Chapter 3
THE BIRD TRIBE
“We shouldn’t have let her go alone. Not all day," Darag said, scanning the quickly darkening sky. Ria had been gone for hours.
Darag stretched for his power again. He’d used his gift of a Spirit Elemental since birth, though unknowingly. Kith thought themselves different, not spirit or earth. In truth, they were not either, but both, albeit with strange rules stemming from their connection with their tree. Darag felt more akin to plants than he did with creatures. He had never transformed into anything. But holding his connection to life, feeling the vast ebb and flow of all living things in the mountain valley, he thought he could.
"Maybe she didn't realize how far west she'd flown?" Lavinia said.
"Or maybe she flew east or over a pass to the north," Darag replied, pausing his pacing. He held his power, the desire to search for Ria pulling him to act. He let it go. "We really don't know where she might have gone." Frustration colored his voice, not a usual thing for him.
Walking to the forest edge, Darag returned to the task he had assigned himself. The tiny mushrooms he'd encouraged to sprout from the dense soil under the pines elongated and grew thicker. It was a feat that made him appreciate Ria’s skill in growing food on their journey all the more. The girl was quite gifted for someone untrained and new to their power. His focus wavered. From the corner of his eye, Darag saw Kailal shift away from him.
"What if she is injured?" Zhao asked. He kicked at the dirt near the fire pit with his heel. With his arm still healing in a sling, Zhao was very limited both in mobility and as an Elemental.
"I'm sure she is fine," Niri said into the silence, though she spoke through stiff lips. "But maybe we should think about how we'll look for her if she isn't back soon."
Darag’s eyes strayed to Kailal before coming back to meet Niri's gaze. She looked as torn as he felt.
Kailal kept to himself, never using Elemental skills. Darag had noticed Kailal disappeared when any of the other Elementals used theirs, as if the proximity to power bothered him. When Darag had called stones to make a fire ring that night, Kailal had been absent. The healer in Darag told him that Kailal may appear whole, but there was deep trouble in his soul.
That didn’t surprise Darag. He could not imagine what Kailal had been through. Niri told him some of the visions she’d once shared with the Curse and of her time as a Priestess in the Church of Four Orders. Torture did not begin to define what he guessed Kailal had lived through.
Yet he was another Spirit Elemental. One that was very skilled. If he and Kailal split up the valley, each going a different direction...
Darag did not need to finish the thought. Out of the night sky, a hawk’s screech echoed off the mountains.
“Oh, thank Mhyrah,” Niri whispered. She hurried to her feet and headed toward the edge of the trees where Ria would have a clear spot to land. Lavinia, having bolted the instant she heard the cry, was ahead of Niri.
Ria was just straightening up, transformed once again to a girl. In the dim light, all Darag could see was Ria’s slim outline. She was taller than his sister, Beite, by a good head. Still, the slight frame of a young woman evoked his older brother tendencies. Words to scold her were on his lips as he stopped behind Lavinia.
“Sorry I’m late. You’ll never guess what I found!”
Ria’s enthusiasm bubbled over Darag’s concern. She turned away from the group, looking back over her shoulder into the dark. There was a sudden draft of air and then a form landed behind Ria. Darag forgot to breathe as he took in the towering raptor.
Dark eyes like polished boulders looked down a hooked gray beak, the bird’s head tilting in inquisitiveness. It was that look, more than anything else, that gave Darag the sense it meant no immediate harm. His first instinct to protect dissipated. That’s when he noticed the bird shimmered with power. Darag hesitated again.
“This is Keira,” Ria said, turning back toward her companions. “She’s a...”
“Girl,” Niri finished for her.
Ria spun back to Keira. “Oh! I didn’t know you could change. Of course, you can change form, you are a Spirit Elemental too. I just didn’t think you’d become a person.”
Keira smiled at Ria. She appeared about the same age as Ria and Lavinia. A slight, white haired girl, despite just having been a massive white and gray bird of prey.
“I am Torek,” the voice whispered in Darag’s mind, understandable and recognizable without the ears needing to hear it. He was amazed.
