But maybe I can help in another way. I need to know why he sounds so depressed and try to fix it if we can.
I'm just as blunt as ever, speaking or singing. "What taken, brother? Can we find?"
He makes a long, keening cry and spreads the mass of feathers at his back.
What looks like it was once an incredible wingspan is hacked off in two different places on each side, one shorter than the other.The longest one stretches out as long as my own arm and yet doesn't reach where I assume the first joint should be.
They must have spanned over twenty feet.
The stumps of his ravaged wings are burned and raw, with the beautiful feathers sheared off in places and mangled in others.
Thivoll makes a vicious snarling sound, then joins the male's mournful cry with a low yowl of his own. Tears are streaming down my face at the brutality of it.
They took the sky from him, the monsters.
I don't have words that would convey my sadness or anger, but I find my own lilting cry when I reach for it. Both of us run out of breath before he does.
He stops a few moments later, then speaks again. "I thank you for shared song. You seek allies, but I am broken. I will sing death soon."
I can't accept that.
I've worked with enough people with devastating wounds and illnesses to recognize when someone needs something to help them look beyond themselves.
"You not fight? You let them win?"
He makes a hacking noise. "I not give them pleasure of kill. No joy left. No shelter for fledglings. None will be mine. All die if grounded. May be best you kill."
I narrow my eyes. The bird-man needs something to live for and the empathy he sang to me earlier gives me an idea.
"Will help my sisters?"
I blink at the term, but it's what the translator provides instead of 'friend.'
He stares back at me. "They taken?"
I chose my next words carefully. "Yes. Changed and caged."
His long-fingered hands clench when I say caged.
"Broken if found. Forced and touched. Need help."
His gaze is sharper. "Look like you?"
I think I have him. "Yes, but different colors."
I tell the jumpsuit to release my hair, pulling it forward. "Bright long threads. In silver cages. Fell from sky."
He rocks forward into his haunches. "I saw cage. Land in tree."
I gasp, excited. "Which color thread?"
"Not see," he says. "I go get and bring. Keep sister safe. Monsters will not break. Not force or touch."
His singing is fuller, richer, and his body is no longer trying to fold in on itself.
This next part will be tricky. "Must keep in cage."
He hacks at me again. "Thought it was monster's weapon. Hopped away. Ashamed I left sister. Will not keep in cage. No."
