With a dismissive snort, Wind Dancer slapped the limb. “It is nothing but my age making itself known.”
“You have not had a healer see to it?”
“I am not so vain as to have every imperfection expunged. Leave my eccentricities alone. I am old.”
“And nursing an irrational phobia of the Healers Haven,” Dawning light revealed with an amused curving of the mouth.
“Old males go in then never come out,” Wind Dancer protested. “You cannot tell me this is not truth.”
“Yesss, but those old males are ready to sit at Grandmother’s side, nest mate. You will grace us with your charm and wit for aeons to come.”
“I am not going, and you cannot make me.” Wind Dancer’s piercing gaze settled on me. “On to important matters. Who have you brought to meet us?”
It felt as if he raked out my guts to pore over what made me up inside.
Venomous pulled me in front of him. “Fathers, this is my Rä’Na, my Lumen of the Stars.” He sighed. “Is she not as exquisite as I said in my comm calls?”
Face heating, knowing the Rä did not find my ‘petite’ stature and mass of curly hair appealing, I smiled warily. “Good greetings.”
Wind Dancer bowed. “Good greetings, daughter.”
“You are most welcome in our lair,” Dawning Light said as his gaze flicked over me, then to the floor, back to me, before twitching to the wall, then sliding over me again.
“Fiercely Comes the Night.” Wind Dancer stepped back to take him in. He moved forward for an embrace. “I have not seen you since you were a youngling with flaky quills.” They touched foreheads, a glancing movement I gathered was a traditional greeting between kindred, and those considered kindred because of long-term friendship.
“Lumen is with egg,” Fiercely blurted. He dropped me a sheepish glance. “I could not hold it in.”
Nose scrunching, I gave him a sceptical look.
Venomous splayed a palm over my stomach and grinned. “Truth. Our Rä’Na is in swell.”
Wind Dancer rocked back on his heels, and sucked in such a large breath, I thought he was about to keel over.
He exploded in a buzzing hiss, joined by his nest mate, and a few of the less chary Rä enjoying the reunion. “Great Serpent! We are blessed!”
I released a shaky breath and slouched into Venomous. I offered a tentative smile. “We think so too.”
“Thsst! Come here, daughter. Come.” He took my hand and fussed over me until I sat on the huge divan. “Sit. Be at ease.”
Venomous and Fiercely sat either side of me as the Rä’Veks sat opposite, a low and narrow table between us.
The family members clustered around.
“Now,” Wind Dancer began, “when was your seeding?”
I wasn’t touching that one.
“Lumen is human. Her cycle is different,” Venomous answered, evasive.
“Yesss, but we must establish when she will lay, so we can arrange the nesting calendar.” Wind Dancer whipped out his communicator in a grave ‘let’s get down to business’ fashion. “It is a good thing He, Cobra that Strikes is so talented a hunter. I will comm call him, and add you to the–”
Venomous reached to close a hand over his father’s tapping claws. “We greet our hatchling in three moontides. There is no need for us to sequester.”
The older males shared uneasy looks.
“The egg will not be hard?” Dawning Light asked. His face creased. “Is it because she is offworlder? We must get our wisest healer on this. There must be a solution. Your egg will not crack before its time. I vow to you, my offspring, we will fix this.”
“Aw,” I murmured, chuffed they were so concerned. “Nāga is my doctor. I like him. I trust him, so I want him to stay my healer.”
Venomous, now rubbing my back, hushed his parents’ anxious exclamations. “You misunderstand. Lumen will carry the hatchling inside her for three moontides. She will lay, and it will come out grown.”
“Developed,” I corrected. My assurances calmed the paling females who appeared moments from swooning. “A fully grown person won’t burst out of me.” I wheezed a dry laugh. “It’s tiny. Well, not tiny, I mean, it’s going to be big enough to hurt.”
I again eyed Venomous’ shoulders then felt like sobbing.
Another stunned silence.
“Serpent’s Hood,” Dawning Light whispered.
