Enslaved

Chapter 30

"Ryuu, what are you doing?!"

Ryuu jerked awake, jumping to his feet with his wings half open as he landed in a defensive position. His vision caught up with his brain and he saw Kajeel standing a foot away from him with his hands raised and a smile playing on his face. Ryuu snarled loudly, blinking the sleep out of his eyes and closing his wings, stretching his arms above his head.

"Sleeping, obviously." Ryuu growled, his voice rugged with sleep but still slightly humorous. "Until you decided to scare me into consciousness, that is."

Kajeel finally let out a barking laugh and took two steps forward to clasp a hand on Ryuu's right shoulder. Ryuu gave him a small smile, shaking his head and put his hand on Kajeel's arm, grateful for his friendship that had never faltered all the years they had been fighting for freedom. Ryuu lowered his hand after a second and Kajeel did the same, taking a step back as Ryuu stretched his wings out and folded them back in.

"What happened?" Ryuu asked Kajeel, stretching his back and feeling his joints pop. "Is everything okay?"

Kajeel gestured around and Ryuu looked around the clearing, finally realizing that the sun was setting and throwing their camp into shadow. Ryuu snapped his eyes back to Kajeel, incredulous.

"You let me sleep all day?"

Kajeel just shrugged and slid a hand into his pocket.

"You hadn't gotten a sufficient rest since saving Kaida, Ryuu." Kajeel's voice held no remorse.
"You needed to replenish your sleep. You were basically on auto-drive during last night's watch and almost caused a fight with Valik. You need to be on your best game to run this operation, you know that."

Ryuu sighed and ran a hand through his hair, looking around the camp with more attentiveness than he had earlier, noticing how the hybrids were either leaving the eating area or sitting in small clumps in it, just talking or eating. His eyes automatically scanned all of the faces until he spotted Kaida sitting with Valik on the edge of the eating area, half-full dishes of food spread out at their feet as they talked to each other and Ryuu let out a quiet breath at seeing her. He needed to talk to her, he needed to make sure he hadn't gone too far.

"She is progressing very rapidly, Ryuu." Ryuu looked back to Kajeel, lifting an eyebrow. "In her fighting lessons, that is. She landed a kick on me this morning while you were enjoying your beauty sleep. And she helped the healers today deal with the injuries left over from the raid. Some guards even showed her a few pointers on how they fly."

Ryuu felt another smile starting to form on his face but he killed it, looking over to the falls and looking for the watch he knew should be there. He narrowed his eyes when he saw no movement around the falls, no flash of wings or glint of armor amidst the cascading water.

"Where is the guard, Kajeel?" Ryuu looked back to Kajeel just in time to see him look down. "Did you change their routes?"

Kajeel coughed, running a hand through his reddish-brown hair.

"I told them they could go eat," Kajeel said, not meeting Ryuu's steely eyes. "They had been on watch since lunch and the change was delayed."

"Why was it delayed."

Kajeel flinched at Ryuu's tone.

"The hybrids were antsy today so I decided to let them play a game of airball. Some decided to swim in the lake though."

Ryuu's lip pulled up to reveal his teeth as his face froze in a snarl. Without another word to Kajeel, Ryuu took off, his wings straining to carry him as fast as he intended after not using them all day.