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Fifteen

Agrel tilted his head back, basking in the sunlight as he drew in a deep breath of air. The sun beat down on them through the trees, drawing long shadows over the ground as they drew the wagon through the woods. This part of the woods wasn’t quite so thick as others so that it made the day quite pleasant. Everything was greener and brighter… or perhaps it was his mood which had improved substantially since taking Delilah as his mate.

He glanced over at her, his heart warming with affection as she walked trustingly by his side, the sun glancing off her hair. He was a bit confused by her insistence on walking, though. They had expected both females to ride in the wagon when they were stopping to rest and yet, other than Lily sleeping for a time in the wagon when the first started out in the early morning, neither female had spent any considerable length of time in it at all. It just did not seem right to him. She was not as strong as either him or his ahaku. Should she not be depending on them?

A female relying on the care of her males was the norm in their society where Atlavan males were built to be large and powerful in contrast to the females. It was expected for males todo the bulk of the physical labor required for patrols, hunting, as well as seeing to domestic tasks that came with minding the household. All of which were possible with the short rotations and the ahaku bond that allowed them to not only split up their workload but also directly care for their families for the majority of the day. Atlavan females prepared meals, wove fabric, minded offspring, and the few light domestic duties as they felt were needed. He had assumed the same care was expected among human females. An Atlavan female would have expected to ride in the wagon the entire way, where she could lounge and rest until they stopped. Such good treatment and demonstration of love would guarantee that she would be in good spirits and pleased while hovering over her mates lovingly.

Delilah’s actions confused him. Not only did she do the majority of her cleaning before he or Gehj had an opportunity to tackle it, but she almost seemed resistant at times toward their efforts. And now she was walking with little Lily, who was scampering among the bushes and tall grass close to her side instead of comfortably riding.

He cleared his throat, drawing her attention to him, and nodded toward the wagon. “Do you not wish to ride?”

Delilah’s brows drew together, and she glanced over at the wagon in confusion. “I assumed that we would ride when we became too tired to walk.”

That was strange logic. “If you ride, then you will not become tired.”

“But then you would have extra weight in the wagon, making you tired,” she countered lightly, her face lifting to the sun. “Besides, why would we want to miss out on getting a bit of exercise and fresh air? Walking will do us some good, especially Lily, who has spent so much time confined to the cottage over the last few months. We will be in the wagon enough as it is, and it’s not exactly a smooth ride in there.”

Agrel gave her a perplexed frown. It was not?

“Gehj, stop for a moment,” he said.

His ahaku glanced at him curiously but slowed his pace so that they came to a stop. “Is there a problem?”

“Not at all, I just want to see something,” Agrel replied, putting down his pole.

Without another word, he circled to the back of the wagon. He could feel Gehj’s gaze following him, but he understood that it all probably looked very odd to the male. But he just wanted to test something.

Folding his wings tightly against his back, he vaulted into the wagon and made his way to the mattress protected at the back. He lowered himself onto the mattress and gave it a little test bounce. It seemed comfortable enough. Granted, there wasn’t much room to stretch out his wings, but that wasn’t something his mate and nestling had to worry about. Even with the limited space that forced him to keep his wings folded, it was spacious enough since they had organized the space to be large enough for all four of them to sleep in there.

Settling on the mattress more fully, he rapped on the back wall of the wagon and called out to his ahaku. “Give it a pull at regular speed, Gehj.”

Gehj let out of a low, sharp hoot of agreement and the entire wagon jolted so hard that he fell forward. He caught himself in time to keep from landing on the hard floor of the wagon, but it did not get any better. The wagon bounced abominably, knocking him from one side of the mattress to the other whenever he least expected it. He attempted to stabilize himself by sinking his claws into the mattress and holding on, but all that was bouncing him jarringly in place in rapid little staccato bursts that matched an Atlavan’s walking speed. Every step Gehj took made him bounce and hit the mattress on the return with enough force to jolt his entire body. He scrabbled in place, tryingto find a better hold but Gehj suddenly hit a rock with the wheel floor and the wagon bounced so hard that it sent him up off the mattress completely and crashing down again so that he was bouncing on his side and rolling, his feathers being crushed indignantly as he worked to right himself.

“Gehj,” he shouted and then grunted when the wagon bounced violently again, nearly sending him flying again if not for his claws piercing the mattress. His chest hit the bed hard, however, expelling his breath from his lungs as he shouted the male’s name again. “Gehj,stop!”

The wagon jolted to a stop and, taken off guard, Agrel’s body weight worked against him, the momentum throwing him bodily into the back wall of the wagon. He lay for a moment, groaning before dragging himself out of the wagon. Deliliah had come around the side of the wagon and watched with wide eyes, her hands coming up over her more to discreetly cover the smile that she could not hide. He did not blame her for finding the situation amusing. She did allude to the fact that it was not comfortable.

But he did not understand. No Atlavan female that he had ever known had complained about being carried over distances in litters or anything other transports devised for them by their mates. He rubbed his backside just over his tail as he climbed down from the wagon and groaned just as Gehj came around the wagon’s side as well.

His ahaku stared at him in shock. “Agrel… what happened? Did something come unlashed and fall upon you?”

Agrel grimaced. Thank the gods that had not happened. “No, fortunately. I would likely be in even more of a mess,” he grumbled. He squinted at the other male. “Were you running by chance? I told you to keep it at the same speed.”

A look of annoyance briefly touched Gehj’s face, but he shook his head. “Of course I was not running. You asked me to continue at the same pace, so that is what I did. I took a bit moreeffort to pull by alone and I may have actually been going a little slower because of that, but I did attempt to perform the same.”

Agrel grimaced and rubbed just above his tail again. “Next time we meet our kin, I will sincerely apologize to any of our cousins we helped carry. That is murderous.”

A look of surprise flitted across Gehj’s face. “Truly? That is remarkable. No one has ever said so.”

“Would you like to try it for yourself?” Agrel offered succinctly, but his ahaku laughed and shook his head, his hands lifted in front of him.

“No, I do not wish to come out of there with half my feathers bent.”

Agrel froze. “What? What is wrong with my feathers?”

Lily covered her mouth with her hand and giggled. “You look like an angry chicken that ran into our door.”

Chicken… one of those silly birds that he had killed for them? The feathers on some of them did look quite beat up. Gods, was that how his feathers looked? He mournfully ran his fingers over his crest as Delilah glanced down sharply at their nestling.