Page 19

Chapter

Fifteen

A grel 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 to do 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, trying to 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 more effort 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.

“Lily! That isn’t nice,” she admonished her.

Her gaze shifted back to Agrel, and she winced apologetically, though she made some attempt at offering a reassuring smile.

“It is not that bad. Honestly, I didn’t even notice it at first until Gehj mentioned it.

It’s just a few feathers that are slightly bent at odd angles. It’s hardly noticeable.”

“Just play it off like you do any other miscalculation when you are looking to preserve your pride behind some amusing excuse,” Gehj soothingly advised. “Just say that it is…” he rolled a hand in the air as he sought the right words.

“A new look,” Delilah quickly suggested. “If anyone asks, just say that you were trying a new look playing with manipulating the angles of your feathers.”

His expression softened at their mate’s suggestion.

It was clever. Fashion was something that Atlavans embraced with abandon as they tended to take great pride in their appearances.

It could work as most of his clan could understand and appreciate such things, even if they found some amusement in failing to pull it off.

It was a lot better than having it widely known that he got his feathers all bent up and askew from being tossed around in a travel convenience.

It was undignified and he felt immediately sympathy for the females who were forced to endure it when traveling in private sedans.

Who knew how many damaged feathers they sacrificed and singed away to keep themselves looking relaxed and unruffled when they emerged?

It did not seem quite fair to participate in hiding the reality of the situation from the other males of the clan.

“Thank you, Delilah, but perhaps it is better if I speak truthfully about them. That I sacrificed a small amount of my pride to make certain the transport was comfortable enough. It is something males do not think of, but clearly, they should.”

Gehj’s gave him a thoughtful look. “I am impressed. That is quite thoughtful, Agrel.”

Agrel’s head bowed in acknowledgment of his ahaku’s praise as they headed back toward the front of the wagon. “It just does not seem right to not own up to an experience that our females so frequently suffer without complaint.”

The other male nodded, and they silently bent, taking their poles back up once again.

They resumed pulling, the wagon creaking behind them, but this time he was more conscious of the wheels bouncing over stones and dips in the forest floor and his mind worked as to how he might fix the problem.

There was nothing that they could do for the wheels.

The ground was not perfectly level, which was what made the wagon sway and bounce every handful of steps.

His gaze trailed over to Lily, and he smiled as he watched the nestling as she engaged in her own little world of fantasy as she played, whirling a long, colorful piece of material around her.

Delilah followed his gaze and smile as she increased her speed slightly so that she walked at his side.

“Don’t worry too much about her. Children have far more energy and resiliency than you expect, and she knows what dangers to look for.

More importantly, she knows not to wander from our side.

That ribbon will keep her amused for hours with her make-believe. ”

Agrel did not quite believe it and yet, as the hours passed, he had to admit that he marveled at how tireless she appeared the entire time.

It was only when she began to noticeably slow and her ribbon drooped and dragged at the ground that Gehj chuckled quietly and suggested that they stop for a meal.

While Gehj helped Delilah bring out what they needed to make their meal, Agrel ducked into the woods to hunt.

They had plenty of provisions with them, but he would hunt while he was able to do so.

Fresh meat was always far more nutritious for females and growing nestlings.

Fortunately, the forest was heavily populated with the creatures Delilah called rabbits, and he was able to bring a couple of them down swiftly and efficiently.

Seeing the pleasure in their mate’s eyes when he returned with them was reward enough.

Even more so was seeing the pure happiness on Lily’s face a short time later as she devoured the meat and licked the juices from her hands.

Despite how tired she was, she was happy and bubbly throughout the entire meal but afterwards, after everything had been put away, Delilah climbed into the back of the wagon with their nestling to rest.

Gehj watched them and glanced over at him as they made their way back to the front of the wagon.

“We will go slower and temper our pace until we are ready to stop for the night. However quickly we need to accomplish our mission, I will not be the one responsible for them suffering any more than what is necessary.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Agrel murmured, and he picked up his pole.

The wagon groaned and shuddered forward as usual, but it didn’t seem to rock and jerk quite so much with their slower pace.

He hoped that it was comfortable enough to rock them to sleep.

It was for that reason, when they finally stopped for the night and climbed into the back of the wagon, he was relieved to see both females curled up together in the center of the bed and sleeping soundly.

Good. It had not been too difficult for them.

Yawning, he crawled up the mattress on one side of them while Gehj took the place on the other.

Curling up on either side of them, they fanned their wings over their family to keep them safe and warm as they, too, drifted off to sleep.

Around the wagon, a perimeter of controlled Atlavan fire would keep predators at bay while they slept without worry throughout the night.