“You have to land now!”I urge her, panic and worry bleeding out of every word.“Please just trust me, land and I will explain everything. If you still think it’s safe to be flying around, that’s fine, I’m not going to fight you. Just give me five minutes now on the ground, preferably somewhere we can’t be spotted from the sky.”
I’m not going to lie, I’m a little surprised when Pigeon folds our wings and then drops us toward the ground like a missile. I try to listen and feel the currents around us as we shoot down, checking to see if we’ve been spotted or if there is danger nearby. It’s hard to hear over the wind rushing past our ears, but I don’t feel any indication that anything is headed our way.
That does make me wonder where the hell Zeph, Ryn, and Treno are though. I figured they’d be right on our ass, ready to lay into Pigeon about being so reckless.
The ground comes screaming up at us in no time, and about fifteen feet away from crashing like a bug on a windshield, she spreads our wings, catches the air, and lands gracefully on the pine needle covered forest floor. I’m once again completely taken with her agility and grace, and I can sense Pigeon preening and feeling smug as fuck at my appreciation.
I put my knuckles out, expecting a wing five or a talon bump, but Pigeon just eyes the gesture like we’re not there yet.
Fair enough.
I quickly explain to her that we can’t fly and all the reasons why it’s a super bad idea, and once again I’m surprised by her ready acceptance. She flashes me an image of her walking through the forest. I’m nervous about that option and feel like we should just head back for the cave, but there’s no mates around us demanding that we need to do that, so I’m torn.
I take a deep breath and say fuck it.“We can’t get caught though, Pidge. So, whatever it is you feel the need to be out here doing, we need to be very careful,”I warn, and she just flashes the wordobviouslyat me.
I snort, and Pigeon starts stalking through the trees.
“What are we looking for?”
Pigeon harrumphs as if she thinks that’s a dumb question, but I feel anxiety pool in our stomach. Pigeon flashes me what I’m pretty sure is a bird’s nest, and I stare at the image confused and try to sort out what it all means.
Why would a nest make Pigeon feel anxious?
She flashes me images of Zeph and Treno snarling at each other and frames it all with the worry she feels, then flashes me the nest again.
“You think they’re fighting because they want a nest?”I ask her, confused. I’m, like, one hundred percent sure I’m not understanding her correctly, but she nods at me excitedly. Guess I speak better Pigeon than I thought I did.
It’s cute that she thinks something so simple could help, and I hate to rain on her nest, but this is my chance to help her understand.“Pidge, they’re not fighting because they don’t have a nest. They’re fighting because they hate each other. They’ve been on separate sides of a dominance battle for most of their lives. That’s where the tension is coming from. Unfortunately, there isn’t shit we can do at this point to change that. Maybe if we can end the war, that could pave the way for some common ground, but I don’t know.”
I pause, hating to explain this part, but she needs to know.
“Pidge, there’s a chance that nothing we can do will ever bring them together.”
She seems to consider that for a moment and then flashes me the nest again, like she’s certain it will fix everything.
I study her, ready to argue my point and try a different tactic for getting her to see what I’m saying, but I shrug instead. What do I know? It makes no sense to me, but that doesn’t mean she’s wrong. At this point, what can it hurt?
So I get on board. Let’s build a nest.
“What do you need? Like twigs and things?”I ask, liking the contentment that ripples through us when I don’t fight her on this.
I look around for some sturdy looking branches, but Pigeon zeroes in on a tree to our left. I gape at it. It’s at least twenty feet tall and has a trunk as thick as our gryphon waist. I open my mouth to argue that a whole tree isn’t some branches, but Pigeon must speak better Falon than I realize, because she sends me an image of all the branches that are on the tree and her ripping them off with her beak.
I look around us, but there’s no sign of the guys or any patrols, so I once again put myif it makes you happyhat on. If it gets us on the same page, then what does it hurt? Pretty sure she can’t rip a tree from the ground anyway, so it will be a mere gesture of goodwill on my part.
This is exactly how we start repairing things. By trusting each other and supporting decisions that don’t make the most sense at the time to one side of us. I can give her this, and maybe in return, she’ll do the same when it’s something important to me.
“Follow your heart,”I concede, and elation floods me.
I can’t help but smile as Pigeon circles the tree, assessing the best plan of action to take it down.
“I support that you need to do this, Pidge. I just don’t want you to get bummed if this doesn’t solve the issues between the guys. There’s more to things than just the gryphon side of this,”I remind her, and I wonder if Ryn’s, Treno’s, and Zeph’s gryphons are also battling with them like this inside?
Pigeon isn’t dumb by any means, but she definitely operates under more instinct-driven guidelines than I do. Are we the only ones? Is this because she was trapped for so long and hasn’t experienced life firsthand and hasn’t been able to learn the way of it all? Or is this just a gryphon thing?
“Truce?”I ask Pigeon as she traces the height of the tree with her eyes, still sizing it up.“Can we both try harder to listen and trust each other?”
Pigeon turns from the tree and studies me for a moment. She flashes me an image of her stomping on a cage.
