ElfQuest (c) Pinis; Windwalkers (c) me. Lyrics (c) Gamma Ray, another great Power Metal band.
For more information on the Windwalkers, visit my homepage (one of many) - http://members.nbci.com/Sharna" Come here if you are confused!.
This is the last, so far,more may come if the Pini's get their A into G and continue their stories so I can tie this in!
Autumn Twilight - Salvation's Calling
"When all your dreams are fading to eternal black
You're lost in the twilight."
- Gamma Ray
The floor beneath Sunstar's feet was covered in some kind of strange, dirty brown grass. It felt something like the pelt of an animal, soft, although she could feel the cold stone floor beneath it. She was walking now, instead of gliding. It was hard for her to see, in the gloom, although the moonlight was streaming through an opening at the end of the hall. Someone had placed a huge plant in front of it, which filtered the light. She recognised it as a type of rainforest plant, with its huge, flat leaves and dark hued stem. She vaguely recalled the leaves were useful in relieving chest pain, but in large enough doses caused the heart to pound and flutter. The berries were deadly, the juice from them alone resulted in convulsions and death, despite having an almost pleasant flavour. Why should this be here? The main part of the hallway continued around, and she followed it. There were several doors to either side. Sunstar knew little about human habitations, the only reason she had entered instead of Sable was because he despised humans and was likely to attack any he came across in a beserk rage. Or so she suspected, she was unprepared to test this theory. Sable had been kept captive by a human when he was a child, more centuries ago that she could count. He had never quite forgiven the race and loathed them with something bordering on obsession. The elder elf waited outside, keeping an eye on the tower she explored whilst hopefully staying out of trouble.
She listened carefully at the doors, her sharp elven ears and lupine blood giving her distinct advantage. One side was silent, from the other side the sound of heavy breathing and tossing was evident. Both smelt of human, but the whole tower smelt of human. The door with all the noises behind it was slightly ajar, so she risked peering around the door.
It was a large room, cast in shades of grey by the burning coals of a large hearth. It appeared to be some kind of communal nest, large shapes, which she took to be human, were curled up on pallets and asleep. She pulled her head back quickly. As she explored she sent pictures to Sable so he could understand the rough layout of the tower. His animal friends, a couple of ravens, had explored the tower earlier, but a ravens-eye view was very different from an elfs-eye view. She did know, however, that what she sought, the captive elf hunters, was below her somewhere, but she knew not how to get down the level. The door on the opposite side appeared to open into some kind of storeroom. It to had a window, she noted, little more than a slit. It was filled with crates of food, piles of dried grass (did humans eat that? She did not know) and some dead animals.
She followed the hallway around, finding another door opening into human sleeping quaters and a room whose purpose she could only guess at. A big wooden tub of dirty water, a huge metal device that was slightly warm to touch and smelt of old fires, an array of metal knifes and other devices of unknown purpose. She pocketted a knife, just in case. It was sharper than her flint weapon, shinier. She knew her friend Magpye would like it - Magpye liked shiny things.
Eventually she found the stairway. Such square steps were something she had never seen in natural circumstances. They were dark, very dark. She chose to glide down them instead of walking, keeping her hands above her so as not to hit the ceiling.
There were sconces set in the lower storey's walls, although most of them were burned down to almost nothing. The floor was still covered in the odd grass thing, but appeared to have seen better days. She had not gone far when she came to the first, unopenable door. It blocked the hallway. The air in here was heavy with scents that Sunstar recognised - the scents of the plains and the rainforest. She tried to open the door using the handle, as Sable had told her. It turned but remained persistently shut. She removed the key from her pouch where she had secretted it. Such a simple object, flat, metal with teeth serrating one side. A circular piece with a hole, presumerably so one could hang it about their neck. How could this device get her through that huge hunk of wood?
