Bird of a Cage [BoW 4]

Chapter 20

Nel'os slept for most of the day. His wings fluttered occasionally, feathers attempting to rid themselves of the foreign bodies stuck within. He clicked and shivered but remained asleep. Cetol'n darted over and pulled the blanket under his wings before jumping back as if he expected the man to wake up and strike him. 

Taidra worked through his reports and watched over the base. Brett put a screen up to hide the Royal from people gawking at him like an attraction. A surprising number of people came willingly to check on bumps and scraps than average. Brett rolled his eyes at it. 

Cetol curled next to Taidra and trembled any time Nel'os shifted too far. He didn't say anything. He read the same page of his book for far too long, and Taidra's AI didn't like it. It shoved more work to Taidra but nothing that he could give to the scientist to distract him. Oira fiddled with some mechanical devices in his room. Wiljam slept as deep as Nel'os. Yuin gave the orders that Nel'os was to be left alone but watched. Yuin's dreds continued to spark with magic from the leftover charge in the air. Taidra's little Kingdom ticked on with the bomb that threatened to destroy them resting so close to him. 

Brett left to escape the heavy atmosphere. Taidra ran his fingers through Cetol's wings to calm him. It was good that Cetol had filed his talons because Taidra would be bleeding from how tightly he gripped him. 

Wiljam appeared around dinnertime, his five o'clock shadow deeper than normal and sporting a bandage up his left arm. "Has he stirred?" Wiljam didn't peek around the curtain. He leaned against the doorframe with his eyes locked on Cetol. Cetol didn't notice 

"Not yet," Taidra ruffled Cetol's feathers. Cetol's wings twitched against him, but he remained stiff as a board. "He should do soon." His AI predicted through a mix of patterns and observations that he didn't understand, but the base's system agreed with its assessment. It also didn't want Cetol near Nel'os until they had proof of Nel'os's goodwill. 

"Cetol, come with me. You need a stretch of legs, and Nel'os will want dinner when he wakes up," Wiljam offered his hand in a friendly order.

Nel'os's wing twitched. 

Taidra didn't say anything. Cetol trembled but pulled himself off the bed and stumbled over to Wiljam. Wiljam caught him as he stumbled into a hug and danced him out of the medical room. The air lifted with the lack of Cetol's fear clouding it. 

Another twitch and Nel'os's wings stretched out and fluttered, a few more stray bits of leaf scattering to the ground. Taidra didn't gawk like an idiot and kept his eyes on his work as the AI monitored Nel'os. The man rubbed his eyes clear, and a low exhale shivered in Taidra's gut. A thread appeared as his A.I and the base computer tried to figure out how Wiljam timed that. Nel'os needed a moment to settle and pulled himself back together. 

Waking up alone when normal waking up with someone who loved you hurt. For Nel'os, whose mind existed with the voices of his loves at all times, it would suck. Taidra scratched his chin. A whisper of Feno tried to enter his mind, but he slammed that away. He didn't have time to think about him. 

"Please tell me that the shower is fixed," Nel'os said in k'nairi, voice hurting. 

"Enough," Taidra allowed; the base computer poked at the plumbing uncertainly. It was the wrong time of day to use it, but Nel'os's wings needed to be sorted sooner rather than later. It wouldn't endear any good behaviour if they kept Nel'os uncomfortable. "We can go after dinner."

"This is going to take a long time to resolve, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Taidra put the pad down and shifted on the bed to face Nel'os, his good leg curled up to him. "We have a two-week delay in communications. The Winglord might speed things up, though. Did he know you were out hunting for us?" Because there was no way in the hells that the Tai'ray hadn't crashed down into Inai's camp by now and demanded the return of his husband. Possibly taking out a few minor grunts in his path, Tai'ray had a nasty habit of maiming people of no importance to him.