*Thank you to all 57 of you who have checked this story out so far, as well as the person who followed my story! I know this is a series that isn't as well read as some other communities, such as Harry Potter or Twilight, but you all make every chapter I post worth it! Please let me know how you feel the story is going! I understand that Lily is more of a background character now. However, that will be changing once the story starts picking up. I want to give her an original story without taking anything away from Daine. I hope you are all staying safe out there! *
Lily didn't sleep well. She remembered the fragmented dreams she had, but she didn't feel rested. That wasn't too abnormal for her. She usually woke up without feeling as if she slept when the broken dreams came. In truth, the only time she truly slept well was when the man who made her heart ache and felt like home appeared. He never spoke, but he listened to her as she spoke about her time sense his last appearance. Before waking up he would always hug her tightly. Those were her favorite dreams.
Unfortunately, they only happened every once and a while.
The women moved on in the morning. Searchers passed them on the road, men on horseback and men afoot, but none appeared to see the bird riding in state on pony back. "I can't throw fire or heal." Onua told the girls, "but when I hide something, it stays hidden."
For three days they pushed on. The hawk's eyes still would not focus, and his balance was poor. Daine and Lily got into a disagreement on what would be the best to keep the hawk from losing his ride. Daine wanted to lightly bind his claws to the pack he rested on. Lily thought it a much better idea to have him ride with one of them. That would be less likely in her mind to freak the sick bird out like being bound. However, Onua had the last say in the argument, deciding Daine's idea would be better at keeping him hidden.
It bothered the girls that he didn't seem to mind. Even the mildest sparrow would have fought the ties.
The Hawk worsened. He refused any and all meat, raw or cooked. Their third day together Daine offered him raw egg and then some cheese. He ate both, to everyone's joy, but vomited it up later. That night she woke to hear Onua chanting a spell over him, but it didn't seem to help. The K'mir still talked to him about human things-road conditions, the fair in Cría, the doings of the Queen's Riders.
Lily was just as confused as Daine seemed to feel whenever she looked at the bird. Her older sister even walked into a ditch at one point. She fell over her own feet. After that, Daine avoided his gaze and seemed to resent the bird.
Lily kept dreaming of the man in chains. Sometimes he would mutter things, while other times he seemed somewhat coherent. He would almost seem to see her in the dreams. He reached out at one point, but his hand went through her arm as if she were nothing but a spectral being.
She woke up and got sick every morning after dreaming of the man. The Hawk seemed to be better in the mornings after the dreams, but by the afternoon he was back to whatever was wrong with him.
The hawk's wing didn't heal. By the fourth night Daine stayed up with him, coaching water mixed with honey into his beak. It did no good. The fever she had fought to prevent set in and began to climb.
Daine woke Onua sometime after midnight. Lily hadn't been able to sleep yet and had been trying to fix some of the tack while her sister worked on her patient. "He's going to die. Not today-tomorrow, maybe. I hate losing one I've nursed!" To her shame, she felt tears on her cheeks, and wiped them away with an impatient hand. "He's not right! He's not like any bird I ever met, and I can't fix him! Can we stop at a village or town, and find a sorcerer who might- "?
Onua shook her head. "Out of the question." That caught Lily's attention. It was obvious something was different about this hawk. No normal bird would have people hunting him down, to include the Stormwings. She figured he was one of the Gifted but was trapped somehow in that form. Maybe it was a curse? It would explain why he seemed dizzy all the time. He must not naturally be a shifter.
Onua had apparently continued to talk while Lily was off in her own world. "Alright. Get some rest – I'm calling for help. Horse Lords willing, somebody will be in range."
Daine was too exhausted to protest or ask questions. Lily decided to try and rest as well. The last thing either girl saw was Onua, kneeling before a fire that now burned scarlet, hands palm up in a summoning.
That night Lily dreamt of the man again. This time he wasn't muttering or even moving. He was laying on his side, eyes unfocused, and extremely pale. Lily decided to try and talk to him sense nothing else seemed to work.
"Hello. I'm not sure if you can hear me. Can you move or try to look towards me if you can hear me?"
The man didn't move or show any sign that he had heard her. Undeterred, Lily continued talking.
"If you are the hawk we have, you're very sick. You don't eat, you don't drink, and you aren't getting better. Your wing is broken, but hasn't healed. My sister, Daine, has tried everything she can think of to help. Onua, the K'mir woman we are traveling with, says she would be calling for help."
The comatose man seemed to stir. He turned his head to face her, eyes unfocused but blinking as if to steady his sight. Lily was thrilled that she seemed to have gotten a response from the man. Frankly, any response would have thrilled her at this point.
The man finally was able to make eye contact with Lily, but he immediately started to dry heave. Not one for vomit, Lily looked away and tried not to breath. Thankfully, nothing came up for the sick man but he looked even worse afterwards.
