Eyeri moved away from the tent, feeling about a thousand eyes on him as he moved through the village. Watching him in case he tried to run again. Or possibly fall off the rope ladder as someone appeared under him as he almost fell. Face red, he let the stranger grab him and gently put him on the ground with a pat on the head. Eyeri glared at him but the stranger just grinned, pointed in a direction and flew off to do whatever he was supposed to do.
Running a hand through his hair in embarrassment, Eyeri started walking towards what he assumed was Guardian Fl'ex's place. That had been a complete disaster. Not only had he failed to escape he had almost killed himself in the process and lost all of his stuff. He had nothing now. Everything was gone.
"Should have made more of the drug," Eyeri muttered darkly to himself before pausing looking around realising he was lost.
"Problem, young one?" Nel'os said, appearing next to him, his hair tied up and mud on his cheek and hands.
"I don't know the way," Eyeri admitted with a slight blush, reaching up to pull a leaf out of the man's messy hair, letting it fall to the ground. "Actually I think I stormed off before Winglord Tai'ray could tell me."
Nel'os shrugged, a big smile breaking out on his face before he kissed Eyeri's cheek. "I suspect Tai'ray let you forgetting that without the link, you wouldn't know," Nel'os said warmly before gesturing for Eyeri to walk with him. "I'll show you the way," he promised.
"Thank you," Eyeri smiled shyly, kicking the ground slightly.
"You can cut the act, Eyeri," Nel'os commented with a serious note in his voice, wrapping his arm around Eyeri's shoulders. "I know you don't want to see Guardian Fl'ex."
"No," Eyeri allowed. "But I am happy you're not just going to warp me there," he added. "I'm not quite ready for that," he murmured, his stomach clenching unhappily.
"Well, delivering you throwing up would be rude," Nel'os chuckled, rubbing his knuckles against Eyeri's head teasingly. "We'll have to get your first warp done at some point soon. Don't want to upset your stomach in an emergency," he mused, his grip tightening on the boy for a moment.
"Do we have to?" Eyeri whined, not liking the idea of doing something which was pretty much guaranteed to make him vomit.
"I think we do," Nel'os hummed.
Eyeri moaned but didn't stop walking, the two walking in silence through the village. The ground was oddly dry thanks to Jak's machines pumping water away from the village. It was slightly muddy but nothing compared to the mud he had been wading through the night before. He could hear the k'nairi talking and working around them. The strange language making Eyeri's stomach twist more. He didn't like not knowing what was going on around him.
"Here we are," Nel'os smiled, turning to kiss Eyeri's forehead and neaten his clothes up a bit. "Be polite. Guardian Fl'ex is of a different generation but he brought up Herymi so he is used to human teenagers. Still be good. Please?"
"I'll be good," Eyeri promised, the sensation of Nel'os' lips remaining for a moment, his shoulders feeling heavy from Nel'os arm.
"Good boy," Nel'os smiled fondly at him before disappearing.
Eyeri wasn't sure when Nel'os felt that they had suddenly become close, possibly during one of his nightmare cuddle piles, but he wasn't sure he was happy with it. Nel'os was a nice enough person and the twins had always told nice stories about the Royal but it didn't settle well inside of Eyeri. He could only hope it would be able to get used to it one day.
Rubbing his back and rolling his shoulders, Eyeri looked around for how he was going to get up to the hut. There was no ladder and he could see wood nailed to the tree further up but he couldn't reach them. Looking at the tree, he could see where lower ones would have been nailed once upon a time but must have fallen off at some point or been pulled off to limit movement.
"Hello, down there," a voice called from a hut. A k'nairi with black wings leaning over. "Do you want a lift up?"
"Yes, please," Eyeri said back.
The man dropped down next to him and beamed at him good-naturedly. "The rope ladders have mostly been commandeered to help Jak and Herymi get around and Herymi's ladder broke a few years back," he explained, suggesting at the wood further up the tree.
"Good to know?" Eyeri offered not really knowing how to reply to that statement of information. He hesitantly dropped his arms on the k'nairi's shoulders and the stranger wrapped his arms around Eyeri's waist.
The k'nairi grinned at him and with a powerful flap of his wings, the man had them up in the air. It felt almost like Eyeri had just jumped up as his feet left the ground only to collide with a wooden floor as they landed on the huts balcony. The k'nairi steading Eyeri on his feet before letting him go.
"Easy as pie," the man whistled. "You can go in. Guardian Fl'ex is expecting you," he said, hands on Eyeri's shoulders as he gently pushed Eyeri through a hanging and into the treehouse with a pat on his butt.
Eyeri almost tripped up over his feet but caught himself in time. Glancing behind him as the colourful hanging fell back into place hiding the stranger, Eyeri frowned at the man's actions. "Are all k'nairi so handsy?" he asked out loud without really thinking.
"Pretty much," a bemused voice commented. "Especially with the young. Though my grandson is more than most."
"Not a baby," Eyeri muttered, before turning to face Guardian Fl'ex. "Good afternoon Guardian."
