Bird of a Wing - Chapter 38: Chapter 38

It was hard to place the feeling which was going around at the dinner. Tai'ray did his normal speeches and thanked the villagers for welcoming them so warmly. The Winglord was sat at the head of the table with the village Guardian on one side of him and the lead warrior on the other. A few seats down, after members of importance in the village such as the minor elders and a few other warriors of note, were the rest of the party. Ryraso was placed beside Nel'os, with Herymi. The healer sitting in a pose which was polite and graceful. Normally he would have been placed at the other end of the table, however Tai'ray declared he wanted his companions as close to him as possible and Fl'ex had been happy to oblige.
Eyeri had already been moved once due to the placing. He originally started in between Aw'endo and one of the village's hunters however, the hunter's leering at the boy had made Eyeri very uncomfortable. Not to mention the way the man was speaking to Eyeri. Luckily the man seemed to assume Eyeri was much too young for him, which was true, but it didn't stop him telling bloodier hunting stories. After Eyeri started pushing against Aw'endo in an attempt to distance himself from the hunter, Dyn'ad had actually picked the boy up and placed him on his lap. Aw'endo hissing at the offender.
Ryraso, who had been watching from over the table, couldn't help but smirk at the action. Dyn'ad was becoming a little protective of his apprentice. Eyeri managed to wriggle out of the k'nairi's lap but was still sat glued to his side. Dyn'ad didn't complain, only placing a wing behind the boy.
"How did it go with your friends then?" Ryraso asked, turning to Herymi once the ceremonies were over and people had started being loud and cheerful. Herymi's suitors were on another table. Out of hearing distance but within view. Something they seemed to be taking advantage off, while they were staring Ryraso was pretty certain at least one of them was looking at Herymi at every moment.
Hermyi's response was to groan and hang his head in his hands, looking the most dejected Ryraso had ever seen someone. "Next time it would be easier to let me hit the ground," he said bitterly.
"That well?" Nel'os commented teasingly. His voice remaining optimistic and cheerful despite Herymi's words. Herymi lifted his head out of his hands in order to glare at the k'nairi, who only laughed at the look. Heart of the link, Nel'os was able to tell Herymi had no real desire to die and was just being overdramatic about what had happened.
"What happened?" Ryraso asked, patting the man on the back sympathetically, ignoring the looks he got from the nest.
"Well, let's see. O'chetur lands with me. I say 'Hey, how have you been' because let's face it, there is nothing you can really say in these situations," Herymi snarled, sitting up and banging his fists on the table. "Then it crumbled from there. Ran'mosy yelled. Adar'y yelled. O'chetur yelled at them for yelling at me. Cha'em hugged me and started crying. Ran'mosy promptly starts yelling at me again saying how everything is all my fault. Cha'em cries more. Adar'y starts crying so I drag Adar'y into the hug. Mind you still not having said else other than those greeting words. O'chetur yells at Ran'mosy. They fight.O'chetur pins Ran'mosy down and starts punishing him. Meanwhile Cha'em is beginning to calm down and is clinging to me like a monkey, Adar'y's not much better. But Adar'y wouldn't be Adar'y without some form of remark so he asked me if the guys I slept with were any good and if I preferred top or bottom," Herymi sounded extremely exasperated and ran his hands through his hair.
Nel'os howled with laughter at that, making both Ryraso and Herymi glare at him darkly. "What? It's a good question to ask" Nel'os commented barely restraining to his giggles, "Which do you prefer?"
"None of your business Nel'os," Herymi growled, as Ryraso hit Nel'os over the back of the head like he would Eyeri or Aw'endo for stupid remarks. "More importantly, or dramatically, Ran'mosy hadn't realised that I had slept with anyone yet," he revealed darkly. Both k'nairi and human winced at that, knowing that dark tone. "He then declared me a whore and a slut and flew off before O'chetur could stop him. Adar'y flew after him, O'chetur pretty much collapsed by me and declared it was time for dinner." With the final word said, Herymi let his head hit the table.
"Ouch," Ryraso said, still rubbing the man's back in sympathy. "He didn't have any right to call you that," he added sympathetically.
"No, he didn't. Especially as I know how many people he slept with in between the others becoming a nest and him being brought into it," Herymi growled darkly, his head still on the table.
"Navdia's different," Nel'os pointed out stiffly, the joy of Ryraso having hit him over the head like the human had always done fearlessly disappearing at the idea that Herymi was insulting someone's behaviour during Navdia. The k'nairi had pretty strict social rules on insulting people for sleeping around if they were going through that period of their lives. It wasn't allowed simply.
"I wasn't talking about when he was going through Navdia," Herymi said dryly, sitting up to shoot Nel'os another unimpressed look. "I'm talking about after he had calmed down from it and thought the other three didn't want him," Herymi stated firmly.
"How did that work?" Nel'os asked, sounding slightly confused. "I always thought the four of them just sort of clicked together when they were old enough like so many friends do."
"They don't exactly advertise what happened between them," Herymi shrugged, glancing over his shoulder at them, not missing how one looked away fast. He rolled his eyes and looked at the food on his plate. "As it is, Cha'em's the youngest of us five, but Ran'mosy was the last to go through Navdia. The others didn't notice because they were too busy with each other they forgot to check up on their other friends," Herymi shrugged, having gotten over that bitterness years beforehand. "When they noticed he had actually been through it and was looking for a different nest than theirs to join..." Herymi paused, smiling slightly remembering a funny memory, a distinctly warm and fond look in his eyes. "Let's just say they fixed any notion of them not wanting him pretty quickly but he had slept around a lot before that."
Ryraso blinked twice at that before grinning, Nel'os sharing the look. Some of the things nests would do to catch a person they wanted could be very entertaining for the rest of the people around as well. Both also noticed Herymi had said 'Us five' which was a good sign for the idea that Herymi would like to be with them one day.
