A/N: So Welcome to chapter 2! Those of you who have left reviews, thank you! I appreciate the feedback, let's me know I'm not doing this alone. I'm sad to say though I can't comment back to all of you, specifically because the site doesn't let me reply back to those without an account. ^;; So sorry...! Anyway without further ado I present to you chapter 2...(bU.U)b...
Chapter 2:
The sun had set on another peaceful day for the island of Dragon Roost, postmen, and other Rito on errands were flying in from their day out, finally coming home to rest. One postman flew in tow with his new apprentice, a boy 3 months fresh from Valoo, who unlike the rest of his gender had red hair, and golden wings. This unusual coloring got him weird looks often, much to the lad's chagrin. The two landed on a the highest perch that lead to a tunnel-way into the main cavern.
"Nito, you flew well today." said the postman, to the boy simply. The man wasn't facing the child as he had spoke.
"Thank you, teacher..." The young fowl answered meekly, turning over the dragon scale he received from Valoo in his hands. It gleamed in the moonlight, shining in a beautiful indigo on one side and orange on the other. The old dragon himself roared as if in approval, Nito smiled.
"Teacher may I be dismissed?" he asked the postman, smile no longer present.
The older Rito gave a 'Hn' as a reply, which in most conversations between the boy and him meant 'Yes' or 'Leave'. In this case it meant both. When the boy turned to go his teacher gave him a piercing look from behind, and took off heading to his own home, leaving the boy to his own devices. Nito stood there in silence until he heard someone call his name.
"NIIIIIIITOOOO!"
Nito turned to his right, in direction of the voice.
"Nito, there you are!" the same voice said again. It was one of the boy's elder sister's friends, Medli the earth-sage, flying down from the top of the mountain. A Rito like him, with red hair, like him, but female, not like him. She was also respected, again, not like him. Nito scowled at her as she landed.
"So how was your flight today?" She asked twirling around him, with long legs, and her long hair up in a pony tail gleaming the same indigo color as the scale.
"What do you think?" He scoffed, starting to descend to the caverns of Dragon Roost Mountain where his home lay.
Medli stopped twirling, and her eyebrows knitted, "That bad?"
"Tch..." Nito's scowl deepened. "He doesn't approve of me even in the slightest."
"Oh..." Medli replied, in a way that urged him to continue. They started walking together; now entering the tunnel to the mountains interior, Nito spoke again.
"I don't know what I do to make him that way, Medli..."
The older Rito girl ruffled his spiky hair.
"It's because you're special." She said, still ruffling his hair, now in a manner much rougher causing the boy to lose his balance, and tumble to the ground. Nito fell flat on his bottom, and his hair, a messy mop upon his head obscuring his vision.
"Now why are you so clumsy, Nito?" Medli stood over him, grinning mischievously.
The boy's head turned up in the direction of her voice, a pink hue dusting across his cheeks.
"..." Nito didn't speak.
"Feel better?" Medli asked, still grinning.
Nito pulled his locks down, further obscuring view of his face. He was embarrassed.
"Just help me up...!" He pouted.
Medli giggled, and proceeded to do what the boy had asked. The rest of the walk through the tunnel was peaceful and joke filled, and maybe once, or twice, or thrice more Medli tripped Nito, causing the boy much fumbling, and even more embarrassment. When they had reached the main cavern, they were met by Prince Komali, a slender young man, with white hair that came up in the back like a full spread wing, he was well versed in the art of the spear, well read too, and a graceful flyer. One of the best the island's ever had, he was a big role model to all of Dragon Roost's boys. Nito slowed his pace and started walking behind Medli as the pair got closer to the prince. When they stopped in front of Komali, Nito stayed in the same position.
Komali and Medli both chuckled at the child's peculiar behavior. Still chuckling, Komali bent down and around Medli's waist to see Nito. The prince's face popping up startled the lad. Komali smirked, he was given to mischief just as much as Medli.
His ruby eyes sparkled,
"What? Do I look like a Bokoblin to you? Come from behind there." Komali said, then made to grab Nito.
"Nah!" Nito let out a petrified squeak, and attempted to scurry away, but Komali's arms were long, the prince caught the boy by the scruff of his collar.
"You're a funny one." Prince Komali said, lifting Nito to eye level.
"L-let me go...!" Nito struggled, but Komali's grip on the boy's shirt held.
The prince smiled goofily, "Well you've definitely get an 'A' for trying."
Nito pouted and looked away.
"O-ho, now don't be that way." Komali said, the goofy smile growing.
Nito narrowed his eyes at the prince, who's smile seemed to now take up his entire face.
"Prince Komali!" shouted a familiar voice, one Nito and Medli had gotten to know well over the past month, Komali frowned.
