The message strayed back into my thoughts. I wasn't sure what I'd been expecting, but whatever it was, it wasn't this. Both my parents both died—but only after being imprisoned for as long as it took me to be born, some nine or ten months. The idea of them locked up that long just for making me, then being killed... It made my blood boil. I headed upwards, further from the ground, in search of some way to blow off steam while flying.
My parents had died for me, something that I felt guilty about, even if I hadn't had any choice in the matter. If they'd just dated, even just gotten married, they would still be alive today. The punishment for getting together with someone from another species was only a few months or years in prison, not death.
I was glad at that moment that owls couldn't cry because I didn't want to give into the sorrow that was pressing in on me. I wanted to be angry, to do something, anything other than to giving in to the urge to curl up under a tree and sob. So I pushed my wings harder, flying so high that the trees were small, even to my razor-sharp owl eyes. The air was colder up here, but unlike when I rode on Leera, I had feathers to keep me warm.
I leveled off and soared over the forest, feeling the wind zipping past my beak and over my wings. Something caught my eye far below me - two people in close proximity who didn't seem to notice that the other was there. Kuertis was collecting water from a stream, while forty feet or so past the other bank stood Clarisa. She still didn't have any firewood, but she was talking to a sliver.
They sped past below me, and I circled around to watch them. The sliver's scales were nearly pitch black, something I never seen before. Most slivers were pale silver or white colored. This one hovered in front of Clarisa for several minutes as she it told her message, its six dragonfly wings beating furiously to keep its long, fish-like body aloft. I tried to read Clarisa's lips from where I was, but it was more than a little difficult, what with me having to circle around to keep sight of her. Not to mention, I'd never really tried to lip read before.
She finished her message without me being able to decipher any of what she was saying, and the strange sliver flew off, moving faster than I could make out. Clarisa started actually collecting firewood as soon as it was gone. Kuertis finished collecting water soon after and headed back to camp. I stuck around for a while to make sure Clarisa wasn't doing anything else except collecting firewood, then flew off again, away from camp.
I wandered through the night sky for a while, knowing that if I landed, I wouldn't be able to sleep. A thousand thoughts raced through my mind about how there had to be a better way. There had to be a better way to keep the truly dangerous paltors from causing trouble than by killing all of us.
After all, Callah and I had turned out fine, despite our heritage. Clarisa was a bit of a different story, but she still didn't deserve to die for what she was. And how many had died already because of what they were or who they decided to have a child with? Not all of their half-blood children could be insane or bent on destroying Lykela. If only there was a way to find out how someone would turn out before they were born...
The thought of it all was so hard to reconcile with my idea of the country I called home. I had gone flying alone to clear my mind, not to make it even harder to think. But that was exactly what had happened.
I angled my wings downwards and turned back towards camp, intending to head back and maybe sleep it all off. But I didn't- I couldn't just pretend like everything was alright around the others. For one thing, Tawny would see right through it, and I would have to lie to her again to cover up the truth. I hated lying to her.
I knew that letting her come with us on the mission would mean that I would have to lie to her even more. I'd known it before, but I'd been so angry with Clarisa that I'd invited Tawny and Kuertis just to spite her. Now, so far from Clarisa herself, I regretted that decision.
I was jerked suddenly out of my thoughts by the realization that I'd gone into a dive. The trees were speeding towards me faster than I'd meant them to, but I didn't pull up. The wind rushing through my feathers helped to push back everything I'd been worried about. I tucked my wings in and started diving even faster, the trees growing closer at a monumental rate. They eclipsed my vision before I even thought of pulling up, but I held on, speeding even closer to them.
They were thirty—no, twenty—feet away before I threw open my wings. I immediately felt as if I'd run into a crumbling brick wall, slowing down but not quickly enough. My momentum made me plow through the tree canopy. Green was all around me for a split second, then I crashed into a branch hard enough to knock me out.
I came to in an amazing amount of pain. My wings and legs were twisted at wrong angles, and a bone stuck out from my left wing. If I could've thrown up, I would've. Pain threatened to put me under again, but I had to transform back. The longer I stayed injured as an owl, the more injuries I would keep when I changed back into a talme.
Concentrating with the pain was agonizingly impossible, but I managed to undo the transformation. It started to reverse itself, and as I grew into my true form again, the pain faded. It didn't disappear completely, but it was bearable. None of my limbs were broken anymore, and I could breathe easily. I must not have been unconscious for very long.
Broken bones or no, I was still too shaken up to trying going anywhere. My limbs vibrated with the aftereffects of fearful energy, and my heart pounded in my ears. I couldn't remember ever having been hurt that badly. The memory of seeing my own bones sticking through my skin made me want to-
I barely managed to get on my hands and knees before throwing up. The nausea passed quickly, and I struggled to my feet, then wiped my mouth. The moon was full, but its dim light didn't penetrate very far to the trees. In other words, I was as good as blind. I knew I could transform again, if not into an owl, then at least into something else with night vision, but the idea of changing shape right then made me even more nauseous.
I didn't transform. Instead, I headed towards the sound of running water. It was probably the stream I'd seen Kuertis at earlier, so it couldn't be too far from camp.
A roar drowned out the burbling stream. I instinctively took off running toward the sound of the stream. Half a dozen steps later, I tripped over a rock and face planted in the dirt. Before I could get up, a heavy weight pressed onto my back and held me down.
[Stop squirming,] Leera said.
I immediately stopped struggling and tried to calm down.
The weight was lifted from my back and placed beside me. [Why are you covered in blood?] She sniffed at my arms.
[It doesn't matter. I'm fine now.]
She snorted and delved into my memories, forcing me to relive the dive and then the crash. [Do you ever think before acting like an idiot?]
Now that she knew I was fine, she seemed to be going straight to the insulting part of the handbook I'd never read on what to do when someone had been in an accident.
[Sometimes.] There was no point in arguing that I hadn't acted like an idiot. I had. Pulling a stunt like that in my transformations class at school would've got me kicked out of the class—for good reason.
[You're not flying back as some bird,] Leera said.
I stood, leaning on her leg for support. [I won't, but I need to wash off the blood before we head back. Could you show me where the stream is?]
[Sure.] She seemed like she wanted to add something, but she didn't, choosing instead to guide me towards the stream in silence.
Once we reached it, I took off my shoes and put one foot in. the water was so frigid that I immediately pulled it back out. Leera chuckled in the strange clicking way dragons did and spit a bright stream of fire into the water.
As soon as I'd recovered from momentarily being blinded, I tried the water again. It was significantly warmer now, though the water was flowing quickly enough that the warmth didn't last long. I heard Leera move in the darkness and splash into the stream.
There was another burst of flame. [I'm damming up the water. It should stay warm for a while.]
[Thanks.] I tried the water for a third time. It stayed warm for the few seconds I kept my foot in it, so I waded in. Unfortunately, I underestimated the depth of the stream with Leera in it, and my second step took me under the water.
I kicked away from the freezing bottom of the stream and grabbed onto Leera's wing to keep from sinking. At least, I was pretty sure it was Leera's wing. It was too dark to tell for sure. I held on with one hand while I used the other to scrub the blood off my skin and clothes.
Leera stayed very still while I washed, occasionally reheating the water from me.
When I was finally pretty sure that most of the blood was off, I clambered onto Leera's back. The lukewarm bath and the time of night made it hard to stay awake, even through the always-frightening take off.