A/N: I tried.
The floor was colder than he imagined but it felt as though it burned against his heated skin. Crimson pools were already forming underneath him, spilling out from a wound he couldn't see and didn't know about until moments before. The sheering heat of a blade cutting across his back, nearly severing one of his wings in the process was burned into his memory... he could see where his mistakes had been laid out now.
He had let his guard down, maybe he had deserved this kind of fate...
But it wasn't like they were expecting to be hit... not this far inland.
It hurt to breathe.
Every lingering gasp for air left his chest and head throbbing, almost causing enough pain to convince him to just stop. He swore he could hear King Tibarn's voice telling him to stop being such a hatchling though... but it felt as though his spine had either been ripped out or severed in some way.
Still, somewhere over the pounding of blood in his ears, he could hear her.
The Heron Princess... he was supposed to be looking after her, protecting her but instead... he failed; he couldn't do anything to keep her safe now. He tried but his limbs refused to support him no matter how hard he tried to force himself to move. The thick spill of blood beneath him forced his grip to slip again and again until he had exhausted all of what little strength he had left.
He wasn't entirely sure who he was supposed to pray to for forgiveness, whether it should be to the Goddess or the Hawk King or the Heron princess herself.
The gentle touch of hands against his face tried to draw his attention away from the agonizing pain and managed to succeed if only for a moment. Eyes could barely focus long enough to gain an adequate image of her face, his vision blurring while black spots blocked out his peripheral. He wanted to see her just once more, he wanted to hold her hand and assure her that it was all going to be okay... but he couldn't.
And that's what made it so hard to accept.
The rhythmic bombardment that left every sense essentially useless, making him blind, deaf and mute, continued to void out her quiet voice. He couldn't understand her anyways, what did it matter? But still... even incoherent words were better than silence. He could... he could barely hear her.
Was she saying something important? Or was she just giving him her prayers?
Fingers gently curled against his heated skin and he felt the way she leaned in against him; her porcelain wings draping themselves over him. If he could, he would've warned her against the movement... he didn't want her to stain her white robes with his blood; the stains would never come out.
In that shared moment though, it felt as though it all washed away if just for those few short seconds.
He didn't know why.
If he could question it, he would probably choose not to.
It felt as though it was too late to matter anyways.
Still... if he concentrated hard enough, he could hear something. Was she singing? Was it... was she singing one of the galdrs? He had never heard one, at least not so close, if one got up early enough in the morning though they could hear the faint echoes of the voices from down the hallway. It made him wish he could hear more clearly. He wanted to know what she was saying even if he couldn't understand it.
But it seemed like as soon as it started, it was cut short.
Her slender frame was violently ripped away from his own and he swore he could hear screaming or some sort of sobbing. And it made him hate himself for being caught off-guard, for being so easily taken down... he failed her.
And just before everything finally went dark, he wished for nothing more than her safety.
He didn't know how long he had been out by that time but when he felt the touch of consciousness come back to him... he was surprised. When he fell into the darkness, he was so certain that had been the end of it.
Weak hands tried to push himself away from the bedding beneath him, failing once or twice, maybe three times, before he managed to succeed. His head was throbbing once more but not to such a severe extent; when he moved to touch at it, he felt the rough texture of bandages encircling his forehead. Forcing himself to lean forward, even against the thicker bandages the trapped his upper body, he braced his arms against his legs and held his head for a moment. Everything inside of his memory was scrambled and he couldn't recall a thing... just the darkness, faint echoes sounding him... that was it.
What happened?
Curiosity gave in and he moved one hand to scope out the damages done to his back. All he could feel were those same bandages but he felt both wings so that was good... Goddess, the pain had been so intense he was so certain one of them had been lopped off. It would take weeks of rest and rehabilitation before he could use it though, especially if it had taken any damage; if it was just his back though, then he wouldn't have to wait as long.
Just the slightest twitch from one wing brought on a dull pain that stretched around to his chest.
"Hey, hey, look who's awake."
The cheerful voice caught his attention and he glanced up to see who had made the remark, catching sight of the insightful Janaff as he made his way through the opening doorway. A heavy hand seemed to collide with his back and nearly shove him out of the way, forcing him to expand his wings slightly to catch his balance. "Ah! Hey!"
"Not important." Tibarn remarked as he forced his way through the doorway next. "How are you feeling? The healers said you wouldn't be waking up for a few more days."
"Days? How long have I been out?" he questioned.
