd Parker?"

Rage courses through me and I explain in brief.

"Go quickly then. Take this. It was my mother's."

"Merler's?"

"Yes. It is the Mother's stone. We do not tell humans of them. They would mine them. They are from lines across our world where the mother lives and moves. This will hold you to her. Go."

It is white with fire burning in it. Much like an opal I saw once on earth. It is the size of a small coin and Mavisk surprises me by suddenly slashing at my chest with her talon and pressing the stone into the wound. I watch as the skin knits around it and Mavisk smiles at my confusion.

"You are important human. Important to our people. Humans take what they want and give nothing. Maybe the mother thinks you can make them listen. Maybe she just likes love stories and brave adventurers. Go now."

I go. It is a short trip to Erry's island from the hospital. When I arrive, I find it still clean and smelling far less offensive. There is a new picture on the wall of a human and an avian fighting. It is a sad picture. The human falls from the rock.

The flight has left me tired. Perhaps my blood does not carry oxygen properly or some such thing. I am weary and rest against the wall of the little cave as I catch my breath. There is another small picture near knee height across from where I rest. It is an avian woman and a human male holding hands and looking at a nest. I smile at it and go to sleep.

When I wake, she has straddled me and is sleeping on my chest. Putting my arm around her startles her and she shrieks and flaps away to hover across from me and watch me with hawklike disdain. Her lips twitch and a smile creeps across her face.

Her clean face. Her hair is tidy and brushed and floats in the light air again. Her ankles are clean, and she smells like she has rolled in herbs or something. She smiles and two long lyre shaped feathers glow dark red at her eyebrows. When she turns and fans at me, two more twist into beautiful arcs above her. They rise from her tail like the carved holes in a cello and blush with heat. She winks.

My breath catches in my chest. Is this the moment?

But she giggles and falls from the ledge into flight. She is gone for long moments and returns when I am becoming quite risen with determined anger. She holds a chalky rock and shows it to me, then draws upon the walls. A scene unfolds where she fights a man who brings her fish and hurts her when she tries to reach for it. Then she falls against me and cries.

This soft thing is not like other avian rogues. Eris melts on me and needs me. I cuddle her close as she calls to my human heart and try to offer her the same safe place, I always was for her.

Her tummy rumbles and she giggles again.

"I'll go. I'll find food." I tell her and she shrieks at me and pulls into my chest. Her talons rip into my back and hold me close while she nuzzles into that special place she always belonged.

"Hide." I point at the fissure in the rock. "I'll be back."

Her hand holds my chin and tickles threat from her razor-sharp claws. Then she slips into the crack.

I am gone far too long. Every moment feels like an eternity where I am allowing someone to steal her away. I don't think even an avian male could fit through that small gap in the rock but something dark in me worries at a blood and bone level.

Returning with six red crayfish and some bugs from my trap, a little weed and some water I find her sitting on the ledge. She is keening in a song of some sort. It is soft and sweet and like the one her mother sings to calm people but savage and hopeful and worried and it brings me to the point of tears as I place down my offered food.

It is nearing dark. I've used words to explain, I've tried drawing pictures next to the one she drew earlier in chalk, but she will not leave me for her crevice in the cave. I am tired. Deathly tired. Maybe my blood has not yet filled itself with things that doctors, and nurses know about. But I am tired.

She nuzzles more closely and nibbles at my neck and ear. She croons her song and I am almost asleep when I hear their flumping wings. There are at least three from their voices. They grunt in shorthand speech that is mostly avian, but it translates to trouble in any language.

I shake her awake.

"Go!" I urge loudly and point at the rock.

Her shrieked reply translates only to bloodshed and anger in any language. Then they are at the opening to the cave. I recognise Terser first. He hovers and his feet are twisted. It looks like I got his Achilles tendons with a swipe. I look to the others and recognition hurts more than anything else I have suffered through this whole ordeal.

Erry's cry of outrage beside me echoes my dull ache at this betrayal. Ernst and Ornkeh flank the broken Terser. Her brothers... Ernst, now fully fledged and his eyes shot red with rage. Ornkeh, cool and measured and smiling an evil taunt at us both.

"You overreach human." He twists his lips and tells me. "I would rather see my sister mated to a broken avian than to the like of you."

My own reply consisted of screamed human expletives that melded into an almost avian outrage that came from my diaphragm. Eris echoed my outrage with her own shrieks and Ernst stood darkly watching. His red eyes took in the scene with all of the wild energy that coursed through him now and none of the understanding perhaps he would have once had.

"Take them." Terser cried.

My claws raked Ornkeh cruelly, but his own talons twisted my wrists back behind me and pinned my weakened body to the rock. Ernst locked his hands on Eris and suffered greatly for the gesture. Her feet raked great gashes down his chest and legs, and he screamed in pain and rage. Her wild eyes sought mine and I felt that old mist descending.

This was every time that she had been bullied. This was every time my body told my heart and head to fight. With what little strength I had left I wrestled Ornkeh into a simple arm lock and freed myself enough to slash at Ernst. His grip on Eris faltered and I screamed, "Fly!" "Go."

Eris raked Ernst the length of his thigh and he shrieked and loosed his grip. I saw her flit past the ledge and watched both brothers stare hate into my eyes.

"His suit. Destroy his suit. Take his gloves. Follow." Terser screamed at them before launching downwards to follow my fleeing Eris.

Ernst hesitated. His eyes found mine and for a moment he dared not reach for me. But Ornkeh's talons tore at my suit without hesitation. "You lose human. Follow us down to your death, if you like. You can watch Terser mate my sister."

He gripped my throat and I wrenched at his arms with all the strength I had. With all the knowledge of leverage and weight that I had learned in wrestling but my strength failed me. Ernst took my gloves at Ornkeh's bidding. They both leapt into the air to follow Terser and Eris down.

Ernst took one long look and for a moment there was a fear in his eyes. I saw him understand the gravity of his actions.

I stripped off my suit and stared at it. At the edge of the ledge, I looked down and heard Erry crying out as the three of them chased her down. The terror in her voice called to something deep inside me. I would rather be dead than watch her raped.

Tipping forward over the ledge was easy. A red blood filled my eyes and mind. All I saw was battle and things to finish. I was faster downward than them and caught up quickly. Ernst was trailing and I looked at him briefly as I passed him by using my fingertips trailing in the soupy atmosphere to spin me in the right direction.

As I saw Ornkeh quickly rising toward me, I felt all of Erry's betrayal surge in me. I braced my feet against my chest in a squat and lashed out viciously with my heels into his back. A satisfying 'crack' preceded his spiralling fall. But still, Terser had hold of Eris's neck. As he followed her down, he thrust wildly at her tail and pinned her arm behind her. She rolled and slashed and screamed and her cries tore holes in any shred of humanity I had left.

My fingers spread and turned the wind and with it, my body, into a sharper dive. My feet twisted and kept me straight and true. I pulled massive armfuls of air rhythmically and hurtled faster and faster. I saw him thrusting and trying to enter her and then my elbow hit the back of his skull. My left hand tore his wrist from her neck and then my right slashed up beneath his ribs.

As I fell backwards beneath them, I watched his blood trail down alongside him. I watched Eris rise slowly away. I tried to slow my dive toward the water below which rose quickly to claim me, but it all felt like slow motion. My arms spread widely, and my fingers grabbed at every last ounce of this avian air and then Eris flew beside me.

Ernst took my wrist just as the stars crept into my vision. Darkness welcomed my happy heart. At least my Eris could choose. If she could not choose me, she could at least choose and not be cursed to a lifetime of loyalty to someone she despised.