T
Tegan
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Original poster
"Carus. Tell me something you've never told anyone."
"When I was very small, I asked my nurse, 'who built the Aviary?' To which she replied that it was the avians. I wanted to know what kept it in the sky. Then, she did something very strange, something that I had never seen an elder do before."
"What was that?"
"She said that she did not know."
"Hnn..."
"As I grew, the stories of my tutors were much the same. That somehow, the avians of old constructed this city in the clouds. They did it to escape the freezing mountains, to be closer to the sky."
"Then, on my eighteenth namesake, my father told me the truth: that the Aviary has been kept aloft for three hundred years by a device beyond our comprehension."
"A what?"
"A device, little fool. A strange crystal, the only of its kind: the alate."
"If you built the Aviary, how do you not know what an alate is?"
"The avians did not create this city."
"Then who did?"
"I don't know."
His companion made a whistling noise that became a peel of laughter when he nuzzled her small breasts, nipping at the soft flesh. They laid together in his bed, sheets still tangled, sweat still glistened on their brows. The Avian closed his eyes and basked in the scent of her. "Tell me a secret, Nama."
Nama did not reply right away. She brushed her fingers through his flaxen hair, fingernails ghosting his scalp. "Doesn't your father return tomorrow?"
Carus' wings twitched, unfurled slightly. "Is this a secret I want to hear?"
Nama showed him just how unamused she was by ceasing to massage his scalp. Carus grumbled, pressed his head into her fingers. "Surely the governor of the Aviary would be upset if he found his only son consorting with the likes of me."
Carus' breath tickled her collarbone as he spoke. "Despite what others may say," his hand drifted down to stroke the curve her hip, the swell of her thigh. "I do not care what my father thinks."
He propped himself on one elbow, face hovering above hers, so that he could watch her expressions. "It is our proud traditions that are killing us. Every year, our numbers grow smaller, our wings weaker." His other hand found a more subtle flesh. His fingers parted her, then entered. "We must look to the other races for mingling." The Forest Kin gasped, delighted by the intrusion.
Carus lowered his lips to her ear, whispered in a way that made her shudder. "Are you going to tell me a secret, now? Or must I force it out of you?" Then, he kissed her, deeply, never pulling away until he coaxed her body into arching against his hand. She cried out, then, in some desperate, mad attempt.
"Carus!"
He watched her, still clutching the sheets, still flushed from desire. The violet pigment she painted on her lips smudged. His vision whirls. Her lips had such a strange taste. He feels drunk.
"My name," Nama smiled, still basking in the afterglow of her climax, "isn't Nama."
Carus slumped face forward into the cushions next to her. The Forest Kin slipped out from underneath him, grinning as she studied a seemingly ordinary key in her palm. "Sorry, my love. It wouldn't have worked out between us, anyway."
***
The Staircase was located beneath the sky city. It was aptly named, for a wide channel carved out of the rock which lead to a 180 degree drop to the toxic forest miles below. It was a staircase only an avian could use. It contained one thing.
Rasfien descended the Staircase, facing downward, the giant spider sac attached to her leg guiding her down. She went parallel to a length of chain suspended from high above. Midway through the channel, Rasfien discovered the metal cage.
The Forest Kin drew a long vial from her tool belt; containing a large centipede. She shook the vial, triggering the centipede's defense mechanism: a bright fluorescent glow. This she placed between her teeth, before she withdrew the key she had stolen from Carus. There was a moment of awkwardly swaying by her spider silk before Rasfien could work the lock open.
From inside the pouch on her back came a ferret with shining eyes. Its body shimmered with the glow of an advent as it jumped from her back and into the cage. When it returned to the cage's opening, clutching a smooth, glowing crystal, Rasfien held out her hands to catch him. Aux and alate tucked safely away, Rasfien placed the centipede vial into the cage, its top smudged with the violet from her lips.
Rasfien drew a dagger, hauled herself up and cut the spider silk. The wind took the air from her lungs as she fell, but the suit her employer had given her proved its usefulness. A wing-like fabric unfurled with the wind, connecting to the hooks lining her arms, her thighs. The thief hollered in elation as she glided fast towards the forest below. Already, parts of the Aviary were beginning to fall away.
The Chimera had struck again.
Chapter 2
The Aviary
The Aviary
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