Silver Eyes

A/N - I am so sorry, this was supposed to be up Wednesday, but then Thanksgiving hit. I think I am still full from that!
smint45 - I am American, but I live in the UK, so I came back to see my family for Thanksgiving. Is it your first time out here? I hope you have a good holiday! And your question is answered this chapter ;)
Rose - thank you for the review! In my defence, I am evil ;) Er, I mean...see excuse above? lol
Enjoy!
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There was chaos for several minutes as the Knight’s well trained mount wheeled to attack. D’rian threw Naia off their horse; she hit the ground as a fox and disappeared into a bush. He could feel her terror filled eyes on his back and he fervently hoped that she wasn’t going to lose another family.

He gathered his energy and turned his attention to Asahi’s attacker. He froze wide eyed at the sight in front of him. The Knight was fighting off a man with wings. Gryfon-were a corner of his mind supplied. It was also obvious that the newcomer was going for the kill while Asahi was merely defending himself. If it was a less serious situation, D’rian would have probably laughed at the look of confusion on Asahi’s face. The wizard shook himself out of the shock of seeing another nonhuman blatantly exposing what he was and sent his energy out as a gust of wind, flinging the other man backwards. Asahi took the momentary reprieve to take a guarding position in front of the Fae. While D’rian was no weakling, it was obvious that his abilities would be of more help here, and their attacker seemed to be as good a swordsman, if not better, than Asahi.

The wizard took that moment to get a good look at their opponent. The man’s amber, slit pupil eyes were dilated in anger, but seemed to soften when they looked at D’rian. His face was quite remarkable even without the strange eyes. His skin was tanned a honey brown, his face was strong and completely masculine, with the faintest touch of a five o’clock shadow. His hair was a deep, rich chocolate brown, fading out into lighter streaks as it fell to his shoulders. The rest of his body was lean and strong, a bit shorter but also a bit broader than Asahi’s. And his wings were stunning – they were mantled now in aggression, and looked easily strong enough to support the man’s weight in flight if he desired. The majority of his wings were the same color as his hair, with the long primaries fading into a gorgeous caramel brown. D’rian belatedly wondered if he was drooling, and reprimanded himself for thinking with his hormones when this man had attacked them.

Even as the wizard was thinking this, the man’s mouth turned upward into a haughty smirk, and the Were darted forward sword swinging up to attack. Asahi parried the first blow but the man was fast, agilely avoiding the Knight’s attacks and using his wings to his advantage. D’rian sent another blast of wind, but the other was prepared for it this time and dodged. His attack sent Asahi flying instead. The stranger quickly pressed his advantage following the thrown Knight. With a distraught cry, the wizard threw up a shield, which he had barely been able to raise in time to deflect the attack that would have most likely taken Asahi’s life. He pulled more energy; the shield had been thrown up haphazardly and would not hold up for more than a few attacks. However, instead of pressing his advantage the winged man turned to him with a shocked and almost betrayed expression.

“You…would protect him?” The Were asked in a surprised tone.

D’rian blinked a few times before he realized what had happened. He felt himself relax minutely, and strode over to where Asahi still half knelt on the ground. He looked confused by the current situation as well.

The wizard extended a hand to help the other man stand up. Asahi was still holding his sword at the ready and positioned himself in front of the Fae. He didn’t trust the other man to not attack yet.

“Yes, of course I would. He would do the same for me as well.”

Asahi brought his sword up in a defending position in an unspoken agreement.

The Were looked between the two. “Would he do the same if he knew the truth though?”

Knew – ooh. So either the other knew he was non-human, or suspected. However, he would be damned if he admitted what he was to a stranger. “Knew what exactly?”

The brunet eyed the Knight and then brought his wings forward quickly to send his own gust of wind to blow D’rian’s hood off. “That you’re a Fae.”

Asahi snorted in disgust. “And you’re one to talk, bird man.”

The other man bristled, “I am a Gryfon-were, not a stupid bird. So you already knew then?”

“Bird! Of course! That’s why I couldn’t sense anyone following us.”

