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Post by MP on Mar 14, 2019 11:33:11 GMT -6
When the pup began to groom and nuzzle, Kanagi closed his eyes - not for enjoyment, but for guilt. This was all a momentary kindness. In a week, in a month perhaps, he’d be gone, and the dragon would be left to itself to scrape by as it could.
He looked down at the pup’s question, subdued, considering.Then he uttered a soft, crooning growl. Once. And then again, sounding it out so that the pup could hear it clearly.
[ Ka-Naha-Gi.]
The stormless eye; the one who saw, and saw clearly, without bias or judgement. The word was a reminder, and as he spoke the name, he settled his thoughts again.
In the storm-brief time he had on this world, he could ensure at least that this pup knew a period of comfort and safety. Perhaps it was a little cruel in the long view. But a moment’s comfort, free of hunger and fear and loneliness, seemed better than nothing at all.
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Post by Sharei on Mar 14, 2019 11:33:35 GMT -6
[ Kaah-Naah-Haaa-Geee. ]
The dragon tested the name out several times and in doing came up with a few slightly ridiculous pronunciations. The tones weren’t natural to him, but the vocalizations fell in the right ranges. A few more corrections and he had it, the name coming out in accented Icarim.
[ Kanagi.]
The pup pressed his soft head into the underside of Kanagi’s jaw and then climbed off him. He pranced in a circle, chanting Kanagi, Kanagi, before he darted off northward. The hatchling stopped when he’d gotten a handful of feet from where the tiercel was laying, however, and looked over his shoulder with big eyes.
“Kanagi come?”
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Post by MP on Mar 14, 2019 11:35:13 GMT -6
There was a soft flush and billowing to the tiercel’s mane as the pup ran off. He rose, rather floated to his feet, and stood watching it go. But he showed no inclination to follow, and when the pup looked back at him, he only snorted softly, encouraging the pup along.
If he would do this, there would need to be limits. Kanagi couldn’t afford to be there constantly, and the pup could not expect it. The more dependent it became on him, the harder survival would be when it was alone again. And besides, Az couldn’t cover for him forever.
He snorted the pup away again. Then the tiercel kicked off in flight. He didn’t leave the area immediately. Between resting and feeding, he would pass overhead, reassuring the pup with sight and scent that he was keeping track of it. But after awhile, he turned away to the south, rejoining Az on their tireless watch. There was his duty to think of, and he must be familiar enough with the region and its patterns to recognize any abnormalities.
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Post by Sharei on Mar 14, 2019 11:38:02 GMT -6
Kanagi did not come with him, but in the following days the hatchling saw him overhead and scented him on the wind. The tiercel brought him food, for which he was grateful, and sometimes laughed at him for botching yet another attempt at chasing down a deer. The hatchling’s skill at hunting was not great, too young and inexperienced to really fend for himself, and he relied on the offered portions to keep up his strength.
And every once in a while, if he hadn’t seen Kanagi overhead recently, he’d make a call. It was not the same as the keening mother call he’d been doing before - this was a deliberate long distance sound, something meant to check in; to make sure the other still existed. Kanagi never answered, but the hatchling saw him overhead soon after, and that was good enough.
The dragon traveled ever northward. He had no clear reason why, only that, in the beginning, he’d had a sense that it was the right way to go. Sometimes he got distracted chasing a butterfly or a weasel, veering westerly, but he always seemed to find his way again.
Eventually, his tenacious march took him to the very edge of dragon territory, and that was where he found it. The scent of the forest parted for the smell of old blood and the sweet stench of rotting flesh. At first, he thought it was a kill left in the sun, but something about the scent made him uneasy. A dread he couldn’t quite place curled in his stomach, but he didn't have the sense to turn back sooner.
The body became visible as he crested the hill. The trees broke before the massive remains, torn up in ruts where the adult dragon had hit the ground from a full flight. Shredded leathery wings with distinct green patterning were twisted around a sunken husk, whose scales had once been a rich, deep royal blue but had faded under dirt and grime.
The sound the hatchling made was somewhere between a scream and a cry, more an exclamation of grief than a carrying call. He recognized that dragon, and his heart sank with a cold pain at the sight of it. He charged down the hill and went to the remains, knowing before he got there that the body was long dead. Even without the signs that animals had been eating away at it for some time, it was impossible to miss the marks the humans had left, or the things that they had taken.
