Areastos

Early the next morning Iato woke up, pulled herself out of Atem's embrace, kissed his forehead then dressed.

"Where do you think you're going?" She heard a voice from the bed.

"I was trying to get away without you waking up. Was." She stressed. She was wearing her wraps again but this time they covered her entire body except for the glove on her right arm. Loops of the soft fabric were hanging down from her arms and legs. Her skirt was tied around her hips but the rest of the heavy cloth was loose. The front was hanging down slightly between her legs as she moved about the room. Her top was a heavy material which, like her skirt, was similar to the fabric wrapped around her. Her top was tight and was actually attached to her skirt. It hung over one of her shoulders, held up by a single strap then swung down under her left arm to become half a tube top. Around her hips hung her swords which instead of being clear they were a faint blue color. In her left hand was her staff and on her face was her symbol. It was the same symbol of the Guardian from before. Her long hair was up in a loose bun and from just behind her ear hung a pure white feather, how it stayed there Atem didn't know. She had in her hand another ball of wraps and a kilt type thing that looked as if it was cinched up.

"Well if you're coming hurry up and get up. We don't have all day." She bossed and he stood up. "Now hold still." She flapped over to him, and began to wrap him up like herself and as she did he noticed that the fabric wasn't white, in fact he didn't even know WHAT color it was. She finished and he blinked. He was covered from his shoulders down to his ankles in white fabric that he didn't even know was there.

"What is this?" Atem asked as she handed him the cinched kilt.

"Pants." She nodded sarcastically. He slipped them on and realized that they were just like a kilt just up between his legs there was a cut, it was sewn together on the inside of the legs, it was cinched up around his calves. She handed him a pair of 'shoes' much like hers just in black. As he took them the rest of the fabric turned black.

"Great… I don't understand your traditions." Atem frowned as he slipped the 'shoes' onto his feet.

"It's to keep you warm while we fly. Trust me and where we're going you're going to thank me." She smiled.

"What's that?" Atem asked pointing out the window towards a winged figure with what looked like a large package. Iato flew out the window because she was the more skilled flier and caught the package as Talrim flew and dropped it. The falcon flew in the balcony, singing something about presents.

"Hey, I thought my brother didn't know about this but oh well." Iato said floating it. Areos have the power to just stop flapping and float in one place for a while or float somewhere but when they wanted to get somewhere fast as possible they could travel on the wind.

"What is that?" Atem asked as she landed in front of him. In her hands was a sword made of pure folded steel, hand crafted by her brother, in the steel were shards of diamond making it almost as strong. Atem took it in his hand, swinging it around. Iato had wrapped his hands like her right hand, not his fingers but his hand. Like hers the hilt had leather with a strip up to allow for quicker attacks. Around the bottom of the hilt though was a string of leather with two feathers on it. Iato grabbed the blade of his sword making him jump. She wasn't even injured.

"My brother sends his thanks to us… for what… I guess we'll never know." Iato said as he slid the sword into the leather hilt at his side. Then she handed him the magnificent staff.

"It's like the Dark Magician's." Atem breathed. He hadn't visited his friend in a long while and he felt slightly guilty, he would visit him in the Shadow Realm when they got to Areastos.

"Okay what ever." Iato said. In his hand was a long steel bar that was wrapped with fine leather. The top was bladed on two sides, some what like a double sided sword. The blade was made of the same steel and diamond mixture. Around the top was a black tassel with a pure black feather hanging from it. "Atem… that's one of yours." She said pointing at the feather.

"But how?"

"The Areos can follow the wind and it will lead them to the Paradise. So when I brushed our feathers into the wind…"

"They went to Areastos." Atem nodded and she smiled.

"Very good, now that you've got your things come on. My brother will have already set up my resting place again." Iato said as she stood out on the balcony, raising her arm so Talrim could take off. She spread her wings as Talrim flew in a wide circle. With one heave of her huge wings she took off into the blue sky, she flew straight up into the air, flying into the sun, spreading her wings as far as they would go, her shadow spreading across the entire land. Her cry of joy rose from her throat as an echoing trill of notes. Atem floated up to her as she flew in circles and loop-de-loops, doing rolls and flips in mid air.

"What's a resting place?" He asked as they flew, with one flap of her wings she sped forward, her wings set free a soft melody when she flapped but his were larger, much larger than hers and set out rather a thundering sound. Iato looked up as clouds gathered in the sky. She smirked and stopped in mid air.

"A resting place is a place where…" She pulled a certain feather out of his wings and he flinched. "Where the Areos sleep… we don't have houses we have huge luxurious nest type things, along the floors of these 'nests' are scattered the feathers of the partners that live there. They are much like the 'nest' that I was in at Trey's house. But much larger for you have to have enough room for two or more. We only sleep in them, normally we don't stay in these 'nests' because although they are comfy they are smaller than we like, mine is about the size of your bedroom, bathroom, and throne room all in one." Atem's jaw dropped, that was huge almost as big as a large two story house all on one floor.

"How is that small?" He asked and she laughed.

