The warm sun felt nice as I glided over the river. The nights had begun to get longer and a little chilly, and it felt nicer to float over the warm updrafts around the water. Soon I would have to figure out some way to stay warm - heating rocks with my flame would help some, but it wouldn't be a complete replacement for the warmth of Susie's fur - but that was still weeks away.
Four months had gone by since... since Susie had died. Life had gradually settled back into its routines.
I had flown every morning to perform the Morning Song over Susie's grave. Kymari were often waiting to watch me, but they always stayed a safe distance away. After the flight I would drop to the ground and roll the ball around a bit. Every now and then one of the Kymari would try and approach me, but a few angry hisses and flared wings always drove them back.
The Morning Song always felt diminished somehow, in some way I could never quite put to words. Something that should have been in it was simply missing.
I would fly off for breakfast, then pass the day lazing around the forest and searching for fruits or berries that were ripe enough to grab. It was even easier to avoid the Kymari on my own, and I doubted any of them ever saw me during the day, even with them now aware I lived in the park.
When the day wore on into the afternoon I moved towards the river, swimming or flying over it, then grabbing a fish to bring back for Susie - I had spotted raccoons and other animals scavenging the fish on some nights, so I knew I would always need to bring her a new one. Contrary to my first assumptions, I never once saw a Kymari disturb anything I brought to Susie's grave.
Sometimes I would spot the hazy mirage of a Kymari's camouflage on the shore, but for the most part they would only watch my evening frolicking from beyond the tree line.
I ended each day by returning to Susie's grave. A lot of times I would find a berry there - at first they had been left on the grave itself, and I simply placed the fish next to them on the assumption the Kymari had been bringing food for Susie. But the berries had gradually moved away from the grave, and I got the hint that the berries were instead being left for me.
I had never seen berries like those before, and they were delicious. I was always excited to find one waiting for me when I landed in the small clearing. The scent of Kymari would always linger on the berry, though it seemed to be constant in some ways, as if the berries were being left for me by one particular individual rather than different ones... though I never actually saw them being left, so I couldn't be sure.
After I ate any treats that might have been present I shifted to relaxing or playing with the ball. Lyzel came a few times, accompanied by the older male... but I never managed to work up to playing with her, even though she would cheerfully talk at me when she visited. If she got too close I flew away - the memory of what had happened to Susie was still too strong, and it was just too frightening to be near any of the Kymari.
I didn't see the female Kymari. Lyzel was only accompanied by the man when I saw the child, and I never saw the woman watching when I greeted the dawn over Susie's grave.
I was glad for that. I wasn't sure what I would do if I ever saw her again. The foul oily taste that came as part of breathing fire always entered my mouth whenever I thought about it.
The loneliness I had felt the first few days after I had hatched in the lab was back. Nothing I did seemed to help it. On a few very rare occasions it became so bad that I even tried rolling the ball towards one of the Kymari that had come to watch me... but they only stopped the ball and moved carefully away. I must have hissed and chased them off so many times by that point that they were too concerned with getting close to me to join back in any game.
I went through each day alone.
When I finally grew tired I flew back to my den, taking a few detours to make sure nobody followed me. I curled up in the cool safety of my tunnels and slept... though I never quite managed to wake up feeling rested. The hard, unmoving dirt was no substitute to the warm rhythm of a living mattress that I had grown used to over the past eight years.
I banked in the air and turned back the way I had come. The air felt nice and warm, and it was easy to relax and get lost looking at the river beneath me, but I didn't want to fly too far downriver. The park was big, but it didn't stretch forever, and I didn't want to get too close to the Kymari's buildings.
The river was pretty today. I could just barely hear the sound of it far below me - I had taken to flying higher and higher in the air lately, now that I didn't have to stick near the ground to watch out for Susie. The air felt nicer up there, easier to fly through, and the view was better. Fish would occasionally break the surface, breaking the sunlit water with flickers of silver. Small birds would flutter around the trees further back from the shore. I even noticed the haze of a Kymari's camouflage near the water. Altogether it was very peaceful, very relaxing. It was so easy to just drift along, and lose myself in appreciating the world stretched out beneath me...
Pain suddenly burst through my wings and back, followed by a screeching cry right above me. Something sharp pierced completely through my left wing, and something similar was digging into my back, just above my legs. I flailed with my right wing and tried to twist away, but the grip on my back held me in place.
I craned my head back and found an eagle clawing into me. It let out another screech and stretched forward, biting towards my neck with its razor sharp beak.