She stared at the key, and stared at the door. There was no obvious way the two acted together to provide passage. Hopefully she pushed the key against the door, but nothing happened. Sable had given her some advice on how it acted - **Put key in hole,** she seemed to remember. It took her a good few moments to find the hole. She pondered for a moment longer, than pushed the narrow flat part of the key into the hole. Nothing happened. She hit it a bit experimentally. Still nothing. In exasperation more than anything, she twisted it, and there was a clicking noise. Surprised, she quickly pulled the key from the door and made to flee, before realising that what she had heard was not a human with a crossbow. Experimentally, she twisted the handle again. It swung open. Cautiously she walked through, closing the door behind her, and discovering that she could indeed lock it. From the outside of the tower she had seen that there were no openings on this storey big enough for her to squeeze through. The ravens had managed to explore this area using one of the barred openings that was missing a bar. The air in here smelt terrible. A cornucopia of excreta and fear. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she realised she should have brought one of the torches along with her. Rooms lined the hallway, but they were not closed as the upper ones had been. Instead they were like open caves, with bars across the front. There was lifestock here, aside from the smell, the noise also alerted her to it. The moonlight shining through the panels illuminated a large cat, one of the tawny beasts from the plains. It was asleep, and appeared to be in poor condition. Its golden fur was mangy and its dark mane had fallen out in chunks. Across the hall from it, two patchwork wolves stared at her, in seeming disinterest. They too stunk of poor health and sickness. The captives continued - hunched wolves with powerful jaws, small, almost deliacte, silver-backed near-wolves, great birds of prey. All of them watched her with haunted eyes or were asleep. Her talent was not particularly sensitive to animal's emotion, but she could feel the despair so strongly she could taste it. They were all here to die.
There were doors in all of the caves, but her key would not open them. More stairs led down to a lower level, which contained more of the same, with a huge hall in the centre. As she opened the door to the hall, she could barely see into its depths, aside from the faint shimmer of moonlight coming through the caves behind her, there was no light. Beady black eyes stared back at her, and she scrabbled away in shock before she realised that none of them were moving. Closer inspection revealed many dead animals. A tiger skin lay across the floor, with the head and jaws gaping at the doorway. A striped horse was caught forever in a rear, a great grey wolf was poised as if stalking for eternity. Everywhere, death. She had to get back from the door and close it before the death-emotion overwhelmed her. When creatures died in extreme circumstances, the imprint of the fear became imprinted on the corpse for years. And all of these creatures had died in extreme circumstances.
The living creatures in here were more exotic, as if the uniqueness of the animal was inversely proportional to how high it was in the tower. They were also smaller. Instead of being placed in room-sized caves, they were instead locked in barred boxes. There were ringtails, one of her favourite of the prey species, one she never shot if she could avoid it, curled up with their long striped tails coiled around their dainty bodies. Larger brushtails, with their wild eyes and short legs, darted around their tiny cage in pursuit of one another, predators they were, vicious killers for something their size. Creatures she had never seen glared at her, small intelligent looking beasts with huge eyes and strange hands, beasts with disporportinally large ears or eyes, white-stripes, maskeyes, birds of all shapes and sizes.
At the end of the hallway was a huge crate of fowl. The dirty grey birds were all roosted side by side, feathers fluffed out. The stairs continued downwards.
The lower storey was different. The hallway stopped suddenly with a door at either side of it. She could not find any more stairs leading downwards. One door was locked, and her key would not work, but she could feel something behind it. Elves! The other door opened into a small chamber.
As she opened the door, something large and dark loomed up before her. It resembled a wolf, but was not-quite-a-wolf. Its teeth gleamed in the light from the hearth, and soundlessly it lunged at her. Terrified, she shot upwards, away from its slashing teeth. She concentrated all her effort into a Sending. She had never tried this before, but it was something that occasionally worked against lesser creatures, or so she had heard. It was a vicious, wordless black Sending, a concentration of her fear and anger, with a bit of unrequited love thrown in for good measure (because nothing can be so painful as unrequited love). The near-wolf seemed to have hit a wall, it collapsed to the ground suddenly and lay, legs twitching and whimpering. Sunstar was much relieved, for the Sending had all but drained her energies.
Staying close to the ceiling, she surveyed the room. It appeared to be the living quaters for a human. The human who, was at present, sleeping in a bed of furs before the hearth. There was a table, a small bookcase, a few comfortable chairs and more of those stuffed animals. It took her some time to locate the keys. They were resting on the table amongst a pile of papers. Now she had a problem. The human might not notice if one key went missing, the one she already had, but he would surely become suspicious should his entire bundle of them go missing. Yet should she leave them here and risk the chance that they might not be is such an obvious place the next night? He had not stirred yet, she was being very quiet, carefully not touching anything except the floor. She was just thankful the near-wolf had not barked. As she thought of the creature, she glanced at it, noticing that already it was recovering from her mental onslaught.
