Chapter 4: Endless Turmoil

Long before Ranulf opened his eyes, he knew that it was a miracle he was still even able to feel his body aching all over. The cat supposed it was lucky that the fjord wasn't that deep. That little tumble, he was sure, would leave bruises enough to last for months.

Dear goddess, Janaff! Ranulf nearly passed out from the threatening wave of nausea as he sat up.

When the cliff had given way, Ranulf had already known that Janaff would not be able to react in time and transform to pull them up out of the steep fall. He had therefore enclosed Janaff tightly with his own body and twisted his vertebra so that he would receive the impact, allowing his last bit of remaining hope for himself to fade away.

But his heart was still beating. The cat shakily pushed himself up and shuddered as he spotted another cliff edge a little over five meters away. Judging by its sheer drop, the cliff must have been a waterfall before the water had dried up. If they had fallen any closer to it... Ranulf felt his heart chase its way up his throat.

Janaff's stirring form nearby made Ranulf heave a sigh of relief as he turned away from the frightening possibility. What the hawk said next, however, did not.

"Honestly, out of all the frill-feathered places, did you have to drag me down with you into a cave?" It was the playful tone that scared Ranulf the most; they had just been involved in a deadly landslide, after all! And frankly, it was noon at latest. He swiftly strode over and firmly gripped the hawk by the shoulders.

"Hey, what's the big idea!?" But all Ranulf could think was, Oh, goddess, how could you?

Janaff's eyes were unfocused with a peculiar cloudiness to them, and Ranulf confirmed with a heavy heart that the hawk was indeed, as he suspected, blind.

Would King Tibarn—Ashera forbid, the entirety of Phoenicis!—find him at fault? Would all hope for a Gallian-Phoenician alliance be lost? Would King Caineghis be scorned forever because of him? Would he be exiled from Gallia? It ultimately led up to one question: Would Janaff deem him guilty? That was the absolute last thing he wanted! But...he had no choice.

"Listen to me," Ranulf said, his voice struggling to pass his throat. "I am not one to hide things from others. I will tell you right now: You are blind."

Scarcely a few seconds had passed when the hawk's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Must you lie to me? Such scandalous behavior is unbefitting for one like you—well, actually, perhaps that is a bit false..."

A scandal...if only you knew... Ranulf bit his lip. "I may lie on several occasions, but were I to disguise the truth about something this serious, guilt would consume me for all eternity."

"I believe the joke is over." Janaff tried to stand, but his balance was impaired without sight, and he fell right back down. "Just get me out of the blasted cave!"

"Not until you admit to yourself that you cannot see. Be grateful it is nothing worse." The cat's voice was sharp but not unkind.

"Do I look blind to you? I can prove my eyesight is just fine if you would lead me—"

"Say no more," Ranulf interjected, his guilt strangely forgotten. This conversation was already straying from the path it should have taken. "There is more than enough evidence to contradict your cave theory. Do you not feel the sun's heat on your skin? Or how our voices do not echo around us, instead echoing faraway?"

Janaff replied equally as biting. "If anyone is vision impaired, I think it is you. See here, I wasn't born with defective heterochromatin in my eyes."

"You gain nothing from this denial!!" Ranulf thundered back, regretting his coldness as soon as the words had escaped. A dreadful, deafening silence followed, but Ranulf was no longer able to read Janaff's emotions through his eyes.

Uncertain as to what to say next, the feline could only offer dully, "I will not lie. If you could truly see, and if we were truly in a cave, then you would be able to see my eyes. My heterochromatic pupils have not affected the luminescence cats' eyes have in the dark."

"You know not what I feel!" Janaff suddenly cried, his outburst being audibly choked with emotion as he jumped to his feet. "You're just an ignorant cat!"

"Am I, now? You should talk. And just when will you finally admit that you are no longer of any use to your king!?"

Janaff would most likely have retorted with something, but Ranulf's aim was too precise, both figuratively and literally. The hawk barely had time to acknowledge that the cat was correct in his assumption before a powerful left hook sent him staggering backwards.

Nonetheless, Ranulf had at least allowed him the dignity of hitting the wall...something Janaff could hang on to...use as a marker...

"You may sit there and sulk for all it is worth, but you may also recall that your friend Ulki yet carries a tremendous weight," he told Janaff, panting in frustration. "Your immaturity astounds me." He turned tail, proceeding to seek an escape route.

