Bird of a Wing (Bow 1)

Chapter 12

The youngest of the Zaman brothers, Eyeri had once been a slave. No one was ever truly free after being a slave. They were still after him. It was the reason to why everyone on the ship was so protective of the boy and also why Eyeri was so meek. It was to protect himself.

Having heard Eyeri's story, Inai had kindly allowed the boy to stay with his oldest brother, Fetmar, on the warship until Ryraso had taken Eyeri as an apprentice. Then Eyeri's well-being and safety had fallen to him and had allowed Inai to promote Fetmar to being the youngest squad commander in the forces.

Soon after joining the crew, Ryraso had noticed the fact the boy didn't do anything on the ship other than observe people with cautious eyes. He had also noticed how bored the boy seemed; Ryraso was sure some of the pranks which had occurred at that time had actually been Eyeri and not one of the other many troublemakers on the ship. Knowing Eyeri as he did now, Eyeri had a strong sense of humour and mischief when he chose to show it.

Then after one battle where all four of his brothers got hurt, Eyeri came to Ryraso and begged him to train him to be a medic. Ryraso could remember his crying face clearly and the young boy's pleas that he didn't want to be useless. It had been the first time Eyeri had spoken to anyone barring his brothers and Inai. Ryraso hadn't the heart to refuse him, and that was how he had ended up with an apprentice.

"The best way to describe would be family," Ryraso drawled, ignoring how the boys preened at that comment. The boys had all spent the three years Ryraso had looked after Eyeri trying to get Ryraso to admit he liked them as well. "You'll learn most of their names later, but the one you need to treat well is Eyeri," Ryraso yawned, knowing the boys wouldn't take too much offence.

Eyeri stepped forward, or rather, Fetmar forced him to move forward to make it obvious who he was. Eyeri looked at his older brother darkly before looking at Aw'endo warily as the k'nairi glared at him challengingly.

"Aw'endo meet my apprentice Eyeri. Eyeri meet Aw'endo. Play nice," Ryraso said, the last comment was more for Aw'endo than Eyeri. K'nairi siblings got jealous easily, and the last thing he needed was Aw'endo to get a brother complex about Eyeri and start to hate him.

"Nice to meet you," Eyeri said, his voice clear, bowing slightly to Aw'endo.

Ryraso grumbled at this; it had been almost four years since the boy had been freed and he still bowed automatically to people as a greeting. Ryraso had been trying to break him of such habits, especially because of the training Ryraso had received with k'nairi. Not that it applied to Eyeri as he would never have to deal with the k'nairi unless the war ended or he was sent to one of the regions that had Namya k'nairi. Either way Ryraso didn't want people walking all over the boy. Whenever there was a k'nairi prisoner who needed healing, Ryraso banned Eyeri from the medical rooms. He didn't need Tai'ray learning he had taken on an apprentice or who that apprentice was.

Aw'endo was different however. The seal blocked him from the link, keeping him from revealing Ryraso's secret at the moment. More importantly, Ryraso was not going to be able to keep the boys apart now that Aw'endo was living with him and he was responsible for Eyeri.

What happened next, no one expected. Aw'endo took one proper look at Eyeri as he bowed before launching himself at the boy, his non-existent talons drawn ready to attack. Eyeri yelled in pain as they collided, the two rolling into the corridor.

Ryraso muttered a curse as he watched Eyeri's brothers jump at the two, all six boys brawling in the corridor. That was not how he had wanted things to go between his two foster sons.

Eyeri crawled out of the brawl, blood running down his neck, Ryraso snagged him by his arm and pulled him back into the room. Locking the door behind him, he knew that by now Inai would have alerted the crew that Aw'endo was staying with him, and Taidra would be calling someone for backup to stop the fight between the siblings and the k'nairi boy.

"Ry..." Eyeri whimpered as Ryraso forced him to sit on his bed. Eyeri had worked for Ryraso for long enough now that he knew his moods and knew Ryraso was between unimpressed and angry. Ryraso had never hurt him, had never shouted at him, but the older man could still worry Eyeri a lot in the wrong mood. Ryraso had taken up a father-like role in Eyeri's life, someone to learn from, to look up to and trust. Ryraso took great pride in Eyeri, and what he could do and Eyeri worked hard to make him proud.

Ryraso growled lightly but kissed the boy on the forehead, stroking his hair fondly. "Give me a moment to clean you up and then we'll talk about him," Ryraso murmured warmly, his hands gentle as he pulled Eyeri's tunic off of him. He grabbed a wipe from the sink hidden in the wall closet and cleaned the blood off Eyeri's neck and shoulders. Ryraso was relieved to only find a few bite marks, all of which were centred on the back of Eyeri's neck.

"Huh," Ryraso murmured in surprise at the markings, knowing the significance of Aw'endo biting Eyeri there of all places. Gently Ryraso put some healing cream on the marks before putting some gauze on worst of them. He kept a medical kit in his room just in case of emergencies when he didn't have time to get one from the medical room so he was well stocked for k'nairi adolescent tantrums.

"Ryraso? What happened? Why did he attack me?" Eyeri asked, tears in his eyes making Ryraso want to hug and coo at the young man as unhelpful at that was. Ryraso was going to have to be careful now, Aw'endo would get jealous if Ryraso was too affectionate with Eyeri and bully him if Ryraso wasn't careful.

"Nothing important kid. Aw'endo won't do it again now he has won against you in a fight," Ryraso reassured the young man, patting his shoulder as he finished up.

Eyeri didn't know it yet but he had just lost his first dominance match with a k'nairi and there would be plenty more given Aw'endo had never had siblings or anyone like a sibling to compete with for attention before. While there would be more fights, there wouldn't be more bites. Not unless Eyeri managed to win a fight, something Ryraso doubted would happen. The boy could defend himself but often froze up when the time came to actually fight.

"But..." Eyeri looked up at Ryraso with scared eyes.

"I thought Inai warned you to behave!" yelled an angry voice from outside the room. "And you four should know better!" Ryraso's left eye twitched. Taidra had sent Isst of all people to deal with the fight.

"Trust me Eyeri; Aw'endo won't harm you. He will be an annoying brat, but all k'nairi younglings are," Ryraso tried to assure the boy with a smile, but it didn't work. Eyeri just looked at him wide eyed with fear. Ryraso smiled weakly. There wasn't a lot he could do to reassure Eyeri, the boy would just have to wait and see.

"Harm? Or hurt? He won't hurt me, will he?" Eyeri asked nervously, used to picking up semantics.

"Well," Ryraso hummed hesitantly. "The k'nairi like to haze new people to their circles and sometimes that can get a little rough," he admitted mostly as a warning. Eyeri looked at him horrified at the non-answer, but before Ryraso could try to assure him more, there was a loud banging at the door.

"Ry! Open up!" Isst bellowed with a dark smugness in his tone that he got after disciplining young soldiers who should know better. "I have five naughty boys out here and I want an explanation!"