"It's small to us because we are like birds… we like wide open skies and green grasses although when a Areo is pregnant they do stay in the nest because the males are very protective of them and will guard the entrance to it for days and months for a child born to the Areos is a big deal, we do not get many children and unlike the human kind we pride our daughters slightly more that our sons because we have more males than females. But we love them both just the same, we just celebrate more when a female is born and the males are born understanding this. Oh Atem it's just magnificent there." Iato said and hugged his feathers to her face, closing her eyes and smiling.

"One question before you tell me more… why did you pull those out?" He asked pointing at the feathers.

She began to fly again and he followed noticing that the booming thunder of his wings had quieted to a soft heart beat kind of sound, "Figure it out?" She asked and he nodded.

"Now tell me more about this Areastos." Atem said and she nodded.

"Well we have this custom of cleaning, or er… what do you call it… preening our 'nests' oh and we call the 'nests' Aries, we wake up early in the morning and get up, the females do this most of the time and we brush the feathers around the nest, smoothing them into a pile in the back, I'll tell you later what this is for. Then we fly out and underneath our aries are fresh bundles of soft sweet smelling hay. We drop the old down under where the new was and leave it there then smooth the new hay down then we wait and talk while the males clear off the roofs, dumping the old onto the ground and sometimes we all get into these hay fights, where the males will tackle the females into the hay and they fight each other, playfully of course, in the hay until they are both so worn out that they can't move which usually it's our younger males tackling their soul mates which I guess you could call the Areos way of a mating ritual because if you listen that night almost every song can be heard. And when two of us find their mate we have a huge celebration, filled with beautiful decorations, old friends, new friends, and wonderful food. Although we do not eat meat we do eat many other things that I think you'll like because there are things that you haven't tried yet. There is a huge ball in their honor and every takes food home. It's wonderful… Areos throw grand parties." Iato laughed. Atem was mesmerized by her people they did such odd things.

"Now about Areastos, what does it look like?" Atem asked and she though about it.

"Areastos is a huge valley. There are huge seventy foot tall trees everywhere and wrapped up around the trees are pathways, hallways. Our aries are built high up in the trees above these pathways, the paths lead to huge rooms that all link together creating our city, at night these glow and create our light. Weaving through the tees is a huge clear sparkling river where our children go to play every day. We built a huge round pool bath for us all to go swimming in. In the trees hundreds upon thousands of birds of every kind live. But there are only two of the Iato Falcons. Talrim here and her mate, Raptor. He's about a foot taller than her, much larger than the rest. They are the leaders of our bird friends. I think you and Raptor will get along fine. Through the trees blow breezes that never stop. At night it gets very cold and the residents huddle together in their consecutive aries to keep warm, fires do not hurt our homes, the gods have charmed them for us. During the day, most of the time the sun shines brightly but other days it pours and never stops so most of us fly into the grand city halls and walk and talk and visit with people… just to let you know… everybody knows everyone else in this place and you will see many types of wings but only I have white and only you have black so we're easy to find. My best friend, her name is Daria, which means dreams in Areos, has the great huge wings that are humming bird wings, they just don't move as fast." Iato said and Atem laughed.

"Wow, you're people sound fascinating, I mean there is so much I have yet to learn. Like manners and things you do say or don't or… what's wrong?" Atem asked as he saw her biting her bottom lip.

"Are you sure you still want to go?" She asked. He nodded.

"I want to meet your people to get to know them." Atem said taking her hands in his. "If your people are anything like you I'm sure I love it there, because I love you." Atem said and they stopped, floating over the ravine where they had first met.

"You-you do?" She asked and he nodded. He wrapped her up in a hug, pulling her close to his body. Iato closed her eyes, he loved her. Then she heard something that scared her, the sound of arrows singing through the air. Atem let out a growled groan of pain as one went through his shoulder. Two more went through his wing and another through the same shoulder. He let go of her, falling into the ravine. Iato dove after him trying to catch up and caught his hand. She lifted him into the over hang where they had first met. His shoulder was bleeding profusely. Iato looked around for Talrim who came swooping down with another bird. A huge falcon, bigger than Talrim was with her, they landed on the ledge.

"Raptor, Talrim… go down and get me some more of those Lotuses. Please." Iato asked and they both nodded as she turned to Atem. His eyes were dulled over with pain. She pulled out her shorted sword and cut the wraps around his upper body. She ran her hand over his shoulder as the dark crimson blood ran down his body.

"Iato… Iato." He said to her and she nodded. "I don't know what I'd do without you." He smiled at her.

"You'd die but I won't let you… do you recognize this place?" Iato asked and he nodded. Talrim and Raptor appeared out of the mist carrying a large amount of Iato Lotuses. Iato thanked them then turned back to Atem. His shoulder would have to be healed when they had more time. She pulled the arrows out of his wing then made him eat one of the petals, his wings healed but she didn't know what to do about his shoulder.

"Iato how are we going to get to Areastos?" Atem asked her.

"I'll tell you in a few minutes. I'm going to pull those out okay?" She asked him and he nodded. She pulled gently on the first one and he gritted his teeth in pain. She tugged gently one more time then pulled quickly as hard as she could and his cry of pain echoed across the smooth plains. Starting with a growl through his teeth it rose from his throat in a loud deep bellow. Tears were in his eyes as he looked back at her. And she tapped the first arrow on the ground.

