“That is good, little Bea,” he tells me, his tail wrapping around my back like a hug. “You are doing well.”
I shake my head, making our foreheads mash together a little. “No, I’m not.” the words come out in an ugly little chuckle that is very close to a sob.I had a fucking meltdown because of someone else’s good news. Because of my friend’s good news!
“Do not argue with me, female,” he says sternly, his hands dropping from my face to scoop up my own. “Justbreathe. Nothing else.” Zyntarr presses my palms to his chest to emphasize the rise and fall of him filling and emptying his lungs.
I decide to do as I’m told.
I can feel my heart and lungs start to calm.
I think it’s working.
My gaze drops to where Zyntarr keeps my palms flat to his chest. His skin stars have all excitedly raced to meet my touch. They buzz and skip all the way around the press of my hands. And they-
My even breathing halts.
Is that-
I squint, holding my breath.
There seems to be a lot of those skin-stars gathered around the scars over his heart.
Chapter 5 - Zyntarr
Bea’s soft little mouth sucks in a sharp breath. I do not know what the cause of her panic was before, but she had been making progress in calming herself. Now, she is quick to her feet, forcing my wings to open and retreat away from keeping her encircled within them. It is a shame, for I liked her being there.
I stand with her, too, keeping an eye on her breathing rate, and the flush of her cheeks. I have seen Protectors act in similar ways after befalling their first real injury; a twisted wing, or a nasty gash from the claws of a blue-tailed cat. Sometimes, their spirits rise too high like a feather caught on an updraft, spiraling completely out of control. They must learn to restore calm in their minds, no matter what is racing through it.
And something had been racing through little Bea’s mind when my High Spear and High Spearess made their announcement. I just don’t know what it was.
“Your-” she starts, pointing to my chest. Admittedly, I puff myself up, and widen my wings for her inspection. Though, with how my body is littered with scars, I am not so sure the sight would please her.
Something in my stomach plummets like a stone from the skies when she pulls a face. A displeased one.
I start to close my wings again. She is not happy with me.
“No. Wait,” Bea steps forward, shaking her head. “I can’t see them in this light.”
She then proceeds to…touch me. So stunned am I by the offered contact at first, that my mind does not know what she is doing - I only know that I feel happiness that she is doing it.
She squints her pretty eyes, and curls one hand over my chest, meeting it with the other before she leans in so close, I can feel her little puffs of breath against my skin.
I find myself holding my body incredibly still as if faced with prey that is sensitive to the movements of the jungle. Though, even a blind long-eared-night-rodent could see my display of skin-stars with the way they explode all over my body right now.
“They were definitely there,” she mutters so close to my chest, Ifeelthe sound of each whispered word.
Looking down at her, my mind finally makes sense of what it is she is doing. Or, some part of it, anyway. She is using her hands to shield from the light of the twin suns, and looking very intently at somethi-
My whole body becomes stone.
She is looking at something over my heart.
She had seen something there? I cannot stop the way my tail wraps around Bea’s calf if I had wanted to. She is mine. The Goddesses have deemed me fit for this precious mate.
“I swear, I saw them, I-”
Bea draws back. Making an encircling gesture with her hands, she asks of me; “can you put your wings around us again so it’s dark?”
Of course, I think. Though I do not say anything, and just do as I am bid. Honestly, she could ask me to pluck my wings bald, and I would not even hesitate to do so. When we are in darkness again, I dare to look down at my chest, and… frown.
