Chapter Six: Wings of Sky and Blood
Year 203 of the 82nd Era, The Era of the Dying Lands; e82-203
Mid Spring
The Scarlet Grove
Blood-Seeker cautiously approached her hatching eggs. The swiftthief family stood aside, bristling at the strange hatchling scent flooding their burrow and the odd noises coming from the speckled azure eggs. Soft 'wheek, wheek, wheeks' came from each of the three eggs, intermixed with the usual chirp of a sickleclaw eyass.
The strange sounds were something Blood-Seeker had never heard before. Infant sickleclaws chirped and squawked to their parents as they prepared to hatch. She closed her eyes, listening to the vocalizations of her soon-to-be hatched mixed-blood offspring. Her feathers slowly rose on end as her mind began to whirl.
They were hatching. They were finally hatching. The creatures that would surely be her undoing. She could take their life at any moment if she wished. It would have been easiest as eggs, but newly hatched eyass were defenseless. She could hide all the evidence, pretend none of it happened, and return to her life as alpha of the Pack of the Scarlet Feather.
But…
There was a drop of excitement thrumming through her body. These hatchlings would be like nothing else, and her life would be forever changed if she let them live. And, as she flexed those massive, deadly sickle claws on her innermost toes, a certain pair of formels, taupe and caramel, flashed within her mind, followed by another skytalon she hadn't spoken to for a very, very long time. One of deep brown feathers, a lighter brown underside, beige rosettes, and a muted green ringed tail. One of brilliant orange irises and verdant green sclera.
"Ambrose," Blood-Seeker whispered. They were the skytalon Blood-Seeker had interacted with during her adolescence.
Lastly, an image of Aurelius filled her mind — of his black feathers and the slight shimmer in his silver rosettes under the full moon's light. His black and gold eyes were captivating, along with the beautiful iridescent gleam of his black wings, tail vanes, auricles, neck scutes, and casque.
"Why do they smell like that thing you brought us to eat?" Mist-Wanderer asked, sliding up to Blood-Seeker's head, which was stuffed in the burrow so she could watch her eggs hatch.
Blood-Seeker did not respond.
"Blood-Seeker?" Pebble-Pouncer's voice echoed the question her daughter had asked aloud. The dusky-cinnamon swiftthief stepped closer to the much larger greatshadow. Confusion, concern, and curiosity shined in her goldenrod eyes as she waited for the elderly formel to answer.
A long silence passed between them, Blood-Seeker debating whether she should tell the truth. Her decision was made as an iridescent black membranous wing trusted out of one of the eggs. There was no point in avoiding the truth when it would be staring the swiftthief family in the eyes when Blood-Seeker finally removed her head from their burrow.
A loud sigh gusted from her lungs as she pulled her head from the burrow. She stared long and hard at the dusky-cinnamon feathered swiftthief. "They smell like that creature because that is what their father was." A long pause followed as Blood-Seeker debated whether to say more. In the end, she continued, spilling everything. "I mated with a skytalon. An earthborn, clawhand, featherwing, keentalon, sharpeye, skytalon. I did not know his name until I encountered a pair of mated formels. The gravid formel also carried the male's offspring. Through them, I found that the sire to my children was named Aurelius."
"Aurelius?" Pebble-Pouncer echoed, the name strange on her tongue.
"Skytalon?" Silent-Torrent asked, his one good eye screwed in confusion. He ducked into the burrow, sucking in a deep breath, only for a hiss of surprise to escape his jaws. He pulled away, wild surprise in his eye. "Those don't look or smell like any sharpeye, or even keentalon or…" He glanced back at the burrow. "Or featherwing. Are you sure…?"
"That is what they call themselves. You will see once my children are hatched." Blood-Seeker lay on the ground, dark-amber eyes half-lidded as she carefully listened to her three children. "They have the bodies of keentalon's just…stronger and with many other…alterations. You've seen the formel that I brought to you nights ago." Blood-Seeker sighed loudly. "They can fly like the skyborn and the aetherborn."
"Fly?" Mist-Wanderer jumped into the conversation, eyes wide with excitement. "I want to fly. Will your babies be able to fly? Can they teach me to fly?" She flapped her azure feathered arms, which were nowhere near coming into their mature colors.
