Bird of a Wing (Bow 1)

Chapter 15

"Come on Ryraso!" Sayskel complained loudly as he lay on the private room bed, frustrated by the fact the healer still wouldn't let him out of the clinic's rooms and back into active duty. "Winglord Tai'ray didn't fuck me up that badly," he whined like a child. After their encounter with the royal triad, Sayskel had been confined to one of the clinic's private rooms to heal. Normally for a relatively minor thing, Ryraso would have put the patient in the normal clinic post op, but the twins were not known for being the best behaved.

"You almost broke a leg. You're not leaving for another few days until I'm certain you're not going to do something stupid and actually break it!" Ryraso scolded firmly, hitting him over the head with his clipboard as Kelenn and Aw'endo watched amused by the spectacle. Kelenn was in a considerably better shape than Sayskel, having been up against Dyn'ad while Sayskel had been against both Tai'ray and Nel'os. Also Ryraso could trust Kelenn to look after himself and not make his injuries worse out of boredom.

"Da must like you somewhat to not have killed you," Aw'endo mused from his perch on a chair. The youngling was still shadowing Ryraso most days that he could get away with it, but that didn't exactly make him feel comfortable around the people who had captured him.

"You actually call the Winglord 'Da'?" Kelenn asked sounding vaguely amused by the idea, his green eyes watching Aw'endo's shivering wings with a look which made Ryraso wonder if the twins had more experience with the k'nairi than they let out. There was certainly a few occasions when they had seemed to know more about the race than most people fighting against k'nairi or with them.

Aw'endo shrugged, his wings pulling closer to himself. "Most of the time. He is legally my father after all. In public, I have to call him Winglord but in private I normally do," admitted Aw'endo quietly as Ryraso went back to lecturing a pouting Sayskel.

"What do you call Nel'os and Dyn'ad?" Kelenn hummed interested.

"The consorts I call by name. Nel'os is more of a big brother than a parent," Aw'endo smiled softly like he was remembering a memory. "I could call Dyn'ad 'Papa' if I wanted to," Aw'endo mused. "He's certainly protective enough."

Chuckling, Kelenn gave the boy a big grin. "I can see them being like that," he admitted. "Nel had never really taken the fighting here seriously. Luckily for us," he added, rubbing his arm where he had a nasty cut from the fight. Dyn'ad hadn't gone easy on him.

"Nel'os," Aw'endo corrected, not liking how Kelenn had shortened it so casually. "I wouldn't know. They never really spoke about the war where I could hear about it. At the beginning I barely noticed it was going on because ignoring Ryraso's leaving us, nothing really changed. Then recently..." he trailed off, his wings lowering, hugging his arms closer to himself.

Kelenn nodded. "They have been here more than not," he said gently with an understanding tone. Aw'endo nodded, his eyes watering. "Must have been hard, having them all be gone for such a long time," Kelenn commented, his eyes looking at Sayskel as Ryraso pinched his cheek for some comment. Kelenn suddenly had the image of an empty nest in his mind, of cold corridors and colder nights. Aw'endo's decision to go hunting for Ryraso suddenly made so much more sense. The royal triad had really let the youngling down. He looked back at Aw'endo studying him for a moment before leaning over. "The Zamen brothers call Ry 'Mum' when he isn't around to hear," he mock-whispered.

Aw'endo laughed, his wings loosening up. "Really?" he giggled.

Ryraso groaned, having stopped scolding Sayskel long enough to hear Kelenn reveal that. "They call me Dad to my face. Normally when they want something," Ryraso grumbled. "They know better than to dare call me that to my face, but as much as I'm in that place for Eyeri, Isst is more of a father figure for the rest of them."