Bird of a Wing (Bow 1)

Chapter 36

There is an odd feeling when a person is falling. For a brief moment, the body almost doesn't seem to realise and then it reacts. The heart speeds up and the feeling of being almost weightless surrounds the person as the wind rushes past them. It was an almost nostalgic feeling to Herymi but still slightly irritating. He knew the k'nairi well enough to know he was in no great danger. Air was their element and they enjoyed scaring the humans they were friends with.

Herymi rolled his eyes as he fell. "Damn you!" he yelled up at the k'nairi royal who had dropped him. Really Dyn'ad was right, the royal did have the right to order Herymi around; him dropping him was still a little extreme. Dyn'ad chuckled over the link but was clearly in no hurry to catch him.

Sighing as he heard Tai'ray over the link making the remark that someone would catch him, Herymi relaxed slightly and enjoyed the freefall. He knew the Winglord had sent the exchange over the link in part to reassure Herymi that he was safe and also to comment about how cute the boy was being about this. Herymi only felt like rolling his eyes again as the royals, Aw'endo included, cooed over how Eyeri was reacting. He could sense the bemusement from Ryraso as well.

Herymi kept his eyes looking up at the blue eye above him. His 'friends' had often dropped him from as high as they could go without harming him, only to watch him scream and yell before catching him before he hit the ground. The memories were bittersweet. He hadn't appreciated it at the time and he didn't appreciate being dropped now but he understood the reasons they did it. The ultimate trust exercise. Tai'ray at the very least wanted him alive so he was going to be caught. The question was, by whom and how far from the ground.

'I'm glad you trust me,' Tai'ray commented almost smugly, ridiculously pleased with how Herymi was reacting to this and how the human really did still trust the k'nairi would protect him. 'You really are remarkably calm for someone falling in the air,' he added.

'Please,' Herymi mentally snorted. 'You know my past. I've been dropped a lot of times. After a while, you learn when to fear it and when not to!'

It was true. Falling off a cliff with no friends or allies around was cause to fear. Being dropped by k'nairi was not. Herymi was pretty sure Tai'ray allowed k'nairi to do it because it helped their human companions get used to the idea of falling. Not to mention caused a lot of trust between the humans and their k'nairi allies.

'You fear your friends, but not falling. Interesting,' Tai'ray mused curiously.

'I don't fear them,' Herymi muttered, almost insulted someone would make that assumption. He was nervous about meeting them again and he was scared that they might hate him, but he was not scared of them.

'Good!' a familiar voice murmured through the link. A voice Herymi had not heard in a very long time. One he had run from, one which haunted both his dreams and his nightmares over the years since they had last seen each other. O'chetur, the head of his friend's nest. 'Then you can tell us why you ran,' O'chetur's mental voice demanded angrily.

Before Herymi had any real time to react, a pair of thick, strong arms wrapped around his waist. The weightless feeling disappeared, instead the feeling of air pushing upwards as the man slowed their descent before pulling Herymi back up into the air, pressing their bodies together in the process. Herymi fought the urge to yell as it happened; the power of the wind against him as they fought against it was an amazing feeling. The air gone from his lungs and the weightlessness was replaced with the feeling of flying, actually flying this time not just over Dyn'ad's shoulders. The k'nairi needed to fly and there were many times in the air Herymi understood just why.

Once they were back up in the air, O'chetur shifted Herymi so he was being held in a bridal style, not too dissimilar to how Nel'os was carrying Ryraso. O'chetur was holding him tightly to his chest, like if the k'nairi let go, Herymi would disappear. Well in this case, he would because he would end up falling again but everyone knew that was not the reason for the tight grip.