The transition from eagle sitting on the railing to human leaning casually against it was a surprisingly smooth one for Kyra. "What? Your big sister isn't allowed to drop in and say hi?" she teased.
Danica rolled her eyes and tackled her sister in a tight hug. "I'm so happy to see you!" she beamed. Even after all this time, it was still slightly odd to see how different Danica could be when she actually dropped the Avian reserve since she went emotionless 99% of the time. "Are you alright? Are they treating you well? They're not neglecting you are they?"
"Dani! Calm down," Kyra laughed, breaking her sister's frantic string of questions. "I'm fine. I'll tell you about it inside."
"Oh, right. Come on in."
Once they were sitting cross-legged facing each other on the hawk's bed Kyra spoke again, "Now, to answer questions I'm fine. Never been happier, actually. They're not the cold-blooded monsters we were raised to believe in. The Serpiente are actually wonderful people who are surprisingly accepting once they knew that Zane wasn't going to be terribly unhappy with me as his Naga. They marry for love, as it turns out, so many were going to be rather unaccepting of me at first. That is, until Zane showed that he's not miserable around me."
"Really? Good. I was worried they might treat you poorly or some such nonsense." Danica breathed.
Kyra shook her head. "No, they wanted this peace as much as you and I. Zane, especially, has been amazingly accepting."
"And how are things going with him?"
"Better than I could've dreamed. I told him everything, Danica, and he doesn't care. The way I was treated here angers him, and he's grown very protective."
"Does he know you can take care of yourself?"
"Yes, there was an assassination attempt, actually, during the ceremony to name me his Naga. Don't worry, I put a stop to it before anything could happen, but there is some discontent among the people. I can't guarantee something like that won't happen again . . . from either side. Since I'm the outcast that's been married off to the enemy, I'm an easy target to anyone who doesn't know what I can do."
"Valid point. I'll tell Rei and his men to be on their guard tomorrow just in case." Danica stated. "If it's not too bold of me, it seems like you feel rather . . . strongly . . . for him."
Kyra blinked in surprise, recoiling slightly away from her sister. She'd been avoiding thinking about what, exactly, she was feeling for the cobra that was resting only a floor below them now. Due to her upbringing, she didn't handle emotions very well, much less ones for a man she'd been raised to fear.
Her thoughts flashed back to the only time she'd seen him before the meeting in the Mistari lands. She'd been flying away from Gregory Cobriana's body and she'd glanced back to see who, exactly, had come to retrieve him. Imagine her surprise when it'd been Zane, himself. The anguished shout he'd given and the look of despair in his eyes had haunted her dreams for weeks afterwards. Kyra's heart, now that she thought about it, had started growing soft for the man back then upon realizing how strongly he loved his family. After all, someone who cared for his little brother that much couldn't be all bad.
Since being given away to him, everything Zane had done had only succeeded in making Kyra care for him more and more. She knew that she was beginning to love the man even though that was a bit of a foreign concept to her, not that she would tell him that yet.
"Kyra? Are you okay?" Danica asked worriedly. "You don't have to answer that."
"I'm fine, just realizing a couple things. But to answer your prompting, I do feel strongly for him. I'm beginning to love him, actually."
The idea of loving the cobra was odd to Danica to say the least, but she could see how happy Zane made her sister. There was no way she was going to let anything stand in the way of either them or this peace.
"Good," she said resolutely. "Now, why did you really come up here tonight?"
"Zane brought something to my attention that couldn't wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow, when you take our mother's place as Tuuli Thea, would you see fit to remove the ban on me revealing my second form? This is a time of peace and acceptance, and you don't have the issues with me that Mother does."
"Excellent!" Danica beamed. "Of course I will! I can't believe I didn't think of it before. Just one thing . . . will you reveal the fact that you can see as well?"
Kyra nodded. "I've hidden in shadows for far too long, Dani. Even if I lose my element of surprise I mentioned earlier, I'm tired of pretending to be something I'm not."
"Why knows? It might even endear you even more to the Serpiente people if you have that much more in common with them. I know of that theory you have that we might be related to them somewhere up the family tree."
"Perhaps . . . It will, however, make it that much harder to sift out the traitors if they aren't actively trying to kill me."
"Ah, but it means you aren't in as much danger," Danica pointed out.
"Only blatantly. Who's to say someone hasn't created a poison that works on us? What if they were to slip it in my evening meal? It is unlikely that such an assassin could be easily caught." Kyra countered.
"Let's just hope that doesn't happen," the hawk sighed. "I don't know about you, but I am in need of sleep. Mother was rather . . . unrelenting today when it came to drilling me on what to do tomorrow. Once I am named Tuuli Thea, I will cue you to tell our people the truth as you see fit."
The eagle grinned. "Thank you, little sister. Now get some sleep; I'll see you in the morning right before the ceremonies."
Barely waiting to see her sister's wave of farewell, Kyra shifted forms and dove down to her own floor.