[The White Raven, Chapter 17, Flight of the eagles] [Lone Gunslinger Base, Planet Raunu] Jaco peeked down from the rafters where he had built a nest to sleep. He had been a prisoner for a week now, though they didn’t put him in chains. Still, better than being hanged, but then maybe being hanged would have been a kinder mercy than the horrifying punishment for getting caught he would now have to endure. Jaco tipped his head from side-to-side and watched the human sleeping. They didn’t look like they were guarding him, but he had the feeling that if he tried to run he wouldn’t make it, they would gun him down, and getting shot was a terrifying prospect. No matter which way Jaco turned his head, squinted his eyes, or tried to trick himself, the human was ugly. He had asked the Goddess for a mate, any mate… but this? “The Goddess must hate me,” whispers Jaco to himself. Jaco flipped down from the rafters and landed quietly on the floor of the cabin. The human turned over in his sleep and Jaco went to work on the Vid-screen. He pulled the wires out of the closed circuit system, and began rewiring the entire thing. If he had to be this humans mate or prisoner, whatever he was, at least he could ensure his own survival by advancing the human to Daraian standards in science. He checked the time on his tablet, only an hour more before the humans would wake and he would have to accompany the human to his school. Jaco had already read the human textbooks, and found them appalling in their inaccuracies; the humans were a barbaric and backward race. Jaco checked the cupboards and found a set of nice cups lined along the shelf. He took them all and tossed them up into his nest, along with several spoons. He did like collecting things, but he didn’t care about these objects, he needed to identify the Gunslinger Simon’s DNA from his human capture. As an after-thought he opened the sleeping human’s clothes chest and took one of his sweaters before leaping back up to the rafters. Jaco sat in his nest, closed his eyes, and buried his face in the sweater. “Hold it… hold it… gah… humans stink,” whispers Jaco. Jaco pulls the sweater away and wrinkles his nose, he has to get used to the human's smell. He shoves the sweater to his face again and holds it there until he feels like throwing up, and then sets the sweater aside. “I’ll never get used to the smell of humans,” mumbles Jaco. “That’s enough for now, I still have time to write a letter.” He retrieves the tablet and flips it on, the comforting glow from the tablet illuminates his nest, and he begins to write. Dear Pesa, I’m glad to hear about your promotion. Maybe your ship will be close enough to Raunu to visit someday. I have strange news to tell you. I was captured, but they didn’t hang me, obviously. I’m a prisoner, and worse than that, I’ve been given to a human boy as a… I can’t say it, Pesa, it’s horrible, but I can’t dishonor the House of Jackdaw, I’m a prisoner and must bring honor to my House by obeying until a time that I’m ransomed. I think the human has strange tastes, because… Oh Pesa, what do I do? The human hasn’t called me to his nest yet, but I’m certain he will. I’m a Raven, and I’m not naive to the dark desires that all species hold… but a male human… he obviously has a perverted taste for Daraians. I guess I’ll have no choice, I’ll go to his nest when called to my duties as a prisoner. Pray to the Goddess that I might endure the horrors of my captivity. P.S. If I am ever freed, I have decided to accept the offer to be your Sae’Cenmae. Yours Forever, Love, Jaco A noise below him in the cabin attracts Jaco’s attention. He pushes the send button on the tablet and peeks over the edge of the rafters. The Gunslinger Simon is making a cup of coffee. The Gunslinger sips at the coffee and sets it down on the counter, then walks back to his room. Jaco hears the door to the bathing room close, and quickly flips down to the floor. “Perfect, now I have his DNA,” whispers Jaco, and scans the cup. He quickly uses the scanned DNA to put a lock on the Vid-screen, now only the younger human will be able to access the Raven Library. The human boy is stirring now, and Jaco grabs the coffee cup and tosses the foul liquid into the sink, but keeps the cup as a prize, or maybe just to be annoying. He makes it back up into his nest just as the human boy rolls off his bunk and starts dressing. "Jaco, have you seen my gray sweater?" says the human boy. "You're still pronouncing it wrong," replies Jaco. "Jaco, Jako, Jeko…whatever, have you seen my sweater?" Jaco grabs the sweater and tosses it over the edge of the rafters, it smells bad and he doesn’t want it in his nest anyway. "Sorry, I thought you didn't want it anymore," says Jaco. ***** [East Coast of Fulmar Ocean, Southern Hemisphere, Planet Darai, House Eagle] “Peli, come look,” shouts Vas. “What is it?,” replies Peli, crawling up to the cockpit and looking out. “Is that the ocean?.” “We passed the one-hundred mile border ten minutes ago,” says Vas. “Wow, scary,” says Peli. Peli looks down at the hundred mile buffer zone between the ocean and the cities of Darai. The hundred mile buffer zone is a desolate wilderness that nobody ever enters and wraps around all the continents of Darai. “I heard a school on a field trip got lost and wandered into the Zone last year,” says Vas. “I remember that,” says Peli. “Can