There is an odd feeling when a person is falling. For a brief moment, the body almost doesn't seem to realise and then it reacts. The heart speeds up and the feeling of being almost weightless surrounds the person as the wind rushes past them. It was an almost nostalgic feeling to Herymi but still slightly irritating. He knew the k'nairi well enough to know he was in no great danger. Air was their element and they enjoyed scaring the humans they were friends with.
Herymi rolled his eyes as he fell. "Damn you!" he yelled up at the k'nairi royal who had dropped him. Really Dyn'ad was right, the royal did have the right to order Herymi around; him dropping him was still a little extreme. Dyn'ad chuckled over the link but was clearly in no hurry to catch him.
Sighing as he heard Tai'ray over the link making the remark that someone would catch him, Herymi relaxed slightly and enjoyed the freefall. He knew the Winglord had sent the exchange over the link in part to reassure Herymi that he was safe and also to comment about how cute the boy was being about this. Herymi only felt like rolling his eyes again as the royals, Aw'endo included, cooed over how Eyeri was reacting. He could sense the bemusement from Ryraso as well.
Herymi kept his eyes looking up at the blue eye above him. His 'friends' had often dropped him from as high as they could go without harming him, only to watch him scream and yell before catching him before he hit the ground. The memories were bittersweet. He hadn't appreciated it at the time and he didn't appreciate being dropped now but he understood the reasons they did it. The ultimate trust exercise. Tai'ray at the very least wanted him alive so he was going to be caught. The question was, by whom and how far from the ground.
'I'm glad you trust me,' Tai'ray commented almost smugly, ridiculously pleased with how Herymi was reacting to this and how the human really did still trust the k'nairi would protect him. 'You really are remarkably calm for someone falling in the air,' he added.
'Please,' Herymi mentally snorted. 'You know my past. I've been dropped a lot of times. After a while, you learn when to fear it and when not to!'
It was true. Falling off a cliff with no friends or allies around was cause to fear. Being dropped by k'nairi was not. Herymi was pretty sure Tai'ray allowed k'nairi to do it because it helped their human companions get used to the idea of falling. Not to mention caused a lot of trust between the humans and their k'nairi allies.
'You fear your friends, but not falling. Interesting,' Tai'ray mused curiously.
'I don't fear them,' Herymi muttered, almost insulted someone would make that assumption. He was nervous about meeting them again and he was scared that they might hate him, but he was not scared of them.
'Good!' a familiar voice murmured through the link. A voice Herymi had not heard in a very long time. One he had run from, one which haunted both his dreams and his nightmares over the years since they had last seen each other. O'chetur, the head of his friend's nest. 'Then you can tell us why you ran,' O'chetur's mental voice demanded angrily.
Before Herymi had any real time to react, a pair of thick, strong arms wrapped around his waist. The weightless feeling disappeared, instead the feeling of air pushing upwards as the man slowed their descent before pulling Herymi back up into the air, pressing their bodies together in the process. Herymi fought the urge to yell as it happened; the power of the wind against him as they fought against it was an amazing feeling. The air gone from his lungs and the weightlessness was replaced with the feeling of flying, actually flying this time not just over Dyn'ad's shoulders. The k'nairi needed to fly and there were many times in the air Herymi understood just why.
Once they were back up in the air, O'chetur shifted Herymi so he was being held in a bridal style, not too dissimilar to how Nel'os was carrying Ryraso. O'chetur was holding him tightly to his chest, like if the k'nairi let go, Herymi would disappear. Well in this case, he would because he would end up falling again but everyone knew that was not the reason for the tight grip.
Herymi steeled himself, before looking up into two dark orange, almost brown and currently very angry eyes. "O'chetur," Herymi greeted, his voice calm outside. Neither O'chetur nor Tai'ray were convinced by his calmness. Mostly because they could both sense his nervousness. Tai'ray through the link, O'chetur because of how Herymi's body was reacting, even if O'chetur didn't have a connection to him. Hermyi's heartbeat had sped up at the look in the man's eyes. Maybe he'd made a mistake here.
"Herymi," nodded the k'nairi male before tugging the human in close and sniffed Herymi's hair in a very obvious fashion. It was a strange action and one which made Herymi tense up slightly.
That was not a good sign. K'nairi have a very good sense of smell. Of course they did, they were pretty much perfect and they knew it the vain birds, Herymi mused darkly, trying to ignore the Winglord poking at him mentally. The action was something done to remind the k'nairi of a person's scent. Mostly so they could hunt said person down again if they tried to run away from them. Tai'ray didn't need to worry about that with Ryraso, the link ultimately meaning Tai'ray always could know where Ryraso was. However O'chetur was not bonded to Herymi, any remaining bonds they had as children had truly snapped by now. The man had no way to contact Herymi, ignoring through the Winglord.
"You have been with someone," O'chetur growled darkly making Herymi's blood freeze. Oh yeah, Herymi had forgotten about that other thing.