“There is a shielding egg inside that stays soft the whole time,” Fiercely explained as if retelling a gory horror story. “The babe hatches in her belly then it crawls out in stomach pains called labour. It is called that because the human female pushes for spans and spans to give it its own life.” He studied me speculatively. “She says it might take a whole rotation, but I do not see how it will take so long. She is so small, and it is such a short distance to travel.”
The Rä looked queasy.
Some went as far as to set their food aside then excused themselves.
The rest broke off into their own separate conversations, eyeing me askance as if I were about to blow.
“Doubt they’ll be back,” I muttered watching as the less hardy fled.
“A hatchling in three moontides,” Wind Dancer breathed. “There is much to be done. Venomous, at the time it was adequate, but your Rä’Na and offspring need more space. We must build a bigger lair.”
“There is no time,” Dawning Light cried. “We must purchase the hatchling haze without delay. It is the only solution.”
“Daughter, will you be working in the solars to come, or must we consider kindred care? Perhaps She, Adder of Dark Places?”
“Yesss,” Dawning Light agreed. “She is firm, but fair, and only bites when necessary.”
“And what do you mean no sequestering?” Wind Dancer turned on Venomous with a stern look. “Time is short, but there are still three moontides before the hatchling arrives. Surely you cannot mean to let her leave the nest.”
Dawning light inhaled sharply. “Should she even be here?”
“Ready the goodbeasts.”
Listening to them chatter, my head spun.
“Good Grandmother, I did not even think!” Dawning Light flailed a hand calling off the request as another Sylph brought a tray of water bowls then divvied them out. “The bonding ceremony. We must prepare, send invitations.”
“A small gathering, closest kindred only.” Wind Dancer glanced at us with a frown. “Have you selected a lesser male?”
“Venomous and I discussed Cobra that Strikes,” Fiercely announced.
Floundering as I tried to keep up, my gaze skidded to Venomous. “Did you now?”
“Thsst!” Wind Dancer rocked in his seat. “An excellent choice. He is Master Hunter.”
“Father, we must speak with the Senate about the bonding ceremony.
“I will arrange it.”
“We cannot do closest kindred only,” Dawning Light reprimanded stealing Wind Dancer’s attention, pounding away at his communicator. “You forget we have to include Fiercely Comes the Night’s kindred, and give them time to journey here to meet with her. They might wish to aid in the preparations. Also, we will cause offence if we do not invite all our kindred from the four provinces. They might refuse to send nesting gifts if we exclude them. You know how spiteful southerners can be, and westerners do know how to hold a grudge.”
My mouth hung agape.
Venomous’ fathers were positively motherly.
I’d been scared to meet these Rä, but they were so lovely and welcoming.
I felt like an idiot for believing they’d be unkind because I was an alien.
“We are the primary male’s kindred,” Wind Dancer declared to his nest mate with a lofty quirk of his brow ridge. “Our decision is final, and will be respected.”
Dawning Light hissed. “I think–”
“Fathers!” Venomous laughed and held up two hands. “My clan and I will take care of this our way in our own time. All you need do is be ready to bounce a hatchling o
n your knees.”
“No nesting calendar?” Wind Dancer looked hurt. “It is no trouble.”
“You do not think we can do it the proper way,” Dawning Light accused.
Glowering, Venomous went to decline, but I stopped him with a hand to his forearm. “I won’t be, uh, living in the nest, but I’m unused to how things work on Rök. It would be wonderful to not worry about cooking, or going to the market as I adjust. I’ll take all the help I can get. So, if you want to do a nesting calendar go right ahead.”
Wind Dancer seemed thrilled yet perplexed. “Why would you cook?”
I blinked. “U-Um.”
“You have Sylphs,” Dawning Light reminded.
I failed to stifle a grimace. “Right.”
“Lumen is disconcerted by the servants,” Venomous explained. “We host none in our lair until she feels comfortable with them.”
Wind Dancer shifted forward then patted my hand. “You understand they are benign creatures that would not lift a feeler to harm you, even at the cost of their own life?”
“Yes.” I caught and squeezed his hand. It was warm, but not calloused like his son’s. “I just need more time.”