Carefully, she seized the bundle of keys and fled from the room. She had an idea. She doubted however that they would be able to save this rescue to dawn. She Sent Sable her plan. He agreed with her. It might indeed work. Before she continued on, she ventured upstairs again and unlocked some of the cages, the same key worked in each. She sighed in relief. It could well be successful.
*
Beyond the locked door was another stairwell, and another cave. In this cave were two captives, elves. She paused in horror at the sight of them.
Twilight was manacled to the wall, his arms well above his head so that his wings were somewhat extended. On the floor before him lay a bundle that was Nightfire, trussed like a chicken. Both wore only their leggings. Twilight's chest was bound in a dirty rag, which was stained dark red under his wing-pit. Nightfire had a bound leg.
It appeared that the piebald haired elf was awake, although his head hung forward.
**Twilight?** Sunstar Sent cautiously to him.
The result was dramatic, his head sprang up (with a wince of pain) and his twilight eyes glanced around the room. She knew not if he had seen her yet. **Sun?**
**Sable and I are here to help you. Can you fly?**
**If I weren't chained.**
**Good.**
She found the correct key for the cell eventually, and then the key for the manacles. Twilight almost collapsed on her as she freed him. **Oh Sunstar,** he Sent in a whisper, flinging his arms around her, squeezing her so tightly that she was afraid she would choke or his wound would reopen. She had to push him away to slash Nightfire's ropes. The other elf quickly awoke. He appeared to be in a worse state than Twilight, barely cohesive and he could not walk very easily.
**We must be very quiet,** Sunstar Sent to them. **I have them Sable,** she Sent to the Windwalker outside.
**Good,** he replied, sounding visibly shaken. **Get out, all of you.**
**What about the other elves?** In her frenzied state, she Sent it to all the Windwalkers present.
**Other elves?** Twilight sounded disturbed.
She pushed the first key she had been given and the cage key into his hand, Sending him directions as best she could. **Get Nightfire out of here,** she Sent to him vigorously as she gave him a brief outline of the plan. **Then get me some sort of distraction.**
**Distraction?**
**You'll think of something,** she Sent hurriedly, **now move. Dawn approaches with every blink of the eye.**
Twilight seemed ready to protest, but Sunstar silenced him with a look and all but pushed him out of the door. She wished she knew which key would open which, it would make things so much easier. But needs must.
*
The stairwell lead to another locked door, which she unlocked with ease, ever waiting to find the human at her back. Or perhaps that horrible near-wolf. She could almost sense the other elves, and knew they must be near. The feeling of claustrophobia was great, the Windwalkers were creatures of the skies, not used to cave-like tunnels. Every key she used, she removed from the collection and placed in her pouch. There was less than two hands of keys, hopefully by the time she had to make her way back up again there would be even less. She found herself in another open room. And here she found the elves. Many of them were asleep, but one in particular was awake and looked at her.
**Sunstar?** The elf sent to her. She was taller than a Windwalker, and of muscular build. Her waist-length black hair had been braided a multitude of times. She looked nothing like her father, aside from the wings. The wings made Sunstar make a double take, for unlike the Windwalkers, Kiara's wings were not part of her arms, but sprouting from her shoulder blades like an extra pair of limbs. The advantages of those!
**I have come to free any of you I can,** she Sent. **Who is with me?**
Kiara shook a young elf awake. He was probably not a great deal older than Sunstar. She hissed something to him in a language the Windwalker could not understand and he darted off, waking up the captives. He too had wings.
**My son,** Kiara sent as way of explaination.
**I can get us winged ones out with ease,** Sunstar sent, **but the others I do not know about.**
The winged child ran to his mother's side. Following him was a skinny male elf. The others were standing about it groups, talking excitedly to each other.
**This is Moja,** Kiara informed her. **He is my Lifemate, he will help the others escape.**
Sunstar handed all the keys to him that were left in the bundle. **Take these,** she Sent to him, **act with haste, I trust you know how they work?**
He nodded. **Seen many human do it.**
**Kiara, and you,** she nodded at the child, **follow me, the rest of you, go with Moja.** She paused, then Sent to Kiara only. **It could be very dangerous, but I prefer to go where I know then where I don't, if you trust me, come with me, I am probably less likely to get caught than them, but it will be very unpleasant.**
Kiara glanced at her Lifemate and her son. **Take Kimbo, my son,** she Sent, **I shall remain with my mate, if we fail, at least my child will feel the wind beneath his wings.**
Sunstar nodded. **We must leave, now!** She Sent.
