Kuro stares down the steel plumaged drakon with fierce eyes. “Don’t you have anything better to do, Moth? Or are your eyes too soot-filled to see I’m busy?”

Moth scoffs and maintains his aggressive stance in front of us. “You’re one to talk, Kuro. Tell me the truth, who is this sparrow? Is he your mate?”

I shoot a befuddled glance at Kuro. It seems she’s not the only one who thinks Lithans with bright plumages must be male. But, um, what’s going on here? Why are these two at each other’s throats, and why does he seem especially upset at the prospect of me being her boyfriend?

I angle my head from behind Kuro’s wing and counter, “I’m no boy.”

Moth’s face goes crooked hearing the pitch of my voice. “Hmph. Is she your choice to bring into the flock? I can’t say I’m impressed. If I ever bro—“

“Get to the point!” Kuro bellows over the cocky boy and takes a provocative step forward.

Moth grins, pleased by Kuro’s agitation. He flattens his feathers but keeps his wings ready. “Very well. The point I’m trying to get at, Daughter-Of-Mecali, is I happened to be flying overhead just now and heard you mention summoning Keuvra for an ‘emergency.’ Then, I happened to hear her say something very… interesting.”

Moth’s gaze focuses on me. Reflexively I retreat a few steps before Kuro’s wing gently brushes my flank. She flicks her eyes to me, then back in front of her. “This doesn’t concern you. Step aside, and let us pass to my grandmother.”

“Oh, but I think it does concern me! Because unlike like you, Kuro, I am a devout and steadfast member of the flock. I’m willing to do whatever is necessary to better its chances for survival... the things that you’re unwilling to do.”

Kuro unleashes a thunderous warning growl, her fiercest yet. I don’t know what Moth is alluding to when he says Kuro is unwilling to help the flock, but it’s an especially sore spot for her. Meanwhile, the noise from the argument is beginning to attract the attention of nearby Kin, with some landing nearby from other parts of the aerie to watch.

“I’d be remiss if I didn’t do everything in my power to prevent you from wasting the elder’s time with the blithering of some mad Lo—“

RAWRR!

Out of patience, Kuro lunges toward Moth with her talons outstretched. He wheels to his right and shoots into the air but can’t avoid Kuro’s claws in time. A puff of down feathers is ejected from the back of his foreleg, and blood flows freely onto the stones below.

“I challenge you!!” Kuro’s anger rolls across the aerie like thunder. “Face me, or accept your position as a miserable coward!!”

I reel backward, shocked by the return of Kuro’s fury. Her disposition has completely reverted to the one Fra warned me about!

Moth hovers in place in front of Kuro but doesn’t seem upset by her attack. In fact, he looks quite pleased that he was able to provoke Kuro to erupt on him. He chuckles to himself in an almost sinister tone and announces, “I accept your challenge! I’ve always wanted the chance to prove just how weak you truly are!”

Kuro splays her wings and fluffs her feathers straight up, trying to appear larger than the steel plumaged Kin. Moth responds by letting out a brooding warning growl, and Kuro responds in kind with one of her own. Around me, more Kin are flying in to spectate the fight, stepping forward to form a broad circle around the two combatants. I glance around anxiously, watching their movements to see if anyone will step forward and try to dissuade the two from going at it, but nobody seems particularly worried. Their faces are filled with anticipation, and an electric buzz fills the air.

Why aren’t they trying to stop this? Kuro can’t get hurt in some petty fight! She has to help me go before the elders so Keuvra can be summoned! I step forward and call out to her. “Kuro! Please, do—“

She whips her neck around and flashes a bare fang snarl just long enough to get her point across. ‘Back off,’’ she’s warning me. My legs freeze, and I retreat a step, feeling foolish for thinking I could try to convince her otherwise.

“Hey, Moth! You’re supposed to begin the spar on the ground!”

The crowd erupts with laughter as Moth is called out for improper form. His face wrings in agitation, and he lingers in the air a moment longer before Kuro loosens a snarl and goads him into landing.

A spar? So, this is a sanctioned fight that’s allowed in the flock? I guess that’s preferable to an all-out brawl as there seem to be rules you have to follow, but it only makes me slightly less worried. I can’t stand to see Kuro get hurt after all she’s done to help me. Though with no choice but to watch, I resign myself to anxiousness and retreat to join the growing crowd of spectators. Unfamiliar faces land on me as I join them, curious about who I am.

