Thanus 79

Krell didn’t do too well that night. Once his nerve had come back, he sat in staring silence. I think he washed his hands every ten minutes until they cracked, raw and bleeding.

“So, you killed someone. You’ve killed dozens of humans,” I reasoned with him.

He just stared off quietly, shoulders rounded, eyes out of focus.

We found Kiromir and Sorrin still in the ‘war room.’ Everyone sat, quiet and pensive, and my dejected look must have alerted them because Kiromir clutched to his chest, waiting for a response.

“Krell killed a Sentinel,” I managed to breathe out. Sorrin and Kiromir shook their heads. “He punched him in the face and… yeah, full melon.” Miela stood next to Kiromir and just put his hand over his mouth with horror.

“We took the other three prisoner. How bad is it?” I asked.

“Tavar already gave us the clear to eliminate who we had to,” Kiromir’s voice a soft whisper as he stood with shaken composure. “Come, I’ve done what I can do here for now. We need to catch up and find Krell. Poor boy...”

“Thanus, before you leave. Rehn is going to find you and will have words for you. He owes you an apology. Maybe if he had gone, this incident might have played out different. Please do tell him that there was a death. He seems to think so unkindly of Niala that maybe this will shake his composure.” Sorrin said, and I nodded to him, slipping out after Kiromir.

I felt a little like Gaffriel at times, how he followed Niala around like a lost puppy; I felt that way with Kiromir, all the time. Now, the only difference was where my eyes wandered. I couldn’t get that stupid moth statue out of my head. Kahera’s comment had made things worse. Kiromir did have a nice seat, though. I averted my eyes and kept them trained up until Kiromir looked over his shoulder at me with a quirked brow. Niala was right. Kiromir had eyes in the back of his head. As he turned his head back, I gave him the finger.

“I saw that,” He said. I heard that damn smirk in his voice.

Damnit.

I took a step forward and hooked a finger in his belt loop. I needed a tether to him right now as I updated him about not finding the kids. He nodded and shook his head, making his way back to our camps to search for Krell.

It didn’t take us too long to find him. He sat at one of the communal areas, still staring off into the distance as Nodak sat there uncomfortably patting his back. “Come on, man. It’s going to be okay. You’re going to be fine.”

“Back off, Nodak. Swans coming through.” I announced. Kiromir blanched, and I noticed a flick of Krell’s eye. We’d gotten him.

Krell sat, scrubbed raw, just in his shorts, barefoot, and bunched over. He met my face, and Kiromir lashed hard, sending all of us stumbling to let our wings free.

“Come on, boy.” Kiromir leaned over Krell, forcing the boy up under his arm. Kiromir had two or three inches on Krell, but they had similar body types. At his age, Krell didn’t look like he’d particularly ‘bulk’ out like some men.

“Hey! Fuck! Put me down!” Krell flailed as Kiromir walked off with him. Krell’s dusty brown wings pinned against his back under Kiromir’s arm. He kicked his foot against the ground, jumping with practiced ease as the boy flailed. Finally, Kiromir got some sky beneath him and swooped to twirl in the air before slinging Krell ass over teakettle.

Feathers, I loved watching Kiromir fly. He was all broad shoulders and full wings, looking like a spotted dove, all grey and checkered. Krell righted himself in the air, swooping to land. But Kiromir wouldn’t let that happen. He tagged Krell with his wing in a challenge, swooping once, then twice before instinct had Krell banking in the air and flitting back. Krell’s brown pigeon wings sprang back into his field. I could tell Kiromir shouted, raised voice over the wind. Krell shouted back, half-angry, distracted at least. Then, Krell took a cheap shot at Kiromir, and he responded in kind. The skirmish went the way of all wildling scuffles and ended up much like our ‘soccer’ matches, in a fistfight.

I couldn’t tell from the cage of wings about them who won, but Nodak and I ran to follow where they fell. People looked up as we ran by, watching the spectacle as it evolved into something worse.

Letti sat with Mesin bundled up to her chest, feeding him as we bolted by. He immediately started bawling at the commotion. “Oh, for fuck’s sake!” She shouted.

Once Mesin had his fill, she’d probably join in. I could tell she got restless without a challenge these few weeks.

“DIMWIT!” She announced in a screech. Mesin immediately calmed to her shout as Dimal turned his head from us to her. He saw the fire in her eyes as she held a bewildered Mesin out to him. Then, she reached back to tie her shirt into place and bound after us.

Dimal looked absolutely beaten down as he sat there with the baby, who struggled and started bawling again. If he wasn’t careful, he’d be the domestic of the two soon enough. “Come on, shhh, mommy’s gotta whoop some ass.” Mesin—nonplussed—got louder.

I heaved a ragged sigh. Kiromir knew what he was doing, and I looped back to my brother. “Give ‘em here!” I said.

He pushed Mesin into my arms and chased off after Letti while I walked calmly after them, rocking little Mesin in my arms until he quieted. Then, he looked up at me with little brown eyes full of his mother’s spite.