Kimbo and her immediately left up the stairs, and Moja unlocked a door on the other side of the chamber. The two groups of elves went there seperate ways.
*
Chaos reigned. Twilight had done his job well. The floor above the elf's quaters was filled with frightened animals. The human ran about trying to chase them back up the stairs whilst his dog snapped at them. Kimbo was on foot, the hallway was not wide enough to allow him to spread his wings fully. The dog turned on them as they ran up the stairs. It sprang at Kimbo, who panicked and was about to retreat down the hallway when Sunstar dropped on it from above, Sending viciously at it again. Using the knife she had taken from the kitchen, she plunged it deep into the dogs shoulderblades, surprised at the lack of resistance. There was no need for secrecy anymore. The dog yelped, and whirled, trying to snap at her. Meanwhile, Kimbo ran passed it and down the hallway. Sunstar levitated from its back, removing her bow in case the human tried to prevent the Plains-elf running passed him. He tried to seize the youngster, but a well-placed arrow in his upper arm prevented that. Sunstar was not shooting to kill, not yet.
With one arm wounded, the huamn crouched down, readying the crossbow he had been carrying. With as much speed as she could manage, Sunstar darted around the corner, where Kimbo had already gone, and up the stairs. She heard the sound of stampeding feet. **Hide!** She Sent to Kimbo, and the two of them ducked inside the Deathroom. Only just in time did they close the door. What sounded like many hands of humans ran noisily past the door.
**They have found the escapees,** Kimbo Sent, he sounded very worried.
Sunstar hugged him in an attempt to reassure him.
After what seemed like an eternity, the noise outside had quietened enough so Sunstar dared venture out. Most likely the humans would not realise how many elves were in their tower, and even then, would not suspect that they would be travelling higher into the tower, instead of downwards and out the door. Certainly, it may have been possible for all of them to escape without alerting any of the humans, but Sunstar was not foolishly optomistic. It made more sense to her to waken all the humans and have them attempt to sort out all sorts of problems, then to risk waking up just one and having everyone after her a short time later.
The animals swarmed everywhere, Twilight had certainly not mucked around with that key! With Sunstar gliding along close to the ceiling and Kimbo stealing along the wall, few of the remaining humans even noticed them in the darkness.
**Get Twilight and Nightfire out of the city,** she Sent to Sable. **We shall meet you by the river.**
If anything, the Plains-elves were offering a handy cover. She hoped they were not closing doors behind them, a few rogue animals in the lower storeys could hardly hurt. As the reached the uppermost of the menagerie floors, they were noticed.
There were only three humans here, trying to force the tawny cat back into a cage with spears, and one of them noticed a flicker of darkness as Kimbo stole past them. He shouted something and pointed. One of the humans immediately dropped his spear and pounced on the elf. Sunstar glanced at the humans. She could hardly shoot the one that had Kimbo, for they were struggling like wild cats and she was just as likely to hit him. But the cat however.
An arrow in the flank seemed to invoke and almost beserker rage on the frightened lion. Although the missile did little more than cut a deep furrow in the creature's hide, it immediately struck out at the humans. It barreled into the spear, flinging the human to the ground, and pounced on the other one, goring him. The human holding Kimbo rolled away as he realised what was happening to his companions, but before he could help, the two patchwork wolves sprang on him, one grabbing his face in its jaws and the other one tearing at his stomach. Kimbo immediately ran down the hallway, through the now very open door to the menagerie and up into the first of the humans' quaters. Oddly enough there were no humans here. It seemed they had all been called off to attend to more important things. Pushing aside the potplant, Sunstar almost forced Kimbo into the narrow window frame.
**Fly,** she Sent to him. But he was having none of it.
**Can't,** he Sent, as though he were little more than a chick. **So high. So much sky.** He tried to push back into the tower, but Sunstar was not letting him. This was one event she had not considered. Kimbo had spent his entire life inside, he had probably never even flown properly, let alone plunged himself into an abyss. Something else startled Sunstar. The faint sound of bootfalls, and what could have been a bow string being pulled taut.
**Must,** she Sent viciously, pushing him out of the window. If he did not fly, he deserved to die!
Just as Sunstar stepped through the window to take flight, there was a clicking sound. Followed by a whir. She more fell than flew from the tower.
*
**Is she going to die?** Kimbo asked, concernedly. He was crouched by the river bank with the Windwalkers. It was a complete mystery to him how the she-elf had managed to glide as far as the river with a crossbow bolt buried in her shoulder.
