Wind Under Wings

Chapter Five, Part Two

Despite these confident words Kaavis didn't move, and neither did anyone else. They had all played in water before, even paddled a little in the shallow creek not far from Taliak's meadow, but this wide river was a different obstacle entirely and no one seemed keen on being the first to cross. Then Taliak, still a bit sullen from the arguing earlier, felt a reckless impulse to prove himself to Igri and Kaavis. He padded right up to the water's edge and dove into the river with a noisy splash.

Water surged over his head and closed above his ears as he plunged, and for a desperate wingbeat Taliak's heart tightened with fear at what he'd done. Everything felt so cold, muffled, and dim, but by the next second he was gasping in air as his body broke the surface. He spluttered, took a few calming breaths, and began to paddle.

"Are you okay, Taliak?" Came Igri's voice. "Why are you coming back?"

Taliak blinked several times and realized he was paddling back to shore where the other nestlings were watching him. Muttering, he shook the water from his eyes and steered himself around and swam directly to the heart of the river, extending his wings out as he did so to help keep him afloat.

"How is it?" Someone, Teralt, called from the bank.

"This is easy!" Taliak hoped no one would notice the tremor in his voice. There was nothing he would have liked better in that instant than for solid ground to be under his feet. He felt helpless with nothing to latch onto, pushing his legs through what felt like an expanse of nothingness, and now that he was in the middle of the river the current, however slight it had looked from the shore, was pulling him off course.

I can do this, Taliak thought, once again fighting to remain calm. His legs were beginning to ache but he churned them all the harder, locked his eyes dead ahead to the opposite shore, and thought of nothing else but swimming. Finally, after what felt like an age, his paws touched the soft muddy bottom of the shallows, and with a last effort he bounded out of the cold water and onto the sun-warmed grass.

The other nestlings were cheering him. Taliak turned back and lifted his tail proudly, basking in their praise. Then they were all tumbling into the water and paddling toward him, eager now that Taliak had proved it was possible to cross. Taliak watched them and shouted a few encouraging words when they reached the middle and started to get pulled downriver, but they all kept heart and it wasn't long before Kaavis, Igri, Dankar, and Teralt had joined him on dry land. Only two were left in the river now.

"Hurry up, Sittiss!" Kaavis called out.

"You can do it, Areel!" Cried Igri.

Sittiss was already past the middle of the river but Areel was lagging. She kept turning her body to swim against the current, trying to make to where Taliak and the others were standing, but she was getting dragged further and further away.

"Don't fight to get upriver towards us! Just keep swimming across!" Taliak hollered.

Areel did not appear to hear him. She continued to struggle over, panting, until she gave a desperate cry and floundered, splashing and beating her downy wings against the water as though she could fly her way free from the river. She was only wasting her strength.

"I'm coming, Areel!" Igri squalled. She crouched, readying to dive in after her nestmate, when suddenly Teralt moved to block her way.

"Wait, she's doing it after all," he said.

Areel had stopped crying out and splashing, but she was still beating her wings and trying to swim toward them. Taliak opened his mouth to shout at her again, but then realized she was making rapid progress. Her wings were no longer flailing pointlessly around like before, but instead were heaving forward and pushing down in a strange rowing motion, her body bobbing oddly along in rhythm. This, coupled with her pedaling legs, was allowing her to cut across the river quicker than any of the other nestlings. By the time Sittiss had clambered onto dry land she was scrambling right up behind him.

The nestlings raced over. "Are you alright?" Igri demanded. Without waiting for an answer she seized Areel's scruff and hauled her up next to Teralt. Together they pressed against her body, warming her while Igri swabbed her between the ears with her tongue in an uncharacteristically maternal fashion. "You shouldn't have fought against the current like that, you could have tired and drowned!"

"I'm alright," Areel panted. Her legs and wings were trembling but she looked pleased with herself. "Did you see what I did? How I used my wings to swim?"

"It was strange," Said Kaavis, who was checking Sittiss over. When he was satisfied he turned fully to face Areel. His eyes gleaming with interest. "But you were fast. You'll have to show us how you did it when we cross the river again."

Areel was fluffed out with pleasure for the remainder of their journey, which turned out to only be a short ways off from the lake. No sooner had the trees closed around them again when Taliak's ears pricked to the commotion of nestlings playing ahead. The group hurried over to the source of the noise and a beat later Taliak staggered as his feet abruptly plunged into warm, dusty sand.

They had arrived at a shallow but wide pit, inside which many griffins had congregated. Adults as well as nestlings were crowding in, some shoving themselves as deep as they could into the sand and rolling sideways, while others were using their wings to scoop it up and toss it onto their backs, bristling and shaking themselves as they did so, for all the world like there was no greater pleasure.

Taliak couldn't understand any of it. He watched their peculiar behavior from the edge, but his friends all dove into the pit with glee. Igri and Kaavis rushed into the center where other nestlings were gathered, their feet slipping and sliding awkwardly, but they didn't seem to mind. They shouted quick greetings at each other and then all of them rolled and wrestled happily about in the pit.

"Taliak, what are you waiting for?" Igri called at him from their group. "Get over here!"

Taliak looked down at where his paws had sunken out of sight beneath the sand. He wasn't sure about this, it felt more uncomfortable and strange than crossing the river and he had half a mind to leave, but he hadn't come all this way just to act like a flighty bird now.

"Taliak!"

Clamping his beak tight he trudged into the pit, doing his best to ignore the way his feet kept sliding out from under him. He bypassed a few big adults and ducked his head as he skirted a group of one-year-olds, nervous they would treat him like Vrek, but they all ignored him, too busy digging and rolling and playing to pay the lone nestling any mind.

"Why aren't you rolling?" Igri asked when he finally made it over to her. "It's the best part of the baths." To emphasize her point she flopped over and scrubbed her back into the ground. "Come on, try it."

Taliak reclined next to Igri, lying stiffly at first, but to his surprise the ever-shifting, sun-baked earth felt oddly comfortable to lounge in. Soothing warmth was creeping up his belly. He stretched out his legs, rolled onto his side and, without realizing it, began to knead. Igri watched him and opened her beak in a grin.

"Do you like it?"

Taliak sighed happily in answer. He wriggled around and before long he was purring and rubbing his head in the sand and flapping his wings in the stuff so he could toss it like the others. How could he have ever thought of leaving? This was wonderful.