Bird of a Wing - Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Tai'ray's chamber was oddly simple compared to most of the palace. Navat was a stunning city, made from a set of tree houses and houses on rocky formations, linked by bridges. There were a few buildings on the ground but in general, those were temples to gods not sky related. The k'nairi acknowledge the gods of the land as well as the gods of the sky after all. They did have to eat and land occasionally.
The chamber door was carved with stories of Winglords past but once inside the chamber, it was plain primary colours and wooden decorations instead of gold and silver which adorned most of the palace rooms. It smelt of freshly cut wood despite the fact not a single wooden thing had ever been cut in the room.
"Ryraso," Tai'ray smiled weakly from his perch on the cushions he was leaning on, his blond hair flowing loosely around him and only wearing some loose shapeless pants which almost seemed to drape over his lap like a blanket hiding his legs from view. They were cream coloured and no sign of dirt or blood on them showing Tai'ray had changed after the fight.
His injuries had clearly been treated by a first aider but Tai'ray had obviously been waiting for Ryraso to appear before finally having them bandaged up. "I was worried for a moment you weren't going to show up," he teased lightly, an almost awkward smile at the end of it.
"You were worried?" Ryraso frowned slightly. "You were the idiot who fought the man," he said bluntly, pulling his bag over to start looking over the wounds. "These are hardly life-threatening Tai, you could have let the arena medic fix you up for once. Where are Nel and Dy?" He grabbed Tai'ray's arm to look closer at one of the more jagged wounds.
"They have gone to get food. The servants are busy preparing for a celebration of the new alliance. We thought you would be here sooner," Tai'ray said sounding almost confused by this, not having missed Ryraso's lack of response to his tease. "I know this alliance isn't what you wanted Ryraso but I thought..." he started, clearly about to go into a speech about something. Ryraso wasn't sure of the exact nature, all he was sure of was he wasn't in the mood for such a thing.
"Don't," Ryraso murmured as he cleaned the wounds with a cloth which had been left for him to do so with. "Just don't." None thankfully would need stitching, he mused and he bandaged the man up. Tai'ray would heal fast and would likely be fighting fit again before the end of the next day.
"You aren't happy," Tai'ray said softly, a hand pressing over the one Ryraso had on his wound, making Ryraso look back up into his eyes.
"What makes you think that?" Ryraso said almost wincing at the sound of his own voice, no subtlety there, just hurt. "I'm hardly the only human in the link who is unhappy with this change of affairs Tai'ray," he added more softly, finishing up his bandaging.
"You are the one that matters to me," Tai'ray said softly, his eyes looking down at Ryraso's backpack. Ryraso felt his heartbeat fast at those words. There was nothing between him and Tai'ray but sometimes there seemed to be. "You're leaving?" he asked, sounding darker, k'nairi possessiveness appearing like a black cloud.
"I think I have to, don't you?" Ryraso said seriously, wincing as Tai'ray grabbed his arm more roughly than before.
"Where do you think you are going?" Tai'ray demanded, his talons holding him tightly in place. His wings flared angrily. All his concentration was now on Ryraso and the link that connected Ryraso to the k'nairi. A link which was radiating hurt and pain, and not because of what Ryraso was feeling from the steel-hard grip Tai'ray had on his arm. "You can't leave," he added in a disbelieving tone. The sentence would have made Ryraso mad if it had any other emotion in it, but this wasn't Tai'ray telling him he couldn't leave. This was Tai'ray in disbelief that Ryraso would.
"Home," Ryraso replied clearly. "Or rather, what the D'mar have left of it," he added bitterly. That one word on its own was enough to make Tai'ray stop in his tracks, the man flinching at the mention of the destruction of Ryraso's home town. He had been aware of what Ryraso and other humans in the link had lost due to the war, but Ryraso most of all because he had sat and comforted the human when the news had come through. The only other 'survivor' of the village revealing the news.
The Winglord looked speechless for a moment as he struggled to come up with a reply for that. Ryraso watched emotions passing through Tai'ray's eyes calmly. He obviously hadn't been expecting that as an answer to the question.
"Home?" he said sounding lost, "Navat is home," he said more strongly, his mind pressing against Ryraso's though the link.
The link was a power thing and Ryraso was unnerved by the link, having little control over it himself. It scared him sometimes just how much Tai'ray could learn about a person from it. He didn't need to dive deep into a person either. Not that the Winglord could access memories of people; he could, however, read people's surface thoughts and emotions.