He returned my smile as he sat back.
“Who will do your lairwork?” Dawning Light argued.
“I will,” I replied with a confidence I didn’t feel. “I want to find a job, but it won’t be for a while, not until after I have the hatchling, settle down and I figure out what I want to do.”
Squinting, Wind Dancer queried, “How do you not already know what you want to do?”
“I was a receptionist on Earth. From what I’ve learnt about Rä culture, there won’t be an equivalent.” Their heads cocked, so I clarified. “I managed communications for a, um, tooth healer.”
“Thsst,” they hissed.
Venomous looked proud and intrigued. “You were apprenticed to a healer, my Lumen?”
“No, babe. Our employment structure is different.” I explained the private and public sectors, industry, organisations, and the hiring process as best I could. “I was a receptionist because I have good organisational skills and a pleasant voice.”
Fiercely scowled. “I have no notion as to how that contributes to a larger purpose.”
“It was a decent job and it paid well, meaning I got to eat and keep a roof over my head. There’s your larger purpose right there.”
Wind Dancer scrutinised me. “So you will not be joining the Healer’s Caste?”
I rubbed my forehead. “Not unless they need someone to manage their correspondence.”
Venomous sensed my agitation and interrupted. “We have discussed this. Lumen will decide what she wants to do in her own time.” He ended the subject then moved on. He glanced around, annoyed. “Where is mother?”
Dawning Light found the worn rug fascinating all of a sudden, and Wind Dancer floundered for a distraction.
In the end, he muttered, “She wanted to be here, but was needed at the Trade Quarter.”
I winced, because even I could tell he fibbed.
“She went to work on the rotation of her offspring’s homecoming?” Fiercely asked in an incredulous manner, utilising no tact whatsoever. “After he was lost to her for over an aeon? And he brings home a Rä’Na and nest mate?”
Nostrils flaring, a muscle in Venomous’ jaw ticked.
The unspoken statement behind his mother’s absence was obvious.
She did not accept me.
Dawning Light twiddled his thumbs then cried, “The hatching.” He bounded onto his feet then hurried across the room to a shelving unit. “Daughter, would you like to see the hatching of our offspring?”
Mortified, Venomous clicked his teeth. His leg bounced next to mine, booted heel lifted off the floor. “Lumen does not want to see such things.”
I halted his jumping knee with my palm. “Babe, wonderfully, this is something we do on Earth.” I nudged him with my shoulder. “I’d like to watch you being born.”
“See.” Dawning Light rushed back holding open a hinged trinket box made of crystal with a cushioned interior. What looked like wadded cotton padded the hollow space. “Look, here is part of his shell.” He placed a creamy shard into my open palm. “Careful, please, this is all that is left.”
My heart throbbed at the depth of which they loved their son.
The inner surface of the fragment was silky, blameless white while the exterior was a rougher texture and speckled with gold splotches.
Shimmering specks weren’t present as an outer sprinkling.
The sparkles faded closer towards the inner side.
Angling it so the sunlight cut through, I could see the shell was made up of hundreds of paper thin, freckled layers.
“He was a beautiful egg. Perfectly formed, and so heavy. Eight and a quarter parts.” Wind Dancer slapped his muscled thigh. “He was a record breaker. No bigger egg that aeon.”
Dawning Light chuckled. “And here are his hatching fangs.”
Trading the shell for the new treasure, I ran my fingers over the lustrous enamel of curved teeth no bigger than my smallest fingernail. “Hatching fangs?”
“They develop in the egg to tear the inner membrane then crack the shell. That is why they are so pretty. They fall less than a moontide later.” Crinkled lines around his eyes deepened as his arresting features softened. “Though Venomous kept his for two.”
“He always has been a late shedder,” Wind Dancer whispered sotto voice gazing at his son with fondness.
Leaning over me to get a better look, Fiercely snickered.
Looking as if he wanted to be anywhere but where he was, Venomous shot him a frosty look. “Laugh hard, nest mate. You forget your kindred will do the same, if not worse. I remember your life giver being fond of recording your youthful blunders. Perhaps I will comm her, ask her to send her favourites.”
