Ch. 1

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Atrau…

…

…

Atrau…

…

I shifted awake with a shudder. The details of my dream faded quickly, but I was left with one image that I clung to with everything I had. A face had looked down at me. Long blond hair blew in a light breeze as sunshine flooded through it. A bright pair of kind green eyes, and a warm smile just about glowed in my mind’s eye. Mom.

The right side of my body prickled with enough intensity to have disturbed my sleep. I sighed and rolled over in the dark. Lacking the desire to move more than was necessary, I stretched out my right arm out into the dappled moonlight shining through the large window over my bed.

I logged the dream in my memory as my mind moved on to other things. I thought of what I had to do today… how other people would interact with me throughout the day. There were few who actually chose to interact with me, and while I disliked it when people did actually pry into my personal life, I kind of welcomed the interaction. It would make for a good distraction from where my mind seemed to wonder of its own accord.

My home was one of the reasons people generally avoided me. The size of it was not unheard of, but the height from the ground was. Mine was one of the highest houses from the ground in the forest, and it was the largest at such heights. My home challenged the order of things.

My parents’ home… while they were alive.

Pushing the thought of my parents away had become a natural reaction for me. I thought of how the house had been when my mother and father were still alive. Now it was vastly different, though it kept the same internal structure. It was a large wooden cabin that I’d added to last year. I was the only one working on it, and it had taken several months in all to finish. It was my first great achievement in adulthood. I was and still am more proud of my home than anything else I’ve ever done. It was a masterpiece in my mind.

The Falco-Nidae, my people, have lived in trees since before my race can remember. With few buildings actually built on the ground, the norm was just below the canopy in our forest. My parents had built their home higher than normal with the other Watchers, before they died.

Push it away.

I’d built a second floor on top of their first, added the attic, built a balcony around the first and second floors except on the back side, and built the smithy below the house, all toward the end of last year. I imagined the work and shuddered, thankful that it was over though dismayed that I no-longer had the distraction.

I began to think of the Watchers, as I would be joining their ranks in a matter of days. The Watchers were strong warriors charged with the defense of the city and I was one of the top students in my group.

I’d never understood why part of the code of the Watchers included sacrificing personally as some sort of sign of dedication to the city. This too made my house almost socially unacceptable. Another aspect added to the Watchers’ sacrificial code, which I totally didn’t understand, is practical devotion to only that single profession. Also, very few Watchers ever took mates, though some went against the grain of society and mated with another Watcher.

As my parents had done…

With a huff I sat up, threw my feet over the edge of my bed and stood quickly. I could tell that my mind already sped along too-fast for me to recapture sleep before the day began. My right side still tingled a little, as if it were mirroring the irritation that crept through my restless mind. After I tried unsuccessfully to push my irritation aside, I went to the stairs leading to the attic – my new bedroom, starting tomorrow… I couldn’t keep sleeping in my parent’s bedroom…

With a shake of my head, I tossed my almost shoulder-length dark hair and my thoughts with it. The new addition to the attic wall jumped to the forefront of my attention, as well as its intended purpose. It only took a few short minutes, then I was there, at the edge of the wall and unlocking the stoppers so that I could push the wall open to the night air. Crisp clean air blew into the room and through my hair. I breathed deeply with my eyes closed, loosing myself in the night. The hinges I’d newly designed specifically so that the entire wall could swing out from the center worked perfectly.

I gazed down at the almost black ground… so far away. My thinly covered toes hung over the edge. My heart beat quickly in my chest as I closed my eyes and quieted the voice behind them. Silence. I leaned slightly forward, almost tempting fate. Suddenly, a gust of wind swept through the trees and ripped me out into the open air!

My heart beat furiously in my ears. Fear tore through my mind. But I recalled the techniques used when falling from a great height. My arms and legs went out at my command, slowing my descent to near breath-stopping speed. If even a single branch stuck out in the wrong direction, I would be sent spinning and/or flipping to my absolute death. I breathed deeply and pushed my thoughts and initial reactions aside as I plummeted toward the ground. I was at peace for a clear moment that seemed to quietly define me. Everything I thought about was pulled out of my head by the force of the wind, leaving behind a clear conscious moment that pulled my spirit in the opposite direction in which I was now physically headed. I opened my eyes.

