Bird of a Wing (Bow 1)

Chapter 55

Eyeri moved away from the tent, feeling about a thousand eyes on him as he moved through the village. Watching him in case he tried to run again. Or possibly fall off the rope ladder as someone appeared under him as he almost fell. Face red, he let the stranger grab him and gently put him on the ground with a pat on the head. Eyeri glared at him but the stranger just grinned, pointed in a direction and flew off to do whatever he was supposed to do.

Running a hand through his hair in embarrassment, Eyeri started walking towards what he assumed was Guardian Fl'ex's place. That had been a complete disaster. Not only had he failed to escape he had almost killed himself in the process and lost all of his stuff. He had nothing now. Everything was gone.

"Should have made more of the drug," Eyeri muttered darkly to himself before pausing looking around realising he was lost.

"Problem, young one?" Nel'os said, appearing next to him, his hair tied up and mud on his cheek and hands.

"I don't know the way," Eyeri admitted with a slight blush, reaching up to pull a leaf out of the man's messy hair, letting it fall to the ground. "Actually I think I stormed off before Winglord Tai'ray could tell me."

Nel'os shrugged, a big smile breaking out on his face before he kissed Eyeri's cheek. "I suspect Tai'ray let you forgetting that without the link, you wouldn't know," Nel'os said warmly before gesturing for Eyeri to walk with him. "I'll show you the way," he promised.

"Thank you," Eyeri smiled shyly, kicking the ground slightly.

"You can cut the act, Eyeri," Nel'os commented with a serious note in his voice, wrapping his arm around Eyeri's shoulders. "I know you don't want to see Guardian Fl'ex."

"No," Eyeri allowed. "But I am happy you're not just going to warp me there," he added. "I'm not quite ready for that," he murmured, his stomach clenching unhappily.

"Well, delivering you throwing up would be rude," Nel'os chuckled, rubbing his knuckles against Eyeri's head teasingly. "We'll have to get your first warp done at some point soon. Don't want to upset your stomach in an emergency," he mused, his grip tightening on the boy for a moment.

"Do we have to?" Eyeri whined, not liking the idea of doing something which was pretty much guaranteed to make him vomit.

"I think we do," Nel'os hummed.

Eyeri moaned but didn't stop walking, the two walking in silence through the village. The ground was oddly dry thanks to Jak's machines pumping water away from the village. It was slightly muddy but nothing compared to the mud he had been wading through the night before. He could hear the k'nairi talking and working around them. The strange language making Eyeri's stomach twist more. He didn't like not knowing what was going on around him.

"Here we are," Nel'os smiled, turning to kiss Eyeri's forehead and neaten his clothes up a bit. "Be polite. Guardian Fl'ex is of a different generation but he brought up Herymi so he is used to human teenagers. Still be good. Please?"

"I'll be good," Eyeri promised, the sensation of Nel'os' lips remaining for a moment, his shoulders feeling heavy from Nel'os arm.

"Good boy," Nel'os smiled fondly at him before disappearing.

Eyeri wasn't sure when Nel'os felt that they had suddenly become close, possibly during one of his nightmare cuddle piles, but he wasn't sure he was happy with it. Nel'os was a nice enough person and the twins had always told nice stories about the Royal but it didn't settle well inside of Eyeri. He could only hope it would be able to get used to it one day.

Rubbing his back and rolling his shoulders, Eyeri looked around for how he was going to get up to the hut. There was no ladder and he could see wood nailed to the tree further up but he couldn't reach them. Looking at the tree, he could see where lower ones would have been nailed once upon a time but must have fallen off at some point or been pulled off to limit movement.