Spine snapping straight, Fiercely lost colour.
Dawning Light took back the fangs to return them to the keepsake box then glanced at an ovoid screen on the adjacent wall.
His voice brimmed with excitement. “Now for the main event.”
Cringing, Venomous slapped a hand over his face.
A hologram came up of a white and gold egg snuggled in a dense crumple of green and yellow fur.
Rä claws were on the egg, but pulled away as it wobbled, and a fracture appeared on the outer surface with an ear-splitting crack.
Another snap of sound, a larger fracture, and then a curved fragment fell free.
“Look, here he comes,” Dancing Light whispered sounding lost in a memory.
Glistening wetly, an arm came into view, hiding a scrunched up face with a dazedly shifting eye, its pupil contracted to a slit.
A shaft of light hit the egg, and black brille snapped down as a vivid ripple of gold passed over minuscule scales.
“I knew then,” Wind Dancer murmured. “Seeing his anima rise so strongly, and not even out of his shell. I knew that he was to be the greatest of us.”
Burrowing under Venomous’ arms, I watched, round eyed, as he hatched.
By the end of it, I fought tears.
It was beautiful, incredibly moving, and I wondered how I was ever repulsed at the thought of an egg hatching.
His curled body lay shivering on the shards of his shell, looked so soft and vulnerable, it struck me a beautiful contrast to the powerful warrior seated beside me.
“I remember it as if it were a moon past.” Wind Dancer sighed. His gaze sharpened then he smiled at me. “Now, Lumen, how many will you have with you during your laying, apologies, your labour? Two, three?”
I blinked then reached for my water to wet my throat.
“I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” I confessed, “but two or three people sounds about right. There’ll be Venomous and Fiercely, Nāga–”
“Oh, no, daughter, I meant two or three hundred of our kindred.”
The drinking bowl I lifted to my puckered lips slipped through my numb f
ingers.
I splashed water over my lap as I scrabbled with it.
“Though it would be better if we could try to bring that number up to four hundred so we have enough room to invite Fiercely’s kindred.”
The two older males bent their heads together and began planning.
Sweat beading my upper lip, I stabbed an harassed glare at Venomous who slid his fathers brooding, irritated looks, but said nothing to end their enthusiastic preparations.
He did a double take at my expression, then brushed his knuckles from my cheek to my jaw, eyes tender. “Do not fret, Rä’Na.”
“We will make them invite less,” Fiercely soothed as he snuck an arm around my back.
I exhaled, lifted the drinking bowl.
“No more than two hundred,” Venomous promised. “I will be firm.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
As the sun set, sending streaks of purple and pink across the dusky horizon, the bluest third moon rose high in a star strewn sky.
The glider set down on a peaceful three sided courtyard, the broad, dead end avenue overlooking the sprawling metropolis below.
Stone and wood stables for goodbeast, roaming space fenced-off, were situated centric to the lairs dotting the terrace.
A waft of musty hay and peaty manure made my nose wrinkle, the smell more pungent in the sweltering heat.
Canals of rainbow water, ankle high, snaked from each building to join with a larger duct that disappeared down the mound of rocky earth towards the city.
Parked next to the smallest, most quaint residence, blue vines with yellow, pyramid-shaped flowers overgrew the exterior walls of the single level structure.
Bristly shrubs hugged the foundations, and piles of green sand lay in the nooks and crannies where gales of wind had blown it from the mountainous dunes that bordered the outskirts.
I shambled up a stone inlaid path overgrown with thorny weeds, and patches of indigo grass.
Closer to the edifice, I lay a hand on the tall, sparkling wall and found it warm from the sun, looking smooth, but grainy to touch, druzy.
It seemed a solid block, cloudy with striations of amethyst and smoky grey, but my fingers slipped over a squared shape, and I squinted, realising it wasn’t a lone slab of quartz, but crystal bricks slotted together in a tongue and groove formation, leaving thin, glowing lines between; glister creep roots.
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