It was Nito's teacher, the postman, storming down from a higher floor in the cavern. Nito shrinked in his shirt wishing that he could be invisible.
"Yes, Noano?" An unamused Komali, questioned. One eyebrow quirking upwards.
The postman pointed a shaking finger at Nito.
"What are you doing here with this riff-raff?" Noano asked, fuming.
Komali's frown deepened, "What are you talking about?"
Medli felt tension building fast, she took Nito from Komali, who didn't seem notice.
"You know what I'll just take Nito home, see you tomorrow." She waved at both skittishly, and booted Nito off, away from the other two.
Before following the red-haired boy, she whispered to the prince.
"Don't do anything stupid, remember make things better for Nito, not worse."
"I know...!" The prince half hissed/half growled at the Earth-sage, his red eyes attacking her like daggers.
Every muscle inside Medli's body seized up, stiffly, she turned in the direction she had sent Nito off in, and hurriedly ran to go join him.
When Medli's retreating form had disappeared, Noano began again, "Prince Komali-"
"If you're about to talk about the subject I believe you're pursuing then it's best we take this conversation elsewhere, in private..." Komali's eyes burned with the intensity of the sun.
Noano backed away slightly, "Very well, your majesty."
Nito had walked on for a while, but then after reaching the mail sorting booth he decided to wait for Medli. He leaned against the stand pulling at the white apprentice's scarf around his neck tightly.
"C'mon Medli, where are you...?" The young fowl mumbled under his breath worriedly.
"Oh, Nito? I thought you would've been at home by now." Medli called, coming over the bend. The sight of her put an end to Nito's worries, but they came back when he saw no prince in tow. When Medli had joined the boy up by the booth, Nito spoke.
"Where's the prince?" He tried to cover up the fear lying in his words.
Medli saw right through it though. "You're worried, huh?" she asked.
Nito nodded vigorously, Medli laughed.
"Don't worry, everything's going to be fine." she said. "All Noano wants to talk about is probably something over Komali's lessons. Since he's the prince's tutor as well."
"Oh!" Nito brightened up almost instantaneously.
Medli knew that what she had predicted probably wasn't the case, but Nito didn't have to know that.
[GOOOONNNNNNNN] A low drone was heard throughout the mountain.
"That's the warning horn..." Nito said.
He rushed to the edge of the wooden platform that made up the higher floors of the Dragon Roost cavern. Down on the first floor running into the main hall was a middle aged Rito male. Robed in the attire combination of red, white, and blue, a tell-tale sign that this man was a lookout.
"There's a storm a-comin'!" He shouted. "Postmen and apprentices ready your gear for storm abrasion, you're going to need it for delivery in the morning!"
Nito groaned.
The lookout continued, "Everyone return to your homes immediately, those who have doors, or windows linking to the outside, close them down, tightly lock it all up. The wind can cut through curtains, and the water can drown you if these things are not all sealed correctly!"
"Oh..." Medli, who had moved up to the edge of the platform alongside Nito, gasped lightly.
Another lookout ran in, a girl who looked to be about Nito's age, she wore a white scarf around her neck meaning that she was an apprentice like Nito. They seemed a little out of breath. She stood up straight though, and looked around the cavern, she stopped when she found Nito, and then Medli.
"Master Medli we need you, it's about Valoo!" the girl called.
Medli placed one hand on her heart, and the other on Nito's shoulder.
"I'll be right there!" Medli called back. The girl nodded, and along with the other lookout, ran back outside. Medli turned to Nito, and placed her other hand on the boy's free shoulder.
"Nito, you run straight home. I'll come to check on you and your mom in a little bit." Medli said about to fly off, but Nito stopped her.
"Could you make sure, Ruuna's okay?" Nito looked like he was about to cry.
The earth-sage hugged the boy, his sister was a lookout, and a senior one at that, there was a great possibility she could get caught, and lost in the storm.
"I-I- don't hee..." Nito's voice was muffled by Medli's sleeves, but she could hear him his voice catching and choking up.
"Sh-sh-sh-shhh..., dry your tears, it'll be alright." Medli hugged Nito tighter, and started petting his head. "Your sister's going to be fine, if she gets any scratches she'll end up bragging about it anyways. Now I want you to get your stuff ready for tomorrow, it's going to be rough!" Medli said, getting up.
"O-okay!" Nito replied sniffling. He wiped his eyes on his sleeve and smiled up at the earth-sage. "Promise me you'll come back too!"
"I promise." Medli smiled, taking the pinky Nito had offered up in her own. Breaking away from their little pact, she motioned for Nito to step back.
"I'll see you in a bit." Medli said, her back to the boy. She spread her arms out wide, and fell off the edge of the platform, only to come back up not five seconds later in a large spiral kicking up a dust devil of wind and leaves behind her.
