Firefly | Shelha Series 5 | ✔

The Same Way

It was reminiscent of the moment they had spent together just after Whipper and Loki had returned from under the mountains. A Hyenar had interrupted that one. Sethral wished this one could go on forever, but then Silversand stiffened.

"Don't move," she said to someone across the clearing. She got up slowly. Phoenix's scent reached them a heartbeat later.

Sethral lifted her head. The Pyrya stood in the shadows, but the glow of his fur was faded like someone had thrown ash on it. He looked like he hadn't groomed in days. He flinched as the small bird following him landed on his back and yanked out another tuft of his fur. Silversand moved like chain lightning. By the time she dropped the bird beside the dead ground-creature, Phoenix had faded back into the forest.

Sethral jumped as an upset chirr sounded beside her. "Halo!"

Halo's eyes made half moons as she glanced up, briefly after Phoenix, then back at the ground.

"Halo, what's up with him?" said Dusk. "You've been following him, right?"

Halo shifted. Half her stance was affirmative. The other half looked guilty.

"What do you mean, you don't know?" said Dusk. "You've been right there."

The guilt was eating up her body language. As all eyes turned to her again, she crouched against a tree. She crackled.

Dusk groaned. "Halo, if you can't go near him because he's fire, don't even try. It just makes him feel worse."

Halo jumped up and genuinely stamped her paw. A string of bird noises and little dances were loosed in such rapid succession, Sethral didn't think Dusk could possibly follow them. But the frown on his face didn't turn out to be incomprehension.

"Like he's starving?" he said when the kit took a break.

Halo took an affirmative stance.

"But he eats."

Another affirmative, and a dance.

Dusk turned to Fletch. "Apparently Pheo's eating all the time, but he's still wasting away. What does that to a creature?"

"Any number of things. I'd need to get closer to tell."

Halo lay on the ground and imitated Phoenix's snap.

"He's being aggressive," said Dusk. "He won't let her close."

There was a whimper behind them. Phoenix was back with another bird. He stumbled as he stopped beneath another tree. When Silversand came towards him this time, he backed away.

"Pheo, hold still," she said. "It's hurting you. I'll get rid of it."

She took another step and Phoenix hissed. He ducked and whimpered again as the bird dropped its latest haul in a vine curl and flew at him like a small, feathered arrow. Silversand lunged and caught it. Phoenix bolted. Silversand tossed the dead bird to Ryatzi, passed Firebrand the first one, and swapped the one she had given Wing for the ground-creature. Wing didn't like eating birds.

They had scarcely finished their meal when Silversand screamed. A rubbery yellow tentacle-tip probed around the edge of the rock slabs they were gathered on. This time, even Firebrand looked scared. "Fletch, can Taz find you again by seventh sense?" she said. "How big is your range?"

"The size of the Lowlands, generally. Usefully, about two days."

"We need to leave."

Loki was pointing to the soil a ways off. It was ruffled where a portion had just shifted. Firebrand pulled Fletch up and made sure he could walk before leaping the stream. Everyone followed except Halo, who disappeared after Phoenix.