Kiromir63

Have you ever had one of those mornings where you woke up with everything on fire all around you? I had one of those mornings. I barely got a few hours of sleep that night before the sun rose and the non-nocturnal people of the flock milled about in their typical rude morning person fashion. I had to remind myself that the domestics served important purposes. Our men and women that took up the honor of caring for the rest of us were essential.

“Mir, you decent?” Letti’s brazen voice crowed out as the tent shook a little. I could think of three or four new obscenities to teach her.

“No.” I had never let that much angst enter my voice in my entire life. Still, I brimmed with the anger of the day before and the absolute indignation that someone would dare try to deprive me of the one thing that kept my mind occupied, my aura down, and my fires from glinting over my teeth. Thanus did that last night, mana over his lips. He shared the same rage I did.

“Then get decent. Chieftain time, buddy boy!”

I groaned and sat up. My pants lay crumpled on the other side of the tent, but Thanus had a death grip on my waist.

“Get off, come on!” I jostled his bronzed arm and slapped over his shoulder. He only squeezed tighter.

“THANUS, YOU GET YOUR RANDY ASS OFF HIM RIGHT THIS MOMENT,” Letti’s voice became a sharp spike that shot through his mind, and his eyes opened in a golden flash.

“WE AIN’T DONE NOTHIN’ YET!” He shouted back.

Yet.

That prospect terrified me, and if I hadn’t had the kids to worry about, that would have kept me awake last night.

“WELL THEN! Let me give you five more minutes so you can fix that!” She shouted.

Thanus and Letti mouthed at one another constantly. But he fared better at going head-to-head with her than Dimal did. So, he roused himself from bed, struggled into his pants, and emerged just in time for me to follow him.

“Gonna need a lot more than five minutes to do what I want to do.” Thanus’s voice bubbled with morning husk and bitterness.

Just what does he want to do? That concept couldn’t just leave me alone for five minutes.

“Feathers sake, it smells like a lumber mill in there.” She waved at her nose and stepped back.

I was thankful she didn’t shout that one out loud.

“That what we smell like to you?” Thanus loomed over her.

“You smell like a damn cedar air freshener, and Mir smells like the lumberjack.”

“Lumberjack?” I blinked at her in surprise. People said I smelled like salt, sweat, like sea and breeze. Nobody had ever said I smelled like a lumberjack.

“Sweat and trees.” She iterated.

We aulted one another’s wings that night. We took our minds from the stresses as best we could. I rubbed my hand over my chest for a gentle morning scratch, and my skin shone a little more glossy than usual. We had aulted more than one another’s wings. Thanus bore a similar gleam and a coating of red welts.

“Oh, good fucking creator’s business!” Her green fire charged over her hand, and she literally slapped the back of Thanus’s neck. I flinched when she came after me. I expected it to hurt, but I only felt the wash of familiar healing energy dappling over my neck. “Like a couple of teenagers, I swear. I saw it yesterday and missed catching you before you left. Did Niala have to see that the whole dr— I’m so sorry…” Her indignation melted away, and the hurt in her eyes made me hurt worse. She and Dimal had tried for years to have children, and Niala had filled the gap until she finally got pregnant with Mesin. It didn’t often happen right away for couples, not for lack of trying.

“It’s okay. She got a message out. She knows how to defend herself.” I was resolute. I had to be.

“Yeah, but mir… She’s out there with humans.” Letti drew her hands to her chest and twisted her hands nervously.

“That’s where we’re going to have to trust Gaffriel.” Thanus grabbed my shoulder and squeezed.

I took a deep breath and sighed.

Letti looked about on the same level as me before slapping both of us on the back of our heads and ordering us to go put shirts on.