Between

Chapter Nine

Far Southwest of the Kinnarr Ice Barrier, Great Northern Ocean

J'taka Den-Keerta had drifted in the void between unconsciousness and wakefulness for what seemed like centuries. The feathers of his wings were mostly frozen, and many had snapped off completely leaving him ragged and flightless. The storm had ended at last, somehow sparing J'taka's pitiful life from its immediate fury. Now, though, as he rolled onto his stomach and attempted to rise to his knees in the half-sunken life raft, he realized he may not have been spared at all.

Groggy, seasick and dehydrated, J'taka realized the great Kinnarr ice barrier was nowhere in sight.

How far had he drifted? How long had he been out here? Groaning, he flopped backward, folding his tail beneath him and began patting the bottom of the boat in search of something to remove the water from the flooded raft. The motion brought his left wing against the side of the raft and he shrieked at the wave of anguish that followed.

Turning his head to look over his shoulder as only an avian could, J'taka felt fear well up alongside the pain when he came to the conclusion that the left wing was clearly broken.

In his current predicament, the mangled limb was a death sentence.

Not all Kinnarr could fly. Some individuals, like the Matriarch, possessed wings in the form of arms, like the humans of the southern continents. These individuals didn't possess the proper musculature to sustain flight. Others, like J'taka, possessed the same upright, humanoid physique with two legs and two arms, but also bore two wings on their backs. These appendages, being much larger and stronger than their brothers', did allow for flight. The majority of Kinnarr sailors were of the second designation.

Forcing himself to get to his feet, J'taka managed to haul a bucket from a compartment in the sunken stern. Carefully, straining not to further injure his broken wing, he began scooping seawater from the boat and dumping it back into the ocean. Gradually, the stern lifted upward from the water and by the time J'taka had thoroughly exhausted himself it was floating as though nothing had happened.

To his left, a fish splashed, but there were no fishing poles, no nets, and no spears left in the raft after the intense storm. Once or twice he made a futile grab for the creatures with his clawed, four-fingered hands. On the third attempt, he nearly toppled over the side.

Ahead of him, far in the distance a snow squall menaced. His heavy, ice-coated feathers wouldn't protect against the snow, and J'taka realized he would likely freeze to death before he would starve or drown. Inwardly, he wasn't sure which would be the easier death. Dragging himself back to the front of the raft, he rummaged through another compartment and removed a ragged sail. It wouldn't help him move, but it might provide some shelter from the coming snow.