The walls were steep and without many niches, though Ranulf could easily scale it as a laguz. But even the few footholds themselves seemed to be precarious, and Ranulf was uncertain if he could save himself from a nasty plummet should he slip. Not with his current shape his body was in, anyway.

Janaff, however disoriented he may have been, could still recognize the footsteps fading away.

"You can't just leave me in this cave!" He wasn't blind. Really, he wasn't...

The hawk could no longer hear the cat anymore, but the question remained as to whether Ranulf was already gone or had simply stopped. He gave a low, nervous laugh, his resolve all at once greatly weakened.

I couldn't even last half a year. I guess it's time to return home and be a humiliation for the rest of my life, but where to begin? Janaff idly wondered. He reluctantly chose a direction and began to make his way along the wall.

Everyone was jealous of me when I was little. I possessed the true eyes of a hawk, not like others who were limited to 'decently better than human' vision. They were especially jealous since my parents were miraculously still around to be proud of me, although I never meant to overshadow those whose parents were enslaved. Tibarn was one of them.

But he chose to be my friend. He said I was a hawk he could aspire to be equal to, even if I hadn't a fathom why. All I knew was that from then on he was hardly ever satisfied with his accomplishments.

He also had another friend to look up to, but I didn't see him often. Though now that I think about it, that friend might have been Ulki...

Regardless of how much stronger Tibarn grew than me, he continued to assure me that he could still stand to be my equal. It was a while before I realized that he meant my eyesight, which then drove me to train harder.

If my extraordinary eyes motivated him so much, his friend was probably also preciously gifted.

When Tibarn became a popular candidate for king, I was overjoyed for him. This certainly must have been his childhood goal! But my heart sank just as quickly; our time spent together would be largely diminished.

'Don't worry,' he said. 'You'll always be one of my windows to life outside of the Hall.'

He was elected as heir to the throne several months later, and almost immediately he proposed the idea of a personal attendant, a confidante.

I was quite astonished when I myself was voted for candidacy. Our friendship was likely notorious for its strength, which a king would undoubtedly need, but I had near to little experience with these things. Though, the actual election would not happen until his coronation.

The praise and accolades I received was overwhelming, invoking a new fervor within me. Now it was Tibarn that I could look up to instead if I was indeed selected.

But everything has been in vain.

...And now I owe Ulki a sincere apology with all my heart. Tibarn, what have you done? Things...could have been so much easier...

His foot stepped into empty space. Had he listened, he would have heard Ranulf's terrified scream accompanying his own shriek of hysteria. Alas, Janaff's panic overrode everything. With the loss of both his balance and eyesight, the hawk could not tell up enough from down, nor could he compose himself enough to even fly. He simply let go.

Ranulf dashed on all fours as a laguz along the uneven ground, faster than he could ever recall running in his life. This wasn't supposed to happen!

He had discovered a location a small ways off, where the incline actually tapered off quite nicely. This would make things safer and more convenient for their travel. He would not leave Janaff behind; no matter how defiant the hawk might have tried to appear, Ranulf could still sense his instability.

The cat had returned, however, only to witness his friend a few steps away from the edge of the dry waterfall.

There was little he could do now. No one could survive falling over a second cliff, but the prospect of another miracle still lingered. Ranulf had the sinking feeling that Ashera was conspiring with Lady Luck to make them suffer.

Bravely sticking his head over the side, his eyes grew to the size of saucers as his breath suddenly escaped him. He supposed that at least Janaff wasn't a bloody heap down at the bottom...

But the circumstances couldn't have been any stranger.

Janaff was, in fact, positioned sideways on a tiny ledge jutting out from the vertical drop about ten feet down.

Ranulf wasted no time, recklessly leaping and nearly slipping off the ledge himself as he clawed at the rocky wall. Awkwardly landing atop the hawk, more or less, he gave him a rough lick on the cheek and placed a reassuring paw on his shoulder.

The hawk stiffened at once, his eyes temporarily opening, and after a few moments he attempted to sit up. Ranulf had to quickly shift forms, as there was little room to maneuver for the both of them in the first place. He gently guided Janaff's shoulders with his hands, noting that one wing sagged limply and did not coordinate well with the other.

Janaff proceeded to quietly bury his head in his knees. "...It's nothing...I can find my way home, even if it means tripping over small hills."

