Before Beasts, There Were Storms--6

Land Ho

Bodies pressed in around him. Someone had nuzzled their face into the feathers between his shoulder blades, and another had commandeered an entire wing as their blanket. The hair on his calf told him another yet used his leg as a pillow.

It was a testament to how good his dream was that he hadn't woken up while all of this had occurred. It was also a testament to his sanity that he instantly flailed out of reach, dislodging three metamorphed teenagers.

Preoccupied with the creepy-crawlies rupturing his skin, he accidentally pushed himself out and over the edge of the raft.

His heart didn't even have the time to skip a beat before he landed with a spray of semi-damp sand.

Ayah and Max popped their heads over his knees, bleary eyed. Tyson snored on.

"Wha...wha?" Max ran his forearm over his eyes. "Where are we?"

"I thought that's what you were supposed to know," Kai almost growled, tugging his legs off with a squeak of vinyl rubber.

Ayah took in their surroundings with a thoughtful pout. From where she was in the boat, Kai figured she must have been the one who had nuzzled into his back. Recalling a hint of black hair, he held in a groan. Freaking Tyson should know better than to use him as a cuddle partner.

"No need to look so grumpy," said Max, displaying his usual perceptiveness. "It was freezing last night, and you were like a space heater, it was awesome."

Ayah gingerly stepped out of the raft. A wave reached up the beach and around her toes. Kai just managed to scramble out of the way before the wave's fringes touched him. Nose wrinkled, he turned to take in the sparse, wave beaten grasses and scrubby trees. It was definitely not the tropical dream island people shipwrecked on in movies. Though past the stout cliff side of volcanic rock there might be more.

Max shivered and ducked back down into the raft. "Wakey wakey, dragon spawn."

"Go way," grumbled Tyson. "Cold."

"Kai's that way, if you want him."

"Nnnrg? Kai?"

Kai could hear Max's mischievous grin. "Your warm blanket? It's that way—open your eyes—that way. See my finger?"

As a groggy, black nest of a head wobbled above the raft's rim, Ayah stretched her arms towards the sky and flexed. Morning sun caught on masses of white, bringing out opalescent hues, like mother-of-pearl. Her tail widened, fanning out past that well rounded rear like a flattering skirt.

Kai's brain turned off.

When he finally managed to claw his way out of that stupor, Tyson was already half way up his shins. His ratted mess of long hair fit the shipwreck role to a 't,' though his half-lidded expression leaned him more towards drunk.

"Be a pal Kai—OW!"

"Apparently I didn't make myself clear the last time you latched onto my leg."

"And you're a big fat jerk, per usual!"

"Wow, I heard that one. Must've hurt," said Max, followed by a pop of the cooler. "Anyone up for break—wha? Tyson!"

"What? I got hungry," Tyson's next words had to fight through a yawn. "I'ma grow'n boy."

"Each of those bars had enough calories for a whole day for each person!"

"Yep, well. I had a multi-day, multi-person sort of hunger."

"More like a month. Jeeze, Tyson, do you have to be such a glutton?"

Kai had gotten to his feet and was busy flicking off damp sand from his tail feathers, the tips of which had been captured by the water and sagged. He stretched out his wings much like Ayah, relishing in the feel of morning sun, then set to work hooking his long tail feathers into his belt. Half way through he lost patience, flicked out his pocket knife, and cut the annoyance.

Ayah's aghast squawk broke through the breakfast bar turmoil.

"No!" she cried.

"What? Where's the shark?" asked Tyson stupidly.

"Relax. I'll doubt I need those three peacock feathers for flying," said Kai, tossing the long, oval tipped feathers into the sand and wondering why the heck he hadn't done that sooner. He then jumped as Ayah all but dived forward to catch them.

"But they were pretty!" Just as she met his eyes, sandy hands full of scarlet and silver-grey, she seized up, face reddening. "I-I-I...just...can I be invisible for a moment?"

Max snickered. "Guess Kai can't be pretty anymore."

"Poor Kai," drawled Tyson, before breaking into a yawn so wide it tipped him back onto the rim of the raft. "Man, I'm so TIRED!"

"You've got till I've checked out this place to wake up," said Kai, whose neck had also grown uncomfortably hot. He made his way out of reach of the surf, remembering the buckling of the roof on the boat cabin and wondering how much space he should give the others.

"I can help!" piped up Ayah, followed by the patter of her bare feet on the wet beach.

He didn't voice his doubts about her ability to get airborne. She had to figure out how to fly sooner or later. Rather, he braced himself, finding his muscles clicking into place as they had atop the ship cabin naturally, and jumped.

Sand came up with the small explosion of his first down thrust. A steady breeze from the ocean scooped him forward as he pounded up, up—and out. Warmth he hadn't realized he was missing beat into his breast, bled through by his efforts and sunshine.

It took him more effort to climb than it had on the ocean, surprisingly. By the time he got to an acceptable height for gliding, he suddenly found himself oddly unbalanced. He teetered on the air currents until he leveled out. Apparently chopping off his own feathers didn't have no effect, even if they were superfluously long anyways. But a bit of adjusting had all it had taken to fix that change.

The land that spread out before him beyond the cliffs was green, and perhaps a good five miles deep until he saw ocean once more. As he drifted in a slow circle, he found the edges of the island vanishing abruptly behind a modest mountain to the south, which looked as though it had once been an active volcano, if it wasn't still, though the lush greenery below said otherwise.

"Kai!"

His name was little more than a squeak on the winds. Ayah's white figure fluttered towards him, some feet below. She seemed to be trying to glide, but then jerking out of it from nerves or something.

"Flatten out!" he called down.

"What?!"

"Just relax. The wind will catch you naturally!"

Her white expanse passed beneath him with some more squawks and totters, but quickly stilled and leveled out, followed by a loud whoop that made him grin and twist round to catch up.

"We're flying! We're flying!"

He dipped down and, to his deep pleasure, managed to level out just to the left and above of her.

"Good job," he said.

In answer, she just squealed. He laughed. If he had known this would make her this happy before—

The memory of the baby's weight in his arm split cross his mind. Without thought, he leaned away from her and into a turn to head back to the beach.

"Let's head back!" he called over his shoulder.