From here it was just possible to see the tower, although it was made easier by the beacon of flame and smoke that rose from its upper windows. After their escape, Twilight had found that some of the innards of the building were quite flammable. This had probably been assisted by Sable, who had called all the ravens in the area (and a few curious hooded crows) to carry kindling and dry grass into the windows. At the moment, the escaped elves were the least of the humans concern, any that left the tower in pursuit were attacked by ravens. Most of the villagers were minding their own business, it was always safer that way.
Twilight ran one hand across Sunstar's pale cheek. **I know no,** he replied. His own wound had reopened and was staining the bandage again.
**She will,** Sable stated assuredly, **take more than bolt to kill elf.** He grinned at Twilight. Twilight grinned back, but his smile was sad.
Nightfire leaned against a tree, watching with a wry smile of his face.
Twilight bandaged the injury as best he could. As a hunter he knew minimalistic first aid. **We must return home soon,** he Sent. **For I fear we all need the assistance of a healer.**
Suddenly someone dark and winged glided down to land beside them. Kiara landed effortlessly, and smiled at them.
**We got out!** She Sent. **Not all of us, yes, but five of us got out alive!**
Kimbo threw himself into her arms. She hugged him hard.
**How many died?** Sunstar Sent groggily, startling them all, for they had thought her quite unconscious.
**Three,** Kiara Sent saddly, **And two went tharn and were recaptured. I was afeared the same would happen to my son.** She glanced at Kimbo.
**He did,** Sunstar remarked wryly, **I had to push him out a window.**
Kiara gave her a strange look. **The others are coming on foot. It took us a while to get out of the city, but strangely enough noone seems to be following us.**
**Ravens,** Sable Sent as way of explaination. **Noone like raven.**
**You have wings!** Nightfire remarked, suddenly seeming to work out the conversation.
**Why, yes I do,** Kiara Sent. **Thank you so much for telling me, else I would never have noticed.**
Nightfire looked somewhat downtrodden, then he laughed. **So who gave you the gift of wings?**
The Plains-elf Sent **my father.** At about the same point that Sable Sent **me.**
Kiara gave him a startled look. **You are Koshibo?** She asked.
**Have been, now Sable.**
**But mother said you could neither talk nor send, that was why they called you "he without the voice".**
**I learn.**
She chuckled.
*
It was Lightspeed that found them, beside the river bank. He was somewhat annoyed to discover that they had not waited for him and the other hunters to come and help with the rescue, but he appeared most interested in the Plains-elves. Kiara made it plain from the beginning that despite having a lifemate, she was willing to see what these shorter elves had to offer. Moja had survived, but did not seem particularly disturbed by Kiara's behaviour, the bird-elves fascinated him too. Sunstar spent her time in a semi-daze. Her wound hurt badly, and she tried to keep control of her thoughts but they kept being lost in a haze of confusion. The Windwalkers had not brought the wolves with them, for they needed to travel fast, thus both she and Nightfire had to hobble. In her daze, the she-elf barely noticed that Twilight was not paying all that much attention to Nightstar. The attractive young elf flirted with him continuosly of course, she had to distract him from these new dark-skinned elves somehow.
It was a day before someone asked about Buzzard.
He had escaped, Nightfire assured them Managed to cut his rope apart on a rock and flown away. He had not tried to save them, because the humans had awoken. He had been quite badly injured, and probably had not got far before the action of flying had torn open the wound in his chest. The humans had sent the ugly one, the one that had killed Brightmist, to find him but neither had returned. It was plain they hated the ugly one. It was presumed poor Buzzard was dead, and given their injuries and the size of the plains, not to mention that the humans would probably been onto them sooner or late, it seemed the best idea was to make for home.
*
They had passed the upside-down tree when Sunstar regained complete clarity of her thoughts. She felt as if somehow she had failed. Certainly she had saved the captive elves, but she had been unable to help Brightmist, or Slash, or even Buzzard. Not only that, but she was still confused. Although she still had a certain affection, a craving almost, for Twilight, he had been paying her little attention since Nightstar had returned, whereas Kimbo, who was not nearly as young as his naivete had led her to believe, was showing a considerable amount of it. She was not overly interested in Kimbo, not as more than some fun, yet the one she could imagine lifemating with seemed almost nervous around her. It made sense really. When he had saved her from the jaguar he had keeping his identity hidden, and Nightstar plainly disliked her. Therefore his love for the dark-haired elf must exceed his desire to be seen as Sunstar's friend. Although it bothered her that Twilight seemed unwilling to be her friend, at least he was alive, and happy. But watching all the elves together made her feel alone. Brightblade especially, for he had been the first, and at present only, Windwalker to Recognise a Plains-elf, a beautiful young thing with golden eyes named Isalo. Sunstar wondered if their children would have wings. She slunk off on her own when they made camp that evening. A spot of small game hunting would probably improve her mood.