"Good afternoon Eyeri," Fl'ex smiled gently at him from where he was sitting on a chair made from furs, a scroll in one hand and a quill in the other. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine, thank you," Eyeri said stiffly, knowing he was part of the reason Fl'ex was sitting in his hut and not out helping the community. "I..." he trailed off. "I heal pretty fast. It was how Ryraso knew I had the potential to be a healer and not just a medic."
Eyeri slowly walked closer to the man, looking around with mild interest at the hut. Fl'ex clearly wasn't the only one who lived there, and there were rooms Eyeri couldn't see. The general reception area though was decorated with wood carvings and drapes. The room smelt of burning wood, a fire lit in a fire pit again with dragon stones.
"With your past, that is hardly surprising that your magic learned how to heal you," Guardian Fl'ex nodded in understanding. "That is very good with how much water you swallowed from the river. I was worried you might have caught something nasty from the experience. How is your father doing?"
"Ry? He's recovering," Eyeri shrugged. "He will ache for a few more hours. Sounded like it was a big heal."
"It was," Fl'ex nodded. "Hiu'um owes his wings to you and Ryraso."
"It was Ryraso who healed him, not me," Eyeri said with a strange look at Fl'ex.
"You were the one who let Ryraso go to him," Fl'ex pointed out. "I guess we can add Nel'os in the thanks for being the one to get Ryraso there so quickly. We were lucky to have you all here."
"Ry would have gone anyway. His duty as a healer will always come first," Eyeri said with a bitter tone.
"Last night, your answer was 'I wouldn't get in the way of Ryraso being a healer,'" Fl'ex hummed. "What's changed since then?" he asked, gesturing for Eyeri to come closer as he stayed at a distance.
"Nothing," Eyeri muttered, biting his lip, thinking of that morning.
"Eyeri, come here and look at me," Fl'ex ordered. "Do not make me get up."
Eyeri looked up and moved closer but couldn't quite look Fl'ex in the eyes. "You don't know me. Don't pretend otherwise," Eyeri growled under his breath.
"I may not. I've had plenty of experience with teenagers, however both human and k'nairi. I have five sons, including Herymi. Now, look at me youngling," Fl'ex ordered firmly. Eyeri looked up at him through long eyelashes. Fl'ex smiled as he looked into the big blue eyes, seeing through the innocent look and seeing something a bit deeper in Eyeri. Seeing the doubt of an adopted child mixed with the hormones of a teenage boy who wanted to stand on his own two feet but couldn't just yet. "Ryraso loves you very much but there are things he can't protect you from," Fl'ex murmured, cupping Eyeri's face.
"Like you?" Eyeri said darkly, apparently able to tell Fl'ex wasn't falling for his innocent and harmless routine.
"Like the link," Fl'ex said calmly, not rising to the bait. "Tell me Eyeri, why are you so scared of me right now?"
"The fact the Winglord wants to brand me isn't enough to be scared?" Eyeri demanded, pulling away from Fl'ex hand.
"Not of every k'nairi," Fl'ex said softly. "Do you know why Ryraso agreed for me to punish you?"
Eyeri shrugged, folding his arms in front of him protectively. "Because Herymi said it was safe to?" he offered, his chest clenching and the corners of his eyes watering though Eyeri refused to let any tears fall.
"Partly," Fl'ex nodded. "Eyeri, you hurt me. I'm a Guardian. Much like the link demands punishment of Ryraso and Herymi for running despite being loved members of our community, it will demand a punishment of you too. If Ryraso deals with it, he will have to be stricter than he would want too. Me? I can give any punishment I see fit because as long as I, as the hurt party, am happy with the punishment, it will leave you alone," Fl'ex explained.
"Politics again?" Eyeri muttered unhappily, wiping his left eye with the back of his hand.
"In a way," Fl'ex nodded slowly. "Okay. Eyeri. I'm not going to hurt you. I understand why you did what you did. I really do. I'm not going to tell you off for what you did either, but I do have to punish you. So," Fl'ex's voice lifted into a more cheerful voice strangely. "You are going to spend the rest of the day helping the others out and not in the medic tent. You are banned from the medic tent."
"But I can help in there," Eyeri frowned confused.
"You can and you probably would be more comfortable doing so which wouldn't really be a punishment. No. Those hands," Fl'ex nodded at Eyeri's clenched fists. "Can go help elsewhere. The others will show you what to do. It will give you some time to meet some k'nairi who aren't planning to hurt you in any way and maybe learn some new skills."
"I see," Eyeri said, clearly not understanding at all but relieved he wasn't going to be struck or whipped.
Fl'ex smiled at him in a way Eyeri could remember some of the older members of the ship smiling at him when he had been new on the ship and learning how to interact with people again. "You are too used to your hands being used to heal a person. Now it is time you learned to rebuild a home. Go. My grandson will take you to someone who will show you the ropes. I will see you at the feast tonight."
"There is a feast?" Eyeri asked softly.
"With everyone working this hard, we had better have one," Fl'ex beamed at him, with a wink. Eyeri smiled back at him before nodding, understanding that at least. "Go," Fl'ex added with a shooing motion of his hand. "Before I change my mind," he added in a mock-gruff voice which had Eyeri chuckling slightly as he was reminded of Isst strangely.
"Yes sir," Eyeri bowed his head slightly before heading back to the good-natured k'nairi who had helped up to the hut. That, that had gone better than he had expected.