Niala 61

We had a plan. Come morning, we packed our things, what little we had, and made our way into town. The bustle of town life all regarded us suspiciously as we went to the abandoned Mothman museum. Gaff stared at it, but he didn’t reach for his wristband.

“You mark it,” He told me as he placed a hand over his wristband. Gaff had a pack hoisted over his shoulder. We didn’t want to leave anything in the room if possible.

“We can both,” I said, and he shook his head.

“Kiromir said I smell like a campfire and can’t tell me from the grill sometimes. He’ll know yours better.” Gaffriel’s lips curled into a crooked smile. Kiromir said I smelled like snow and steel. Gaff smelled like sun and leather to me. I didn’t think that Gaff’s smell could be that same acrid odor of a spent grill. I hated the taste of it over my food so badly. Then again, Kiromir smelled like the sea and sandy summers on the beach.

I unlaced my wristband and rolled my stiff wrist. My ault patch glistened after a few compressions, so I gave it a few extra squeezes before reaching out to touch over the doorframe, drawing my wrist down as the cloying odor of my own scent rose. It smelled tinny to me.

“What does your own ault smell like to you?” I never asked him before.

Gaff sniffed at his wristband. “Woody? Smells like my own sweat, so sometimes kind of sharp.”

Then, finally, I recognized it and pursed my lips. My body odor smelled a lot like my ault, though they had two distinct scents. I thought about his sweat, and I had no description for it besides ‘Gaff.’ Well, unless he’d been sweating a lot and stank… Then he smelled like smoked butt. “You?”

“Tinny.” My lip curled at the thought of it, and I found him nearing me, his warmth and shadow covering me close. He sniffed, his gentle breath tickling me.

“I can get that. It’s the cold smell.” I felt his breath dance near my neck. Then, a shock of his hair brushed my shoulder, and he pulled away without a touch. I had to fight the urge to push back into him, and my cheeks went hot and on fire again. So, I took another step away.

Why am I reacting this way?!

Gaffriel seemed confused, then embarrassed, glad we didn’t speak of it.

“What now?” The words escaped my lips as I laced my wristband back up. I smelled my tinny scent mingling around the door.

“We see if we can get far enough on the outskirts of town to let our wings out and relax,” he said.

“There’s a wildlife refuge a few miles outside. It’s a weekday, and we might get some breeze in them if we climb a little. Kiromir took me out here to let my tail free a few times.” I loved those stolen moments, and I wished Gaff had been with me back then.

“We can find a good clearing, and I want to teach you how I do the rough light. It can’t be just me.” Steel set in his eyes again, his hazel going bright as he thought.

I nodded. Something Kiromir had said to him got through, and I liked the determination in his eyes as we trailed off down the street, following signs for some fishing wharf and historical trail. It lay a few miles out, but walking wasn’t anything to us.

A few miles of gravel road took us to a ranger station. He fished in his bag and drew out a water bottle for us to share. I took a long swallow from it and sighed. The water came from a tap, I could tell, and the metallic taste of steel, iron, and fluoride washed through my mouth. I didn’t complain. He drank after me, taking the nozzle to his mouth for a long sip as his gaze flicked about.

“Oblivion.” As soon as he said it, I raised it. That word triggered me. Kiromir had worked to make that my conditioned response to the word. A rambling truck scuttled by us, slowing as it approached. We were a little ramshackle and on foot, so we might have attracted attention in the wrong way. But, as soon as it rose, their gazes melted away from me, all thoughts of our presence gone.

Gravel crunched, and the scent of burning diesel left us behind on the trail as we made our way down to the paths, keeping an eye out for cameras.

“What I wouldn’t give to have Krell here.” I knew he could sense a camera like nobody else. His fires were fine-tuned for electronics. Then, strangely, I felt my ikris twitch and a flare of mourning aura that stifled.

I looked to Gaff, and his expression went dark.

“I meant to ask you. Didn’t you and Krell… I saw his arm.” Gaff asked, hesitating.

“He was teaching me how to do it right. We knew it’d fail.” I hadn’t thought twice about it since. Krell’s curiosity and teaching moment only went so far.

The expression and the mood changed. The air got warm around me, and I knew it had to be something leaking about Gaff’s fires. Kiromir’s vicinity got cold when he worried.

“Oh please, Gaff. For frick’s sake, he likes-.”

Gaff sighed in relief. “Country music…”

“I wasn’t off just chasing fires for the hell of it. You scared me, you know? Krell just wanted to show me what a failure was like, so I wasn’t afraid to try it again. Besides, you knew they had plans for me at the Sentinels and the Grells.” The reminder made his aura drop.

“Yeah, but they’re so uptight. There’s not an ounce of freedom in them. I don’t even know if half the Grells can even fly!” He had the same worries I did. I knew that none of them, nothing but a Wanderer or a Songbird, would do for me in the end. I couldn’t be caged. I refused to be caged. The thought of a daily routine and closed doors and hiding at every moment felt like a nightmare that I refused to accept.

“So why were you worried over Krell?” A laugh caught in my throat as I took the water bottle back to take a sip.

“None of the Grells are strippers.” Gaffriel grumbled, and I spat water all down my front in a choking cough.

“WHAT!?” I had to pause at that. Then, the image of a shirtless Krell popped into my mind. Sure, he t like our kind, a hunter, a warrior. But, he was quick on his feet, charged with electricity and….”

“Wait, he actually lets humans like… pay him to take his clothes off?” The thought settled strangely with me.

Gaffriel looked abashed for a moment. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.”

“Why do humans want to look at naked people so much?” I wrinkled my nose at the thought. An image of Krell in nothing but his underwear swinging on a pole went through my mind.

“I know, right?”

I shook my head in disgust. Then I remembered Gaff’s body against mine, his lips, the touch of his fires. I wondered if that’s how humans felt when they looked at one another. I wouldn’t pay for that sensation, not a cent. I’d pay whatever was in Gaff’s pockets right now to get rid of every feeling of that nature right this minute.

Why is this in my head so much!?

“Who would pay to see that?”

“Apparently, a lot of women…and some men.” Gaffriel shrugged.

“Krell is Jehanni?”

“I don’t think so? He’s all about women on migration, as far as I know. I just don’t think he cares about the gender of people who throw money at him.”

“Gross,” I said with absolute conviction.

I hadn’t been watching, just following Gaff as we went. Then, finally, we moved off of the leaf-littered path and made our way through dense green foliage.