SNAP!

I heard a sound tearing through the air and felt severe pain in the left side of my back. I looked there. On my left side, there was a great wing, black as pitch, and six-foot long; it was unfurled and uninjured but it was pulling painfully. My right one hadn’t extended. Faster than I’d been thinking before, I went through all the possible painful outcomes if my right wing didn’t open. It was too weak to extend because it was half asleep, and because the wind was pushing too hard on it; that was not acceptable… not if I wanted to be able to walk on both my legs tomorrow.

Again, I went through a series of directions for this specific situation. While holding my arms and legs out as far as they would go, I flapped my left wing hard. Then, when the wind resistance was at its weakest, I pushed with every fiber of every muscle in my strong, young back.

Snap!

My right wing opened, caught the wind, and together my wings acted as a parachute. They jerked my legs and lower body downward painfully… thankfully. If I’d been falling any faster I’d have separated one or both of my wings, and then I wouldn’t be walking or flying for months, if ever again.

Still, with both my wings open, I was descending too fast. The ground was rushing up to me and all I could do was angle toward it, instead of away from it. With an impact that smacked my teeth together and made me taste blood, I hit the ground on my feet and pitched forward. I pushed as hard as I could with my legs and threw my wings down; I flew up into the air again. My momentum almost slammed me face first into the dirt. Painfully, but an avoided outcome I was happy to have behind me.

I was only airborne for a few seconds, before impact with a tree was imminent. I braced with my arms and legs, and back-flapped twice. My arms and legs acted as cushions as my wings wrapped around the girth of the tree. Bark cut at my forearms as I hugged the tree, and I felt a thick branch scrape along the top of my left wing. Painful; unavoidable; irritating.

Before I had a chance to be pulled down by gravity, I put a foot on a close branch and pushed off. I ended up diving a bit at first, before I angled safely up and away from the bone-breaking ground, and out of the trajectory of any unforgiving trees.

With the wind in my hair and my wings, I angled up into the dim sky. I worked on getting my heart-rate back to normal, with breathing practices learned from the Watchers. That was only the second time I’d tested the exit from the attic. I sighed. If I hadn’t spent an entire day hacking away at all the branches directly under the attic door/wall I would probably be dead.

After almost an hour of flying around this tree and that, I came to an area where the trees were less dense: the outskirts of Nidae Forest. The timberland was named after my race, as we were the first inhabitants. I could see the rising sun shining through trees that few Falco-Nidaens ever saw. The edge of the forest was like me, taboo; it was something to be avoided. Born from generations of ignorant assumptions and traditions, the Falco-Nidae people in general believed this part of the forest was malevolent and something to fear. I found solace here though. This place and I shared a common denominator.

The light was soft, as if intentionally being gentle on my keen eyes. The scent on the morning breeze was crisp and clear after rolling over the plans beyond the forest. It soothed my mind as it conjured up a mental image of myself flying through an open sky, over open land for as far as the eye could see.

I came here often. The peace of this place was a rarity deeper inside the forest, alive with so many winged people going here and there. The monotony of every person passing with a rough glance and a hasty redirection of their eyes… it was enough to drive me to anger on a regular basis. I let these thoughts and feelings go as I absorbed the serenity of solitude. The sun was so tantalizing in its glowing gaze that I could not help but continue to venture further into the light on the sweat-scented breeze.

I eventually came to the very edge of the forest after another few minutes, and landed on a thick branch looking out at the sunrise with true tranquility in my mind and heart. The colors were so beautiful, the land so peaceful, that I couldn’t help but be calmed and humbled by it. I stood in awe, perched near the top of an ancient tree and watched as the sun once again began its trek across the sky.

–

I arrived back home as light was beginning to flood through the city, awakening the birds and the plants with a gentle touch. The landing back inside the attic was atrocious. I ended up having to dive into the opening and roll forward to manage my momentum, which provoked an awkward glance from Abraxis, my Peregrine Falcon and only true friend. She just happened to be sitting on her perch at the moment.