As she doubled back on their tracks, she realised that something had been following them. Or following the Plains-elves anyway, for the rest were airborne. That could not bode well. Whomever it was must be near by, because the ground was too dry to hold footprints, although it was almost winter now. It was only the trace of a bootmark in the mud beside a waterhole that alerted her to it. If he followed her back to the roost, they could have the humans down on them in hours, and it was unlikely that the humans were very happy about their presence. She would have to investigate, and possibly kill.
It was almost impossible to actually track anything in the plains, so Sunstar chose the easier option - soar as high as she could and look for something suspicious.
A faint plume of smoke rose from a thicket of scrubby bushes not far from here. Darned humans, she thought to herself, in the entire open plains they burn their fires in the only scrubbush for miles. She flew as close as she dared and dropped to the ground. Unless she wanted to rush in there, arrows flashing, she was grounded.
She pushed her way through the bush, which was taller than her, and could barely make out the shape of a rough rock fireplace. It was burning, their was a bird roasting over it, but there was noone in sight. Curious, she stepped forward, and her world went dark again.
She was being smothered by something, a great blanket was pinning her to the ground whilst a gruff voice muttered things she had no hope of understanding. She struggled feebly, but the pain in her shoulder erupted again. Suddenly the blanket was torn aside and she found that she was pinned under a human male. He was huge, probably twice her height and many times her mass. His face was sunbaked, his eyes small and reddened, his chin hidden by a great bushy beard that made her think of a small animal living on his face. He leaned over so her was face to face with her, whist his huge hands held her arms tight against the ground. His breath smelt of fermented berries and stale smoke. Sunstar almost choked in the waft. He muttered something she could not understand but did not like the sound of. One hand moved from pinning her arm to the ground. She tried to writhe but he tightened his thighs about her body and squeezed so hard that tears welled in her eyes. With one hand he tore open her tunic, so roughly. And suddenly Sunstar realised who he was. The ugly one! The one that had killed Brightmist, and possibly Buzzard. And she was to be the next victim. She remembered the anger he had experienced when Brightmist had fought back, remembered how he had beaten her, had cut her throat. Had cut her throat! She could just lie back, let him indulge in whatever repulsive things he desired and try to escape later, alive but shattered. But sometimes death was better. As one crude hand fondled one somewhat firm breast (the chest of Windwalkers is most muscle, for they need it to fly), she tried to resist the urge to scream. As the other hand moved from pinning her arm, perhaps encouraged by the fact she was not struggling, to stray down to her leggings, Sunstar moved.
She sat upright as best as she could, bringing her head as hard into his chin as she could manage. He jerked back, startled, and she managed to writhe free. Her weapons had somehow been removed from her, but it did not matter for an arrow suddenly appeared as if from nowhere and buried itself between his eyes. His eyes crossed comically, as though he were trying to see the arrow, and then he toppled backwards, his legs still bent in a kneel.
**Swiftbow?** Sunstar Sent to any nearby elven mind. Surely it had to be he, but why had he followed her.
**Close, but not quite,** replied Twilight, as he stepped from the bushes. **It looks like I've saved your sorry posterior again.** He grinned, to show he was not serious in his mocking.
Relieved, and somewhat emotionally drained, Sunstar threw herself sobbing into Twilight's arms.
**Why did you not shoot sooner?** She asked him.
**Because I had to be sure of getting a clear shot,** he replied. **I did not want that bastard to survive if I had not the slightest chance of killing him dead on the spot. Don't worry,** he continued, patting her on the head, it was not in the least patronising, **if he had of done anything else to even remotely hurt you I was going to shoot him in the arse.**
Sunstar had to laugh at that one.
**He didn't hurt you, did he?** The dapple-winged elf asked, the concern so evident Sunstar wondered if he was even attempting to hide it.
