Tyll comes over to look at it, too.
Zyntarr coughs, making a retching sound before he spits. A red and white striped peppermint candy lands on the forest floor at my feet. “You should take those kind back,” he says to Yix as he wipes his mouth with the back of his wrist. “They are not for Trixikka mouths.”
Shrugging, Yix moves closer to Zyn and one-by-one picks out the peppermints from his big hand to drop them back into the bottom of his old lady purse.
“Ah-” Zyn says, closing his hand to a fist when Yix tries to take one of the butterscotch kind. “Those, I will keep.”
“How do I use this?” I finally ask, staring at the little black cube.
“Simple,” Yix says, turning to Tyll and I. “I will show you.”
Chapter 21 - Zyntarr
The ‘flare’ object that the creature gave us is really a wonder that only the Goddesses could understand. It somehow captured a smaller version of my Bea and created her from light. My Bea says it is a ‘holo-…holo-something’ and a‘recording’- she said that that tiny version of Bea is not truly her, but is like a reflection on the waters or a memory you can see. It had truly been a strange sight to behold. I could even cast my hand through the small Bea and feel nothing. It was as if she were made of smoke. The‘recording’of my Bea had her waving for assistance from any of my brothers who might be passing on wing close by. When my Bea -the real Bea- held the small black object, the tiny Bea floated out of it, slowly spinning around. But, when she threw the object into the air, it stayed up there, suspended with no wings. It pushed the not-real Bea higher, through the canopy of the jungle until she breached the evening skies.
The Bea made of light was bigger up there than she had been in Bea’s palm. I could see glimpses of her through the leaves and branches, waving beautifully to any Trixikka who would come to our aid.
It did not take long.
Yix, the strange creature, stayed as long as he dared, but he wisely left us before the jungles grew too dark. He is not from these lands, and, although he wields lightning, I do not think alone…whatever he iswould fare well once the night comes to claim the forests. He left us with some of his belongings, though; the object that had healed me, the object that had captured the not-real Bea, and one of their lightning weapons. Those gifts were appreciated, as were the small, sweet pebbles that my Bea insisted I ate to ‘keep my energy up’.
Yix crept away into the night after bidding us goodbye. He had asked many questions about the other human females, too. Enquiring after their health and such. I was not sure that giving him the answers he sought had been the right thing to do, but he had seemed moved to hear of how Ah-Lanah had performed the life-giving of ‘birth’, and how our High Spearess will do the same now, too. He had said that the healing object will help her in that regard, and I do hope he is correct. He left soon after to find his ‘ship’ so he may travel up into the skies without wings of his own.
It was a small group of greenmales who found us. They had been sent out to bring back frizikki meats for the feast with Zarriko’s tribe. They had found no frizikki because they are the kind of males with no discipline for the hunt. But they had foundus, so I cannot be vexed with them in the slightest.
It took two of them to carry me - a flight that left my sore body in even more pain, but that had not been my focus. For the whole flight, I had been furious at the fact that another male was to carry my Bea, and I wished every wingbeat to be the last before I could rip her from the poor male’s arms.
When we descend to the grounds of my village, I do not think I have ever been so happy to land before - except, perhaps when I were a youngling first learning his wings. The green-male who carries my Bea is wise to land further away from me. My feet are still unsteady and I do not know what I would have done should they have been in arm’s reach - probably something I would need to apologize for later.
As it happens, all that is needed is a glare and a grunt, and the male drops my female like she were a hotstone from the fire. Luckily, Bea is quick not to fall, and I continue to eye the male as he chooses to back away, his hands raised as if showing me he is no longer touching what is mine. It is a wise choice of his.
My body aches all over, and there is an odd pain on the skin of my chest. It is like it cannot decide whether it is fire or ice and keeps switching between the two. Yix had said I would be tender, and that the wound would need to be covered from the twin suns’ light. He had not told me of how the inside of my head would begin to dip and tilt like an injured Protector on wing.
“Zyn!” Bea calls, and it takes me a moment to realize she is tucked under my arm, propping me up as best her little frame can manage. “You need rest, big guy.”
“What is this?” The voice is that of my Second Spear, Mavyx, but he sounds far away. Which is why I am surprised to glance to my other side to find him propping me up from under my other arm. “What happened? What happened to Zuul?!”
Ahh, Zuul. Yes. I had almost forgotten him and the weakling that he is…. orwas. He is with his ancestors now, and I hope that they are plucking his wings bald. To think that he had almost handed over his own son-
Quickly, I glance around, making sure that Tyll is still with us. I am in no state to keep my one good eye on all that matters, it seems.
“It was all my fault.”
What? Those were Bea’s words. But she has it wrong. Nothing is her fault. Ever. I have to let her know that.
I glance to the side where she had been keeping me steady. She is no longer there - another Protector has taken her place.
Before I know it, I am being laid on my nest. “It is not her fault…” I say, but I’m not really sure anyone is even thereto listen. I have only one good eye, and the edges of its sight became blurred, the lid too heavy to keep open.
* * *
I wake numerous times in the night, but my Bea is not with me those times. It is not an easy feeling to be without one’s mate. I think at one point, I try to leave my nest and hut to find her, but I am taken back to sleep by Protectors standing guard outside.
Light from the twin-suns is flooding in through my doorway when I finally feel like I am waking up properly. Those other times had felt like dreams, and I thank the Goddesses that in this real awakening, my Bea is here, tucked into my side, her breaths still heavy with sleep.
I ache as though I have not moved a single feather since they laid my head down, but I dare not stretch a single muscle, in case it should wake my sleeping female. I choose to stare at the woven leaves of my roof instead, my fingers idly playing in the lengths of Bea’s soft hair.
I almost lost her this last day.