“Yes, that is right. She is from the bird tribe.”
Ria explained how she met Keira as they walked back to the fire. Keira’s dark eyes took in everything, jumping from individuals to bed rolls to the fire and to the cooking gear with quick intensity as she observed all the things new to her.
“We live in the mountains, in hoves above the tree line.”
‘Hove’ appeared in Darag’s mind as a cross between a cave and a nest. Something built into the mountain that was warm and safe.
“So you know the mountains? Could you help guide us through?” Ty asked.
Against Darag’s side, Lavinia’s form relaxed. Darag smiled at the warmth that spread across his chest, brushing the crown of Lavinia’s head with his lips. Everyone had been worried about their wandering path, the cold and the snow. Ria’s new friend brought hope.
“I suppose I could. I’ve never thought of walking somewhere though.” Keira looked at the faces around her in the sudden silence. “Where do you plan on going?”
“We are looking for the Torfel River. We want to follow that to Finndale,” Ty said as he sat, stretching his legs out before him.
Keira frowned. “The closest branch is westward, a few days flight. But there are high mountains between with strong drafts and gusts, and sudden snows. The Torek do not usually fly that way this time of year.”
“There is no other path?” Darag asked.
“To the Torfel? No, you’d be trapped by snows in the mountains far before you reached the eastern branches.” Keira’s mind-speech zipped with images of distances and dangers as seen on the wing. It was too fast to grasp individual scenes, but the intent was clear. They were trapped in the mountains.
Ty’s gaze focused angrily on the ground near the fire. Niri compressed her lips.
“Another way to Finndale, perhaps?” Niri asked, one hand touching Ty’s arm.
“My kind do not go to Finndale or the north. They...eat Torek.” Keira shuddered. “And the storms on the coast are dangerous for fliers. The furthest we venture from the mountains is when the adults go to raise young on the grass plains.”
“You go to the Steppes?” Ty asked, sitting up and blinking. “Can you show us a way there?”
“It is further than the other branch of the Torfel. If you could fly, it would not be so difficult. But if you walk as slow as Ria has told me, you will not make it before winter.”
Ty’s shoulders sagged once again. He leaned back against a tree, casting his face in shadow. The fire crackled in the clearing, sending sparks rising aloft.
“Could you or your tribe, carry us?”
Everyone jumped at Kailal’s soft voice. Keira turned her bright eyes to him, a wrinkle growing and fading on her forehead in an instant.
“Maybe, yes. I think I could convince a few of the others to help. You don’t look any heavier than...well, other things we carry. I will ask my sister and the others tomorrow.”
It was a good idea. Darag looked over at Kailal, giving him a slight nod in thanks. The corner of Kailal’s mouth twitched upwards.
—
"Not alone, not today at least."
Ria greeted Darag's statement with a sigh.
"You don't trust her," Ria said as she crossed her arms, reminding him again of Beite.
Darag pushed aside the sudden wish for the aerie and the forests of his home. He brought his concentration back to the young woman testing her independence who stood before him. Keira had flown off to find
her version of breakfast, leaving the small group alone for a brief time. It was the opportunity Darag had been waiting for.
"It isn't that, sweetie. Do you really want to be alone when you meet an entire tribe of Torek?" Niri responded.
Ria swallowed, her eyes widening slightly. "No, I suppose not."
With that, the small disagreement was over. Tension drained from Darag's shoulders, followed abruptly by a light stomach. He'd never considered becoming something other than what he was. He'd confessed as much to Lavinia the night before when he told her that Ria could not go to the Torek hoves alone. Lavinia agreed. Morning brought the support of Niri, Ty, and Zhao with the plan. The thought still left Darag nauseous.
They waited for Keira's return, slowly eating a handful of nuts that Zhao found while scavenging for wood. Anxiety heightened the draw Darag felt toward Lus na Sithchaine. It itched through him so that he could not stay still. When he stood, Lavinia's bright blue eyes were on him. Her concern made him smile. It was enough to break the knot of worry. With Lavinia in his arms, there was not much that could trouble him.