"Mist-Wanderer, hush." Silent-Torrent pressed a talon to his daughter's snout.
A hush passed between the sickleclaws as they returned to the hatching eggs, spying the first to emerge from their shell. A sharp silence settled over the swiftthief family as Blood-Seeker watched, unphased. The much smaller sickleclaws may have seen a skytalon before, but never a living-breathing infant. A soft squeak sounded from Flooded-River while Mist-Wanderer crept closer as the hatchling within pushed its way out of its shell.
The first thing to emerge from the shell was a pair of strange forearms. A trio of claws on each forepaw pulled at the edges of the shell until the rest of the forearms were revealed. Incredibly long fingers still half curled peaked out from the shell, a thin iridescent black membrane stretching between each finger. More of the black membrane was attached to the hatchling's back, and when the light filtering through the burrow hit the membrane just right, it flashed a lovely sheen of liver-red.
"They are like skyborn wings…" Mist-Wanderer breathed. "But…but…but they have…" the azure eyass cocked her head to one side and hopped closer to the hatchling. "Fingers? Really long fingers. Like…" She lifted her forepaw, awkwardly waggling the taloned digits.
Pebble-Pouncer pulled her daughter back by her azure tailfeathers. "The little one just hatch, Mist-Wanderer."
The first hatched of Blood-Seeker's brood pushed the rest of her way out of her egg. Her forearms, which were indeed winged, possessed two elongated digits in which the membrane stretched across, while the other three digits were of normal length. The hatchling turned to the watching sickleclaws and gave soft wheeking sounds intermixed with a more traditional chirrup.
The little female was scarlet, just like Blood-Seeker — just like Blood-Seeker's mother and grandmother, just like Blood-Seeker's firstborn who had been taken from the elderly mother far too soon. She possessed no rosettes, her feathers solid like her mother's. Her tail had no feathers, sporting the distinctive black-ringed tail of skytalons, hers of which was the same shade of liver-red as her father's tail. Her wings and feet sported a slight sheen of liver-red throughout them. Iridescent black tail vanes and smaller iridescent black wings on her hips adorned her body. Black auricles and a pair of fleshy earguards sprouted from the sides of her head. The hatchling did lack the hardened helmet-like casque upon her head, nor did she possess any scutes along her neck.
Blood-Seeker stared at the hatchling, her sickled claws digging deep into the ground. Another first-hatched scarlet female. Another…another leader for the pack. But…but this one could not lead the Pack of the Scarlet Feather. She was not a greatshadow, at least, not of pure blood.
"What…what will you name her?" Pebble-Pouncer hesitantly asked, stepping closer to Blood-Seeker, peering up at the massive sickleclaw.
Images of Blood-Seeker's first hatched danced in her mind — Lily-Bleeder. She had carried the signature blood name of all the firstborn, scarlet feathered formels destined to lead the Pack of the Scarlet Feather, along with honoring Blood-Seeker's decreased clutch-sister, Lily-Hunter. And…to honor her firstborn, Blood-Seeker gave the same form of blood to the firstborn of her last clutch.
"Tempest-Bleeder."
Carefully, Blood-Seeker pulled the hatchling out of the burrow. The elderly mother sniffed Tempest-Bleeder, checking under her wings and ruffling her feathers. The hatchling merely chirruped and wheeked at her mother, confused and hungry. The hatchling was smaller than any of Blood-Seeker's other eyasses. Still, Tempest-Bleeder seemed healthy enough for what little Blood-Seeker knew of skytalons and for being a mix-blood. It was almost unnerving and awe-inspiring to have those dark-amber eyes staring at her, and what should have been whites of Tempest-Bleeder's eyes were black as the night sky. Blood-Seeker had created this within herself, and it was amazing that the hatchling was alive, breathing, and seemingly thriving.
"The second is already out of their egg!"
Blood-Seeker's head snapped back to the burrow where Silent-Torrent was stationed. The tiercel's lone eye was large with something like fear. "It's a lot bigger than the first one."
