Page 3

Chapter

Three

G ehj startled at the sound of the female’s scream, his wings and tail feather fanning as his crests lifted, puffing out with instinctive alarm.

But despite the terrible sound, his eyes followed her with fascination.

Wingless, like an Atlavan female, she could almost have been mistaken for one if not for the absence of feathers, the softer structure of her face, and the long strands of fur wound and pinned to the top of her head.

Her face deathly pale and her eyes wide with fear, she whirled around to flee, only to collide directly into Agrel seconds after he dropped to the ground behind her.

Another shrill scream tore from her as she flung her basket into his ahaku’s startled face and raced past him, disappearing between two buildings.

“That must be a human,” Agrel observed with an amused note in his voice as he plucked a leaf of vegetation from his chest and tossed it to the ground.

“I believe so,” Gehj confirmed as he joined his ahaku’s side to stare in the direction she had fled.

“Do you think we should follow her?”

Gehj peered at the other male with amusement. “Do you wish for her to throw other things at you?”

A contrite expression passed over the male’s face, but he shook his head. Agrel’s gaze drifted down to the fallen basket and his crests raised slightly in curiosity. “Do you imagine this was her food?”

Gehj followed his gaze to the scattered bits of vegetation and berries. He grimaced. “Most probably. She must have been truly frightened to abandon it,” he observed as he crouched down and began gathering the pitifully small vegetables and put them back into the basket.

“This is not much food,” Agrel observed. “If this is what she is subsisting on, I doubt it can sustain her for long.”

Gehj nodded in agreement. Clearly, the surrounding forest was beginning to choke out the sunlight except for when the sun was directly overhead.

The forest was not only rapidly encroaching on the abandoned village, but the gardens and fields were being rapidly choked up by a wild tangle of plants and young bushes that had seeded everywhere.

“We should take it to her,” his ahaku announced as Gehj picked up the refilled basket and he nearly dropped it in surprise.

He stared at the other male for a long minute, uncertain whether or not Agrel was joking.

Surely, he did not intend to just arrive on the doorstep of a female who was obviously terrified of them.

He waited expectantly for Agrel’s laughter, only for the male to tug the basket from his hands and start off down the road with it.

Gehj’s eyes followed him in horror. Giving his head a firm shake to affirm that he was, in fact, not hallucinating, Gehj hurried after him with a shouted protest.

Grabbing the edge of the basket, he pulled his ahaku short. “Are you insane?” he hissed. “Do you imagine that you will just walk up to her door and give it to her?”

“Do not be silly,” Agrel chuckled, his wings spreading wide, forcing Gehj to duck out of the way. “I am going to fly. I will be able to locate her dwelling quicker if I have an aerial view.”

That was worse! Gehj made a strangled sound of disbelief and launched himself at the other male just in time to grab him with enough force to tackle him to the ground just as he lifted into the air. They dropped like a pair of stones and he grunted as the hard, packed ground rose up to meet them.

Wings flapping wildly, Agrel twisted out of his hold so that they faced each other as they gradually straightened.

“What is wrong with you?” Agrel demanded.

“What’s wrong with me?” Gehj echoed in disbelief. “What is wrong with you? The human is already frightened, but you think flying overhead and dropping down on her is the best solution? Just picture it for a moment.”

Agrel frowned. “It may seem a little hostile,” he admitted.

“You think?” Gehj replied. “Now just imagine all the terror that you saw on her face when she ran, and how that might be amplified.”

The male’s mouth twisted in a grimace, his crest flattening in a faint sign of distress.

The tension eased from Gehj’s body in response.

Agrel was occasionally short-sighted with his intentions, but the male had a good heart and meant well.

He would never intentionally do something that might terrorize the female.

“What about her food?” he asked, nodding to the fallen basket.

Gehj hesitated as he peered at it. “What if we track her to her dwelling on foot and then leave the basket with the food a short distance from her dwelling where she can see it? She may come out and retrieve once she sees that we are gone.”

“What if she does not see us? She will not know that we are showing her such consideration and will still be afraid of us.”

“Who else would it be? As far as I have seen, she is the only human here,” Gehj replied. “There is certainly no one caring for her here.”

Despite the truth of his words, they offered little in the way of encouragement or hope.

The fact that she had no one to help her did not mean she would accept help from them.

He knew that, and Agrel knew that. And it was clear that such a strong possibility disappointed his ahaku.

The male picked up the basket and stared down at it in dismay before he set about slowly gathering up the food once more.

Gehj silently bent to help him gather the fallen food when Agrel brightened unexpectedly.

Reaching for his crest, the male withdrew one of his long red feathers and laid it across the bottom of the basket. He smiled down at it, pleased with himself. “There, perhaps she will understand that.”