Komali and Noano had taken their conversation to the prince's study, a cozy room big enough for the prince himself and about three others comfortably. There was a desk with intricate carvings of the Rito peoples history carved in the legs, a bookshelf that went across the wall on the left side, a small bed for when he was too tired to retire back to his own sleeping quarters on the right, on the back wall there was a large tapestry with a map of the Great Sea, and along the front wall there were portraits of past chieftains on either side of the door. Upon the desk were the prince's unfinished notes. The postman pursed his lips.
"You should've have been in here studying your majesty." Noano said glowering at Komali's scrawlings.
Komali didn't care about the pettiness of a problem such as incomplete studies. He wasn't in here for that anyway, right now he was here to speak of something much more serious. The prince was not pleased with the postman's earlier display of treatment in regards to his own apprentice. Komali addressed the older Rito,
"Noano, earlier outside in the main hall, what was that?"
The postman quirked an eyebrow much in same manner the Prince had done not so long ago, "Your majesty, I'm not sure I follow."
Noano was mildly surprised at the young man's critical tone, he's never acted like this before. Komali was boiling under the surface,
'How could this man play coy after what he did?!' he thought.
"Your majesty?" Noano brought the prince back from his internal dealings.
"I'm not sure I follow...?" The postman repeated questioningly.
"The encounter in the main hall, involving your apprentice! A situation of which the earth-sage and I bared witness to...!" Komali hissed at his tutor.
The postman's eyes opened a bit wider,
"Yes, what about it? Is there something bothering you?...The boy?"
"Yessss, there's something bothering me, no it isn't the child!" Komali hissed yet again.
"What is it then?" The postman kept a calm face, many boys the prince's age had their bouts.
"You honestly have no idea?" The prince raised his hands up in front of him as if he was about to scratch at someone.
Noano hesitated, "No-"
"Let me spell it out for you then! I...am unhappy with the way you carried yourself in front of your apprentice, and I am unhappy with how you treated him!"
Noano's right hand twitched, the prince had cut off his tutor. The postman almost slapped Komali for his impudence, but he stayed his anger.
"How did I treat him?" Noano, kept his calm facade.
"You pointed at Nito and said to me 'What are you doing here with this riff-raff?', doesn't that seem...I don't know...wrong?"
"How so? Your majesty." The postman was not sorry for his treatment of the child, to him the child was a problem.
Komali's talons dug into the rocky ground.
"What gives you the right to mistreat another individual who's done nothing to provoke your discontent?"
"Do not attack me, Komali!" Noano whipped, the title of 'prince' no longer appropriate.
Komali's tutor grunted noisily out his nose.
"You know very good and well, the boy himself is wrong!" he yelled.
Komali yelled back, "Just because he's different doesn't give you a right to pick on and abuse him!"
"Look at him!" Noano screeched. "He's not like you or me, his hair, his eyes, and those wretched wingsss...!"
Noano was in part right, Nito had been born odd. His hair was off brand, and his eyes were blue, which was unusual, but those were minor details. What wasn't a minor detail though, were his wings. Had them since birth, and now with the ability to fly, the boy's wings were much larger than they needed to be. All Ritos wings were as long as their arms and maybe a foot or so longer, starting in the upper back and reconnecting at the wrist. Nito had a wing span 3 times his size in both length and width. The boy had to fold his wings most of the time, but even more astonishing was how Nito's wings were connected to his person. The boy's wings were completely free of his arms and were supported entirely by the bone structure of his spine. This development puzzled the Rito people, most of the tribe, like Noano, had wrote it off as a mutation, and shunned Nito, but Valoo, Komali's father, and Komali's grandmother before she had passed, saw it as the next stage of the Rito people's evolution. Komali's grandmother, had explained to Komali when he was young, that Nito had been twice blessed by Valoo.
The old dragon had something in store for the boy, and Medli and Komali vowed to protect Nito until that time came.
"What about his wings?!" Komali was furious, the man was crazy, and the prince was going to have none of it.
"Are you mad at Nito because of his difference, or are you mad at a mere child just because Valoo had interest in him for his difference?"
The moment the words left the prince's mouth, Noano made to slap Komali, but he was too quick for the postman. Komali flipped over doing an incomplete cartwheel, scratching Noano under his right eye with his feet in the process.
"Aff!" Noano pulled back, covering the open cut with two fingers.
"How dare you...!" Noano made another move towards the prince.
"Take one more step and you'll lose the foot, Noano."
Noano and Komali snapped their heads to the door, it was Komali's father, Chieftain of the Rito.
Hoped you liked it, and give feedback please. I want to know if I'm doing this right, even if it's just pointing out a grammatical error, it's something.
Thank you for reading, and I'll see you next time!