The giant scarlet sickleclaw slipped her head back inside the burrow. Her second hatchling stood there, bristling, looking so much like his father. He sported the same obsidian-black feathers and silvery rosettes along his dorsum. Like his sister, he possessed the same strange winged forearms. Unlike her, he sported the skytalon casque and scutes along his neck, but his auricles were much smaller than his sister's, nor did he have any hindwings on his hips. The male did not sport a black-ringed tail or the iridescent tail vanes. Instead, he had the traditional feathered sickleclaw tail.
"He won't be able to fly well, if at all," Blood-Seeker commented.
The infant was out of the burrow in a heartbeat, sniffing the air and giving the signature wheek of a skytalon hatchling. He turned to his mother, a soft hiss slipping from his tiny jaws. When Blood-Seeker did nothing, he retreated into the burrow, where he curled among the fragments of his eggshell. He gathered the largest shard with his three-fingered wings and began gnawing.
"Tattered-Night," Blood-Seeker mumbled.
And so she waited for the last egg to hatch, but this one was taking far longer than the other two. There was still movement within the shell, but the hatchling hadn't made more than a small crack in their egg. Nonetheless, Blood-Seeker watched her children, carefully inspecting each of them from a distance. It wasn't long before she was on her feet again, pulling at their wings and running her teeth gently through their feathers and nipping tail vanes and auricles. Tempest-Bleeder did little to fuss, mostly just staring up at her mother in confusion or giving a soft hiss when Blood-Seeker pulled on something she didn't like. Tattered-Night was a different story. When the elderly formel pulled at her son's winged forearm and sniffed at the hard, armor-like covering on his head and the back of his neck, the infant squealed and brandished his clawed wings at her, teeth bared and large sickled claws on his hind feet flexing. Blood-Seeker merely backed off, gaze narrowed at the vicious hatchling. He already had a temper and wasn't more than an hour old.
It was then that she noticed the rain had let up. She settled in front of the carcass of the longneck foal she had killed. Ripping into it, Blood-Seeker pulled off slivers of meat to make it easier for her hatchlings to devour. She just hoped that skytalons were similar enough to sickleclaws in their eating behaviors and raising of young. Though seeing how different they were from sickleclaws, there was no telling what their lifestyle was like.
As small chunks of bloodied flesh were pulled from the carcass, Tattered-Night stopped gnawing on his eggshell. He lifted his head, sniffing the air as something much more desirable met his nares. Tempest-Bleeder was beside her brother, not quite as interested but still moving closer to the scent.
Tattered-Night left his eggshell behind and hurried to the dead longneck foal his mother had brought. He instantly drove his jaws into the still-warm belly, ripping and gorging himself on the insides. As he tore into his meal, he looked up at his mother, face bloodied, and growled.
It was his food now.
Tempest-Bleeder approached her brother from the side, a soft hiss slipping from her jaws. Very carefully, she snagged a far-off piece her mother had torn off the carcass. Snatched in her jaws, she huddled back against Blood-Seeker's warm leg and gnawed on her piece of meat. She already knew better than to pick a fight with her much bigger brother, even if she was very hungry. Though…something was missing.
Tempest-Bleeder looked up at her mother and wheeked, a strange hunger pang in the pit of her stomach. Her mother leaned down, sniffing her child and nosing the meat she had been eating. Tempest-Bleeder wheeked again, pulling at the light red scales on Blood-Seeker's lips. The alpha eventually opened her mouth, letting her hatchling explore.
Tempest-Bleeder nibbled at the back of Blood-Seeker's throat, wheeking again, but when nothing happened, she withdrew. There was a small chunk of meat while her brother ripped into the carcass of the foal. It seemed he didn't have the same hunger as she did.
At the sound of approaching footsteps toward the carcass, Tattered-Night whipped around, hissing. Blood and gore clung to the sleek feathers of his face, and his black and gold eyes flashed with such intensity. The one who had approached was Snapping-Ivy, who was eyeing the hatchling. Surprised at the ferocity of his hiss, she had stepped back but was already moving forward again.
The obsidian feathered tiercel hissed again at the larger and older eyass. Snapping-Ivy puffed out her chest before hissing, fanning her dusky-cinnamon wings and tail feathers. Tattered-Night flared his wings, the liver-red sheen upon the iridescent black membranes catching the sun creeping out from the departing rain clouds.