“No!” the hatching cried, pawing at the damaged face. He pressed his head into a leg, butted at a hand. Mewled at it. Nothing.
He was dead. Just like everyone else.
A shiver rushed through the hatchling and he curled up in the shadow of his father’s corpse. Claws and paws flecked with long dried blood, he balled himself tight against the bigger body, too distraught to make a sound.
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Post by MP on Mar 14, 2019 11:44:56 GMT -6
It was some time before the tiercel returned. But when he arrived, he came in fast, a rush of aether spurred by the scent of the decaying dragon. The pup had been beyond his patrol range for some days now, and he hadn’t known of the corpse until he’d heard the cry. There were the familiar signs of butchery. And there was the little shape huddled in its shadow.
He padded over to the pup in silence, craning his neck to sniff at the remains. He stopped a few paces from them. A narrow grey muzzle lowered to the pup, warm breath puffing over its flanks. The tiercel uttered a gentle chuff, waiting for it to look around. He raised his head, eyeing the surroundings with a hawk-like vigilance. Chuffed again. It was neither healthy nor safe for the pup to linger here.
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Post by Sharei on Mar 14, 2019 11:54:45 GMT -6
The hatchling lifted its head sluggishly and turned one blue eye on the tiercel. It was a heavy look, haunted by the devastation to his aerie and the discovery of the corpse. He made a small sound, half-hearted, then turned in place and tucked his nose against the body.
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Post by MP on Mar 14, 2019 11:57:00 GMT -6
Kanagi’s tail flickered left, right in indecision. He watched the pup for a long moment, waiting for it to get up. He couldn’t remember how he had come to terms as a pup. That time had been blurred by hunger, by constant alertness and fear, and the full comprehension that his mother and sisters were gone had been a gradual thing, creeping back over storms and storms of survival. He didn’t know what to do for the pup.
After a long moment, the tiercel sank to his haunches. His belly touched the ground, his aether stores almost fully expelled while he sat and waited.
The forest sang to itself. Birds in the trees and the vocalizations of distant animals. He listened, ever alert. Overhead, a sparrow alighted in the shattered canopy. Intelligent eyes turned this way and that, a hint of green winking out in them as it added its watch to his own.
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Post by Sharei on Mar 14, 2019 11:57:32 GMT -6
Nothing happened for a long time. But then gradually, haltingly, the hatchling shuffled from its position next to the dragon’s body. It moved slowly, too worn out by the day’s events, and settled again at Kanagi’s side. The hatchling chirped gently, a half-hearted greeting, and tucked his nose under Kanagi’s belly.
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Post by MP on Mar 14, 2019 11:58:14 GMT -6
As the pup came to his side, Kanagi lowered his head to meet it, preening the stubby spines with exceedingly gentle teeth. When the dust and old blood had been cleaned from its scales, he rested his jaw over the hatchling's back for a moment, a warm pressure. Then he rose to his feet, mane billowing, and began to pad away. His tail curled in his wake, ushering the pup after him with gentle nudges and sweeps. In this contrasting way, the pup with its plodding steps and the Icarim with his floating gait, they left the place behind, the sparrow swooping after them.
Sarkany moved them downwind and a little off to one side, where the air was cleaner but the majority of the dragon’s trail might still be masked by the scent of the dead one. He stopped up a mountainous slope - something a little more like an aerie, though it was a gentler slope out of consideration for the pup. There he sank to his haunches, huffing at the pup reassuringly and allowing it to rest and clear its nose of the scent of death.
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Post by Sharei on Mar 14, 2019 11:58:49 GMT -6
The hatchling plopped down at Kanagi’s side and lent his weight against the larger tiercel. There he stayed, listless and quiet, any trace of the former bounciness all but gone. He didn’t know what to do. All the dragons were dead and he’d gone so far already, yet he'd only found more death. There was no one left to find, and the trees were so big, and the sky so vast.
“Kanagi,” he said finally, the first real sound he’d made on their journey there. He turned his head and pressed it along the tiercel’s side, scared. “Me, too?” he said softly. “Will I die too?”
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Post by MP on Mar 14, 2019 12:00:43 GMT -6
The tiercel looked down at the dragon, his fierce yellow eyes unreadable. There wasn’t much he could offer the pup, even without the language barrier. Nothing explainable. No promises that weren’t part lies. But after a moment he shifted where he lay, repositioning a foretalon so that the pup lay sheltered against his side, shaded beneath the soft membrane. His tail settled over their flanks.