"A week now? Maybe longer." Janaff answered, one hand smoothing out the feathers on one wing before he folded it against his back once more. Hands moved to balance on his waist as he almost seemed to mill about on the other side of the room. "You got yourself into quite a mess earlier. Kind of surprised you managed to survive at all."
"Janaff." Tibarn snapped lightly before he turned his attention back towards him. "Although I suppose he does have some truth to his word... that wound wasn't easy to heal nor was it easy to look at."
"You could see straight down to your spine."
He frowned briefly at the remark but didn't see anything new to it... he had assumed that it might've done something like that. Well, to him, it felt like his entire back had been ripped apart but that was just the pain intensifying everything. Fuck, he was just lucky to still be alive. "What happened?"
"We're not entirely sure..." the Hawk King started as he moved to cross his heavy arms over his chest. "I found you barely alive in the upper tower, I'm surprised you didn't die of blood loss but... it looked like someone had tried to heal your wound beforehand. I can only assume that Leanne tried to do something about it before she got abducted."
Oh Goddess... is that what she was doing?
Was that what that galdr was about?
Fingers moved to cup his face for a moment as the memories came back as blurred throbbings. But she was gone now though... abducted? Is that the word he used? Who took her though and what would they want with her?
"What do you remember?"
Could he piece together anything?
"I... not a lot." he started before he moved to push aside his dark strands. "I never got a chance to see who was attacking, I don't remember anything. Uh..."
"Don't hurt yourself now. You took some pretty nasty head damage as well." Janaff warned.
"Black armor." the words left him before he could really evaluate them but when he thought them over... they seemed to bear some truth to them. After the hit and the blinding pain that dropped him all too easily, he remembered hearing the clinging of armor as the hidden figure moved away from him and towards the Heron Princess. It was one of the reasons he tried to get back up... because he knew if someone else got a hold of her, they would never get her back. It was a massive figure decked completely in pitch black armor that looked as though it was all merged together into one piece. For a moment, he remembered wondering if he was really seeing a person or just a shadow.
He didn't think he made much sense with the few words but a look to the other two proved otherwise.
"That makes things more complicated." Tibarn started, tension settling against his heavy jaw. "He just can't mind his own damn business."
"We should inform the others then." Janaff remarked with a loose sigh as a brief look of exhaustion took over his features.
Whatever they were saying wasn't making much sense to him.
"Just focus on getting your strength back now, we'll handle everything from here. That piece of information is exactly what we needed... now we know where to look." the Hawk King spoke.
"But... what's going on exactly?"
"It's a really long and complicated mess... one I wish made more sense than what we're trying to work with." the man continued with a heavy shake of his head. "We'll return when we can, like I said, just focus on getting yourself fixed up and healed; I have a feeling we'll need as many soldiers as we can get by the end of this."
He heard the sound of the doors being pulled open and the burst of footsteps coming down the main entrance. It was easy to hear the Hawk King's steps and voice practically booming through the wide hallway; occasionally he heard Janaff's and Ulki's voice join with his and... there were a few others he heard as well, but couldn't exactly pick up on their identities just yet. He made his way towards the given corridor, stretching out his wings along the way. While the wound had been healed up easily enough, it was the rehabilitation portion of it that proved some difficulties for him. The first few days when he tried to extent his left wing, it pulled all the way around his chest and made it difficult to breathe once more. It made every day things a bit complicated but he eventually worked his way up to a more proper recovery.
And when he attempted to try out a short flight, he fell two stories from his room's balcony and barely managed to catch himself on another one below. He nearly broke his arm from the collision alone but did successfully manage to bruise a few ribs instead.
After that, he decided to try for shorter flights instead. Or at least go off of distances that wouldn't provide more injuries.
Luckily he had managed to get further from that point, but he still needed a few more sessions before he could achieve full flight again.
Moving towards the entrance lobby once more, he pushed aside the double doors and walked into the rather grand hall; eyes watching the rather large group that was coming in from the other end.
"King Tibarn." he called, taking note of the man himself first before he looked to the rest of the group. As he called it correctly earlier, there was Janaff and Ulki... as well as what appeared to be several Raven soldiers... even King Naesala? That was a strange sighting and even then he wasn't sure if he was seeing it correctly.
But right in the mix of the group, was the Heron Princess herself.
Praise the Goddess for her safe return.
"Princess Leanne-" he started, stopping only when he watched her seemingly pause for a moment before she pushed aside those around her and darted towards him. He panicked slightly and wasn't entirely sure why the woman would react as such.