Snapping-Ivy stepped closer, hissing louder. When he hissed even louder, she leaped onto the newly hatched skytalon-greatshadow hatchling's back. The hatchling squealed in pain as Snapping-Ivy's sickled talons dug deep into his back. He dropped, rolling onto his back, keeping his winged arms close to his body.
Pebble-Pouncer moved to break up the fight, but Blood-Seeker stepped in her way, dark-amber eyes focused on the brawling eyasses.
Tattered-Night squirmed underneath Snapping-Ivy until he could kick his feet from under him. He continued to roll until his tiny, sickled claws dug into the larger hatchling's belly. He kicked and kicked and kicked, drawing small beads of blood through Snapping-Ivy's coat of feathers.
Finally, with a squawk of protest, Snapping-Ivy leaped off Tattered-Night. She shook out her feathers, eyes narrowing on the strange hatchling as he climbed to his feet. Another vicious hiss sounded from the small hatchling as he flared his wings.
Blood-Seeker approached the pair, only to receive a hiss from her son. Snapping-Ivy returned another hiss at the hatchling.
"Snapping-Ivy," Blood-Seeker warned. "I will let him bite you if you do that again. You are the one who followed me to the outskirts of the Scarlet Grove and were the one almost eaten by the skytalon I killed. In a way, she was his aunt. His father was cunning and vicious, too. You should watch yourself."
Snapping-Ivy said nothing. She merely huffed and retreated behind her parents while her other three siblings huddled amongst each other. Pebble-Pouncer and Silent-Torrent sniffled and tutted over their daughter. Harsh words were exchanged between them.
With Snapping-Ivy gone, Tattered-Night returned to feasting on the longneck foal's flesh. He eyed Tempest-Bleeder from the corner of his vision. She had finished her small chunk of meat while he and Snapping-Ivy had been fighting, and she was eyeing up another chunk. And just as he leaned down to rip into the innards of the foal, Tempest-Bleeder shot forward, snagging another piece before Tattered-Night could even hiss. He merely glared at her, sensing she was like him, unlike the bigger dusky-cinnamon eyass.
As Tempest-Bleeder finished her second piece of meat, Blood-Seeker leaned down to the carcass and ripped off another piece of flesh. The tiny scarlet feathered formel streaked for the flesh. She leaped over her obsidian brother with a high-pitched squeal, knocking him over even though he was over half her size. She hissed loudly, fanning her wings, hindwings, and tailfeathers.
The two siblings continued to fight over their first meal until Blood-Seeker finally butted her large head between them. With a low growl, the two stopped and slowly returned to eating. Together.
As her two hatchlings ate their fill, Blood-Seeker turned to her last egg. Barely any progress had been made, and its movement had decreased. Flooded-River and Mist-Wanderer were both looking at the egg. Whispers passed between the two azure eyasses.
When Mist-Wanderer noticed that Blood-Seeker was staring at them, she looked up. "Do you think it'll hatch? Are…are you going to help it?"
Blood-Seeker said nothing. She pushed her head deeper into the burrow and sniffed the egg. "If it hatches, it hatches. If my offspring cannot make it out of their egg, they will not survive the world I must raise them in.
Those words seemed to spur the hatchling within. Their shoulders pushed past the last of the egg, and their head finally breached the shell and thick fluid within it. The hatchling, the smallest of the three, slid out of their egg into the soft nest. Their burnt-scarlet feathered flanks struggled for breath as dark-amber and grey eyes fluttered open and shut.
Blood-Seeker sniffed their dark-red back. Carefully, she pulled the hatchling out of the burrow, placing them next to her other two hatchlings. Her dark-amber eyes narrowed on them, watching for the fall and rise of breath.
They looked so close to that of a pure-blooded skytalon. The black-ringed tail, the tail vanes, auricles, neck scutes, casque, and hind wings. They had all of them. They even had rosettes and mask-like markings around their eyes, both dusky-scarlet. But this was a runt, and runts rarely survived.
"You shall be named Fading-Wisp," Blood-Seeker whispered to her third hatchling.