Ryraso let his thoughts and emotions reveal to the Winglord that 'home' to him was his hometown. The little place surrounded by fields and full of both happy and sad memories for him. Where his mother and father were buried, where his first mentor and the man who had supported him going to a healing school was buried. Now where his brothers, sisters, cousins, nephew, nieces and more were buried. He may have lived in Navat for ten years but he had still taken regular trips home to see his family. Not all of his memories of the town were good, some were decidedly not but his family had still been home to him.
The human winced as a hurt look flashed across the man's face at the idea that Ryraso did not think the treetop city of Navat to be his home. What it meant was far more than just Ryraso didn't feel a location was home, it meant Ryraso didn't consider the k'nairi as his home either. Something which Tai'ray had assumed the human had for a long time. Ryraso had settled in so well sometimes it was only the lack of wings which made him different to anyone else in the court.
The confusion faded, and anger replaced it. "You. Are. Ours!" Tai'ray growled, his tone going from gentle to dark and serious, his talons digging into Ryraso's soft skin, as he stressed every word.
Faced with a man who was quickly looking less than stable, some would have panicked, but not Ryraso. He understood that the idea that Ryraso was going to leave them was making Tai'ray react in a more primal way than normal. Panicking and trying to fight the man would only make the situation worse, not just for him but any human who tried to leave now because of this. He had to remain calm.
Closing his eyes for a moment, Ryraso mentally cursed whatever had possessed him to see Tai'ray one last time. The Winglord wasn't going to let him go without a fight.
"Tai'ray..." Ryraso murmured softly.
"You are home!" Tai'ray said sounding remarkably like a hurt child instead of the leader of the k'nairi. "If you leave we will consider you caw and I will hunt you down," Tai'ray threatened darkly, trying to remove the thoughts Ryraso had of leaving by threatening the man. Unfortunately, the threats only triggered anger from the human.
Caw was the k'nairi word for traitor, or rather the closest they had to it. Someone who chose to live away from the link, the word had grown to include anyone who tried to run away from their responsibilities towards the k'nairi race. It was not a minor thing to be named as caw, and the punishments for people when they were dragged back to Navat were more often than not brutal.
"If I stay I will be a traitor to my own family!" Ryraso growled back, not about to let the man boss him around. He was a healer and he had never backed down from the Winglord on an issue and he wasn't about to start now. "I will not work for you while you follow the D'mar. This is not my side of the war," he paused, before continuing, meeting Tai'ray's eyes without fear. "You knew that," he hissed angrily, "You knew that and you fought him anyway. Well Winglord, that alliance is going to change more than just your side of the war."
"He is strong," Tai'ray defended against the anger which was starting to pour off of Ryraso, against the feeling of betrayal Ryraso was feeling towards Tai'ray at that moment.
"He will kill thousands of innocents for no reason other than for being in his way. He has already killed people who are my blood-kin. I will not bow to him." Ryraso hissed with all the ferocity of any full bloodied k'nairi. The death of someone who was blood-kin meant a lot to the k'nairi, even if they, themselves, weren't considered k'nairi. Despite this Tai'ray was acting like what had happened wasn't a big deal. Ryraso wasn't in the mood to fight and decided just to go for the killing blow.
"If you have any respect for me at all, you will let me go," he demanded, narrowing his eyes in a challenge and waiting for his response.
Something flashed through in Tai'ray's eyes as he glared into Ryraso's, testing the human's resolve. For a few moments, there was a battle of wills between the two men.
As the Winglord, the k'nairi should have been able to force his will on anyone in his circle of influence. As a member of the link, Ryraso should have bowed under his influence, however, instead of trying to force the human to change his mind, Tai'ray let out a heavy sigh. As much as Ryraso owed Tai'ray, Tai'ray owed Ryraso. Playing the respect card meant Tai'ray had to let him go. Not doing so would suggest, no prove to everyone that Tai'ray had no real respect for Ryraso, when in reality that couldn't be further from the truth.
"I have to leave Tai'ray," Ryraso murmured, seeing the defeat in Tai'ray's eyes. There was a sharp intake of breath and a fluttering of wings.