Lily tried to provide some sort of comfort to the man by attempting to rub his back for him. His hair, long and black, was tangled. His clothes were torn and rumpled. Lily didn't care. She was able to physically touch him when she initiated the contact it appeared. She slowly rubbed circles on the man's back. Eventually, he was able to calm down. She used her fingers to comb out his hair before attempting to braid it for him. It wasn't the best of braids, but it was better than what he was sporting beforehand. Whenever Lily was hot, she hated her long curls. She felt as if they were strangling her. She sacrificed her hair band to tie off the end of the braid she had made.
She didn't know if any of this was happening. At worst, Lily figured she would lose a hair band. At best, she would have provided hopefully some comfort to a man who seemed like he was destined to die soon. The thought of that made her heart ache.
Her hands had started to glimmer while she was working the knots out of his back and hair. Lily didn't notice, having focused on the task at hand.
She had started to hum unintentionally while she played with his hair. It wasn't a song, just a combination of nonsensical musical notes.
Lily woke up shortly after she had stopped humming. She felt worn out, as if she had just run several miles uphill.
Daine was groggy at dawn as well, but Onua greeted the girls cheerfully. "I got lucky- help is closer than I thought. Eat something girls, and you might want to wash up. There's a bathing pool behind that hill. They'll be here around noon."
"They who?" Daine's voice came from her throat as a croak, causing Lily to giggle at her sister. Onua shook her head. This just angered Daine more.
"Wonderful. More secrets. My favorite," the older girl muttered grumpily as se found towels and soap. Lily grabbed them both a change of clothes and followed after the grumpy brunette.
Thankfully, the day was warm and so was the water. The girls managed to wash their hair with the nice weather.
The hawk's eyes were closed when they returned, and he was shivering. Daine warmed small rocks and wrapped them in cloths – towels, scarves, handkerchiefs. Carefully, talking to him the whole time, she cocooned the bird and rocks in a blanked, hoping to sweat the fever out. After an hour of the extra warmth, he took some heated water and honey when she coaxed.
Lily had cleaned up the camp sight as best she could while Daine took care of the hawk. Onua had warn herself out with her magical efforts and slept all morning. Daine played lookout while Lily tended to the hawk and the fire.
The sun was at its height, covered by thickening clouds, when Daine saw movement to the east. She raced back to camp. "Onua, there are people coming."
The K'mir grabbed her bow and arrows; Daine got hers as well. Lily decided to stick by the hawk to protect him if anything happened. Onua and Daine went to the road to wait.
It wasn't long before they returned, followed by a group of mail-clad warrior on beautiful horses. Their white, hooded capes flapping grandly at their backs. The earth shook with the pounding of their steeds' hooves. Before them came a standard-bearer, his flag a silver blade and crown on a royal blue field.
Beside him was a full knight in gold washed mail, his gold helm mirror bright. He bore a lance; on his left arm was a red shield with a device like a gold cat rearing on its hind paws. The knight's horse was larger than those of the white-caped warriors, though not as large as the chargers normally used by those who wore full mail or plate armor. It was as gold as the cat on the knight's shield, with a black mane and tail.
Together the company made a picture out of the legends Daine loved growing up. The knights came to a stop once they had reached camp. The knight raised a hand to signal something, but his horse refused to stop and walked up to butt his head against Daine's chest.
"You beauty," she whispered, running her hand along his mane. "oh, you pretty, pretty thing."
Onua laughed before she went to the war-horse's head and gently made him back up. The knight peered down at the K'mir through his open visor. "Are you camping here?" Onua nodded, and he turned to his company. "Hakim, this is it."
A brown man in the front rank of the white-caped riders nodded and called out instructions. The result was instant activity: men dismounted, giving their reigns over to a few of their number while others removed packs from their mounts and from the spares. Within seconds, they were off the road, erecting tents to share the clearing with the ponies and Tahoi.
The knight secured shield and helm to his saddle. Dismounting, he gave the reins to one of the others, then stripped amethyst-decorated gauntlets from his hands. "I should've changed to leather," he complained. "My back has been one whole itch the last mile." He grinned at Daine, not having appeared to notice the small whisp of a girl that Lily was.
"The outfit looks nice, but it's not very comfortable."
Daine looked baffled at the warrior. Out of the saddle, the knight was two inches shorter than Daine was but not as short as Lily. He was also not a he but instead was a she. While stocky, she wasn't all muscle. Her hair was cropped, copper and tousled from being inside a helmet. Amethysts winked at her earlobes, stones that matched the color of her eyes.
"My wits have gone begging," Onua said. "Daine, this is Sir Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau- The king's champion. Alanna, this is Daine. The fairy sized girl over there with the blond curls is Lily, her younger sister. Alanna, wait until you see what Daine can do with animals."
Daine just stared at the hand offered her, then into the purple eyes. "The champion? The knight they call 'the Lioness'?"
"Don't tell me," Alanna said. "You expected someone bigger."
Daine seemed to come back to her senses as she managed to shake the woman's hand. "Can you help? I can't fix 'im at all."
Onua took the champion's elbow. "Alanna's a healer and a sorceress- if she can't come up with something, no one can."