'You can tell that from my smell?' Herymi said over the link, not desiring to fight over the wind to have a conversation.
'Yes,' O'chetur was angry. Angry enough that Herymi wasn't sure he was safe being in his arms at the moment. Still the fact the k'nairi was angry over the fact he was no longer a virgin. That annoyed him.
'Sorry to disappoint!' Herymi said back, not able to keep the bitterness from his voice.
'I meant no insult...' O'chetur almost seemed to backstep from the emotions he was smelling and feeling from Herymi, Tai'ray having opened up the artificial link further between the two of them so O'chetur could feel Herymi better.
'Before the two of you start arguing, I feel the need to remind you no having sex until Herymi has been branded and received his lashes,' Tai'ray interrupted, knowing how many fights ended up in sex. The human under the k'nairi being shown his place or just plain passion exploding between two angry individuals who loved each other. 'Not unless you want the same treatment O'chetur!' Tai'ray warned seriously. O'chetur let out a growl of reluctant understanding. Tai'ray hummed over the link. 'I want him back for dinner, you and yours can have him until then,' He allowed.
'Wait, what!' Herymi demanded, panic settling in slightly. 'No!' He shouted mentally.
'Thought you weren't afraid of us?' O'chetur taunted Herymi in a similar tone to the bitterness earlier.
Herymi glared at him firmly and punched him in the shoulder, firmly informing him that no, he was not afraid of them. Herymi turned away missing the look of worry and concern in O'chetur's eyes. Also the relief as Herymi punched him, proving it wasn't as O'chetur feared. He still had his friend there. He still had their Herymi.
'Winglord' Herymi said, distress in his tones, 'I said I was ready to face them. You didn't mention being forced alone with them for two hours!'
Tai'ray reacted instinctively, blocking out all other minds and yanked Herymi into a mind link. The human's mind was running in loops at the moment. Wanting so badly to have his friends back, yet aware because of the claim he would never have that back. But not being afraid of the claim either. The desire to see them all again warring with the fear of rejection and loss. The virgin comment had only made the part of him which wanted to be with them panic more. Memories of why it had taken so long for Herymi to sleep with someone returning, the age-old advice given to humans. Don't let the k'nairi see you as easy if you want a family.
'Enough!' Tai'ray yelled over the dim and confusion, mentally gathering Herymi close, spreading warmth around him. 'Calm yourself, you are making O'chetur worry,' Tai'ray scolded gently.
Herymi was suddenly aware of the real world again where O'chetur was looking at him concerned at the sight of his fierce human hunter frozen like a deer with panic over his face. Herymi felt his cheeks warm. Without the anger in O'chetur's eyes, he looked almost the same as before. A kind of pain bloomed in his chest, not physically but emotionally and Herymi couldn't put his finger on why.
"Herymi, you do still care about us, don't you? You don't hate us completely?" O'chetur sounded more lost than any dominant should ever sound. Luckily he had spoken out-loud so no-one, ignoring Herymi and Tai'ray, would ever know.
"No I don't hate you," Herymi found himself saying. Nothing could be further from the truth.
"Then trust me! We only want to talk," O'chetur promised, sounding a little desperate.
"Your first words have been 'Why did you run away?' and 'You're not a virgin!' O'che. Forgive me for feeling a little cornered," Herymi growled.
"I really did not mean to insult you, Herymi. The first will come up," O'chetur said, seemingly slightly embarrassed at this.
"I seem to remember making my reasons quite clear," Hermyi commented bitterly.
"Even so, we were all worried and when we had discovered you had actually gone though with your threat to join that rag doll miss mash of an army..." Herymi slapped O'chetur, shocking him into silence. O'chetur went to yell at Herymi but then felt the man practically shaking with anger. The look Herymi pinned him with was harsh and serious
"Fine. We will talk. But insult the Namya again and I won't even bother trying to make friends again," Herymi vowed his voice showing just how loyal he was to the Namya. Something which gave Tai'ray something more to think about as he drifted away from the two. O'chetur fighting his pride and apologising for his words.
"I wonder just how many will share the same feelings," Tai'ray mused out loud. He knew his chosen was also very loyal to the fraction but Ryraso was also close friends with the High had reason to be personally loyal to the cause, Inai was a very good man. Tai'ray had some respect for the human. Inai was strong and he could use his words almost as well as Loror however, it would be Loror who would win the war. Already the Warlord was making plans to take out the Namya. Plans which would come into place once all the k'nairi caw and a good part of the Human caw were back safely in Navat.
"Pardon?" Eyeri asked, sounding confused.
"Nothing important little one," Tai'ray told the human, nodding to O'chetur as he flew past with Herymi, heading to his home nest. "Just thinking about things," he offered gently.
Eyeri mumbled something before resting his head on Tai'ray's shoulder, the grip on his shoulders relaxing to something akin to a hug. Eyeri, bless him, felt much safer now he had seen someone had indeed caught Herymi.