Upon Wings Of Change

Chapter 54

The door opened, and I flew straight into Taureen's arms. He sighed in relief as he hugged me. I thrummed for all I was worth with our reunion. Aeria had remained sitting, and Taureen moved to his usual seat.

They sat in silence as Taureen held me; Aeria probably didn't want to be the one to start this conversation. He put me down on his lap and finally looked at Aeria. He said, "Please tell me that you weren't alone when you went so far off of the main trails with so many crawler sightings recently."

She shook her head. "No, a guard who just got off duty accompanied us. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gone."

"Anyone I know?"

"Draven."

He gave her a long look. Obviously, he knew of the guy and didn't think highly of him. He glanced at her belt. "Did you lose your knife?"

It didn't surprise me that he had noticed her knife sheath was empty. He was quite observant, as he had demonstrated time after time. I rolled upside down on his lap, commenting, "Do you believe the old saying that ignorance is bliss?"

Aeria shrugged, unaware of my words. "I used it in the park, but I am not entirely sure where it is at the moment." That answer alone would raise suspicion since Kymari simply did not just misplace things.

Taureen looked down at me as I lay on my back with my wings partially unfurled for comforts' sake. He was silent for some time, possibly detesting the fact that he was unable to make his thoughts heard by me without other people overhearing.

He blinked and reached out with one hand to gently grasp my hand. He pressed lightly on the base of my claws, causing them to extend. He regarded me. "Do I want to know why you have dried blood on your claws?"

I blinked at the faint streaks of dried blood in a few of the groves on my claws. I hadn't even noticed it, so I had no clue how Taureen had spotted it so quickly. Some days he was just far too observant...

I tilted my head as I tried to think how to break the news to him gently. "Probably not. It is quite a long story and will likely tax your patience and sanity to the utmost."

He looked up at Aeria, searching for clearer answers. "Who did she scratch?"

Aeria sighed in resignation. "She gave Draven a pretty good scratch."

"How did he react?"

"I am not entirely sure since I left at that point."

He took a deep slow breath at her lack of detail; he knew that both of us were avoiding something - and he wanted to know what it was. I whispered quietly in his mind, "I think you should hear the full story, but please remain calm." He transferred his gaze to me again and watched me intently since I was the closest to providing the information he was after.

My voice was barely audible even in my own mind. "It was bad enough that I ended up mindspeaking Aeria in order to get both of us out alive. She knows that I can mindspeak people and have spoken to you in the past. I did tell her to keep it a secret, but we didn't exactly have time for speech."

Taureen inhaled swiftly in shock and stiffened before turning to look at Aeria. "She spoke to you?"

Aeria nodded slowly. Taureen exhaled gustily, still watching her with slightly-narrowed eyes. "You are aware that you can't mention that to anyone else, right?"

Her voice showed that she knew it was a serious matter. "Yes, she told me it was important that I remain silent, and I wasn't even going to mention it to you unless you brought it up."