It was only when he felt her throw her arms around his neck did he realize just how quickly she had traveled. Her wings were extended outward and seemed to flutter all around them, that voice again was speaking in another language, moving at a speed he couldn't comprehend even if he knew what she was saying in the first place. He hesitated slightly before he moved his arms around her slender form, stopping only when he noticed the rest of the crowd was staring rather intently at the scene.
"Um yes, well I'm happy to see you're alive and well." he remarked as he rather quickly started to separate himself from her, only to feel her arms tighten regardless of the motion. "I'm uh glad someone was able to rescue you in an appropriate fashion of time though."
"Looks like our little Princess has gotten herself a potential courting mate."
"Uh... what?"
The others had left once more, leaving her in his care... again. There were assurances that an ambush wasn't possible and that they would return by the following evening anyways... Despite his brief objections to the matter, he decided to go with it regardless once the Hawk King said that he didn't have any other soldiers to spare since most of them were out on the field anyways. Since he was still healing and would be basically land bound anyways, it would be easier for her to be left in his care once again.
Plus, the Hawk King went out of his way to remark that the Princess seemed more than happy to stay in his care again.
In the end... he really had no other choice.
It was her slightly questioned tone that caught his attention first when he pulled himself through one of the balcony windows; he hadn't even noticed her at first and slightly jumped at her quiet voice.
"Oh uh..." he started, not sure really exactly what she had asked if she had even asked anything in the first place. He was probably going to say the wrong thing anyways though. One hand moved to ruffle through his dark strands before he pushed the window closed behind him. "I was just doing my routine exercise for the morning, still trying to get this wing back into shape."
She seemed to frown slightly, pushing her thin lips together for the moment before she walked over to him. Hands reached forward to take a gentle hold of the feathered limb before she lightly pulled it from where it had been folded against his back.
"It's quite alright now." he continued, not entirely sure what she was doing. "I just have to strengthen the muscles in my back again and it should be alright from there." he felt her move to pull it to its full length and watched as she seemed intent on studying it before fingers moved to rearrange some of his brown feathers. "They got messed up during the flight... and the one or two falls, but I was just going to rearrange them later. You don't really have to bother with them."
She didn't seem to be minding much and continued with preening the different feathers herself.
Hmm, maybe he wasn't the only one who had problems understanding different languages.
"Princess Leanne!" he called, watching as the woman continued to maintain quite an amount of distance ahead of him. How a species as tranquil and calming as hers could still maintain a decent running speed was beyond him. Although he supposed he was still trying to wake up from an earlier nap and he certainly hadn't been expecting to chase the Heron Princess around. "Do be careful!"
She spoke something back in response to him, something he couldn't understand before she took a light turn. In just a blink of an eye she was in and out the nearby window, disappearing from his line of sight.
He didn't even think about it.
Coming to the same window, he leaped once and went right after her. Again, the possibilities didn't cross him and he moved to extend his wings the moment he felt the break of air around him.
But there was that crippling snap of his wing giving away; the stiff muscles unable to support his weight under the short amount of preparation time. He should've figured something like that would've happened, he didn't give himself time to stretch the muscles out and relax them; they had a tendency to stiffen up now and the occasional painful tug of scar tissue across his back didn't help either. And those few loose seconds of crippling stillness was all it took for him to drop like stones to the ground.
Luckily he only jumped from the second story, so the fall wouldn't hurt him all too bad... but he didn't have time to catch himself either.
The initial landing knocked him breathless and left his body feeling absolutely numb, stinging him down to his fingertips. He was pretty certain he landed on his face but he avoided breaking anything in the process... at least he didn't hear anything and he hoped he didn't.
He heard that same calling from before and heard the sound of her steps lightly landing close by. Curling his fingers in to make sure he could still feel them, he slowly moved to push himself up; hearing that almost satisfying crack of his bones as they finally popped back into place. "Well... that's one way to wake up." he remarked, managing a slight chuckle. Pushing himself up further, he managed to get to his knees before he finally convinced himself to his feet; feeling his balance waver slightly. "Can we not go jumping through windows anymore? At least not until noon..."
She frowned once more, her features darkened with worry.
"Uh... I'm alright, I promise." he started.
His words seemed to do little to comfort her and he felt caught off-guard when she threw her arms around him once more. There was always that brief hesitation of whether he should return the motion or not; this time had a shorter waiting period though before he slowly placed his hands around her.