“Don’t give me that look, that wasn’t easy. The wind around here is surprisingly strong today,” I said with a wry smile.

Abraxis gave me a small almost-squawk. Then, with ease, she flew from her perch and out into the air. Abraxis did a full loop, hanging upside down for almost two solid seconds, before angling back inside and landing smoothly at my feet.

“Show-off,” I said flatly; she squawked at me again. “You sound like a gull when you do that, you know.”

I looked at her for a second longer, but when I turned away, Abraxis jumped forward and bit my ankle. I leapt away from her, massaging the small wound as I glared at her. Abraxis always did have her pride. Like me I suppose. I turned and walked downstairs toward the smithy, closely followed by my only comrade. As she soared overhead, she almost clipped my shoulder with her feet as she often did to her prey.

In no time at all, I opened the heat vents that kept the rest of the house warm in the mild winters, lit a mound of coal, and then went to open the rest of the vents upstairs so that my house of wood wouldn’t get too warm. Once I finished my tasks, I turned toward the door on the north side of my house on my way back; a man was standing there. Not just any man, the ambassador for the city. I blinked in surprise, before opening the large double doors made mostly of glass that I’d made myself (meaning to say, it was of poor make but served its purposes of being both insulating and see through to a degree).

“Yes? By all means, come in Lios. What can I do for you?”

I spoke as if I didn’t already know. At this very second his intentions were making themselves clear to me, through his mind. I could hear, at least superficially, that he was supposed to berate me for my studies. Normally, I would not deal well with such confrontations, but it wasn’t his fault…

“I came to talk to you on Xion’s behalf,” he said smoothly.

I noted the key word of that sentence. Xion. But then I added, “you know what, follow me. I was just in the middle of something and I can’t let the fire die downstairs if I’m going to use the forge today.”

“Sure,” Lios said as he shifted his medium-sized auburn wings.

The smithy was not small. It wrapped around the main trunk of my hometree with an openness filled simply by support beams and some minor furniture. There were two tables along the outer wall, a desk on either side of the tables, a couple of anvils in the middle, and a great rectangular stone forge situated neatly in the center of the circular room. Tools littered the outer-wall, all hand-crafted and hung on pegs of wood. It was the most comfortable room in the house for me, next to the open-to-the-air attic.

Once in the smithy under the house, I stoked the fire to make it hotter. Lios’ reasons for coming were getting more and more clear as I listened to his thoughts; a talent I’ve had that I’d long ago realized was mine alone. Lios was focusing on what he was going to say, and who had sent him here… Apparently there had been a meeting about me, without my knowledge. It had gotten heated. Hmn. The conversation was mostly one-sided; Lios only thought of what Xion had said.

I began the conversation again, “so you were saying?”

“Yes. Well… Xion wanted me to talk to you…”

“Why would the city leader want you to talk to me, instead of coming himself?” I inquired with impatience, though I mentally heard almost word-for-word why.

“He thought you would listen more to me because of my relationship with your parents… he seems to think that you are spreading yourself too thin,” Lios said, as if he didn’t feel the same; I knew he didn’t, but I wanted to hear him say it.

“And, your thoughts?” I asked softly. Gently.

“You know I met your parents just after they became Watchers…”

The way he spoke wasn’t a question, but I nodded in response anyway. My parents had been young when they met Lios, before they decided to go against what was normally expected of Watchers by forming a life-bond. Furthering that infraction of duty, my mother became pregnant with me, the details of which only my late aunt and Lios were aware. Lios thought of these things before he spoke again.

“Forgive me,” I said, as I stoked the fire and put my last chunk of silver in it, “But what does this have to do with Xion?”

Lios seemed to ignore me as his thoughts persisted for a minute. He saw my parents as visionaries. They had gone against society, against their duty, and by doing so affected our community in a way that could not be undone. Once it was obvious that my mother would bear a child, she quit the Watchers for a time, which was almost a disgrace. Worsening my parents’ reputation within the city, my mother and father publicly declared their relationship and unborn child to the previous city leader.

