Upon Feathers of Change

Chapter 5

Vincent and I thoroughly enjoyed having the run of the park by the wall. Vincent was able to do the Morning Song after a few days once the Kymari stalkers went back and watched the flock, and I was able to do my Evening Song without needing to find a really good hiding spot for it. We happily explored the park, finding all the good sunbathing spots away from walking paths, as well as the best fruit trees in the area and the stream coming out of the ravine was perfect for bathing in. There sadly weren't any sunburst vines nearby, but it was a small sacrifice for the entire park to ourselves.

Jake messaged me a few weeks later. "Crystal? Where are you and your mate? I was asking around and no one has seen you or your mate for a while, even for the Morning Song."

"Vincent and I are still in the park by the wall," I replied, unhappy that even my closest friend had not used my mate's name when speaking about him. "We decided to make a new start here where no one else will have to be bothered by our presence."

"Who said we were bothered by your presence?" he asked, confused.

"Jake, no one may have said anything, but you remember that old saying 'actions speak louder than words'?" I replied, trying very hard to hide my hurt, and failing miserably. "Even after seven whole years of us living in the same place as everyone else, no one wanted to get to know Vincent besides me. They were all still mad at him for being one of the scientists in the lab, and I was too different. You were the only one to continue talking to me, but even you didn't hardly ever make conversation with Vincent. And that hurt, Jake. Even now, no one talks to us. No one has messaged either of us since Drake went back to the main park until now. No one."

Jake sent wordless apology down the link before telling us how Serena and Tom had been taken into captivity. A tree had fallen onto Serena while she and Tom had been sunbathing, and it had broken her ribs. The Kymari took her for emergency surgery and Tom followed her into the shuttle, not wanting to leave his mate.

"Jake, how long has it been since Serena and Tom have been in captivity?" Vincent asked.

"About a week. Why?"

"Just wondering."

We let the link fade, and I turned to Vincent. "Why did you want to know how long Serena and Tom have been in captivity?"

"I was just thinking that we've been out here for a long time, alone. What if something happened to one of us? What would we do if one of us becomes injured bad enough to need the Kymari help?"

I thought about that for a minute, then shrugged. "The other would find the closest Kymari to get help. It would be the only thing we'd be able to do if the other was that injured. But hopefully we won't need to do that."

"Yeah, hopefully."

~~~¥~~~

More time went by. Jake relayed to us the image of the sicora queen being taken down outside the wall, a few more dragonets joined the Kymari in hunting crawlers and sicora. Vincent and I decided to start a family, given that we had stayed in the park by the wall for so long without having been discovered.

Until now.

I was barely a day with our eggs when Vincent was ambushed by a large raptor eagle. It happened while we were sunbathing, so our reaction time was sluggish. The eagle came out of nowhere, and landed hard on him, breaking his forearm, eliciting a blood-curdling screech from his mouth. Screeching in surprise, fear, and anger, I managed to jump up and slash at the eagle's wings, aiming for its primary feathers, knowing full well from my past experiences that the primaries are essential for flight. I managed to snag a couple feathers, but not the ones I was aiming for. My reaction time had been too slow from the sun daze and the eagle was able to evade the slashes. Jumping into the air to try and get it off of my mate, I pulled an old trick and dive bombed it. A small lick of flame escaped my mouth and the smell of singed feathers reached my nose, along with the smell of blood from where the eagle was still slashing at Vincent's scales. The eagle screamed at me and began to fly away. I was all too ready to follow it but Vincent's voice called me back, his voice full of pain and fear.