"Ryraso? You're leaving?" a quiet voice said from behind them, sounding incredibly young and upset. Ryraso turned to see a very young k'nairi hovering in the open window to the chamber, looking at him with big yellow eyes which were beginning to water at the news.
"Aw'endo, sweetheart, come here," Ryraso coaxed, pulling away from Tai'ray to reach out to the young child, Tai'ray letting him go limply. The boy was barely ten years old, he had lost his parent nest a few years previously, and as k'nairi traditions went, was being raised by the community. It just so happened that the community closest to the nest had been the Royal triad making the boy the closest thing the k'nairi had to a prince.
Aw'endo had attached himself to Ryraso tightly as a surrogate caretaker. The idea of leaving the young boy behind hurt, but Loror's men had murdered Ryraso's nieces and nephews. He couldn't stay here any longer and it wasn't like Aw'endo wasn't well-looked after.
"You promised..." The boy's eyes teared up, refusing to move closer to the man. "You promised you wouldn't leave!" he yelled.
Ryraso faltered, not sure how best to comfort Aw'endo. He had dealt with upset children before but that was when they were physically hurt or someone close to them was hurt. How to comfort Aw'endo when he was the one causing the boy pain was not something he had ever prepared for or had any idea where to start with. "This is not about you Aw'en. I can't stay here anymore..." he said gently, walking forwards, hoping to draw the boy closer to him.
The boy didn't give him time to explain, only turned and dived out of the window and out of their sight, flying away in a turmoil of upset emotions. Ryraso went to follow, heart clenching at the sight but Tai'ray grabbed him again to stop him.
"Let him go. You can't exactly fly after him," Tai'ray growled, but not in anger, this time in sadness. "Ryraso, do you truly wish to leave us? You are the only one who cares for Aw'endo like he needs. The rest of us can look after him, but you're the one he latched onto. He needs someone to hold on to," Tai'ray argued.
"That's low of you to try to play that card. Aw'endo is safe here. I'm not," Those were the only words Ryraso could say, refusing to acknowledge the deeper meaning behind Tai'ray using the word 'us' in his sentence, too. He was not just talking about himself and Aw'endo but Nel'os and Dy'nad as well.
It was hard. Ryraso wanted to take Aw'endo with him. He cared for Aw'endo. He had looked after the boy since his parents had died and basically forced Tai'ray to accept Aw'endo as one of his charges since Ryraso, as a single human, wasn't legally by k'nairi law able to take care of him. Ryraso was aware that he was leaving Aw'endo to Tai'ray to take care of but it would not be safe for either of them if he took Aw'endo with him like he wanted to do. Ryraso was no fool. Once word got out about the k'nairi joining the D'mar it would not be safe for any k'nairi who was not strong enough to defend themselves. People could be very cruel and Aw'endo was far too young to be exposed to that sort of cruelty. He was not going to endanger Aw'endo's life for his own wishes, especially as the child himself was perfectly safe here. If Aw'endo wasn't safe in Navat too maybe things would be difficult but as matters stood, Aw'endo was.
"If you truly wish to leave, I will neither aid you nor stop you," Tai'ray said, his tone reluctant with a complex mix of sadness and anger and turning almost painfully formal. "However by leaving you will be classed as a traitor to the k'nairi, and you will be treated as such regardless."
"I understand. Just remember, I am not the only one who will be likely leaving tonight. Warlord Loror's ideas are good ones but the means he is using are not ones I will follow. Most of the humans who live here have family who Loror and his men are endangering. I tell you this now, many of us will join High Priest Inai. It's nothing against the k'nairi, but against Loror," Ryraso warned him, their eyes locking together for a moment.
"I understand. That doesn't change anything," Tai'ray growled before finally letting go of Ryraso's arm. The action made Ryraso feel suddenly very cold as he watched Tai'ray clench his fists, his talons digging into his own palms.
"Tai'ray, this is nothing about..." Ryraso trailed off, losing the words he had been about to use. There was no point anymore, staying any longer would just pour salt on an open wound. He moved forward and kissed Tai'ray on the cheek. "Goodbye, Tai'ray."
"Just go," Tai'ray whispered unable to meet his eyes. Ryraso slung his bag back over his shoulders and left, walking away while he still could. As he closed the door he heard something crash inside and a yell of pain. He forced himself to keep moving forward and to leave, taking a route to avoid as many people as possible. He didn't want any more goodbyes.