“What are you trying to say Lios? Just spit it out,” I knew where he was going only because of my ability. He thinks I’m doing great. He should just say it already. Sheesh.

“I’ll get there little fledgling, it takes time for an old man to sift though his words. Now have patience!” Lios’ verbal reprimand was not unlike him.

I chuckled lightly and waved him off. Lios pondered the time when my father had taken up blacksmithing after my mother left the Watchers. That’s how I learned most of what I already know of the skill. Most nights when my father worked over the forge, I was there, listening to his mind and learning thought not even Lios knew of my abilities.

He thought of how my mother re-joined the Watchers and supported my family while my father gained mastery over his new craft. It was disgraceful in the eyes of all but those my parents’ knew personally. I had known this, though now I heard the whispered insults people applied to my father in Lios’ ear.

“You are far more like your parents than you may even know,” Lios finally said.

“A lot more unlike them too though,” I said, feeling as if I were changing the subject. I knew he wouldn’t agree because he wasn’t aware of my mental abilities.

“Still. I think that you can handle this,” Lios said as he looked at his feet and shuffled his wings.

“What exactly does Xion think is spreading myself too thin?” I was frank, and getting irritated with the conversation’s slow pace.

“Xion was pleased with you for a long time. He saw you as he saw your father. Expanding on your house, and then on his own home in order to get your carpenters’ mastery, it put you in his graces. He didn’t think higher of anyone else in this city, until he learned that so soon after you gained the title of master carpenter, you started studying not only to become a blacksmith, but a Watcher as well,” Lios stepped into the space between the two of us as he continued, “he does not believe that you can complete everything you are planning, while wholly devoting yourself to the Watchers as is traditional.”

“Why though, is that spreading myself too thin?” I asked quickly, stepping away from him and shifting the metal in the fire with distaste, “I don’t understand why, as a Watcher, I have to sacrifice everything else in my life. If I wasn’t training with the Watchers, would he still disapprove? I would only be taking on blacksmithing then, and he would be loosing one of the best pair of wings in the city.”

“Atrau, don’t be rash. You know that would upset Xion. He would rather see you drop the blacksmith apprenticeship, but I personally don’t think you need to drop either, if you handle the situation just right. In addition to coming here on Xion’s behalf though… I came here to talk to you about something else.”

Lios was still speaking as if he were uncomfortable. I could tell he was, but his thoughts did not put into words, or in any way clarify exactly why he was feeling this way. I was intrigued. But still frustrated. Lios could be so indirect sometimes!

“What?” I asked, probing his mind that was now filled with paranoia. “What are you planning, you old bat?”

“I’m talking about taking on another area of study, if you think you can handle it.”

“Well sure but, I don’t understand what you are trying to say… Are you offering to mentor me to become the next ambassador?”

I am so confused, his thoughts are erratic and nervous.

“I am not talking about teaching you anything.” Lios looked around the room as if someone would be lurking in a corner watching us, “more like offering you knowledge for self-study on a… controversial subject.”

Lios handed me a book and shifted his wings again with anxiety. I looked from the book to Lios, and back again before I actually eyed the book closely. The cover was made of fine leather, though it was worn, and it had an intricate silver symbol on the front of the book. The symbol was a circle with three pointed ovals overlapping in the center. I looked at it for a moment. The book seemed very old… like it might crumble in my hands as I held it. Slowly, my hand raised of its own accord. I resisted.

With slow but definitive movement, my hand was continuing to move to the cover of the book, palm down. I fought with everything I had to pull away, while fear ripped through my mind. I looked to Lios; he seemed almost as if he were expecting this to happen. I was too distracted to focus on what was in his mind. With a great wrench I finally pulled my arm away and tossed the book. Lios caught the book nimbly before it could fall to the ground and then he stared at me in awe.

“Whatever that is, I don’t want it,” I said shortly through quick breaths.

“I’m honestly shocked!” Lios said with a slack jaw.

“You’re telling me! What was that?” I asked.

Lios held his hand out and showed me that the symbol on the book was also inscribed on his palm. “I wasn’t able to resist its pull, I just assumed anyone who held it didn’t have a choice. I never used the book but-”

“Lios, what the hell?” I demanded with extreme irritation.