Fading-Wisp's liver-ringed tail flicked, and they blinked blurry eyes at their mother but couldn't manage much more.
The familiar scent of Blood-Seeker's pack washed over her. The elderly alpha cursed. With a sharp look, she turned to the much smaller sickleclaw family. "Hide!" She picked up Fading-Wisp and tossed them into the nearby bushes, hoping the pack wouldn't think of devouring them before Blood-Seeker could bury them, for surely, they would die before the day's end. Quickly, the alpha ushered her other two thriving children away from Pebble-Pouncer's family.
Blood-Seeker trotted through the underbrush, sensing the movement of more than one greatshadow following her. She had to get them as far away from the swiftthieves as possible. When they were getting too close, Blood-Seeker stopped. When the leaves in front of her moved, she pushed the two of her newest brood into the nearest bush.
"Mother?"
Blood-Seeker tensed, recognizing the all too familiar voice of her hazel-feathered son, Growling-Thunder. He approached, followed by his osmium-blue clutch-brother, Storm-Bringer. Lastly was the form of an older formel sporting dusky-russet feathers.
"Blooming-Umber," Blood-Seeker greeted, voice flat. "What are you doing here with my children?"
"We were coming to check on you, alpha. You have been gone so often that some of the pack were getting suspicious about what you were up to. I thought bringing your children to track you down would be best." The formel glanced around, carefully scenting the air. Her burnt-amber eyes, a shade darker than Blood-Seeker's dark-amber eyes, narrowed a fraction.
"What is that smell?" Blooming-Umber hissed. "It's so strange."
At those words, the two adolescent sons of Blood-Seeker sniffed the air.
"If you have nothing better to do than spy on your alpha, then I suggest you return to the pack, Blooming-Umber." Blood-Seeker shifted her weight from one foot to the other, sensing the movement of her newly hatched children behind her. "There is nothing strange happening here. I have just been contemplating life more as I grow older.
"Nothing is wrong," Growling-Thunder ducked his head. "I'm sorry for having disturbed you, mother. We'll get—"
He was cut off when a blur of black shot out from the bushes behind Blood-Seeker—a tiny creature barely the size of his deadly sickled talon. Strange wings adored its forearms, and the back of its neck and head were covered with something sleek and hard. The little creature hissed with all its might, wings fanned and feathers fluffed.
A heartbeat later, another appeared. It was scarlet but without the hardened head and neck covering. Instead, the red one sported a pair of false wings on its hips and tail vanes.
"What are those?" Storm-Bringer questioned, staring at the hatchlings, light-pyrite eyes wide.
Blood-Seeker stared at her adolescent sons, then at the two children who had just hatched. Her mind tried to stitch together a plausible explanation, but she couldn't stop her jaws from uttering the words. "My children."
"Your…children?" Growling-Thunder echoed, staring at the tiny, hissing creatures. Creatures that may have sported a similar body type and the same deadly sickled claws but also looked so different from them, with wings, armor, and other appendages.
"I didn't know you had taken a new mate, Alpha," Blooming-Umber glanced at the blue tiercel beside her. "Did you know that your mother had taken a new mate?"
A mix of emotions flickered through Storm-Bringer's eyes until he met his mother's gaze. "No. I didn't know." His voice was cold and flat.
"Mother?" Growling-Thunder stared at Blood-Seeker, confusion and horror in his eyes. They darted back to the two hissing hatchlings.
"Well, if she did take a new mate, those aren't greatshadow eyasses. So…who is the father? Or should I ask, what is he?" The dusky-russet formel approached, leaning in to smell the two hatchlings, but Blood-Seeker let out a low hiss. Blooming-Umber returned the hiss. "I've heard of different types of strongbiters and even sickleclaws producing children, but this? What is this? What are these things?"
"Does it matter, Blooming-Umber?" Blood-Seeker slowly raised herself to her full height. She stood taller than the other female and was covered in many more scars. "These are my children, and it has nothing to do with the pack who their sire is."