Both of the men stared at him at his outburst, but D’rian just shrugged. “I never thought to look up. And don’t tell me it wasn’t driving you crazy to not know either.”

Asahi rolled his eyes and went back to the more pressing matter at hand. “So, do we still have a problem or can we talk like civilized men?”

“Depends…” the other was cut off by a blur of red as Naia went flying towards Asahi. He caught her out of reflex and the Knight and wizard were both shocked to hear her yell, in a voice hoarse from disuse, “don’t hurt Daddy!”

“Did she…” D’rian started.

“Yea, she did. Don’t worry; no one’s going to hurt us.” He glared up at the stranger. “Isn’t that right?”

The brunet looked miserable for some strange reason at the girl’s exclamation but nodded anyway. “That’s right. However, if you truly mean these two no harm then I’m still glad I attacked you. There’s a division of the army up ahead, left behind to try to catch the family from Wintersedge – the town you three just left – if they try to return. I had thought you were going to turn these two in.

“The two exchanged a look. “He’s been able to hide himself for years; there wouldn’t have been a problem. Well, unless he decided to go drinking with the soldiers…”

It was D’rian’s turn to roll his eyes. “You are never going to let me live that down are you? It was just one bloody time! And it’s not my fault that stupid waitress kept giving me more!”

“Yes, one time and if it had been anyone else on this trip with you they would have turned you in or killed you!”

The Were huffed and looked between the two with a bemused look on his face. “Whenever you are done bickering like children we should probably decide what to do. We probably shouldn’t keep standing out here. Someone could go by and we haven’t exactly been being quiet.”

Asahi arched an eyebrow. “And whose fault is that? Besides, who said we’d go anywhere with you?”

“That’s easy; I know you were asking about that family in town. If it’s not to turn them in, then it’s obviously to get yourselves out.”

“You know who is helping the nonhumans get out of the country?”

“Of course I do, that would be me!”

Both men were shocked at his admission. That had just made things a lot easier for them. Asahi nodded slowly. He really wished he could dislike or distrust this guy, but his instincts said he could, and unfortunately the situation was more important than his bruised ego. “Then I guess we’re going with you. But we don’t actually want to leave the country; we want to help.”

A smile lit up the Were’s face. “Great! We can always use more people, and we have very few humans who are willing to leave their homes and families to help. It’s easier to send humans and Were’s to track down families since we can hide easily and humans don’t need to hide at all. It’s about aweek’s journey riding. Unfortunately it’s also back the way you came from. I was headed back to base when I stumbled upon this lovely Fae. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say he stumbled into me?” He winked at said Fae.

D’rian gave a self-deprecating laugh. “I suppose I should be embarrassed at all the trouble that night caused, but it all ended up well, so I’m done apologizing.”

“Well then, since that’s all settled, we should probably be off. And since we were too busy swinging swords and magic, I’m Kelian. You can call me Kel or Li if you’d like, I’ll answer to either.

The Fae shook the extended hand. “I’m Rian, that’s Asahi and the little one is Naia. “

Kelian smiled down at Naia who still had her head buried in Asahi’s chest and didn’t look to be moving any time soon. “Hi lovely. I’m sorry I scared you, I didn’t mean to, I promise. Do you think we could still be friends?”

She looked up shyly then nodded slightly, before hiding again. The were smiled softly, knowing that was as much as he was going to get for now.

The Knight exchanged a look with the wizard over their heads as Kelian spoke with Naia, mouthing “Rian?” to the other man. D’rian just shrugged, and Asahi let it drop. He’d figure out the name thing eventually. It was, after all, something that the Fae just didn’t know, it wasn’t something he was hiding intentionally (well, at least from him).

“Well, shall we be off then?” Asahi whistled for his mount. The warhorse had herded the other two mounts out of the way of fighting, and the three had been grazing since the violence had calmed down. The stallion obediently returned to his Knight, bringing the other two horses with him again. He gave the Were a sidelong glare, but stood still, too well trained to fidget even with the scent of predator next to him.

