Bird of a Wing (Bow 1)

Chapter 21

Tears rolled down Ryraso's eyes at those words. "So you know," Ryraso whispered shivering. When Inai 'saw' someone, he meant he saw their soul, their feelings and intentions, he saw the truth of a matter, even if the person themselves did not yet understand. "Can you tell me then? How I am supposed to feel at the moment?" he asked.

"I can't answer that Ryraso," Inai said more solemnly, looking at the ground. "How you feel and what I heard and know about k'nairi culture do not add up to me. So please explain."

"Explain?" Ryraso let out a laugh of pain. "Explain how? I lived with them for ten years Inai. Ten years and they never showed any signs of being interested in me like that. Or I missed them?" he wondered softly. "It's not like I know everything about them," he trailed off for a moment.

"They must have felt something," Inai said in a strange tone, clearly not sure whether to be reassuring or angry still.

Ryraso was silent for a moment, thinking over the past. "When a k'nairi nest desires a new member, the head of the nest will court the prospective mate. If the prospective mate shows liking to the head, the other members of the nest will court as well. That is the basic format," he explained softly. "Courting, to outside eyes, can be very violent. Submissive does not mean meek or unwilling to fight. Sometimes they physically fight to test the strength of the dom. Who wants a dom unable to actually protect them?" he said with a wry smile.

"I imagine so," Inai smiled back understanding that this was hurting Ryraso to have to lay this all out.

"To those who don't actually want to fight or are naturally meek and gentle, courting can also be very loving and even our consideration of romance. When humans are courted, they are even more careful with how they act. Luckily most humans stupid enough to get themselves in that situation are smart enough not to challenge the person courting them," Inai could hear Ryraso reprimanding himself in the last sentence. After all, he had challenged the Winglord.

"And the stories about relationships were the dominant as you call them is a 'Master' and the submissive a slave?"asked Inai, having to ask as there were too many of those sorts of stories to simply ignore.

Inai wasn't asking for no reason. He was asking out of genuine concern, not just for his lost men, but for Ryraso as well. Knowing that Tai'ray intended Ryraso for his nest, Inai wanted to be sure that if Tai'ray ever got his hands on Ryraso, he wouldn't be raped or otherwise abused. It had sounded like that but Tai'ray was rarely sane in battle, outside of battle when he calmed his true nature came out. Inai didn't want Ryraso, or any of his men who had been captured by the k'nairi, to be forced to submit to the pleasures of another outside of their free will. It was a fear which brought nightmares to Inai.

"Some of the relationships are like that but it depends on the k'nairi," Ryraso said feeling a little flustered. "Meeker subs tend to prefer those sorts of relationships, but the vast majority are equals. Submissives are strong in their own way. Can you imagine Nel'os not fighting because Tai'ray told him too easily?" he asked.

Inai smiled at the idea and shook his head. That image didn't fit the man at all. Nel'os was as stubborn as they came. "If this is true and the prospective mates do get a say, then why did Tai'ray imply you didn't?"

"Because technically as the Winglord he doesn't have to give me the choice. The loophole in the law. The Wingord is the best of the best and as such deserves it. If he says I'm his, as far as k'nairi law goes, I am," Ryraso said, his voice falling low again.

"That is..." Inai trailed off.

"Something I never thought they would fall to using on anyone," Ryraso said before Inai could come up with a word. "That's how Tai'ray became Winglord. He saved Nel'os from being forced into the previous Winglord's nest against his will. Nel'os was going along with it," Ryraso said, horror filling his tone. "He came so close to that and he was going to make me..."

"Nel'os didn't and it is entirely possible that Nel'os was counting on you to snap Tai'ray out of the mindset he's in. He did defend you after all," Inai pointed out. As much as Inai hated to admit it, Nel'os could have kidnapped Ryraso again but instead he had blocked Ryraso and Taidra from getting hit with bullets. "We both know that Tai'ray isn't always sane in battle."

Ryraso looked at him for a moment before looking down at his hands. "K'nairi dominant males tend to be loud, aggressive and arrogant. They treat anything they see as beneath them like dirt. However, they are by nature also very protective of the weak. They have to be really, or else the k'nairi as a race would never have survived. They bully the weak but only to the point where the person can take it." Ryraso explained naturally as if they hadn't just discussed something very personal to him.

"Can take it..." Inai repeated, allowing Ryraso the subject change. That didn't sound good at all.

"Trust me, no one is ever forced into a bond unwillingly," Ryraso said, trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince Inai.

Inai picked up on the wording straight away. No one was forced into a bond. Bond, not a relationship. Nor for that matter, had Ryraso said they weren't forced into sex. Inai knew at least that a bond was formed through a mixture or magical and physical factors; a person could have sex several times with a k'nairi without making a bond. It took something more, a connection deep within them.

"So the weak can be pushed into relationships regardless of their willingness of the matter. Can be bullied into things they don't want," Inai concluded

"No. Yes. There is more to it than that. A dominant would never purposely make a submissive upset, or hurt them seriously..." Ryraso said desperately trying to explain in a way which didn't make the k'nairi sound like abusive assholes. "I can tell you an example if you want? One which is valid as it did in fact happen and wasn't made up by a bunch or rumour spreading bastards!" Ryraso wanted to murder whoever had spread such bad stories about the k'nairi. Some aspects were true but the rest were badly blown out of proportion.

"Go ahead," Inai allowed, genuinely interested in the story. Like so many others he was fascinated by the k'nairi. It was a shame most of the information they had on them was from rumours and stories. Plus it would hopefully give him an insight into the life Ryraso had left behind.

"Remember S'onon?" Ryraso asked softly.

"How could I forget? The k'nairi you chewed to death over not getting treatment for his wings," Inai said dryly.

Ryraso blushed but nodded. "It happened about two years before the war began..."