Wind Under Wings

Chapter Two, Part One

Unfamiliar voices pierced through Taliak's dreams. He fidgeted restlessly in his sleep and sunk deeper into his mother's belly. The voices came again, nearer this time, and a sudden shrill outburst jerked Taliak fully awake. He glanced around, ears pricked. The voices sounded close, almost right next to the thicket.

The nestling glanced at Kardina. It had been days since their argument, and his mother had hunted again last night, only returning at dawn. She had not so much as cracked an eye. Reaching a decision he squirmed away from her and went out the den. It was midmorning, Taliak judged, by the light and shadow playing over the cool ground of the hollow. He crept closer to the leafy wall and peered through the tiny gaps to the outside.

Two nestlings were glaring at each other, standing not three bounds away from the thicket. One of them was a hess, the other a krall. Taliak was surprised to see both possessed the same tawny and spotted down coat like himself.

With backs arched and downy wings spread they began to circle, their mouths gaping open aggressively. Several times they made to lunge at each other but broke away, doing no more than swatting and snapping their beaks, but finally they rushed together in earnest, shrieking. Then the two of them fused together into a spotted, writhing ball, hissing and clawing as they tumbled round and round in the grass.

Taliak stood rooted to the spot, bristling. Never had he seen anything so violent before, and he felt a nervous growl rise in his throat as he watched the two battle. All at once the fight came to an end as the krall flipped the hess over and pinned her beneath him.

"Now you're finished!" He cried. And with his wings lifting in triumph he reached down to close his beak around her throat.

Taliak didn't know what made him do it. One moment he watching the scene unfold with wide, staring eyes, and the next he came barrelling out of the thicket and smashed himself against the other krall. The two of them went tumbling off in a heap.

"Get off me," the krall squawked, thrusting Taliak away with a kick. "What did you do that for? I was about to win!"

"You were not!" The hess had scrambled to her feet, bristling. "I was only luring you closer so I could claw your eyes out. You're lucky your little nestmate saved you in time, Kaavis, otherwise you'd be done for by now."

"I don't need saving from you, Igri" the nestling called Kaavis huffed at her. "And does he look like one of my nestmates, featherbrains?"

"Well, he isn't my nestmate," Igri said.

Both of them turned to look at Taliak, who recoiled a pace back, tail creeping between his legs. This close up he could see neither of them were hurt from their brawling, vicious as it had looked from the thicket. They had only been play-fighting, as he and Kardina sometimes did together. He felt stupid now for thinking they had meant to kill each other.

"Well?" the hess looked down her beak at him. "Who are you, and why did you break in our battle?"

"It was nestking against nestqueen, you aren't allowed to interrupt fights like those," Kaavis grumbled. "It's against the rules."

"Maybe he's a nestking too?" ventured Igri, when Taliak made no reply. "He could fight then, if he wanted. Though it's impolite to storm in like that when we've already started," she added, twisting her spotted ears back.

"He doesn't look like a nestking to me." Kaavis leaned in close and prodded Taliak in the breast. "He looks like a runt. Go back to your nest, little squab. You shouldn't be out here by yourself."

"Where are your nestmates?" Igri asked him.

Taliak didn't know what to do. They were crowding him, waiting for answers. He wanted nothing more than to slink away into the thicket and pretend this never happened, but the two nestlings were blocking his way, and they were bigger than him. Kardina's words that he wasn't ready to venture outside echoed in his mind. Too late now.

"I-I don't have any nestmates," he managed at last, keeping his eyes low.

"What do you mean, you don't have nestmates?" Kaavis snorted. "Every nestling as two other nestmates, that's how it is. I know," he bumped Taliak roughly with a wing. "I bet you've wandered off where you're not supposed to go and you just don't want us to tell your nestking so he won't punish you. Well, I'll make sure to tell him, and that you interrupted our nestleader fight."

Igri, however, swatted at the krall. "Don't be mean, Kaavis. And not every brood has three nestlings. My father says sometimes they don't make it."

"What does that mean?" asked Kaavis.

Igri opened her downy wings in a shrug. "I don't really know," she admitted. "Only that they're no longer around. Is that what happened to your nestmates?" she added to Taliak.

"I don't know," Taliak mumbled. "I'm the only nestling, that's all."

"I still think you're just making it up," Kaavis told him. "Tell us where your nest is and we can go check for ourselves."

Intimidated as he was by the bigger nestlings, Taliak felt a surge of anger rising through him. What did it matter whether or not he had any nestmates? He snapped his gaze up to lock eyes with the bigger krall. "I'm not lying, featherbrains," he growled, trying to make his voice as rough and strong as Kardina's. "And you say everyone has nestmates, so where are yours? How do I know you're not the one who's lying?"

Kaavis' eyes narrowed. "I'm no liar." He threw up his beak. "You want to see my nestmates? Come on then."

He turned and marched up to the meadow. Igri went with him, but glanced back over her wing at Taliak. "You can meet my nestmates too, if you like."

For a long moment Taliak could only watch dumbly as the two nestlings moved uphill. His mind churned slowly with indecision. Kardina would be angry enough to find him outside, he could only imagine her fury to discover him gone altogether. If he were smart he would duck away into the thicket now before the nestlings could look back, and return to his mother's side and go to sleep. She would never be the wiser. Besides, hadn't she warned him enough times that he wasn't ready for the outside world? His puny size was difficult to argue against when compared to Kaavis and Igri.

But for once in his life his view of the meadow was not obstructed by tangles of brush. He was standing out in the open and could feel a soft breeze slip clean over his wings and he watched as it streamed through the grass, causing the wildflowers to flicker and billow in a rioting display of color. The surrounding trees whispered, the shadows shook. The world had opened wide before him.

Training his eyes forward, determined not to look at the thicket, Taliak followed after Igri and Kaavis. At first he walked stiffly with a slow, cautious tread, looking everywhere he could for signs of danger. He was a bundle of quivering muscles and twitching nerves, prepared to scamper back to his home at the drop of a feather. But as he came into the meadow sunlight poured on him, warming his back and soothing his anxiety. Flowers tickled his legs. He felt his muscles relax. There was nothing to harm him here. He let out a small, breathless puff of laughter and quickened his pace.