"So what are you planning to do?" Ryraso asked gently, making that smile disappear from Herymi's face.
"I have no fucking idea where to start fixing this. If it was just friendship, I'd know where to start. Hell if it was humans I would know where to start. The problem is they were courting me and I have no idea how to deal with that. It would have been so much easier if they had just told me!" Herymi sighed, sounding exhausted.
"How come they didn't?" Ryraso asked.
"They were going to. I just got in a fight with them the night they were planning to, got fed up of their behaviour and left," Herymi grumbled.
Ryraso made a noise in understanding. He knew that feeling. Though his leaving had been more to do with the fact his home village had been completely wiped out by the D'mar and he refused to work for them. The only two survivors had been Isst, who had been at the human capital and him, who had been in Navat.
"Nel'os, care to share why yours didn't tell Ryraso?" Herymi asked, voicing a question Ryraso had been pondering as well but too afraid to ask.
Nel'os actually blushed slightly. "I think we are a little different to your situation Herymi... Well actually..." Nel'os paused thinking about it, tilting his head slightly. "Maybe it could be the same reason given how long you have known them," he mused lifting his eyebrows.
"You going to tell us or talk in circles?" Ryraso asked dryly. Nel'os glared at Ryraso before bumping him over the head with one of his wings. "Oi!" Ryraso waved the wing away.
"For us, it was a case of forgetting Ryraso isn't born k'nairi," Nel'os said in an odd tone, like he wasn't sure how his friend and hopefully mate was going to take what he was saying, "With some of you who have lived with us a long time, it is very easy to forget you don't actually understand everything we do as instinctively as us. You have to learn what the actions and suggestions mean." As he spoke, it was obvious he was slightly nervous about admitting this, fiddling with his food and watching Eyeri and Aw'endo bicker over on the other side of the table.
Ryraso also had half an eye on them and was proud to see Eyeri putting Aw'endo in his place for once, much to Dyn'ad's surprise. Eyeri was stronger than he looked and he did, in fact, know how to fight. It was just normally he froze up before he would do any damage. Verbally however, he could very much hold his own in almost any situation.
"The fact we don't have wings doesn't clue you in?" Ryraso said rather dryly, putting a finger to Nel'os's lip to stop him interrupting, "Most of your social signals are in your wings. We don't have them. We don't know what they mean very well. I know yours just about well enough to know when you're up to no good, in a good mood or in a mood which means I'd better mind what I say. I mean look," Ryraso gestured over to Dyn'ad and Eyeri, Dyn'ad's wing still curled behind the boy protectively. "How is a human unfamiliar with the k'nairi meant to see that? It looks possessive. Like if Eyeri moved, he'd be dragged back with possible consequences."
"What do you actually think it is?"
"Protective. I'm hoping anyway because otherwise I need to talk to Eyeri about how k'nairi relationships work a little sooner then I'd planned," Ryraso said, much to Nel'os amusement. Ryraso lived under no illusions to what would most likely happen to Eyeri. Most likely he would not end up having a normal human, marriage and two children, relationship. The boy would likely end up in one of three situations. One, he would get courted and then claimed by someone or a nest. Two, he would be claimed and then courted by a nest, depending if Tai'ray was going to allow claims on those who came with the Caw.
"We don't just think about sex and children you know," Nel'os muttered unhappily.
"Yeah, you forgot fighting as well" Herymi teased, making Nel'os give both of them a dark glare as they laughed.
"Very funny!" Nel'os pouted.
The third was that the boy would end up in the royal nest. Eyeri was not related to him, and Aw'endo was not related to any of them. If any of the k'nairi royal triad decided they would prefer the boys as something closer than adoptive sons, there was very little he could do about it. He couldn't even stop himself being pulled into the nest. It wasn't unusual for adoptive children to end up in their adoptive parent's nests. Navdia tended to be an interesting time. Mostly it depended on Aw'endo and how he saw Eyeri after his Navdia. Which thankfully was a while off yet.
'Which might end up being more of a problem because other k'nairi will see Eyeri as available and Aw'endo is going to get jealous,' Ryraso mused. Aw'endo was already protective over Eyeri, it wasn't going to be long until he was possessive as well. He was going to have to come up with a plan to protect his student from unwanted suitors.
"It is protective, admittedly slightly possessive. But in a way which shows Dyn'ad views the kid more like blood kin then kin," Nel'os explained, all three watching as Dyn'ad picked Eyeri up again, this time moving him so he was on the other side of him, so Dyn'ad was in between the two arguing adoptive siblings, looking slightly tired. Both Eyeri and Aw'endo complained but Dyn'ad shut them up sternly. "I'll admit the kid cute, though. He'll grow up well" Nel'os chuckled as the two youngsters pouted and sulked. "But you might want to give him that lesson sooner rather than later. Everyone knows humans are available from sixteen."
"They are not available," Ryraso scolded, "They are just horny as rabbits."
"Available," Nel'os insisted, "Fun while they are like that as well. Met a really cute farm boy once who wasn't afraid to take a tumble with a k'nairi. Eighteen and fantastic stamina..."
"Don't want to know," both Herymi and Ryraso said in a unison deadpan. Nel'os liked to talk about his conquests. His mates found it oddly endearing. Partly because though it was only Nel'os fucking, they were with him through their bond anyway. As far as fidelity went, as long as you had all of your partners' consent, it was only a bit of fun. Otherwise, it was cheating. While you couldn't hate people once bonded with them, you could still be angry with them.
"Got any good advice?" Herymi asked tiredly.
"Have a good orgy and be done with it!" Nel'os declared completely serious. Ryraso and Herymi just looked at him. "What?"