Kiromir80

Nothing cheered a wildling up like a good fight; Krell had just learned what a bad one was. That image wouldn’t get out of his head for a while, but I knew that once we got Niala back, her oblivion could knock off the edge.

Letti felt wild and free again, making me thankful as she brought some levity back to the moment. Then, when the flock got along as nicely as ever, I looked up and saw Thanus standing there with Mesin in his arms. If I didn’t think I could love that many any more…

He had that ‘I want to run’ look in his eyes, and it was cute to see him frazzled over something between us for a change. Unfortunately, the fight didn’t seem to be petering out, and our best bet was to just hang around until they got tired or someone got the ball. I wondered if I could find one to kick over so they could just declare a winner sooner rather than later.

I teased Thanus for just a moment until Touk led me away from them. Despite my desire to jump back into things or tease Thanus a little more, we respected our elders. She patted my hand consolingly and had that look like she had bad news. I couldn’t handle any more bad news today. She led me back to one of the picnic areas, and thoughts consumed me of death, my mother escaping, the Grells declaring war, and then she finally spoke. “Calm down, Kiromir.”

The way she said my name sounded just as soft as in my childhood, enunciating the syllables of my name so carefully, Keer-ah-meer, like she said what my name meant, ‘Kira Mirna,’ to know and listen.

“I can’t take any more bad news today, Touk.” She pulled her lips up into a wide wrinkled smile. Her hair long spilled out over her shoulders messily, down to her waist in white streaks with steel undertones; she’d been dark-haired in my youth.

“No, no bad news. Niala will find her way home one way or another. She’s too strong to just disappear like that. You made sure of that, Kiromir.” So there she went, saying my name again. She liked saying it, and I liked hearing it; It brought childhood comforts.

“Now sit down, let’s talk.” She took a seat on a bench and patted her knee; she didn’t like it when I loomed over her. Touk used to be so much taller than me as a child, but I had dwarfed her in my teens. Now I stood over a foot taller, and it irked her. So I sat down on the ground, crossing my legs, and she looked down at me with that polite grin.

“Turn around. I’ll braid your hair while we talk.” Touk, for all her aversions to styling her own hair, certainly loved to braid others.

I moved around and backed up to her. I felt her bony knees at the sides of my ikris, and her frail fingers reached out and over my hair. She had true fire and had finessed it into so many different uses. Her thin nails scraped gently along my scalp with a warming sensation. Touk acted like more of a mother to me than Rolyn ever had been because I don’t think I even remembered a sweet moment with Rolyn. No, I remember, as a child, breaking my arm for the first time. Our only healer, Tezir, an elder, far older than Touk, had dwindling fires and little patience. Rolyn panicked, and I hadn’t ever thought that she cared, carrying me to Tezir like I mattered. It had been a pretty bad break, skin broken. I don’t remember that part. I just remember mom fawning over me and crying. I remember getting good steak for dinner that night and feeling strange as she held me like I was something special.

Despite Rolyn’s coldness, this, though, had been the legacy of my years with Touk—braided hair, kind words, stories, and consolation. I wondered what this moment would end with.

“I just want to spend some time with you, congratulate you, and make sure you know how proud we are of you.” Her fingers felt so nice, gently scraping as she used her thin digits to comb through my silky honeyed brown locks.

“Thank you.” I closed my eyes and lost myself in the sensation of it, the gentle and familiar touch that I hadn’t enjoyed for a few years now.

“Us swans have to stick together,” she said with a conspiratorial whisper that made me twitch a little. However, I never viewed the two as different from any of us, and I laughed when reminded of her own nature and her bondmate Ranna.

“Now, we all know there was some hope you’d find a nice girl, protect the bloodline and all that, but Kiromir, we’ve known since you first got your fires. A girl never once turned that head of yours. It always looked like a duty to you, and when Thanus got his fires, we just… Thanus was the one we weren’t sure of. So, we knew it’d only be a matter of time before you two tested your fires and figured something out,” she told me.

“Wish someone would have told me,” I laughed.

“Kiromir. Everyone has been telling you,” she said, shaking her head

“They’ve been making fun of me!”

“We made fun of Dimal when he finally found Letti! We called him a lefty for two years before she finally gave in to his pestering and sealed the mark, and even then, it was on her terms.” Touk said with exasperation. “Now, shake a wing free. I need a feather.”

I let my wings out and rustled through them for a few loose grey mottled things and handed them back to her. She whittled at the feather’s shaft and pulled back on my hair with tender tugs and deft fingers, even so in her old age.

“Now, I have a captive audience,” she said as she tugged at my hair a little.

“Hmm?” I felt nearly hypnotized by her touch.

“Now, you’ve had the talk but, I think you need the talk.”

I froze in my spot, “About?”

One word came from her lips, and my face went bright, stark, sharp, and impossibly red.

Oh, creator, no…

She proceeded in great and graphic detail to give me the other side of that awkward talk that Lowak had given us as kids. He wasn’t much for sugarcoating things, so we basically had the whole anatomical diagram sketched out and explained to us… including some techniques. Most of it seemed, frankly, disgusting back then. But, then again, Wanderer men, according to Letti, were known for having extraordinarily satisfied women. The other flocks commented on it just because we had a low separation rate among our older bondmates.

“So yes, and you’ll want to make sure he’s—” She made some gestures with her hands.

My eyes and face morphed into a mask of awkward surprise as I sat through the most excruciating…albeit educational… hour of my life.

The braid was nice, though.