Bird of a Flock (Bow 2)

Chapter 5

It took them another two days to get to Navat. Not much happened over those two days. Eyeri was still scared of the branding. Dyn'ad and Tai'ray both treated him like they would a k'nairi youngling, trying to soothe the boy's fears by hugging him a lot. A thing which did occasionally annoy the teenager but the dominant k'nairi were reluctant to stop. Despite Eyeri's protests at being 'babied', the hugs did make him stop smelling of fear for a short time. Leaving Eyeri buried in strong arms pouting unhappily and looking very much like the child he was claiming not to be.

Ryraso found it amusing. The Royal triad learning that when Eyeri first moved on to the warship, he had endured a lot of a similar nature. Only then, he was still a child and a broken one at that. The warriors had gotten very protective over Eyeri which was why few people off the ship knew his name. Plenty of D'mar had seen him in the med-bay but they didn't know who he was. The main difference was that Eyeri hadn't been carried thousands of feet in the air by the warriors on the ship.

Aw'endo and Nel'os seemed to have decided just to distract him from it. The two of them taking every chance to tease and play with the human. Aw'endo having reluctantly forgiven Eyeri for drugging him and now was fixated on making Eyeri laugh. Or yell, basically anything but cry. Herymi and his own suitor watching in amusement as Eyeri occasionally forgot he was flying and tried to attack Aw'endo in the air. Tai'ray keeping a tight grip on him.

As for Ryraso, he was having problems of his own. Despite the progress which had been in Tayagwe, Ryraso was still very much against being forced into the nest and was still very sharp with Tai'ray. Not that it was stopping Tai'ray or Dyn'ad or making them any less blunt with making moves on him. Nel'os was able to without much retribution. Ryraso even flirted back with Nel'os. It was just the dominants he was blue balling. Dyn'ad with a lot more success with flirting than Tai'ray. At the very least, Ryraso let certain things pass. Any move on Tai'ray's part was enough to get Ryraso glaring coldly or smirking knowingly depending on his mood. Tai'ray was getting frustrated. Everyone could tell.

Herymi, too, was having issues with his suitor. How O'chetur acted with him most of the time was clearly trying to repair their broken friendship and doing his best to make Herymi happy. Then Nel'os would make a joke or Dyn'ad would pat him on the shoulder and O'chetur flipped to being possessive and annoying the crap out of him. The three had made it clear they were only interested in Ryraso but O'chetur seemed to get jealous at the slightest interaction.

'No offence intended by the lack of interest,' Tai'ray murmured over the link, sensing Herymi mentally grumbling about the situation.

'None taken,' Herymi replied.

'He is young. He will get better,' Tai'ray offered.

Herymi smiled slightly. O'chetur was young for the k'nairi, even if he was a year older than Herymi. Maturity with the k'nairi was strange but still barely a decade past Navdia, O'chetur was only just an adult. Young and impulsive, Herymi was technically the older one in maturity at the moment. If he had lived a normal life with the k'nairi without joining the link, he always would be but with the increase of lifespan, Herymi suspected they would eventually catch up but for the moment it was annoying. 'I understand that. I also understand that O'chetur is terrified of losing me again but if he doesn't stop being a possessive jerk, I am going to reject the claim!' he said darkly, more thinking into the link than actually thinking.

'Herymi!' Tai'ray scolded through the link.

Herymi blushed, as he realised he had been projecting the thought instead of shielding it. Normally, being surrounded by humans and sealed, it didn't matter. If he was going to be up to being bonded to his friends, he would need to get used to blocking his thoughts.,