you imagine how terrifying that was?” Vas sees the coast line and pulls back on the thrusters, the wings and engines automatically rotates for vertical flight. A Cargo ship pulls up beside Vas’ Dart and hovers next to him. “You can do it, mate,” says a Struthian pilot on the Com-link. “Do you want me to take lead?” “Just give me a second,” says Vas hesitantly. No mainland Daraian has ever flown out over the ocean. “How are the orphans?” “Bit of screaming when we crossed the border,” says the Struthian pilot. “We’ve sealed all the individual passenger compartments to keep them from hurting themselves, but some are at port windows and can still see outside.” “Vas, this is Raen, coming up on your left, I’ll be taking lead, but first Moeth wants to speak to the entire House. Pilots, patch us through to your ship intercoms.” The pilots report in as they complete the patch so that the orphans on all the ships can hear Moeth. “House Eagle, this is Moeth, in a few moments we will be crossing the shoreline and heading across the ocean to our new home. We are many races, from many Houses; Ravens, Sparrows, Hawks, Rooks, Jackdaws, Crows, Grackles, Clappers, and many others. We were unwanted, discarded, and abandoned, but we came together to form our own House. There are Grackle news-crews watching us from the border, and many believe this is the point we will lose our nerve and turn back. I have received messages from every House we are from. I have been told that the moment we cross the shoreline, all of us lose our citizenships in our Home Houses.” Moeth pauses to let that news sink in while Raen pulls his Dart ship around to face the convoy of Cargo ships carrying the hundreds of orphans. “This morning before I left the Senate,” Moeth continues. “I resigned my position as Governor in favor of a more traditional title used by all Major Houses. The Commonwealth Senate approved my request and I signed the adoption order for all the orphans, present and future. Raen is now the Governor of House Eagle, and I am the Mother Eagle, all of you are now my children. There will never again be an orphan in House Eagle. Now come, my eagle hatchlings, the Eagle Cliffs are calling us.” Raen’s Dart turns and heads towards the shoreline. Vas looks at Peli and shrugs. “If the Senate approved a House Mother, I guess we are really a legitimate House now,” says Vas. “I bet it was Lord Struthio that got it pushed through,” says Peli. “He holds a lot of power in the Senate.” Vas swallows once and takes a deep breath before pushing the thrusters forward to follow Raen out over the Fulmar ocean. “You know, she might be the youngest House Mother in Daraian history,” says Vas. “We still don’t have a ruling family,” says Peli. “It’s not the first time in history that’s happened,” says Vas. “House Swan was just performing troubadours for hundreds of years before someone rose to the nobility and became the first Lord Swan.” Peli’s fingers dig into Vas’s shoulders as they pass the shoreline. “That’s it, we aren’t Ravens anymore,” says Vas. “That’s a lot of water down there,” squeaks Peli. “This is so unnatural.” “What do you think she meant by the Eagle Cliffs?” asks Vas. “No clue.” “Hey, does this mean I can take my collar off?” asks Vas. Peli leans around to look Vas in the eyes. Her expression says it all, the Moeth Alliance females accepted the equality of males, but she wasn’t ready to throw away all the countless thousands of years of tradition; the collar was too important to her. “I was just kidding,” says Vas. “Someday, just give me time,” says Peli. The mood was dampened slightly now and Peli sat back down while the convoy followed Raen’s Dart. Vas watched the ocean below, it was kind of sickening to think of just how much water was below them. Vas saw a group of something swimming below, jumping in and out of the water, and he had the irrational urge to want to pull up and put some more altitude between him and whatever those gray things in the water were. They traveled at typical airspeeds for normal aircraft, the Darts were aerodynamic and could have made the journey much quicker, but the cargo ships were not, being designed primarily for space flight. “Ring, watch what you’re doing,” says Vas over the Com-link. “Your getting way too low.” “Oh, yea, thanks,” replies Ring. “This water is disorienting.” “Use your autopilot,” says Raen, cutting into the transmission. The flight continued for another three hours before one of the Struthian pilots announced the Struthio continent ahead. Peli turned around to see the looming land mass coming up. “Would you look at that,” says Vas. “I expected an island, but that is huge,” says Peli. “Third largest continent,” says Vas. “Yea, but everyone always calls it the island continent,” says Peli. “So I kind of envisioned an island.” Raen dropped altitude and everyone followed, and then they were over land again. “Welcome to Struthio, mates,” says a familiar voice. “Lord Struthio, we were wondering where you were,” replies Raen. “I’ve been doing loopy loops up here waiting for you,” says Lord Struthio. “Just follow on and I’ll take you in.” “Raen, look down below,” shouts Ring. “Are those kangaroos?” “Aye, mate,” says Lord Struthio. “You’ve got a fair population of them roaming about.” Lord Struthio turns the convoy back out over the water and follows the shore for another