It took quite some time for the other laguz to respond. "You didn't trip. I watched you fall...yet I must consider that you tell me an honest lie."

"Of what importance is it to you?"

"Because ten feet may be a hill, but the vast scale of a waterfall is no small matter," Ranulf said softly. Janaff could not immediately repress the following chill coursing through his body, eliciting a dry sob, but nothing more. "Shall we return home?"

Janaff had hardly nodded his consent when Ranulf hoisted him onto his back and cleared the ledge in three bounds.

"I would hope that you finally understand the gravity of the situation," Ranulf commented. It wasn't until Janaff frowned into his back moments later that he realized his inappropriate timing. "Eh, oops... Sorry."

Meanwhile, several hours later...

"May I suggest that you kindly offer an explanation? And quickly, at that; it does not please me to know that the council thinks me your babysitter."

Keer had shown up with Janaff nowhere in sight, and Ulki had only expected as much. To be honest, however, Ulki would have granted Janaff the reprieve, without the need for some minor catalyst, had he been permitted to. The younger hawk was struggling more than he had to because, Ulki admitted, the older hawk was quite prepared to take on this brouhaha by himself.

Not that he cared to expose this to Janaff. The lesser rookie could keep his pride for the time being until he learned more about public affairs.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" Keer apparently felt the need to grace Ulki with a meek smile on his dirtied, grimy face.

Ugh...what I do for Tibarn and Janaff both...

Just as he was about to interrogate the child further, a sentry interrupted with an urgent message for him; Ulki was to report to the Hall at once. King Kilvas had dropped by unannounced, wanting to settle the hostile hawk-raven affair. Ulki directed a narrow 'This will be settled, mark my words' look at Keer as he departed.

Keer gulped, knowing King Kilvas could only serve to irritate Ulki first before he was next. But for now... "Hey, Prince Reyson, come check out my awesome cave hideout!"

Thus far, Reyson had grasped the common language with no more than the shortest talon, but to Keer's credit, he allowed the child's obvious excitement to precede everything else as he let himself be dragged along.

When Ulki arrived, the raven king's greeting to him was ever so maliciously cordial with his smile. The hawk had difficulties against openly displaying his disgust.

"However shall we proceed?" The raven king's eyes glinted. "Word is that King Tibarn cannot be bothered to perform his duty. To think I believed otherwise."

You spurn animosity with those words, King Kilvas. "That is not entirely so," Ulki defended, "but while I cannot wholly speak for him, I am still officially eligible to discuss matters with you."

"I would request that the King's ears supply me with his name first."

"And I would that King Kilvas also introduce himself, as we do not always presume to know who is visiting," the hawk said testily. "You may address me as Ulki." He already knew with his ears, of course, what King Kilvas's name was, but he had too staunch of a commitment to Phoenicis's image in the face of Kilvas.

"Naesala will do." The raven waved it off. "Now," he said as he began pacing about, "we discuss. As it stands, Kilvas requests at least a third of your land."

Ulki remained seated. "Under what outrageous circumstances shall I even consider this?"

"Our resources run thin, and food is scarce. Because of this, we have been forced to resort to looting the human ships foolish enough to sail past. There is more than enough gold to go around if you require payment."

"A preposterous offer," the hawk noted suspiciously. "Human money would only be another reason to stoke the existing ire between our tribes."

At that moment, Strahl rushed in with a mix of wildness and hatred upon his features. "Raven cur! You dare violate our traditional nonaggression pact!?" Ulki could feel his blood seething through his veins. An invasion!?

Naesala smiled thinly in displeasure. "There goes my side of the bet..." he muttered as he stalked out, "though this was inevitable. Please, our pact was hardly written in stone."

"You need not worry about the civilians and Gallians, but the council and ranks both await your orders." The old hawk fixed Ulki with a grave look. "This may be your chance to prove yourself, youngling."

Ulki swallowed hard. "Allow the council to get to safety as well. Troops are to remain in hiding while on standby. I have things I must first take care of."

He would not let fear overcome rational thought, but he could not help feeling alarmed when he could not detect the presence of either Keer or the White Prince. Had Strahl been aware of this? Contemplating leaving the safety of the Hall, he was about to risk it when he heard familiar, subtle movements. Anxiously turning, he asked, "Janaff is not with you?"

"About that..." Ranulf's tail thrashed nervously from side to side as he averted his eyes.

Troublesome, indeed...