I twisted my body on instinct, still too rattled to even begin to think straight. The bird missed my neck and bit into my shoulder instead, sending searing pain through my right wing. I inhaled, tasting the oily saliva mixing as I prepared to throw fire right at the face of the attacking bird...
The eagle shook me in its grip, jerking me back and forth between its talons and beak as it tossed my body back and forth. I felt the fire in my mouth sputter and die as I tried to inhale, and felt pain in my neck as some of the embers fell back down my throat. Others fell from my mouth to trail uselessly through the air, mingling with the blood falling from my wings, but none landed on the eagle.
I tried to twist and get my own claws into the bird, but it was no use - the bird had aimed its strike perfectly, and had struck me at a part of my back that I just couldn't reach. I tried to smack it with my tail, but the bird simply ignored those blows, no more concerned by hits from that limb than I would be concerned by hits from the small bugs that I occasionally ran into while flying. I whipped my tail up at the bird, hoping I could maybe snag its wing and drag it down to the ground, where I might have more options... but it kept its wings extended in an arc above it, too far for me to properly reach.
The panic gave way to a sudden cold certainty. There was nothing I could do. In another second it would be over.
I was about to die.
Something whizzed through the air above me and struck the eagle with a heavy sounding 'thump'. The bird jerked back and screeched, ripping its beak and talons out of me, and I heard the sound of its wings flapping as it rose higher into the air.
I felt a sudden surge of hope - I had a chance again! I tried to stretch out my wings, tried to untwist my body and get back into a glide... but my wings wouldn't work. My right wing wouldn't respond at all, and my left wing felt wrong, like the air wasn't flowing around it the right way. I looked back and discovered jagged holes in my wing, large gaping wounds where the eagle's talons had carved away scales and muscle.
I made out the eagle somewhere above me. A knife was protruding from its side and it was wobbling unsteadily in the air. It looked surprised... but not hurt. At least, not badly enough to be frightened. It circled, then began diving back towards me.
The wind grew louder as air rushed past me. I heard the eagle screech, then a rock hurtled into its side. I was dimly aware of the eagle aborting its dive and banking away, but it was getting harder to focus on the attacker. I was falling, and that was fast becoming a much more immediate concern. I tried to maneuver again, tried to position my body so as to slow my fall into a gentle descent... but it was useless. My wings had been too badly mauled.
I plummeted towards the river... and my entire body burst into overwhelming pain when I slammed into the water.
Agony was all I knew for what felt like an eternity. Somewhere at the edge of my awareness I could hear water flowing, and I was dimly aware that I was floating... but aside from that I knew nothing but pain.
The distant babbling sound of the river was gradually joined by another sound. Shouting, maybe. The sloshing of legs moving through water too deep to properly rush through.
I felt something brush against my back and lift me upwards, and I screeched as the pain suddenly intensified. My already-blurry view of the sky went white. I heard a voice, and there was a scent... did I recognize that smell? It reminded me of those delicious berries, for some reason...
The pain began to recede a little, gradually dropping back to 'only' being as bad as when I had hit the water. The bright whiteness receded into a general blur, and I gradually began to make out shapes. The sounds started to make sense again.
"-got you, it's going to be okay. Shh, it's okay. You're safe." Kymari words. A woman's voice. Familiar, somehow. Had I heard that voice before? There was some memory attached to it, something that tugged at me even through the overwhelming pain. "The eagle's gone. I've got you. You're going to be okay."
My eyes finally began resolving the indistinctness into shapes... and I felt a fury begin to rise inside me, crowding out the pain with its intensity. It was her.
I inhaled and prepared to send fire scorching towards the face hovering above me. The one face I would recognize anywhere, no matter how battered or in pain I was.
I funneled all my grief and rage and pain into a single point of fire, and spat it at the Kymari who had murdered Susie.
Or at least, I tried to.
All that I managed to cough out was a strangled, sputtering hiss. More pain found its way into the flood of suffering, this time coming from my mouth and throat. I coughed again, and this time the oily taste was buried under the sharp taste of blood.
The woman's voice grew even more concerned, and she began speaking the comforting words at a faster pace. If it had come from anybody else the words might have calmed me, might have made me feel everything really would be okay, but coming from her... I felt my claws unsheathe themselves. I curled upwards, trying to cross the distance remaining to the Kymari so I could slash her face to ribbons...
My back suddenly transformed into a column of pure agony.
The world spun around me... then everything went dark.
The pain vanished.