hour. The beach stretches to the horizon and Vas stares at the waves pounding the sand, and wonders how the ocean doesn’t just come up and swallow everything. “I think it’s getting warm in here,” says Peli. “It’s hot outside,” says Vas. The beach starts to rise away from the ocean until they are following rocky cliffs that must be hundreds of feet above the waves. “I wonder if those are the Eagle Cliffs,” says Peli. The convoy follows the cliffs for another twenty minutes before Lord Struthio slows and banks towards the top of the cliffs. Vas is pretty sure they are at the highest point of the cliffs. “This is it, mates,” announces Lord Struthio. “Find a spot and land.” “We are seriously close to the edge of the cliffs,” says Vas dropping down and picking a random spot to land on the desolate scraggly bushed cliff. The Cargo ships come in behind Vas and line up in a long row to each side, their ramps facing the edge of the cliff, and the ocean beyond. Vas shuts down the engines and he and Peli drop the ramp and exit from the back of the Dart. “It’s really hot,” says Peli. “What’s that smell?” asks Vas. “I don’t know, smells a little like fish,” says Peli. Vas holds his hand out, there is something… different… a feeling… Peli holds her hand out and feels the sensation as well. Lord Struthio walks over with Raen and Moeth and gives them an odd smile, as if he knows something he hasn’t told them yet. “You feel it, don’t you, mate?” says Lord Struthio. The Cargo ships are lowering their ramps and the hundreds of eagle hatchlings push out to the edge of the ramps and look around at their new home. “Give it a moment,” says Lord Struthio. “The hatchlings will figure it out first, they are younger and closer to their instincts, just watch, I’ve seen this before.” The eagle hatchlings step of the ramp of the ships onto the ground, and all of them do the same thing Vas did, they hold their hands up, feeling something… different. Something that doesn’t exist anywhere else on Darai. The hatchlings start walking towards the cliff and Moeth steps forward, concerned. “We should stop them before they get too close to the cliff,” says Moeth. “You couldn’t if you tried,” says Lord Struthio. “Just better hope you taught them all to wear their wings correctly.” Every hatchling has a set of hand-me-down wings donated by House Raven. “We’re Ravens,” says Raen. “Or were Ravens, wearing the wings correctly is the first thing we taught them.” By some unseen signal, the hundreds of hatchlings let out a shout and leap into a charge for the cliff. Vas holds his arms up for them to stop, but nothing could stop the charge. The hatchlings reach the edge of the cliff and leap out into the air by the hundreds and disappear over the cliff. Then the first hatchling reappears, riding the air currents into the sky. The hatchlings turn and bank and flip in the air as they play. Vas holds his hand out again. “The air currents feel strange.” “Aye mate,” says Lord Struthio. “It’s a combination of the air coming in off the ocean, hitting the cliffs, and then mixing with heat coming off the continent. But it’s more than just that, hatchlings are more sensitive to the world around them. A few miles from here my archaeologists found an early Daraian site that pre-dates all known discoveries of early Daraians by nearly two million years, we believe Struthio Continent, and more precisely, these cliffs, are the source of the entire Daraian species.” “You’re saying the air currents here are similar to primordial weather patterns?” asks Moeth. “The ice age never got this far south,” explains Lord Struthio. “Everything here is almost just as it was two million years ago, you are feeling the air currents exactly as they were when the primordial Daraians flew. They launched from these very cliffs. There are even a few caves in the cliffs we found that show signs of being primordial nests.” “Why would you give us this?” asks Raen. “Look, mate,” says Lord Struthio pointing up at the hatchlings. “You called them together, found them, and now for the first time in two million years, the eagles are flying above these cliffs again, that’s why.” Vas doesn’t need to hear anymore, whether this place is the source of the Daraian species or not, he can feel what the hatchlings felt first, he can feel the call of his primordial instincts. He turns and runs for the cliff and leaps out into the air, spreads his wings, and catches the warm air currents. He rises into the sky and joins the hatchlings. Raen follows next, his massive bio-mechanical wings spreading to a full twenty-eight foot wing span, currently the largest on Darai, and joins the flight of the eagles. ***** [Struthio Medical Center, Southern Shore of the Struthio Continent] The Medical Transport Ship landed on the ancient helipad in front of the Hospital. The landing pad's concrete was cracked in many places from ships far heavier than the ancient helicopters that had once landed here. There had been much talk of rebuilding the pad, but Struthians were a practical people and if it still worked, don't fix it. A dark skinned sun-baked woman in the flowing gowns of a High Priestess stood at the edge of the helipad, the edges of her wrinkled eyes observing the patient being carefully lifted down from the side-ramp of the Medical Transport. Two orderlies lifted the patient down and sat her in a