The pain in my Goddess-damned wing is so great, I think I might pass out.
I clamber awkwardly over a tree root, twist and hurl my spear at one of the mimyckah scum.
I miss.
Fuck, I hope Tryk got my mate to safety. That is all I care for right now.
Something tugs on my tail. I spin and kick the creature in its abdomen.
There are too many advancing on me and-
I wince, cursing all the Goddesses in all the Temples.
My fucking wing has me in blinding agony.
And I'm angry. I'm so fucking angry. I have only just been given my Ah-Lanah. We have only just found each other. And she has not yet brought her youngling into this world. I cannot leave her now. This cannot be it.This will not be it.
One of the beasts leaps for me, its jaws gnashing, trying to grab any flesh it can. My hand finds its neck and I squeeze with everything I have. Its raggedly sharp and dirty fingernails rake up and down my forearm as it gasps for breath. I would like to see the light leave its eyes but another is advancing on me now so I fling the creature as far as my sore muscles will allow. It is harder than it should be to bash this new mimyckah's skull into a nearby tree.
Another leaps on my back just as this one meets its end. I grunt and suck in a harsh breath through my teeth. The pain is too fucking much. It's too fucking much!
Reaching back, I grab for the creature, but it holds tight to my broken wing. Every time I try to pull it forward, liquid fire races through my veins. I could try a different tact, back it into a tree trunk hard enough to stun it. That would be painful too.
"Get. The. Fuck. Off. M-" I yank with each strained word but then a blade hurtles by my face and embeds itself into the eye of the mimyckah on my back. The thing makes a noise somewhere between a gurgle and a scream and drops to the floor before staggering away. When I look back to where the dagger must have come from, there's nothing, only jungle.
The pain must be messing with my mind.
The remaining mimyckah let loose their battle cries and one of them must bowl me over from the side. I think I suffer an injury to the head.
"Get them, Ezzy!" I hear, another blade whipping across my line of vision.
I do not move. The edges of the world turn black and I find myself staring up at the jungle canopy, patches of the night sky just beyond. I find the brightest star in the sky and she winks down at me as I lay there, taking shallow breaths.
Ah-Lanah's mother.
I cannot fail her, or her daughter, or her daughter's young. I must-
I'm about to try and get up; try and fight until there is absolutely nothing left when I am yanked to my feet. The stench is awful, but these are not mimyckah hands holding me up.
"Holy shit, he's heavy," a... afemalevoice says. I look to my side to find I am correct. There is a female, and she is covered in dirt and something foul-smelling. She is not effective in keeping me steady as she is small. There is someone else on my other side.
"Come on," another voice says - Trixikka this time. "We need to get him to the tree." My head lolls toward the voice and just before my world goes black, I see I am propped up by an unknown Shadow-Wing.
***
I do not know how long this strange sleep takes me. I only know that when I wake, that putrid scent is now less pungent, and I am wrapped in the sweet smell of dirt.
I wince, trying to open my eyes. The light is dim but a few life-stone glow faintly. I believe I have been taken to a cave for safety. Trying to shift only causes a great bolt of pain to shoot from my shoulder to reach every corner of my body. The intelligent thing to do would be to take stock of where I am and who I am with without rousing attention. However, my coughing and spluttering give me away instantly. Never have I ever encountered a mimyckah attack like that.
As soon as I try to sit up, a dagger blade appears under my chin. The Shadow-Wing.
"Easy,easy" says the little female by his side, but he and I stare each other down. I may be at his mercy now, but I will not cower. "Ezzy, put the knife down. He's not going to do anything," she says, turning to me, "are you?"
Briefly, I glance at her, noting her pale, dirty skin and pale, dirty hair. "No," I grunt, returning my focus on the Shadow-Wing. He is of training age and although currently knelt over me, I can tell he is tall and lean, but with all Trixikka who can survive out in the jungles, he is strong.
He is not a male that I have ever met. He is one of Zarriko's outcasts - the one that mimyckah had named when it had stumbled into the gathering that day. Ezryk.Ezzy.
Ezzy does not say a word, but I watch as his female places a hand on his arm to lower it. He does as she bids, but the look of warning in his eye never leaves. I nod and sit up, my whole body protesting the movement. When I get a chance to look around, I see that I am in no cave. The walls are made of compacted dirt and roots - larger ones twining in and out of the roof, ground and walls. It looks as though we are underground. My feathers shudder at the thought. This is not a Trixikka's place. We are of village, mountain and sky. We are not of dirt with the burrowing creatures and burrot worms.