Onua brought the woman to the ailing hawk and Lily. Alanna seemed startled at seeing just how fragile Lily looked standing by the poor bird. Alanna seemed to be thinking something deeply before moving her vision from the girl with the different colored eyes towards the hawk.
Daine went on to say that he wasn't eating and that he was dizzy all the time."
The purple eyes looked at her sharply. "How would you know that?"
Daine met the gaze squarely, never willing to back down when it came to her animals. "I just do. I've-"
"a knack with animals," Onua chorused along with her, and grinned.
"Can you take the curse off him?" Lily spoke up for the first time after the arrival of their guests.
"What do you mean, curse?" Alanna questioned, her previous humor at the K'mir's joke abandoned.
"Hes not a hawk. Nobody would send both Stormwings and other tracker after a simple hawk. I think it's a man who's stuck in the shape of a hawk. You can break the curse, right?"
Alanna didn't answer the small girl, instead choosing to life the bird with a care for the splintered wing. The hawk blinked, looking at her- and buried his head against her chest., "He knows me. Good." She carried him to a tent the warriors had set up and went inside.
"Wait here," Onua told the girls. "Don't let these men bully Tahoi or the ponies." She the followed the knight inside.
The girls went about their individual chores, jumping when a shout came from the tent where Alanna and Onua had taken the hawk. "Of all the gods-cursed, simpleminded- "
Daine gaped, while Lily giggled at the language Alanna had used. The man the knight had called Hakim smiled. "the Lioness has a temper," he told the girl. "Sometimes it gets the better of her."
The knight stamped out of the tent. She had discarded mail for breeches and a white linen shirt. At her throat, a red gem burned like a coal in the fire.
"I can't see-"her purples eyes lit on the two girls. "You-both of you- come here!"
Tahoi growled, bristling. He didn't like the knight's tone.
Alanna stared at the dog, and then smiled. "I'm sorry. Girl, would you come here, please? I think I need your help." She steered the girls into the tent before saying "Onua says you found him, Daine, under unusual conditions." The hawk lay on a man-sized cot, his eye wide and frightened. "How?"
Daine seemed to stutter before taking a deep breath and explaining she listened for him, nothing special. The Lioness asked her to listen now, but this only confused Daine as he was right there.
"Daine, I don't think he's really there. Physically yes, but I think mentally he's stuck. He's sick and he's trapped." Lily said quietly, trying to make sure only her sister heard her, but the other two women were able to hear her. However, it was the hawk that was most shocked. He slumped forward as if trying to get to Lily. The girl came forward, catching the bird before he managed to fall off the cot. She sat down where he had been before, holding the trembling bird to her chest. He tangled himself up in her curls that had spilled over her shoulder because of the movement.
Her sister decided to close her eyes after seeing Lily involving herself. Usually, Lily didn't involve herself unless it involved someone in the family. Seeing her this attached to the bird was surprising.
Daine spent several moments doing whatever listening she was trying to achieve before sleepily saying she could her him. He was muttering to himself. He's a prisoner and can't get out. She sounded confused in Lily's mind.
"Call him, Daine- with your mind. His name is Numair Salmalín" Alanna stated.
"That's not true." Lily interrupted, her voice barely above a whisper. "Its something else. Something he doesn't like."
Alanna turned her head towards Lily, her eyes glowing purple. "You're right again, little flower. His name is Arram."
Daine sighed, before calling out verbally to the bird who wasn't quite a bird. "Arram Salmalín? Aram- come on. You're too far off. It's all right, Arram- it's safe- "
Lily shrieked, causing Daine to turn around to see what had upset her sister. What she saw was unbelievable.
The hawk was gone. Onua pulled a sheet up to cover a large, naked man while trying to save Lily from underneath him.
He smiled drowsily at the four of them. "Can I have something to eat?"
Daine's jaw fell open. "Where did he come from?"
Lily had stumbled from the cot, falling flat on her bum before leaning against the tent wall. The man was huge in all possible ways. Having never physically touched a man before that moment, she wasn't sure what had happened to her stomach. It felt like it was flipping around inside her.
Daine was arguing with Onua as she led the older girl out of the tent. She seemed very upset at having her hawk turn into a man without any explanations.
Lily managed to regain her balance and settled her stomach enough to grab a plate of bread and cheeses from the nearby table for the man. He smiled gratefully up at her before grabbing her hand gently.
"Thank you. I don't remember too much yet, but I know your voice. I thought you weren't real. Thank you." He smiled down at the girl before kissing the top of her hand and letting it go to grab some bread.
"Don't eat just bread. Eat some protein. You'll get sick from eating something as filling and empty nutritionally as the bread." Lily said before realizing she was ordering an adult around. He smirked at Lily before amiably grabbing some of the cheese and bit of smoked meat. Lily decided she had enough drama for the day and moved to leave the tent. Before stepping out she took one last look at the man she had dreamed of.
His hair was braided. At the end of the braid was the hair band she had put into his hair during her dream.