“Safe,” he said, the sound a reassuring rumble through his chest. And then, because he hadn’t yet made up his mind what should be done, repeated himself, more softly. “Safe.”
He did not go back to the woods that day. The sparrow went in his place, the shadow of her consciousness falling over the region like an unseen snow. Kanagi stayed with the pup, humming in his chest or sometimes simply sitting beside it in silence. When night fell, the yellow eyes remained as open and alert as ever, observing the distance and the tiny figures that moved there.
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Post by Sharei on Mar 14, 2019 12:01:31 GMT -6
The hatchling did not move from Kanagi’s side that night. Its shaking subsided only when fitful sleep came and resumed again when the dragon woke from a nightmare with a frightened squeak and a haunted echo in his eyes. It was only the tiercel’s gentle humming that calmed him, and eventually, the little one drifted off again.
So it went, through the night and into the next day. When Kanagi left for his patrol the dragon did not call for him, nor did he follow. He was still there when Kanagi returned many days later, and the marks in the earth he had left indicated that he hadn’t moved much at all. He did little more than pick at the kill Kanagi had brought, and the next time he did not touch it at all.
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Post by MP on Mar 14, 2019 12:02:32 GMT -6
An Icarim was a creature of the air; it was neither natural nor comfortable to cling to the earth and be willingly grounded. But Kanagi slept in the manner of groundlings over the next few days, venting his aether to lie next to the pup, curled nose to tail so that it was screened from the early spring winds while it slept. He brought different prey, large and small, to tempt the pup from its stupor. And when he was away, a small green sparrow took his place on the makeshift aerie, drowsing in a shrub or perching on a nearby rock to keep an eye on it. They hoped security and distance from the scene of the butchery might revive it. But when the listlessness continued, they knew it would not be enough.
[ It needs a caretaker, ] Az said, fluffing her feathers in a shrug. It was the third morning the pup had ignored its food, and they were conferring a little distance away. [ We can’t be with it constantly, and that’s what it needs, I think. If there were other dragons...but I know I haven’t felt any. And I don’t think a lung would take it in. ]
[ It will have to be its own caretaker. ] Kanagi said, troubled. [ Or be prepared for that, at least. Hunger can be a motivator, but it’ll probably be too late by then. ]
They mused on this, the sparrow sneaking glances at the crestfallen shape over her shoulder.
[ I don’t suppose you could speak with it. ] Kanagi said at last.
The sparrow squinted at him. [ I could communicate. But I wouldn’t know what to say. I can barely see it, Hawk. And I think it would mean more coming from you than me. I’m just a ‘funny bird’ to it. ]
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Post by Sharei on Mar 14, 2019 12:03:54 GMT -6
It was the second voice that eventually drew the hatchling’s attention.
At first, he’d thought it the wind rather than a true second voice, but as the conversation had drawn on, the distinct notes had become apparent. They roused him from his semi-consciousness and alerted him to the fact that both the bird and the tiercel were present. That was unusual.
What was even more unusual was the fact that the little, funny bird was speaking using Kanagi’s language. It wasn’t the way the sparrows talked, and the hatchling stared over the curve of its flank, not rising, but one eye on it. Curious.
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Post by MP on Mar 14, 2019 12:04:44 GMT -6
The discussion continued for another few minutes, the sparrow perched on the tiercel’s crests, the tiercel’s head tipped sideways to look at it. The bird seemed somewhat nervous, puffing and slimming and occasionally glancing at the hatchling, ruffling herself up as though she might take flight at any moment. But when they caught the dragon looking, the talk drew to a close. Kanagi dipped his head, and the sparrow jumped down to the ground. Her momentum carried her another few hops toward the dragon. And then she stopped, looking back at the tiercel. He rumbled low in his throat. The sparrow turned to the dragon again.
“Come over here, hatchling.”
She spoke in flawless draconic, impossible growls and mutterings rumbling from the tiny opened beak. Even the body language was correct, her little shape moving almost involuntarily, as if something larger stirred inside. But for all her correctness, there was a strange catch to her voice quality - an occasional, near imperceptible skip, like that of a scratched record.
“You understand me, yes?” A beady black eye fixed on the dragon, winking green. “It’s alright. Come here.”
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