The Sky Demons Part One: Journey

Chapter Twenty-two- Death date (safe version)

Serefk’na- Death date 

Summary: Serefk'na is worrying about what Jia just told her and starts having a panic attack. Someone comes in saying "you'll never guess who's here" and then notices her condition. They aren't much help. Another woman comes in who smells of cinnamon and sends the other person away. She introduces herself as Maria: one of the two people who had gone missing on an expedition to the upper levels of The Hideout. She helps Serefk'na calm down.

I rushed downstairs, taking them two at a time and Maria followed behind. She was a psychologist in training and a cinnibird deishani; all of her features from her eyes and hair to wings and tail feathers were a soft shade of brown and wherever she went the scent of cinnamon followed.

She was also my middle brother’s girlfriend and if she was back from the expedition then he probably was too. I reached the landing and careered into the kitchen where a good many people were gathered, as well as all of the wolves. I spotted the bright red coat of Lyk’na in the middle of the group and ran to hug him.

“Serefk’na!” he cried and bent slightly to hug me back, giving me the greeting that I had missed from he and Maria when I was reunited with my other brothers. I heard Lofar’s laugh behind me and then a moment later was lifted up from behind by him.

“You’re going to have to watch out how you approach Lyk’na now that he’s got that beast with him.”

“Huh?”

I looked at Lofar, his eyes shining purple and then turned my head to see those same eyes in Lyk’na’s face, framed by messy brown hair instead of curly black. As usual he had a small cauldron strapped to his back. He grinned back at me and I noticed for the first time the dark, half-lidded, piggy eyes peering at me over the cauldron’s rim and the two paws each with three long claws gripping the sides. Lofar put me back down and Lyk’na shuffled around so that I could see the animal properly. It was something like a koala bear. With bits of sloth and sabre tooth cat thrown in from the looks of the moss growing among otherwise brown fur, the sabre teeth, the short, fluffy tail and of course the curved claws that were kind of hard to ignore. A crescent moon glowed softly on its forehead, the magical light reacting in a strange way with the closely surrounding moss so that it also glowed luminously.

“He’s my familiar,” said Lyk’na proudly, “he’s a drop bear.”

I smiled uncertainly and took a small step away from him, drop bears were known to be vicious things which- as the name partly suggests- like to drop on people from above and maul them. This one didn’t look particularly dangerous though, he sat comfortably in the cauldron, his head and looked half-asleep.

Ketsuo stepped in and slowly raised a hand towards him; the drop bear reared his head and hissed angrily, revealing the serrated edges of his claws and the great gashes in the back Lyk’na’s coat behind him, underneath which I could see a hard leather chest plate. Hilda pushed Ketsuo out of the way so forcefully that he stumbled, and snarled furiously at the drop bear, bearing as much of her teeth as she could and spreading her wings out wide so that everyone around her was forced to move out of the way.

“Hilda.”

Maria positioned herself in-between Hilda and a surprised looking Lyk’na, forcing them both apart. Hilda glanced away, looking cowed but hurring quietly as the drop bear continued to hiss in the background. Lyk’na glared over his shoulder at his familiar and something passed silently between them, the hissing fading into silence.

“Sorry about that,” said Lyk’na sheepishly, “he’s a bit nervous, most of the time he’s quite chilled out.”

“Yeah, of course he is,” muttered Ketsuo, scratching Hilda’s neck as she sidled up next to him.