wheelchair and pushed her towards the House Struthio High Priestess. She watched the patient closely, the eyes were listless and unfocused, her glider-wings had been removed and one of the orderlies carried the white wings. The Orderly stops and the Struthio High Priestess puts a hand under the patients chin and lifts her head. “Greetings, White Raven, are your legs injured?” The White Raven’s eyes remain unfocused and the Struthio High Priestess lets the White Raven’s head drop back on her chin. “I see, you are not physically injured in any way. Orderly, drop those wings on the ground, she obviously does not require them anymore.” The Orderly obeys, and the White Raven’s eyes flicker for a moment as her wings hit the ground. “Stand up,” says the Struthio High Priestess. “You may bring your wings if you wish, or leave them on the ground, perhaps someone will find a use for them.” The White Raven makes no move to get out of the wheelchair. “Orderly, if she does not stand, dump her on the ground,” orders the Struthio High Priestess. “Do as you wish, White Raven, but that wheelchair will be taken to someone that has a real need for it.” The Struthio High Priestess turns without another word and walks towards the front door of the Hospital. The Orderly grabs the wheelchair and starts to tip it over on it’s side, the White Raven scrambles out of the chair at the last moment and tumbles on the ground. The Orderly takes the chair and pushes it back to the transport, his partner following, and leaving the White Raven on the ground alone. The White Raven looks around, this place is unfamiliar, she doesn’t know where she is, and it’s hot. They are going to leave her here alone, she crawls over to her wings and pulls them tight into a hug. The High Priestess… she is the only thing familiar… but she’s leaving. The White Raven stands and runs after the High Priestess, her arms wrapped around her wings. The front door of the hospital isn’t automatic and she has to pull the doors open herself. The High Priestess is waiting inside for her. “Good, your not dead then,” says the High Priestess. “Follow me.” The White Raven’s eyes are more focused now and she stares at the face of the High Priestess. Her expression is not unkind, but neither is it sympathetic. The White Raven is fairly certain if she does not obey, the High Priestess would leave her and not give her another thought. She follows. They walk through the corridors of the small hospital, and then take an elevator to the third floor. The lighting in the hall is dim, and has the unnatural quiet that only a hospital can produce. “She’s taking me to a place to rest… yes… that’s it…” thinks the White Raven. The High Priestess motions to a large male nurse and he falls in behind them and follows. She turns into a room and the White Raven follows, and… there are two beds in the room, and two small unconscious hatchlings lying in the beds, the monitors around them making small beeping noises. “No… I killed them… I abandoned them… I betrayed the Eagle,” cries the White Raven and tries to flee, but the large male nurse blocks the door and pushes her back into the room. “You have not killed them,” says the High Priestess. “Though you may yet, that will be entirely your choice. And, the evacuation ship you piloted was checked. The recall message arrived before you turned around and returned to Darai, though only by three seconds. Perhaps the intent was there to betray your House, and you must live with that, but you are saved from being a traitor by those three seconds. The Goddess obviously loves you and saved you at the moment before you made the wrong decision. If I were you, White Raven, I would not waste the Goddess’ gift to you.” The High Priestess turns away from the White Raven and begins unplugging the monitoring devices and machines automatically administering fluids and medications to Cala. “What are you doing?” shouts the White Raven in horror. The High Priestess ignores her and unplugs the machines monitoring and caring for Kata. “Nurse, you will remove these machines.” The High Priestess pushes a small rolling cart to the White Raven. “You have some medical training, whether they live or die is in your hands.” The cart has a tray with a stethoscope, a thermometer, a blood pressure cuff, vials of medicine, and two I.V. drip bags sitting on it. “The nurses will help you with what you do not know, but they will not interfere,” explains the High Priestess lifting Cala’s blanket back and sniffing once. “This one has soiled himself, will you allow him to lie in his own filth, or will you care for your hatchlings as you should?” The High Priestess walks past the White Raven to the door and stops for a moment. “You did not have the courage to leave your hatchlings, but do you have the courage to stay with them?” The White Raven doesn’t reply but grabs the cart and pulls it to Cala’s side. He looks so small and helpless. She fumbles with the ancient I.V., unable to remember how it works. “I don’t remember how to use these,” says the White Raven. “We trained on modern equipment.” “This piece goes here,” says the Nurse helping. “And this here… good, now you insert the needle into his arm here. I’ll do it for you once, pay attention.” “It’s okay, my dearest Cala,” says the White Raven to the unconscious boy. “I’ve got your medicine, you’ll be okay, Mama's here.”