She shook her head. **Not really. Why did you save me again?**
**It's my new hobby,** he Sent with a chuckle. **Saving maidens. I could not very well not save you, could I just, after you risked your life for Nightfire and me.**
**I did it mainly for you,** she replied. **I don't quite know why, because you've got Nightstar and all.**
Her sentence was not the world's most cohesive statement, but Twilight seemed to understand, **I've got Nightstar?** His Sending was tinged with incongrety. Sunstar felt foolish.
**She has been doing nothing but trying to attract you since we met up with the hunters. I suspected you two were lovemates.**
At that Twilight did chuckle. **Nightstar is nought but a shallow female who pretends to be a hunter to try and impress other hunters. She may be fun in some ways, but I would hardly say I had her.**
And suddenly he scooped Sunstar up in his arms, seemingly with little effort. She let out a startled squeal that was half delight, half the fear that he would stumble and drop her. And he kissed her on the forehead.
**Besides, the night is dull, I much prefer the sun,** he Sent.
That statement confused Sunstar, she thought she understood the connotations, but hardly dared to hope.
Once they were outside the circlet of bushes where the ugly one had died, he laid her on the ground, and stretched out next to her, supporting himself on one arm. He kept his wounded side in the air. He ran one hand down the side of her face, and it was neither crude nor rough. He leaned forward and kissed the tears from her cheeks. She didn't know if they were tears of fear or joy, or what, but she was not about to stop him.
**I was just waiting for you to Recognise the Plains-elf,** he Sent, little more than a whisper. **And I felt bad about it, because Recognition is good.** He paused. **It would have shattered me if you had Recognised him.**
**There is only one elf I want to Recognise,** she Sent with a tear-filled grin. **But we can't always chose whom. You know Sable has Recognized at least three times?** She did not know why she said this, perhaps she was nervous.
Twilight shook his head, and she could tell he did not care less. And then something strange happened, as she reached up one hand to caress his face, her talent worked on him, and suddenly she knew...
Knew how for the better part of two turns - almost since the Recognition between Sable and Magpye, he had wanted her. Not as a friend, not as a mere lovemate, but as something more - a soulmate and lifemate both. She knew why he had kept it secret, not because she was so young his peers would mock him, but because she was so young he did not want to scare her with those sort of thoughts, those sorts of commitments. He had watched her, as a guardian would, but he was ashamed of this, and when she had been attacked by the jaguar and not recognised him, he had been glad, it gave him the chance to hide away. And then she had guessed, and he had not known how to react. She had seemed angry at him, and was so vibrantly alive that he had been scared of confessing anything to her, lest he kill that vibrancy. And she had never shown any real interest in him,not that he noticed anyway. And then Nightstar had come along, and he had been flattered, and lonely. She had been fun, but nothing more and he did not want fun anymore. He wanted someone who was a creator like him, an artist. Then the hunt had gone badly wrong and the entire party had been captured or killed, bar one. He had thought all was lost, but he had done his best, he had woven dreams to lead the flock to him, sending them to Sunstar for she was the mystic, and the one he loved. And she had come, and saved him, nearly dying herself. He had felt guilty, and seeing Kimbo and her together, had thought it must work, was waiting and dreading the day they Recognised. And then she had wandered off alone, and he had felt her pain, and wanted to help her, and saved her life once again.
Sunstar was shaking and crying as she finished reading Twilight. There was something that made it at least as emotionally disturbing as the early Lorrelei's death or Brightmist's rape. It was so intense, so powerful. Everything she had suspected was wrong, he did not love Nightstar, he loved her! After a moments pause, which it took to recover from the intensity of the vision, she grabbed him, pulling him onto her, delighting in the feel of him against her. **How did you do that?** She asked.
**Because you are a wonderful elf,** he answered, completely misinterpreting her question. **You are a creator, like I am, and so alive, that you make me feel alive just being near you.**
She laughed and licked his nose. **I didn't mean that, silly,** she Sent, **I meant hide that from me until now.**
**The same was I sent you the dreams,** he replied, startling her for she had missed that part of his thoughts. **I am a mystic like you, only I use my thought to weave dreams whereas you use yours to read thoughts.**
**And mystics have natural barriers to emotion reading,** she replied, remembering the same trouble she had with Skysong. **So how come I never knew this earlier?**
**Because my father was a hunter, so I became a hunter too, and nobody even suspected I was a mystic in my soul.**
**Enough of talk,** Sunstar replied mischeviously, as she ran one hand down his chest, tracing patterns on his flesh.
And the rest, I must say, will be left to your imagination!