“It’s a book of magic!” Lios said with awe.

I stared at him with new-found shock. Lios has been the ambassador for the city since before I was born. He was the most upstanding, law-abiding citizen I knew. Why then, would he have had this book, which is so serious a breach of city law? No one has been allowed to practice magic for decades. It had been outlawed once there was a magical attack on the Falco-Nidaen king more than half a century ago. That was also the reason the Falco-Nidaen people split into three different areas of the forest, and why there was a need for ambassadors, which made Lios’ possession of the book all the more ironic.

“Where did you get it?” I asked, my voice mimicking the awe Lios was experiencing.

“I found it, when I was young. I’d been flying on the plains, as inconceivable as it was at the time or even now. I came to a house, landed, and on a table near the house was this book. When I picked it up, it left the mark on my hand and the next thing I knew I was back in my house without any idea of how I got there or how to get back to that house.”

“Why would you give me the book?” I asked, nearly furious that he would try to trick me.

“I did not mean to deceive you, I merely thought, that of everyone in the city, you would be the only one to actually take the book and use it,” I could also tell that Lios’ believed I was the only person in the city who would not turn him in for his hideous offense. Lios tried to hand the book back to me with a weak yet trusting expression as he shuffled his wings and his feet. He was insane if he thought I was going to take it (which he did).

“I am not touching that book again… Put it on the table,” I said, putting my hands up.

“Alright, but you are the only person in the city who would be able to learn from it, I think. If I’d known how much this would upset you, I wouldn’t have offered it. I just couldn’t keep it secret anymore, it is a burden I’ve held for too long… I think I’m going to go,” Lios said as he put the book on the table and turned to leave, “I was supposed to ask though, what do you plan to do with your life once you become a Watcher, and a master blacksmith? I know you will still do both. Xion said he will order you to a smaller house if he has to, once you are initiated into the Watchers. Though, I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.”

“Well, you can tell Xion that I will not be initiated then. I just realized, I train with the Watchers to simply train with them, not to join their ranks. I am not a puppet-soldier to be controlled,” I was defensive as I responded with venom on my tongue. My irritation was red-hot.

“So much like your father…” Lios muttered and walked up the first couple steps.

And now thoughts of my parents are back. Thanks!

“I would like to see him try to order me out of the house that my father built, and the house that I spent almost a year remaking.” I said flatly with outrage in my voice.

“True, he does not have the authority to make you move, especially if you are not a fledged Watcher, but then again it was only said out of frustration because you are carving out a life that hasn’t ever been chosen before,” Lios paused on the stairs as he spoke, “you already have a greater skill-set than most of the city. Xion sees you as a threat. Say you make weapons and tools for a section of the city, build new houses for our people, and have a camaraderie with enough of the Watchers – you could potentially lead a rebellion against him.”

“I wouldn’t oppose him politically. That’s not a responsibility I would choose,” I said with little emphasis. I was being honest.

“He doesn’t know that. Come see me later if you decide to open that book,” Lios finished talking and went upstairs to leave.

I stared at the book for a minute. It scared me. Magic. I was raised to fear it. Magic was wrong. But then again, being able to hear people’s thoughts was supposed to be “evil” and “dangerous” as well. For a few minutes I stared at the book. It was sitting on a long empty table. It was taunting me, I thought. Now, I wanted to thwart Xion. I wanted to do whatever he didn’t want me to do. My anger was practically boiling over as I thought of Xion’s threat to force me to move out of my parents’ home. With a new-found firm resignation, I stepped forward and slammed my palm down onto the symbol with almost dramatic finality.

To Be Continued in Ch. 2.

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Thanks to Ballisticvole on deviantart.com for the 1st pic on this chapter (Tentsmuir Sunrise), its awesome!!!

Also, thanks to Naushadzaman on flicker for the picture for Abraxis, -love- it!

And a thanks goes out to willowgrovemagic.com for the triquetra image that is on the cover of the book of magic Lios gives to Atrau. (specific picture link: http://www.willowgrovemagick.com/wiccan-supply/altars/silver-celtic-triquetra.aspx )