Keira returned in a backdraft of air. Her natural hawk form rose to over half the height of the alpine trees when she stood on the ground. If not for her movements, he would have found it easier to imagine her as a strange statue rather than a flesh and blood bird. When Darag walked forward with Ria, Keira tilted her head, her dark eyes jumping from him back to Ria.
"Darag is coming too," Ria said.
Keira bobbed her head. "I hadn't considered that. How many of you can become flyers - three? You will not need as much help as I thought."
Kailal stood up. "Two," he choked out.
Keira tilted her head to the other side, gazing at Kailal sideways. "But you..."
"No!" he interrupted. Kailal turned and fled from the clearing, his hands curled into fists at his sides. Darag heard one more faint "No" from Kailal's retreating form, but it sounded more like a sob than a denial.
Darag, Ty, Niri, and Lavinia crossed gazes. Zhao stared at the ground. Ria blushed, her lips compressed into a tight line. Keira scratched the ground with her talons, leaving three inch deep gouges in the dirt.
Niri spread her hands, fingers splayed wide. "I'll go. It is long past time someone talked with him. Be safe, Ria, Darag. Thank you, Keira."
Keira bobbed her head as Niri faded into the forest shadows after Kailal.
"He is a flyer, but he is injured. Not like Zhao with a broken wing...arm," Darag corrected. "But sick in ways that cannot be seen."
"He is soul sick," Keira's mind voice said. She shook her beak. "Not good, a flyer that will not fly will not survive long."
Her words gave Darag a throb of foreboding. He hoped it wasn't true, or wouldn't be. It was obvious though, Kailal was not well and Darag doubted even Laith Lus had the means to mend him.
Keira looked skyward. "It will take a few hours to reach the hoves. If the other Torek agree quickly, I should be able to show you the way back before dusk."
"We would leave tomorrow?" Ria asked.
"Yes, hopefully. The snows are coming and it will take at least two days to fly to the Steppes. We must go soon." Keira ruffled her feathers, changing the shiver of coming snows into an adjustment of her wings. It was time to go. Darag took a deep breath.
Keira launched herself skyward, the downbeats of her enormous wings sending leaves and dust into the air of the clearing. Ty and Zhao backed to the safety of the trees. Lavinia's hand brushed his and then she joined her brother. Ria took two hopping steps and launched herself skyward. Gracefully, she became the same bronze hawk she flew as the day before.
What if Kith are only Spirit Elementals in relation to plants?
Darag pushed aside the idea as it formed. Then he didn't think. He let the power in his blood swell, rising and growing from the ground below him. Darag stepped a pace forward and then he was treading air with beats of outstretched wings. His longing for Lus na Sithchaine drew him into the air, the desire to return so strong that he could almost see the silvery pull northeastward. His love of Lavinia turned his course. He circled the clearing with the tip of his left wing pointed at his wife below. Lavinia waved once, her face turned skyward.
Keira and Ria were soaring on updrafts along the valley's edge. Once Darag’s attention was directed their way, Keira swooped, diving until she caught the lower winds moving along the valley. Ria followed, a small, golden-brown mimic of Keira.
Darag felt the wind flow along his flight feathers, the force bending the edges upwards. Adjusting muscles to control the angles of feathers happened instinctually, as if he had been born to soar. He pulled in his wings and dove after Ria and Keira, testing out his new ability to fly.
About the Author
Autumn (also known as Weifarer) is a travel and fiction writer currently based in Maine where she lives in a small cottage lost in the woods, which she built with her husband with the supervision (and approval) of two Cairn terriers.
With a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bucknell University in Studio Arts and English, Autumn once considered a career in illustration. However, an ecology course at Virginia Tech led to a Master of Science degree in Ecology and Environmental Sciences from the University of Maine in Orono. Since graduating with her M.S., Autumn has worked for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. But all of that changed in 2016, when she left her day job to become full time writer. Expect a lot of great adventures, both real and fictional, coming soon!
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Born of Water: Elemental Magic & Epic Fantasy Adventure Page 44