"Did that hurt?" She asked him and he threw her a sour looked.

"What do you think?" He asked and she smiled, patting his thigh.

"Just one more." She said and put her hand on it. He flinched as she pulled gently again, this one was in deeper than she had thought. He put his hand on her knee, just above her knee on her thigh.

"Don't do that, if you're going to pull it just do it." He said and she nodded and set her face.

"This one is going to hurt more, it's deep in the tissue and muscle. Try not to hate me for doing this." She said and pulled again with all her strength but it only moved some. She shook her head as his cry echoed in the canyon again. She stopped and put her hand on his, which was still on her thigh. "I'm sorry… just please relax it will make it easier for me to get it out." Iato said and felt his arm go limp. She kissed his cheek then gently put her hand on the arrow. She pulled again as hard a possible, and twisted it to the side and it came out. Atem's voice once again thundered through the canyon and into the ears of the archers. They ran hearing the noise.

"Don't DO that any more." Atem said to her and she nodded then pulled out another wrap. She wrapped up his shoulder and put his arm in a sling.

"Come on we have to hurry, there might be more along the way." Iato said lifting up into the air reaching out to him and taking his good hand with both of hers, lifting him into the air. "You should be able to fly like that, we have to hurry and get there, I need more time to heal you and the sooner we get to Areastos the better so I'm going to do something that is rather risky, we could land somewhere else but I've done it before and this is an emergency." She pulled out her staff. On it was the crystal. She held it between them as Talrim and Raptor flew over.

"Take us to Areastos, the city of Iato and Iratos." She said and the crystal glowed then they felt a jerking, sucking them into it and they appeared in front of the huge crystal gate to Iato's city. Atem had his good arm wrapped around her. On his right arm he noticed was a leather glove, much like Iato's only newer.

"In the name of Guardian Iato, state your name and business in the City of Iato and Iratos." A guard yelled at them.

"My name is Guardian Iato, the lady of song. This is Atem, Lord of Egypt. Now open the gates so I may see my city once again." Iato replied softly, floating forward with Atem in tow.

"Lady Iato, you've returned?" A young man flew forward. His huge wings were smaller than Atem's and a brilliant red color. Like a robin.

"Rio you're still here… how is Trina?" Iato asked, embracing the young Areo.

"Trina is fine… we've had a girl you know." Rio smiled proudly.

"A girl, I'm very happy for you." Iato bowed slightly.

"Your song was heard by all of us but… where is he?" Rio asked and Iato nodded her head towards Atem.

"They always said in that legend you would unite the outsiders and us again. And of course Lord Raptor and Lady Talrim." The young man bowed to the falcons as they flew in.

"So you're the on we've heard of, the Dark Dove?" Rio asked Atem, flying over and Atem looked at Iato and she nodded barely.

"Yeah but I've never been called that before." Atem said.

"You've got the best looking Areo in all of Areastos. Very lucky, but my mate is just as beautiful. Her daughter you know." Rio said softly to him.

"She has a daughter?" Atem asked.

"With her first mate but he died a few months after she got pregnant. She raised Trina and her other daughter who already died in captivity, the same place where Lady Iato's being held now." Rio said and Atem blinked. "Then she preserved her memories and went through the renewal process which is where she sleeps, growing younger, until the year after her true mate is born, the Dark Dove. We call her the White Dove." Rio told him. Iato waved for Atem to come over and he flew over. The booming sound his wings made back again.

"OPEN THE GATES!" Rio bellowed and the other guard nodded and the huge gates opened to reveal the city of Iato and Iratos. They flew in, everyone in the air stopped what they were doing as the Lady Iato flew in with this black winged man. The gates slammed shut behind them.

"Lady Iato, Lady Iato has returned." All the children who had never seen her flew over, surrounding her and out of no where a small girl, about the age of five flew over.

"Grandma?" She asked. He had big brilliant blue eyes and long brown hair like Iato. Iato looked at her.

"Lisha! Lisha come here!" Iato heard her daughter's voice. The beautiful woman came into view, looking exactly like her mother, only her wings were a beautiful tan color. "Mother?" She asked as Iato lifted Lisha into her arms and rested the little girl on her hip.

"Quite a beautiful nesting we have here… I think she's going to grow up like her mother, beautiful and succeeded." Iato said not looking at her daughter but at the child. Then she looked up as her daughter flew forward.

"Mother you're home." Iato embraced her daughter tightly.

"I am and I'm not going to be leaving for a while." Iato said. Atem watched as suddenly everyone was crowding around her saying things and hugging her.

He heard one question and her answer made every one turn towards him, "Who sang the song with you?" one asked her and she looked up at Atem.

"My true love." Iato replied locking her eyes into Atem's. They all looked over at the one Areo who hadn't joined in. He slowly flew over to Iato, the crowd parting to let him through. He walked in mid air over to Iato and wrapped his good arm around her waist, never taking his eyes off hers.