When I look at Mavyx again, he's rubbing the back of his neck and there's a slight crease between his brows. "What is it?" I ask, coming closer. "If you really did fill it with... your stuff, I won't be mad, I'll just..."
"It is not my seed," Mavyx reaffirms. "It is just... not as worthy as the other gifts you had received."
"Show me," I whisper, my hand finding his arm.
Mavyx looks at me as though he's in two minds about actually giving me my gift, but now my curiosity is piqued, so I give his arm a squeeze and accompany it with an encouraging smile. Reaching up, Mavyx draws down the ugliest jar to have ever been created by human - or Trixikka - hands and tentatively offers it to me. The lid is just as wonky and ill-fitting as the day I made it. When I open it and peer inside, I see sparkles, but not from twinkly Trixikka 'stuff'. It looks like a pool of pretty opal, all glimmering and iridescent.
"I have been collecting chips of life-stone whenever I find them," Mavyx tells me, his head bent over mine, his voice low and deep. "I had thought that they can be used to repair any stars of yours that should fall," he continues, waving a had at the night sky he'd created for me in my little hut. "And, maybe some day, seasons and seasons from now, when I am building your youngling their very own hut, I will hang stars for them, too."
Something hot and prickly lodges in the back of my throat. I don't dare look up at him. I know my eyes will look glassy and he'll think he's done something wrong, when that couldn't be further from the truth.
"I know now that stars are not what mothers receive at youngling showers," he says, hands reaching as if he's about to take back his gift.
I snatch it back fiercely, holding his precious gift tightly to my chest. "I don't care what the others gave me," I tell him, "this is from you, and it's..." I'm at a loss for words and when I look up at Mavyx, I see the precise moment he notices the tears gathered in my eyes. He moves as if to try and comfort me from some great hurt, but I'm not hurt at all. My heart feels like it's soaring. "You're already planning things for my child for when they're grown? You..." my brain scrambles, my throat feels raw for no reason at all. "You want to do things like that... for them? Even when you don't have to?"
My hand finds my stomach and as if they're listening in on our conversation, I feel a small kick from the little person inside.
"Yes," Mavyx answers. "I want to provide. I want to protect. I will-" his mouth clamps shut and the muscle in his jaw flexes. "I willcarefor your youngling, Ah-Lanah. You do not have to do anything alone if you do not wish to."
A teardrop rolls down my cheek but before I can brush it away, Mavyx's hands are right there, cradling my face in his warm, protective palms. His golden eyes hold so much concern as they search mine, so I smile big - the biggest smile I think I've worn in weeks and weeks. And, despite the tears, I hope he can feel that smile. I hope he knows what he means to me. Clutching the jar of stars to my chest with one arm, I reach up to cover Mavyx's hand with my own, turning my head to press a kiss to his palm. "Thank you," I tell him. "It's the best gift I've ever received."
CHAPTER 23: MAVYX
The best gift she's ever received.
Those words swirl around my mind like lazy river waters while we continue to ready for the day - and then after when we are breaking our fast with my High Spear and Spearess. Rynn is discussing the Eastern Search Party and what we should be doing about these attacks, so I make an effort to tuck away those words somewhere safe so that I might pry them out again later when I have the leisure to do so.
"What do you suggest is done?" I ask Zahreenah. She's been sitting silently next to Rynn while he and I have been discussing the merits of continuing the search or calling our males back home. I look to my mate beside me as well. "It is your people we search for."
Ah-Lanah smiles but it is Zahreenah who speaks. "And it's my people who search for them, too," she says, sounding more like a High Spearess than I have ever heard - even if she is the first of her kind, even if she bears no skin-stars or wings. "I don't want anyone in the tribe getting hurt."
I grunt and nod in approval, reaching over to pick a handful of nectar berries and then depositing half of them on my mate's plate. She huffs quietly and shakes her head. But there is a smile there, and I like that smile very much.
"We should send males out to the party. Ask them to confirm the truth of the Shadow-Wing's words."
"You don't believe him?" Ah-Lanah asks, nectar berry paused on its journey to her mouth.
I smile and use my finger to gently tip her hand, helping the berry the rest of its way to its destination. Ah-Lanah chews quickly and then swallows.
"I think it is best to hear what has happened from those who are actually there. I trust my males. And I would like to hear their words before making a decision."
It is soon decided that my suggestion is the course of action that the tribe should take and Ah-Lanah and I depart from Rynn and Zahreenah's hut. As I help my Ah-Lanah up from sitting on the ground, I notice how she winces, how her hand goes to the small of her back. Tessa had warned me that as the youngling grows larger in her belly, the strain on her body would become greater, and with it, comes more discomfort.
"We will visit the mountain hot-springs this day," I tell her as we walk towards where the other females are gathered with some Elders and caregivers, the younglings around them showing off their newly acquired wing skills. They barely stay off the ground for more than five wing-beats, but the females all clap and cheer for each one, making the younglings puff with pride.
"That would be really nice," she says, reaching out and holding onto my hand, lacing her fingers with mine.
I notice Chaz-Titi is among the females, though her usual spark for life seems slightly dulled. She claps her hands for the youngling's efforts, but her smiles are not easy. Her mind is likely with Aloryk, and I do not blame her.
We've come so that Ah-Lanah can tell the others our High Spear's decision about the Eastern Search. But first, we sit, we cheer the little one's attempts at flight, and I wind my tail around my mate like I never intend to let her go.
***
The last few times I have brought Ah-Lanah to soak in the mountain hot-springs, it has ended with both of us reaching our skies of pleasure with either my head between her thighs, or with my cock in her wonderfully welcoming mouth. Often, it starts like that, too.
But this visit on this day is about Ah-Lanah and relieving her aches.
I watch appreciatively as she wades into the warm waters, the steam swirling around her beautiful brown skin making her appear more Goddess than anything any Trixikka has ever laid eyes upon. She ducks, dipping under right up to her chin and groans. I am ashamed to say that the noise goes straight to my cock.