He supposed at a time like this he wished he could understand what she was saying. She always seemed to have a lot to say but it didn't really mean anything if he couldn't translate the words.
Her wings pushed up slightly from where they were folded against her back before they slowly extended outward, briefly stretching out to their full length; it took awhile before they relaxed and arched downward, eventually relaxing to the point where they appeared to hang completely to the ground below. It was an odd looking sight and he would've questioned her about it if he could understand what her answer might've been.
Was there some kind of book he could look into getting that could help translate this language?
"Seems like the Princess has taken a liking to you."
This was the first time he had been able to leave the palace since his injury and the Hawk King was making it increasingly difficult to focus on the task at hand. Not that he really knew what that was though... they were looking for someone or some kind of Mercenary group, he wasn't really listening to the details. It felt like it had been months since he was last able to leave Phoenicis, so he practically jumped at the opportunity to join him for the travel.
Of course, the Hawk King wouldn't make it easy for him.
"I... don't know what you're talking about." he remarked, stammering briefly through the lie.
"You're a terrible liar, Lotz."
He frowned and tried to find something around them that could be used as a distraction... but unfortunately nothing stuck out. They were walking down a forest path to take a less than subtle path to this 'camp' they were looking for, so all they had were trees and rocks. "... I can't even understand what she's saying to me, let alone know for certain if she has a crush..."
"You don't need to know the spoken language to understand what she's saying."
"That is not what I want to hear." he replied, listening as the older man gave a brief chuckle at his reaction. "... What signs exactly are there?"
"Well it's hard to miss how she always runs up to you for one." Tibarn started, giving his wings a brief shake to ward off a short bit of stiffness. "She always gushes whenever you walk into her line of sight and I bet she's done the wing thing with you at least once."
He was about to question the 'wing thing' before he recalled an earlier moment, which quickly stopped his curiosity. By the time he realized that silence might not have been the best answer either, it was too late.
"That's what I thought."
"... I don't want to talk about it."
Again, the Hawk King seemed to laugh at his expense. "Just wait until Reyson finds out about this one."
When news of the war's end finally reached all corners of Tellius, it felt like a sigh of relief for everyone involved. This war had been a breaking point for the countries, but of all the bad it had caused... there was some good to take from it. Somehow it had managed to convince them to overlook decades of hatred between Beorc and Laguz, it had momentarily reunited the country for one central cause. He wasn't certain of how long that peace would last but... at least it was working for them for now. There was no just one side fighting a majority of it, the entire war had been a shared cause.
But it was over now and they could step forward with the recovery and reconstruction now. There were brief ties to mend and he had to admit that even the Hawk King seemed optimistic about the future- which didn't happen all too often. He didn't feel as if he had much of a hand in the war itself, he had spent most of his time healing, but he did participate in those last few, deciding battles. The sparks and shrieks of talons against armor was a combination that would take years to get out of his head but the conflict had all been necessary in the end.
He was just glad to get back home.
He was glad to not have to fight again... for now anyways. The last thing he wanted was another wound like the one across his back. He still managed to gain a few extra wounds from the final battles, but none even came close to that one, which was good; they probably would've killed him.
More importantly... he found himself glad that she wouldn't have to go through anything like that again- what with the whole kidnapping ordeal; at least now with Tellius settling back into one piece, they could go about their lives in peace. Hopefully.
As for his unique... 'situation' with the Heron Princess herself... he was still trying to figure it out himself. He felt happy around her, he felt completely calm and at ease, which was probably a trait Herons carried anyways but... he felt more relaxed around her than he did around Prince Reyson. And she seemed to feel the same maybe? Well, that was actually hard to denounce, she was always wanting to be around him in some way or another; it felt like she purposely sought him out as soon as she could, choosing to spend her mornings with him whenever possible. Even despite the incident before where he did technically fail in protecting her, she still insisted on keeping at his side during the war- a motion King Tibarn didn't fight. In fact, the Hawk King himself seemed to laugh at it and remarked that at least it got her out of his feathers. Which he sure was a joke but still.
He was learning to understand her though, well attempting to at the very least and she seemed to be doing the same; although she seemed to be having better luck than him.
Slender fingers moved into the spaces between his own and he felt the warm press of her hand against his. A light smile found its way to his lips before he looked down to where she followed briskly at his side.
A Heron and a Hawk...
He guessed that wasn't the strangest combination there could be.
Ah well, fuck it.