Moth screeches and launches off his haunches toward Kuro. She rolls to her left, but Moth manages to get a talon across the back of her wing, tearing a chunk of barbs from the tips of her long flight feathers. She pushes back off her forelegs and barrels into the side of Moth to knock both of them back into the rocky ground. Moth shrieks as his back legs jam against the hard stone, but Kuro performs a graceful roll to steady herself upright.

Sensing an opening, Kuro lunges with her claws out but pulls back at the last moment to avoid a late swipe from Moth’s foretalons. Forced to reposition her weight, Moth takes the opportunity to scamper forward and launch himself toward Kuro. But Kuro anticipates the attack, taking advantage of her momentum from her course correction to give a quick pump of her wings and sail back out of the reach of Moth.

“Did she fly?” asks a woman to my right as Kuro lands back on her talons.

“No,” responds a male. “She skirted the ground. It’s fair.”

Moth spits, visibly frustrated by the direction of the fight so far. He readies himself for another attack and tries to whirl around but slips against a patch of loose rocks and tumbles forward. Kuro immediately capitalizes, thrusting headlong with her jaws open toward the falling drakon. Off-balance and only capable of watching, he winces in horror as Kuro angles for his neck, only to pull back at the last second and perform a headbutt against his chest. As the two sail forward, Kuro’s talon comes around and rakes the side of Moth’s face, spraying blood against her head and adding more to the floor of the aerie.

I flinch at Moth’s tormented scream as Kuro pushes him to the ground and lands on top of him. She keeps a talon against his chest and moves to slap the other against the middle of his neck.

“Yield!!” Kuro snarls in a familiar, visceral tone. Moth gags and gasps for air, kicking his rear talons in a desperate attempt to wane her off. But despite being the bigger Lithan, Kuro holds him firmly in place like he were a fresh kill.

“YIELD!!” Losing patience, she shrieks directly into his face. His resistance becomes weaker as his energy drains, but he refuses to give in.

Kin shift anxiously around me. Nobody is speaking of rules, so the match must still be fair, but some are beginning to get concerned for Moth. Why is he being so stubborn? Kuro’s clearly won, so why won’t he concede?

“Remember your mate, Son-Of-Ymaoi!”

A woman’s voice commands from the back of the crowd, authoritative and stern. A group of Kin step aside, and a rough, ash-colored drakaina hobbles forward on an unsteady left foreleg. On hearing her, Kuro reasserts her talon to Moth’s neck. He lingers a moment longer, his face turning pale, before finally breathing, “Yield!” Kuro relents, but not before using Moth’s body as a springboard to bound away. Finally free, he snaps his neck up and gasps for air.

Kuro lands nearby and looks askance at the loser. “Featherbrain.”

With the spar decided, the crowd begins to disperse, chatting amongst themselves about the outcome. Kuro remains where she landed and watches a woman rush forward from the group. She stoops to console Moth, licking the blood from his face and crooning soft words of encouragement into his ear. With shaking forelegs, he slowly rises to his talons.

“I knew she would make it look easy,” a girl mentions as the crowd flows around me like water.

“Then why did you insist on watching?” asks a boy following alongside.

“I wanted to watch Kuro! She’s always so upset when she fights. It’s great!”

Moth stands erect and murmurs in pain, his head still foggy from the fight. The woman who approached him rubs her face into his flank, then shoots a deathly stare at Kuro. But by then, she had already turned away, refusing even to deign a glance at the two.

Gosh, she’s so… cruel.

And the worst part is that I agree with what she did.

Fra warned me that Kuro had a reputation for being difficult to get along with, and now it seems she has a reputation for fights as well. But it’s apparent Moth was intentionally trying to provoke Kuro into fighting him. Were his reasons justified? Probably not. Kuro might have done something in the past to lessen the flock’s chances of survival, but that’s no reason to fight somebody over it. No, it’s clear to me that the only reason Moth was begging for a fight was that he overheard our conversation from the air and thought he had cornered Kuro in a moment of weakness. He wanted his shot at the glory of beating the kin well-known for winning fights.

Well, he sure got a fight. I hope he’s satisfied.