“You’re going to be a problem when you get older, aren’t you?” I asked him.

Mesin’s face drew up into a little smirking half-smile for a flash and went back to his baby-neutral face. I squinted down at him for a moment before I heard the thud and flutter of wings.

“Who’s the pigeon!” Kiromir shouted.

“Ngh, fuck off!” Krell tumbled and squirmed out of Kiromir’s locked hold.

“SAY IT, AND I WILL!” Kiromir said.

“Get the fuck off me, Kiromir!” Krell’s arms pinned down to his sides, Kiromir locking his arms around the boy, one wing cramped down as his other slapped at the air and ground uselessly. Krell tried to get his legs under him, kick away, but Kiromir clutched too strong and ruthless. I don’t think I’d ever won a game of pigeon with him until recently.

“SAY IT!” Kiromir shifted his grasp and got a knee into Krell’s back.

“I’M A PIGEON!” He bleated out. Kiromir shoved him off and sent him tumbling through the dirt. Kiromir jumped back on his feet, dusting off when Letti didn’t miss a beat; where an opportunity for violence existed, there too also shall there be Letti. I made a note to have the elders work those into our bylaws.

Kiromir went face down in the dirt, a slender knee locked between his wingbases and a fist bunched up full of a few locks of his hair.

“Damnit, woman!” Kiromir shouted, and her manic aura had everyone heightened and alert. It almost felt like I bubbled inside.

He crawled onto his hands and knees, Letti hooking her hands into his wingbases, digging her fingers in. Kiromir’s back arched reflexively, and he threw her off with a shrug. She had all of the springiness of our women, and I noticed the gingerness in her posture. Kiromir exercised a lot of restraint with her.

“I’m gonna make ya say it, Mir!” She shouted just as he drew his wings in time to keep her from grabbing for feathers. She leaped on his back in an instant and had an arm barred across his throat, squeezing.

“Ain’t sayin’ it!” He snarled out.

“SAY IT!” She shrieked.

“DIMAL, GET YOUR CRAZY ASS MATE OFF ME!” Kiromir’s voice choked, and I knew he could sling her or worse, but he held back. She’d just had a kid less than three weeks ago. She didn’t have a healer’s assistance and wasn’t tuned with her fires enough to heal herself like some songbirds could. Letti was damn good, but not that kind of good.

Dimal looked tired. The dark circles under his eyes weighed on him, and he shrugged, “Dude, YOU make her get off you. I ain’t getting in the middle of it!”

“SAY YOU’RE A SWAN!” She cackled.

Kiromir wrenched her arm from his neck and flipped onto his back to floor her.

“Okay, I’m a swan,” Kiromir said calmly as he stood up and smirked at me. I caught that glimmer in his golden eyes, and his half-cocked grin sent warmth running through me. He paused in his approach as he saw Mesin in my arms. Oh feathers, I knew that look. I turned to hand Mesin back to Dimal, and he threw his hands up, watching Letti get ready to jump again.

“Oh no… no no no!” I looked around for someone to take the kid.

Like someone threw gas on the fire, Nodak rushed in and grabbed Letti by her waist. Then, because Nodak got in on it, Lizer jumped in, and Songbirds I didn’t know came from all over to jump in.

Dimal shrugged and jumped into the pile as well.

Creator’s fucking feathers…

“Oh hey, we playing soccer?” Someone asked before running off towards the scrapping pile of wings and fists. Kiromir leaped back on the pile, pulling people out, tossing them off one another. Kiromir was good about keeping too many people from ganging up at once.

Krell dragged himself over to me. Both his wings drug the ground behind him, limp.

“He dead-wing ya?” I asked.

Krell nodded.

“Go find that healer girl of yours. You’re scuffed up. Tavar gave consent for us to take out anyone acting on their own. I turned over his armor.” I told him.

“I could care less if I’m in trouble. I just… I… I could have gone my entire life without knowing what our heads look like on the inside.” He winced, and I shifted Mesin to one arm, giving him the other.

“Go find her. Fires are the best remedy for an injured heart.” I gave him a squeeze and sent him on his way. But then, I had to step back, the pile of scrapping people growing

Kiromir slipped free of them, Dimal slinging bodies now. Someone slung Nodak past me. I heard the yelping calls of their excited cheers.

I looked around for an escape route, finding myself stuck as Kiromir returned with that same smug grin.

“Not a word!” I told him.

“Domestic,” he teased me, and if I didn’t have Mesin in my arms, I’d be playing soccer with Kiromir right there.

“Thought I’d find you over here.” An aged voice spoke up from the din. Rana and Touk tottered up to us with wide grins. “Thought we wouldn’t catch you two?”

“You were looking for us?” Kiromir asked.

“Oh yes. Come come. Let the children play.” Rana had my arm, Touk had Kiromir’s, and they grinned wryly as they led us in different directions. He gave me a pleading look, but frankly, I was grateful that Kiromir wasn’t giving me ‘that’ look again. I was not ready to think about adopting kids.