Gehj craned his head to peer at the feather.

He had to admit that it was a nice touch.

Atlavan rarely sacrificed feathers for another that they were not mated to, so he was impressed that Agrel was so quick to do so.

If the female was Atlavan, she would read much meaning into the gesture.

Or was the male offering far more than an assurance of safety?

“Your feather, ahaku?” he murmured.

The male nodded and adjusted its position in the basket.

“Why not? We are unmated and alone… she is alone as well. It makes sense. She may not fully understand the meaning of the feather, but it is soft and attractive and a clear offering of ourselves.” He paused and looked over at Gehj critically.

“You should offer a feather as well. She will be able to see that this one is unmistakably mine with its hint of green on its edge.”

Gehj returned his regard skeptically but, after several heartbeats of hesitation, pulled loose one of his blue feathers from his crest and laid it in the basket beside his ahaku’s feather. Agrel cooed at the basket with obvious pleasure and cradled it to his chest.

He looked over at Gehj, his crest feathers fluffing into brilliant crown. “Shall we take them to her, then?”

Gehj nodded wordlessly and spun away, suddenly very overwhelmed with the enormity of what they were doing.

He could not believe he was actually engaging in the first steps of courtship with a female he did not even know.

But he could not fault Agrel for his decision.

Knowing how few opportunities they may have in the future, he was also eager not to waste the possibility of finding a mate.

Right now, like at the beginning of any courtship, mating was nothing more than a mere possibility, one that he was interested in exploring further.

Leaving Agrel to carry the basket, he struck off down the street, his keen vision locking onto the fresh imprints of her feet on the dirt path that served as the village’s road.

Atlavans preferred stone roads to serve the purpose of greater privacy among a species who tracked others effortlessly by sight, but he could not complain about the usefulness of the road in this instance.

It led them on a direct path among a handful of buildings until they were standing a short distance from the female’s small dwelling.

It was not even half the size of several of the other dwellings, but light poured out visibly from one window, giving it a welcoming appearance that was far more inviting than the larger dwelling that they had claimed.

He gestured to the road immediately in front of them. “Leave it here, Agrel. She should see it fine from this distance.”

“I do not think her vision is as good as ours,” the male replied doubtfully. “I will take it a little closer.”

Gehj frowned. That was true. Still, he kept an eye on the house, watching for any sign of alarm as his ahaku crept closer and set the basket on the ground.

His frown deepened in response to a flutter of movement by the window.

Was that her? Had they frightened her again?

But the small, pale face that peered out at him was not their female but one far smaller… younger. A nestling?

“Gehj, do you see what I am seeing?” Agrel whispered, and the male took an unconscious step forward. “A nestling! I have not seen a nestling in… a long time.”

Warbling and agreement in his throat, Gehj’s eyes drifted over the dwelling warily.

A mother with young would be more vulnerable than she would be without, and more liable to attack first to safeguard the safety of her nestling.

Thankfully, it seemed that she did not notice their presence immediately or that her daughter was watching them with the open curiosity possessed by the young.

But where there was a nestling, a male would be nearby.

That was surprisingly more disappointing than he would have believed in such a short amount of time.

“Agrel, back away now,” he hissed. “We should leave before the male comes.”

“I do not believe there is a male,” his ahaku replied, and Gehj bit back a snarl of frustration.

“You also did not know there is a nestling. Better to be cautious.”

Despite his words, shock rocked him. The thought of her being alone there with a nestling horrified him.

Who could leave even an unrelated female alone with an offspring?

On the heels of the shock, however, his admiration grew by leaps and bounds, building upon the desire and rightness that he felt upon first catching sight of her.

She was a strong, brave female, and the sudden desire to claim her shook him violently.

Now he sounded as crazy as Agrel.

And Agrel was currently looking unconvinced about the entire matter.

He nodded, however, and took several steps back but paused and seemed to reconsider because he hurried to the basket once more when a loud cackling noise broke the air.

Agrel’s crests rose threateningly as several feathered creatures flapped their wings aggressively as they emerged from wherever they were hiding and proceeded to launch themselves at the basket.

His hiss was the only warning they got before he dispatched them as well with a slash of talons and a violent beat of his wings and leaving them strewn where they dropped around the basket. He nodded approvingly, his feather puffed out with pride.

“Nothing will take food from her or her nestling,” he declared as he turned away with a slight fanning of his tail feathers. “Now I am ready. Let us return to the dismal hovel. I hunted well today and there is plenty of meat waiting for our meal.”

“Yes,” Gehj murmured.

With one last glance at the little nestling staring at him wide-eyed from the window, he lifted a hand in farewell and departed from the street with his ahaku.