Mirror Darkly

 

Helping. That what he called our little episode on the sand. Like he was some kind of Good Samaritan doing his duty. I wanted to rip his throat out—a fact he seemed to sense and made himself scarce after that. The prick. I was healing fast, much faster than I had before but that didn’t stop me from planning ways to get back at him. I shifted on a thick hide rug in the room Volkir left me in and grimaced at the painful sensation.

Oh he was going to pay in blood. My pup whined and poked its head out of its hiding basket.

“Come here.” I motioned to it. It bound over to me with quick light steps, snuggling under my arm and close to my chest. I wound my fingers in its fur, petting as I thought.

“You know things would be a lot easier if you could just eat him.” The pup looked at me with his head tilted as if considering then shook a clear ‘no’.

“Your right, he would probably poison you anyways.” The pup licked my chin. I looked down at him with a sort of smile on my face. Funny, I never thought myself a dog person. He bit me sharply.

“Ow fine I won’t use the ‘D’ word. Geeze.” It blinked regally and settled back down, tucking its head under my chin. For a time I just listened to its heart—it was oddly calming.

“Do you have a name? I can’t keep calling you pup.” It looked at me and blinked. Well what did I expect? It to start speaking? Suddenly I was engulfed in the scent of frost and sweet rushes. Like a lake at midwinter.  His name was a smell!

“If you expect me to be able to call you by that you are sorely mistaken. A lake at midwinter hmm.” I heard a soft thump and the rustle of wings.

“Go, back to your basket.” It made a chuffing noise and I shooed it again. Volkir walked in just as it settled. Man is my timing great or what? He paused mid step and scented the room, frowning slightly before looking at me strangely.

“What?” my voice was sharp

“I heard you talking.”

“So?” he frowned and took another step towards me before thinking better of it. I bared my fangs at him, a hiss like growl bubbling up on my chest. An odd expression crossed his face as he halted. It was almost…remorseful? He tossed a small jar of something at me.

“It will help take the sting away.” Fuck. He needs to make up his mind; this switching from asshole to friend like person was messing with my head. He shifted his weight to his other foot wings ruffling as made no move to take the jar. His face was tense as if afraid I would reject his ‘gift’. The molting feathers helped as well. I placed my hand over the jar and he looked away.

“I’ll leave you to it then.” Ha I won. I waited until I heard his footsteps fade before taking the lid off and smelling the pale paste. The sharp medicinal smell convinced me more of his good intentions than his words had. But still, do I trust it—trust him? We saw what happened last time I did that. Hmm.

I smoothed a little of the paste on to one of the worse cuts he gave me and sighed as the pain immediately lessened. For all the bonuses my new wing form gave me, extra sensitive skin was not one I liked so much. Without the pain distracting me to wakefulness I found it hard to keep my eyes open. Shit. I struggled to stay awake, not trusting Volkir that much. My pup lifted his head just enough so I could see his eyes from under the basket lid. Ah, my little protector. I let myself sleep.

Passing out sucks. Waking up in a place you know you didn’t go to sleep in is worse. I sat up sharply taking in my surroundings. I was in a white stone room with garishly colored filmy cloth draped everywhere like I was in some kind of harem. Hmm all the white stone made it look as if I was back in….oh fuck no. movement at my left caught my eye and I found myself looking at the crimson eyes of the only color challenged Xair I had met. Lord Fhlorain. Waking up to find that staring at you is beyond creepy. He stood up and walked over to me. Taking a lock of my hair in his hand and kissing it. Ew.

“You are so beautiful.” He paused. “When you sleep.” Well is that wasn’t a backhanded comment I don’t know what is.

“Funny I remember going to sleep in Volkir’s home.” I said, ignoring his ‘compliment’.

“You are Dargon. It isn’t proper for you to sleep in such a place so I had you moved.” Somehow I think sleeping in a harem is a whole lot less proper then a cave. At least the cave had good taste. Wait…moved me? What about the pup?!

“It was to my understanding that Volkir was to show me what is proper.” I spoke as calmly as I could. Fhlorain’s face hardened slightly.

“I had thought you might find it easier to settle into your surrounding here.” His voice was silky. Like oil and honey. I didn’t trust it at all.

“You thought wrong.” I Stood up and walked to the door. “Could you lead me to Volkir?” I asked what I assumed was a guard. The guard clapped a fist to his chest and bowed slightly. Well, that’s new.  I looked back at Fhlorain before following the guard. His face was hostile.

“I look forward to seeing you again Ahufre.” Me too. Not. The guard led me back to Volkir’s cave before bowing again and returing. I tried to walk slow even as I wanted to rush about looking for my pup. He wasn’t in the cave. I walked out to the sand and ledge of the back and found him curled up on Volkir’s lap.

“It seems as if you have some explaining to do Ahufre.” He looked at me with hard eyes. Shit.