|| Sunrise Gray ||
8.
My life changed once my brother and I were whisked away by Red Suns…My life again changed the day I killed Stiv and saved that little boy…Saved me really…
Her neck itches. She's free to scratch it. The boy-drell in the seats behind her driving the skyrunner watches with mild interest as she rubs the ring around her neck, managing somehow to fly. "I need t'find a police station." She adjusts the mirror over the dashboard to see him. "You'd be more helpful if you could tell me where there's a police stashun." Still staring, he shakes his head. Kolyat throws out his hands next to grab the seats, door bar as she starts to search for something, steering at the same time. "There might be—Goddess, this place is a mess…It's Stiv, he's an animal…was an animal…There might be some water bottles laying around…" Her hand pulls on the steer handles and the skyrunner arcs through the rain. "Shit." She looks up and straightens the ride out. "Sorry…Look, could you be more helpful 'n' see if there's something to drink back there? You a biotic—Course you're not…When you use power like I did, you get hungry or thirsty. It's either one or the other. I know you don't unnerstand what I'm telling you." She cranes her neck back to see over the seatshoulder and makes a drink-motion with her hand, points, "…That's it," she makes the motion again as he mimics her hand, "…Yeah, can you find me a water bottle?" Kolyat starts to search the back seats for something she would tip to her mouth. There is trash, bags, some gear. Kolyat finds a bottle of water and passes it. "You're a smart kid." Braithlyn Anne takes the water and snaps off the cap. She starts chugging. She faces the windshield and sees lights flashing suddenly in the rearview, "…Shit." Decelerating in mid-air, she sets the thrusters on equilibrium-hold and technically "pulls over" for the arriving skyrunner, flashing its safety lights. Braithlyn Anne turns down the window on her left. Light is flashed into the girl's eyes. Two pairs of jetblack eyes stare at her. Dropping her altitude, Braithlyn Anne steers away. The lights switch from curious safety lights to bright alarming green flashes. "Sorry, kid!" Shutting off the lights of their skyrunner, Braithlyn Anne spirals the vehicle into a steep descent. Disappearing into the low fog, she steers the vehicle with her knuckles, hoping not to crash into anything that may be hidden by the thick air…She closes her eyes, letting her power warn her if something is outside. Kolyat buckles into his seat and watches the white fog through the windshield, hoping they don't crash. The blips of green fade. Braithlyn Anne exhales, her eyes closed.
"You see that," she points to a glow-dome in the distance, emerging through the mists. "That's where I'm taking you…I'll drop you off there somehow..." A heavy mist of rain coats her view through the windshield of the skyrunner. She feels blindly at first through her eyes, and then focuses on her power to tell her what's close by. "Hold on," her power starts to tingle. "Hold on, hang on," she sputters to herself and turns on the headlights that have been off to hide them. A skyrunner steers to a sudden stop in front, pulling up perpendicular to her front end. Braithlyn Anne pumps the thrusters…She raises her eyes over the steer bar and dashboard, meeting the sight of a gun and ravenous eyes behind its arm holding it. What she felt coming through the mists wasn't the vessel itself…She was feeling power from another biotic, who was furious, in turmoil, and she could feel the powers between them writhing in preparation of usage. The face of an angry man, a drell, aiming a weapon from the other skyrunner, the eyes bent hard in anger. "Shit," she whispers as Kolyat blinks over the seats, looking into the face of his father through the windshield and floating rain.
"That's my dad," Kolyat says, for the first time speaking.
"You can speak in Common?" The two vehicles are perpendicular, doors to headlights…Braithlyn Anne looks back to the drell with the gun aimed at her face. "Tell him I'm not trying to hurt you…You're safe. He can take you for all I care...Get up here," she slaps the front seating, "…I'll open that window." She hears the seatbelt's release and then his moving through the mess in back to climb over the seating. He lands and adjusts his long legs on the chair beside hers. She opens the window and Kolyat sticks his arm, shoulder, and head out. The black eyes across from her in the headlights, crooked with rage, suddenly transfer their focus to his son's face. "Tell him to pull up alongside us, your side," she instructs Kolyat, "…You'll crawl in with him, okay?" The gun does not stop pointing. "Hurry." She hears the boy-drell's voice yelling from the seat, out the window at his father. Instead of pulling the vehicle alongside the passenger door of their skyrunner, however, the father-drell opens his door and steps lightly onto the black hood, his feet covered in skintight boots with quite the grip to not slide off the wet surface. His skyrunner continues to hover with its equilibrium thrusters on, holding it in space. Aiming the gun constantly, he crawls over the hood, the windshield, to lean out over the sideview mirror, bending his arm around the frame of the window. The gun's nozzle presses against her temple. She raises her hands.
"I want you to move over…Have you harmed my son," the rough voice demands, "…Are you involved in the death of his mother."
"I didn't stop it in time…her death," Braithlyn Anne answers, "…but I did for him…He saved me, too."
"Is that the truth, Kolyat," he asks his son across the seats.
"Dad, they were doing things to her…When she found me…She had a ring on her neck…She killed the guy who hurt Mom…I freed her." His black eyes soften.
"Slide to your right," he directs her, "…I will drive you both to a shelter in the holosphere ahead…Kolyat," he sees his son buckle up in his seat. The girl moves to the middle of the bench as he replaces his gun in the concealment of his coat then opens the door to let himself in. The smell of leather, the sound of it creaking as his weight settles next to hers.
Braith, now sandwiched between the boy and the father, asks, "…What about the other skyrunna?"
Looking at the trash in the interior of the vehicle, he answers softly in his coarse voice, "…It's borrowed." She looks left at him. Shoulder to shoulder, she can feel the intensity of his power. She shivers…Glancing at the girl with the blood on her face and clothing, on her bare legs and arms, Thane raises an eyeridge. The headlights lift off the other vehicle.
