Chapter 43
A call echoed, its familiarity taking on a strange note in the open skies of the night. Kehtal’s gavo rose alertly as he craned his neck and peered towards the horizon curiously. The open desert made everything sound off, but he could have sworn that he knew it. He was certain that it wasn’t Daskh, however. Although he and Daskh had been exchanging calls over the distance as they searched the dunes, taking care all the while not to disturb any fazthal that might still be lurking nearby beneath the sand, the direction was wrong for his nest brother’s last position. He also believed he had become accustomed to the male’s calls over the last several days.
There was a chance that it was a hunting party drawing out closer to the mountains from Raza colony, but he did not think so. The hunting parties typically avoided the dunes even if they decided to venture out further. Gasthan herds seldom went out onto the dunes, preferring to circle far around them instead. With their size, fazthals were quick to discover them, otherwise. The dunes were more likely home to giant zarkulths which most Seshanamitesh did not find pleasant enough to eat to be worth the effort to pierce their exoskeletons. Kehtal had come across a few danthas while he searched with Daskh, but they were scrawny and would not even be worth the effort of hunters looking for bigger game to feed the colony.
The call echoed again over the sand and his ears fanned. It sounded closer. His curiously piqued, he shrieked back, the resonating sound carrying to whoever was approaching. His head cocked, his ears flicking as he listened... and then it came, the sound rising jubilantly over the sand with a distant rush of wings. Kehtal’s eyes widened, his hearts leaping abruptly in his chest.
He knew that call!
“Slengral! Daskh, Slengral has come,” he shouted and then remembered belatedly that neither male would even hear his words. Shaking his head sharply as he laughed, he sent out two sharp calls of welcome as his wings spread and kicked up sand as he launched into the air.
His wings beat the air rapidly as he rose over the crest of the dunes. His head swiveled as he eagerly peered along the horizon. At last, his gaze fell at last on three figures rising over the sand and a shout of elation rose rapidly from within his chest as he recognized the male flying at the center of the formation. There was something off about his nest brother’s flying but Kehtal mentally set that aside to investigate later as he hurdled through the air toward to meet him, his sharp calls of greeting echoing between them, unconstrained with his excitement.
Sand rose in a cloud from the left with Daskh’s approach, his massive wings stirring the dunes as he flew low to conceal himself and the nestling he carried. The male was cautious but his own cries of welcome which just as jubilant and sweet to Kehtal’s ears as he twisted in the air and spun around Slengral, his wings moving in a wild sequence of acrobatics as he spun happily around the male, his soft trills falling from him in welcome.
Slengral’s head tipped as he watched him, his gavo rising and flicking to scatter its luminescence joyously as he trilled back in turn under the amused watch of the guards at his side. The females kept a steadily maintained position at either side of Slengral, their body language alert as their gaze frequently darted to him. There was such an intensity to their watchfulness and the concerned manner with which they carried it out that it was as if they were cautious monitoring his condition so as to be prepared for any moment that they may need to assist him. That worried Kehtal. Slengral had always been powerful and could outfly any of them when it came to tests of endurance and strength. His smile slipped but his nest brother caught his worry and tipped his head toward the sand before shifting his weight and gliding serenely down to it. Jathella and Kitanara dipped through the air, following him, leaving Kehtal with few options other than to follow closely after them as they descended together into the heart of the dunes.
Daskh had not yet joined them, but Kehtal had little doubt that the male had easily picked out their location even as thickly surrounded as he was by billowing sand. He would arrive soon. Until then, Kehtal would satisfy himself as to his nest brother’s condition.
The sand bloom of them all landing at once rose into the air before dispersing in a hazy, red shimmer. Slengral rose high on his coils, the image of their nest’s central strength and authority as he loomed over him. It was possible his nest brother’s weakness had been an illusion or perhaps Kehtal had simply been mistaken by what he thought he had seen. He studied his brother as he moved in closer, his eyes running over him with concern as he approached. The tremor of weakness was subtle, but not so much that his eyes weren’t drawn to it and focused on it as everything within him went numb. Unfortunately, once he saw it, he could not pretend that he had not as his mouth and throat worked with words that just would not come.
He did not understand—how could Slengral have been harmed?
A sad expression made a brief appearance on his nest brother’s face, but it was quickly replaced by a quiet welcome as Slengral opened his arms and wings for him. Kehtal was not a strong male. He did not pretend to be. Consequently, he also did not pretend that he possessed more strength than to not cling to his nest brother.
“Slengral, what happened?” he rasped, his hand reaching toward a face that was far gaunter than he remembered.
A serene smile curled the male’s mouth and he quietly chuckled, though it sounded painful to Kehtal’s ears. It was as if he had been brought from the gateway of death and was still recovering.
“Mother underestimated my resolve,” he said simply, his red eyes burning with an inner fire of barely banked rage. His gaze roved over Kehtal and his expression softened. “It is good to see you looking so well, Kehtal.”
“Not so well as a male who has found his mate,” Kehtal replied glumly. “We have searched everywhere without even a hint that she was here other than Buosoa swearing that she would not have been capable of getting far with her physical limitations. I worry that the desert will not surrender her to us now. We were late and I fear now that we have lost everything.” Sighing in disappointment, he dropped into his nest brother’s embrace as warm arms and wings wrapped comfortingly around him.
He could feel the tremor of weakness that rose between them, but Slengral did not act like it bothered him, so Kehtal did not pull away but leaned into the male and brushed his cheek affectionately against his scales as Daskh joined them. The male arrived in true fashion for one of his size—with a heavy spray of and a shout of welcome as Hashal’s excitable trill echoed all around him, drawing amusement from all of them. Wings closing around each other and tails entwining, they clung to each other with Hashal nestled safely in between them, breathing in each other’s pheromones and reestablishing their connections through touch.
They clung to each other in the shattering power of their shared grief, and with the healing warmth of relief from the strength they offered each other. Jathella and her sisters were watching them, but they kept a respectful distance, standing at guard as Kehtal twined with his nest brothers as they breathed one breath together, and their hearts whispered to each other with the same solid beat. They were one but they were fragmented, missing their hithana to bind them all together.
Kehtal reached for her instinctively and moaned quietly when he recalled that she was not there. His body shook with a fresh wave of anger and sorrow, but it was met by Slengral’s quiet song and settled.
“I know,” Slengral rasped, his own agony carrying in his voice. “I feel the same loss, but we will find her.”
“We will not abandon her,” Daskh agreed, his voice breaking on the words.
Jathella’s head turned, her gaze meeting that of her sisters before she at last met his eyes and those of his nest brothers grimly. “And we will help you. Lori shall not remain with spirit and bones lost to the sands.”