Eternal Beasts

The Flight

Jared watched as, almost exactly a half hour later, Kaylee and Magnus, along with four other riders and dragons climbed away from the outpost with powerful strokes of their bat-like pinions. He was only interrupted in his study by a big dragon head butting into him from behind.

- Good morning, my lord, - Nadza said into his mind. At the same time the young rider that had asked the night before if he could speak to her, stepped to his side.

"Morning, Jared," the rider said with a smile and a nod. He then extended a hand, which Jared unhesitantly took.

"Merik. We met last night in the common room."

"Morning, Merik. Yes, I remember," Jared said before looking over his shoulder at Nadza, a beautiful bronze and gold dragon with two horns extending from her frill and deep blue eyes. "And good morning to you, Nadza." To which she gave him another head butt, radiating affection much as Magnus had done the day before. If she was a cat, she would've been purring, a thought that made Jared chuckle out loud.

Looking at his dragon with a brow raised, Merik then observed:

"Wow, she really likes you!" he said as she closed her eyes with pleasure when Jared gently ran a hand down between her nostrils.

"It would appear so," Jared agreed, a half smile on his lips as he continued moving his hand along her lip, half-consciously looking for any tears or frays that needed to be addressed to keep her in peak health. "And now that I have my hand directly on her, I can actually hear her. Like I heard Magnus when he head butted me yesterday."

"You need to touch them?" Merik asked, his curiosity returning in a rush. "A powerful ability, and it confirms that you are attuned to the Beasts and their energy. But not as powerful as the bond."

Jared smiled as he shook his head.

"Not even close, my friend," he said and Merik again let a look of relief cross his face before a broad smile returned.

"Still, that makes you one of us, Jared," Merik said. "So, while you are here at the outpost, you will be a guest of the Outlander flight!"

"Thank you, Merik. I appreciate that." Jared replied. "But I ..." he managed before he trailed off.

"Need to leave?" Merik filled in the blank, brow lifted.

Jared returned his look for a moment, his thoughts spinning. He did need to leave, but without the book telling him where he needed to go to find the shrine's exact location, he had no idea where he needed to go to. So he would be staying at the outpost for a while. Until the book returned to give him the shrine's final location, he needed to stay close to the last location he actually had the ancient volume in his possession.

"Not at the moment," he finally said. "Perhaps when the weather clears a bit more."

Merik reached out to give his shoulder a comradely slap.

"Outstanding!" he declared. "Then it's settled. Our guest you will be! Come. Let me show you around the town now that the dragons are no longer cloaking its citizens with their magic."

The next few days passed by much more pleasantly than Jared would've thought possible in the company of dragons and their riders. And much more quickly, mostly because one of those riders had found a way past the emotional and psychological walls built by years of going in and out of institutions to treat his supposed mental illness and into his heart, Kaylee unconcerned about his past and content to dwell fully in each day. And in doing so, she made each moment fly by with sweetness and life.

It was such a natural, organic and pure thing to intertwine their lives in the days following their first intimacy, their immediate chemistry making it easy, delightsome, and extremely pleasurable to be in each other's company every hour of every day. As was illustrated later that first day, after Kaylee had returned from patrol and immediately sought him out. First for conversation and then for other things, after which the two found themselves agreeing to actively pursue a relationship together in the brief time that they had.

The vahndim rider straight away had her personal things moved from their barracks to his room in the inn and they appeared to the rest of the flight at the evening meal as a couple. To thunderous approval by the other riders. Kaylee had kept herself isolated for far too long, they said. And seeing how happy she was in Jared's company only made them happy. Already liking the big human, having him now with Kaylee sealed the deal. He was now a member of the Outlander flight in both presence and deed!

Kaylee pulled his arm around her as they stood at the end of the table in the common room some ten days after that first one, her fellow riders talking animatedly all around them, and leaned back against him.

"Hello there," Jared said after leaning in and kissing her on the neck.

"Hello, luv." Then she half turned within the cradle of his arm to tilt her face towards him so he could kiss her lips, a sweet, passionate thing that sent a rush through both of them. Smiling as their lips parted, Kaylee tenderly touched his cheek for a moment before turning back towards her fellow riders, leaning back into him as she did.

"Apparently Joss and her Antelas saw a column of Nomads in the Vale of the Lost," she explained as her comrades were pulling out maps of northern Corlest to point to one or another, trying to get an approximate location for the column.

"Nomads?" Jared repeated, slightly confused. He didn't actually remember reading about a group of people called 'Nomads' in the book.

"The Lucht Taistil," she said. "A branch of the Tuatha that didn't hide behind stone walls in cities after the last War of Balance. Instead they travel the length and breadth of Corlest, acting as scouts and pathfinders for their kin, who ironically will never leave their cities to follow them."

Lucht Taistil; those he had read about. Then he frowned. Whatever the Nomads called themselves, they were still Tuatha and followers of the Prophets. Which made them enemies to the Outlander Dragon Flight.

"So the flight will report their sighting to the Lord of Dragons?" he asked. And was even more surprised when Kaylee snorted in derision.

"Gods, no," she said. "Kaem Borath Outpost is here to keep an eye on the nysim of the Western Kingdoms and their magic-using mageborn. Not random Nomad columns moving to their summer hunting grounds." Kaylee smiled. "But that doesn't mean it can't be an exercise in reconnaissance to determine the column's destination and intention!"

Slightly less confused but still uncertain why servants of the Harbingers would deliberately ignore the movements and locations of a confirmed enemy, he was about to ask when a silent shiver went through the room.

- Approaching flyers from the north! - Magnus boomed into his mind, and presumably Kaylee's, because she immediately stiffened. - Dragons, with troop carriers. -