Heart of the Rainforest

Chapter 11 - Healers

"No," Tiki brushed Equo's wing with her own. "I don't smell anything."

"Neither do I," Mamba stood up. "That doesn't sound normal."

"Are you okay?" Tiki said with concern.

"I'm fine," Equo said hurriedly. "Sometimes I have weird sensory things after I get those feelings."

"That's... not normal." Mamba glanced at Tiki, concern written across her face.

"You should go to the healers." Tiki suggested.

"No!" Equo flung out her wings, nearly whacking both of them. "I don't need to go to the healers!"

Mamba reached towards Equo and gently touched her shoulder, and she flinched away from the SandWing. "She's having some kind of panic attack."

Tiki heard wingbeats from behind her and saw Banggai approaching, both of their parrots trailing behind them. The orange RainWing landed softly on the platform next to Tiki, and Akila installed herself on Tiki's shoulder.

"She needs to go to the healers." Mamba stepped towards Equo and opened her wings to fly, but Banggai stopped her and flared a wing over Equo's back.

"I'll take her." They offered, and Mamba nodded and stepped back. 

As the two flew away into the village, Equo cast a betrayed look back at Tiki and her heart ached watching them leave. She stared after them, left looking at nothing when they disappeared into the village.

"Are you okay?" Mamba asked quietly. Tiki realized her scales were a sad shade of blue-grey, which she quickly fixed.

"Yeah." She mumbled, absentmindedly reaching up to pet Akila. 

Mamba tipped her head towards the sky and sat beside Tiki silently for a while. Before long, the village was awake, and the RainWings were almost too busy to notice the SandWing sitting beside her.

Adder and Lionfish slipped out to find some food in the rainforest, which Tiki thought was a terrible idea, but they went anyways, wearing the bulky flower necklaces to prove they were peaceful. Tiki quietly ate the rest of the fruit she had brought back the day before, and even Mamba ate some, too. She had noticed the rest of them had been eating a lot since getting out, as she was. They were all painfully thin after being starved in the SkyWing labs.

Banggai went back to the queen's treehouse shortly before midday, while Equo stayed in the healer's hut. Adder and Lionfish returned carrying several fish, a panther, and two boars, which Mamba took her share of before she went back to sit outside with Tiki.

"I know how you feel," Mamba said suddenly. Tiki had been watching the distant blue shape of her bird flying over the rainforest, and was caught off guard.

"What?" Tiki glanced at the SandWing beside her, who was watching the sky.

"I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm dead." She wrinkled her snout in a way that suggested she may have been making a joke. "I haven't seen him since I got abducted. So I guess it's not exactly the same, but similar, I guess."

"Oh." Tiki mimicked a birdcall and raised her arm, calling Akila back to her. "Is that why you want to go back to your village?"

Mamba laughed. "Well, that's part of it. There's a dragon there I really think Equo would like to meet, though."

Tiki lay down, waiting for her macaw to come back. Sun time was coming soon. "Who is it?"

"He's a dragonet named Solstice," She explained. "He's three. And he's a NightWing hybrid."

Tiki blinked. She was pretty sure she already knew what Mamba was about to say.

"And his mother is Keeneyes."