“We can rearrange the packs then you can ride the gelding. Rian can use the mare, and Naia can ride with me. Hopefully you won’t scare him too much. I’m assuming you’ll be losing the wings.”

“Yes, I wouldn’t be very good at sneaking around if I didn’t. Once I lose them I will smell much more like a human and they should calm down. Horses will never like me, but they’ll tolerate me.”

The group finished rearranging their supplies and all mounted. D’rian had to ride the mare bareback, but she had a smooth gait so it wouldn’t be that bad. They wouldn’t be able to stop at any of the towns they had previously been to, so it would be a while before he could get a saddle.

A few minutes later saw them on their way back in the direction they had just come from. Kel wasted no time striking up a conversation. “So, I don’t mean to pry, but how come the little Kitsune doesn’t talk? And you both seemed surprised when she called Asahi ‘daddy’.”

The original pair shared a look and Asahi shrugged. “You explain – you understood what had happened better than I did.”

D’rian related the story of how they found Naia while Kelian look disturbed and angry, though not particularly shocked. “I shouldn’t still be surprised at how cruel people can be, but at least she has you two now.” A quick flicker of something dark flashed through the Were’s eyes, but neither was about to ask what caused it. He appeared to be a bit older than the two of them, so the events of what happened to him and his family would be a lot clearer than their memories, and obviously much more painful.

“I always wondered how the King got away with it. He just waged war on a whole race of people and no one blinked an eye or stood up to him?”
The Were gave him a small, humourless smile. “Of course people stood up to him. But the army was behind him, and most of them had fought in the previous war with him so a lot of them were against nonhumans as well. The humans who fought were killed alongside of their nonhuman friends, so it wasn’t long before they stopped trying, preferring to save their own families. It would be easy to blame them, but most of them were civilians, and wouldn’t have stood up against a soldier who has seen war anyway. Out here, places like the town you saw, there wasn’t anyone or any warning to save them. I am sure he handpicked the groups for those jobs from people who enjoyed violence and killing and wouldn’t speak of what they did even to fellow soldiers.”

All three fell silent for a few minutes, but then Kelian turned their conversation to less dark subjects, and they found that the brunet had tons of stories to tell. He had been doing this for several years, and had been all over the country and to most of the neighbouring countries as well, except for Taylan. When they asked all he would say was that they were not friendly to fugitives. The hard look in his eyes stopped them from asking further questions, and they quickly dropped the subject.

Keyalso proved to be an excellent scout; he would fly forward, shifting into the falcon which had eluded D’rian for over a week and look for the army division which were scouring the woods. He had assured them that the family in question were already well away, and weren’t going to get caught. The path through the mountains leading into Syl was dangerous for humans and a lot of nonhumans but they were Were’s and their animal forms would keep them both safe and warm in the higher altitudes. That’s how he had found them as well; they had scented him in his lion form, and knew he was a Were because from their ‘hunting’ trips – excuses to be able to shift freely away from human eyes - they knew that there hadn’t been a lion in those parts for years.

D’rian had to admit to his ignorance about Were’s and their forms, and Kelian gladly explained that Gryfon-weres could not only shift into a half human form, which consisted of his wings, tail and the slit pupil eyes, but into three forms instead of one. He could change into either the falcon or lion half of his true form, or his full Gryfon form. He forlornly admitted it had been quite a while since he had been able to fly freely in that form.

The third night out Kelian asked if he could see D’rian without the illusion. He had taken to not wearing his hood while they were camped, but his illusion had been part of him since he was eight. The wizard figured if Kel deemed it safe enough it probably was. It was also dark enough out that human eyes would have a hard time seeing him anyway. The Were had stated that he was ‘absolutely stunning’ and joked that he had better keep his illusion up even in the base to avoid a horde of suitors, but Asahi was sure he hadn’t meant for the Knight to see the wistful look that passed across his face when D’rian turned away muttering under his breath. The wizard had obviously never been in a position to receive compliments before and he couldn’t hide the tinge of pink that appeared on his cheeks.

Both men had been enjoying this part of the trip so much that they were actually quite sad when Kel announced it was their last night camping out before they reached the base.

Tbc...