The Eagle People, Going to battle.
Kareen kept her wings as high as she could. After all, she was dyeing her husband’s wings, not her own. The feathers on her wings, and her head, were a shade of brown, and didn’t stand out like her husband’s bright red wings. At least he didn’t have feathers all over his body like birds. That would take forever to dye. His skin, apart from the wings, was as bare as a human’s.
And she knew it was just as vulnerable.
They were in a room that seemed to be made of wicker, tightly woven sticks, and it was lit with giant dead fireflies pinned to the wall. Couldn’t have torches in the nest, it would catch fire too easily, but the yellow light of these fireflies from the land of the giants served well.
Fire. That was one weapon she knew the enemy were bound to bring…but then again the goblins didn’t like light, so perhaps not. Maybe she was getting ahead of herself, but who could blame her?
She kept thinking that though her people were called the eagle men, it wasn’t an appropriate term. There were many species of bird that her people resembled. The bright red cardinal, for instance, like Terin, her husband. Of course in the inevitable battle such bright red wings, even with a little black on the feather tips, would stand out. So they were dyeing his wings brown to fade in with rest of the warriors.
At least they didn’t have to dye the feathers on his head. Like a real cardinal those stuck up and back. It always looked ridiculous, so they shaved those off long ago, along with his beard. That just left the skin on his head smooth. Of course at that moment she was focused on the wings, tenderly wiping them with a cloth soaked in dye. They really were magnificent wings, even dyed brown. If anything happened to those wings…
“You’ve been quiet Kareen,” said Terin.
“Have I?” she asked, though she knew it was true.
“We’ll be fine,” he said, as if this war would be the same as any other war they had fought.
“You know what’s been happening to the other races,” she said. “You know about the cloud.”
“The dark cloud obscuring the sun, removing the one thing the goblins fear? And now we are the next race the goblins will descend on? I remember, but we have one advantage. Unlike the goblins, there isn’t one thing we fear.”
She knew he was probably smiling, but his back was turned to her as she continued rubbing dye on his wings. She loved his smile, and the thought that something could happen to it reminded her that she did fear something. Oh she feared something!
“There,” she said, finishing up. “That’s the last of it. It should only take a few seconds to dry.”
He stood, counted to five, faced her and hugged her, enveloping her in his wings like a warm, protective blanket. She loved it when he did that, and it made her cry.
“I’m so scared,” she said.
“I’ve never seen you scared,” he replied.
“Not for myself, but if anything should happen to you…to our children…the goblins can fly like us Terin. They were no danger when they hid in caves from the sun but now…they will attack us here, at the nest palace! That’s never been done before! What if…”
“Kareen, you’ve been practicing with your bow?”
“Yes.”
“Well there you go. With your aim I’m certain the goblins will fall before they even get near our children. As for me, my sword doesn’t reach as far as a bow, but the same principle applies.”
She laughed, and he did to.
“We’ll be fine,” he told her. She wanted to believe it, and wrapped in the warmth of his wings she felt she could.
But she knew she wouldn’t.
To Be Continued