"I think it does." Blooming-Umber circled her alpha, her black tail feathers nearly brushing past Blood-Seeker's snout. "What would the pack think, knowing their alpha had conceived children with a…strange creature? Conceived children against her will?" She suggested, eyes darting to the children and then to Blood-Seeker. "Would that not label her as weak? Unable to defend herself from a lust-hungry male who wasn't even of her kind. How can she defend her pack when she can't defend herself or even get rid of the evidence? Maybe it is time you step down, Blood-Seeker. You have been leading the Pack of the Scarlet Feather too long."
Blood-Seeker growled but kept her children in her sight—all her children.
"Is this true, Mother?" Growling-Thunder whispered. "Were you…?"
The scarlet formel stared at her hazel son, wanting to tell him the truth, but her jaws wouldn't work. She couldn't bring herself to tell the truth. Neither the truth nor the lie Blooming-Umber was spinning would help anything now. Maybe it was better if they believed she was forced to mate with a strange male rather than learning she had willingly mated with a skytalon because he reminded her too much of her first mate. What would her entire pack think, knowing she mated with something that wasn't a greatshadow or a sickleclaw?
More thoughts flooded Blood-Seeker as she stared down Blooming-Umber and her two adolescent children. Now that two of her three eggs held thriving hatchlings, she could no longer take their lives. They were her children as much as any of her other children were. And they would not be accepted into the pack. Not with the wings that shaped their forearms or the whites of their eyes being black. Too many questions would be asked, and all Blood-Seeker could see would be the death of her and her hatchlings. She may be an alpha, but she was old, and her entire pack could take her life if they were swayed to do so. And the one that would sway them was standing in front of her.
Her two adolescent children, just like all her other children, showed no interest in becoming the next leader of the pack. Besides, Storm-Bringer and Growling-Thunder were still too young to take on the duties of an alpha. It didn't seem fitting either way. A scarlet feathered formel had always led the pack since it was formed several generations ago. Neither of them sported the bright red feathers. Lily-Bleeder, her first hatched daughter, should have been the next Pack of the Scarlet Feather leader, but her life was taken too soon.
At that moment, Blood-Seeker made a decision.
The elderly formel looked between each greatshadow, meeting each of their eyes until she ducked her head in a submissive bow. "Become alpha if you wish, Blooming-Umber. It has long passed my time to step down. I think this is a sign that I must depart my pack." Her eyes rose, meeting the darker shade of amber. "Though, it seems I won't have a choice either way."
A fraction of surprise flashed in Blooming-Umber's burnt-amber eyes, but she took the comment with stride. "You know how you will be treated by the pack now, Blood-Seeker."
"It is better than letting my children and I be slaughtered by them. I will leave Scarlet Grove immediately." With that, she was already turning away, her two infants scuttling behind her. Blooming-Umber huffed and turned in the opposite direction, walking to the heart of the Scarlet Grove where the pack resided, surely ready to tell the pack of Blood-Seeker's weakness and betrayal.
"You're just going to let that happen!" Storm-Bringer snapped, almost following his mother and half-siblings. "You're no longer alpha, just like that?"
Blood-Seeker paused but did not look back at her blue-feathered son. "It was bound to happen to me or one of my children. Rarely do packs have easy leadership transitions, especially when there is no heir. Neither you nor Growling-Thunder are old enough, nor do you show any interest in leadership. Your older siblings have long since left the Pack of the Scarlet Feather to start their own lives. I have not chosen a suitable heir among the younger generation and have been considered too old to lead for years. I am sure you have seen how some pack members look at me. It was bound to be a messy transition. Maybe this is better. With my new brood, I can't risk getting hurt."
"How can you accept them?" Growling-Thunder stared at his mother in confusion, tears glittering in his eyes. "How when…when a male… Mother, why didn't you tell us?"
"Do you think an old hag like myself would ever admit to such a thing? As an alpha? I didn't think I would lay eggs or produce thriving hatchlings." She glanced at Tempest-Bleeder and Tattered-Night. "This is a new step in my long life. I am sure I will see you again, Growling-Thunder, Storm-Bringer. But I must leave to take care of my newest brood."
"Mother!" Storm-Bringer shouted, but Blood-Seeker ignored him, continuing her trek out of the Scarlet Grove, her two winged children in tow.