When The Sky Began To Fall
Isar shares with his new human friend the memory of an an injury, and an omen.
âYou know, for the record,â Nalai said quietly to Kain, nodding towards the two on the couch as Isar covered Katsuâs hand with his, letting his eyes slide closed. âThis was not intentional. But I am completely delighted with it...â
âThis is a very clear memory for me,â Isar said, taking Katsuâs hand. "So it will be visual, sounds and smells and impressions and understanding. It is not like watching a movie, to be clear, you will be experiencing this day as I remember it.â
He held her hand between them, his thumb running a light circle against the back of it until he felt the light sensation mirrored in his own skin. Easing a channel of thought open between them, not soul-deep but just enough to feel almost subconsciously little whispers of sensation, of thought and intent. The warmth of her hand in his, his uncertainty at trying this with a human, the unspoken but acknowledged truth that he didnât trust her yet.
âYou know, for the record,â Nalai said quietly to Kain, nodding towards the two on the couch as Isar covered Katsuâs hand with his, letting his eyes slide closed. âThis was not intentional. But I am completely delighted with it.â
-
Three long days trekking through dense, wet jungle. The rain had brought the river almost up to the doorsteps of the stilt-houses that made the lower levels of Tsela-Makhai, the city built into the cliffs carved by the winding river. From Isarâs perch, in the high branches of a tree near the cliffâs edge, he could see the first clear sunlight in what felt like weeks glittering off the surface of the river, and down its course the gleaming jewel of Tao BaâSiee, boats drifting down the river to its bustling, gas-lit ports.
A group of Siee hunters had been lodging in Tsela-Makhai. They would set out along the game trails, Â which should have been bountiful in this time of abundance, and be gone for days at a time. And yet they had not been seen selling anything in the marketplace. When their group was joined by another hunter, Mother Wewa, already suspicious, had become curious as to what exactly they had found in the wilds near her city.
And just as well -- the young man who had arrived to join them was dressed as a hunter, but had that quiet, stoic manner about him so common in the young seekers trained under Sieenen-Khaa.
Isar had been trailing them for three days. An exhausting effort, a quiet approach, carefully doubling back and clearing his trail, keeping a far distance. Perhaps too cautious, but Siee seekers demanded caution. Little things. Pretty. Terrifying.
He hadnât seen anything to report back to Wewa yet, other than that there was definitely no hunting happening along this game trail. They were moving with purpose, to some predetermined place where they had been before, following landmarks they had left for themselves.
But they seemed to have finally reached their goal, a clear spot of forest high in the hills, where the smell of smoke and broken trees made Isar think that lightning must have struck the ground. The newcomer took point here, almost certainly a seeker with the way he moved, ordering his companions to hold back as he moved toward the treeline, quiet and slow, closer to something that Isar could almost see.
Not worth getting caught, he reminded himself, and moved to retreat.
His hands moved on the branches. Air rushed around his head as the jungle flew by him. The smell of wet leaves and sweet, freshly blooming flowers, underlaid with the dark, warm aromas of charred wood and fresh soil.
He would find a place to hide until he saw the men leave. This was territory of the Hannu. The Siee could hunt here, but anything valuable was the property of Mother Wewaâs people, and anything dangerous she needed to know about as well.
What could it have been?
Hands on the branches. The satisfaction of feeling his body move gracefully through the trees, pulling itself along on instinct. The smell of charred wood. The jungle was quiet here.
The way those trees had been broken, branches torn away. The ground torn up, releasing the smell of fresh soil into the blend of familiar fragrance that was the jungle in the rain.
Had something fallen from the sky?
Distracted, not paying enough attention to the jungle. A heavy thud shook the branches around him and before him now was a large bird, its head turned to watch him with one sharply focused eye.
Isar managed to stop just short of leaping straight into its snubbed, toothy beak, leaping back from the creature as he reached for his weapons. Grabbing the bow from his back and an arrow from his hip. A fluid motion, and by the time he found his footing on the branch behind him heâd launched three arrows toward the massive creature. The first only glanced its wing, though the second struck true into the beastâs chest, just beside the joint of its wing.
But for its size the arrows did little to slow it, and one snap of that massive, heavy bill crushed Isarâs bow to splinters.
Confused that such a beast would know to attack his weapon, and frightened to face it alone, Isar tried to escape but too late. The bird lunged forward again and he couldnât keep his balance in the shaking branches, and he fell.
And before he could even hope for a faster death than being torn apart by giant, toothed bird from the wilds of Tsela-Makhai, it spread its broad wings, blocking the sun.
The first sun in what felt like weeks.
Pressure around his leg, the piercing agony of teeth as long as his fingers sinking into his flesh.
A pop in his knee, a tear. Pain ripping from his knee up his hip and clawing up his spine as he dangled from the creatureâs mouth, high above the valley.
And then falling, as the venom from his arrows began to overcome the monster that had taken him. Hands gripping giant feathers, trying to pull closer to the beast. To shield himself from the impact as they crashed through the treeline.
The smell of charred wood.
His leg wouldnât move anymore, pain wrecked his body when he tried.
There was something in the trees that he could almost see, whispers in the language of Tao BaâSiee. And then darkness.
-
He opened his eyes, letting the connection between them fade, resting their hands gently on the couch between them.
âThe men in the forest actually brought me back to Tsela-Makhai, if youâll believe that,â he said with a quiet laugh. âI never saw what they found, but their claims of tracking the beast I felled gave them a decent alibi for their activities in the jungle. I gave them my silence for their trouble.â