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“We aren’t supposed to be interacting with the humans,” Brydis reminded him stiffly as he handed over one of the tightly wrapped packets containing their nutritional rolls. “We have our orders. For once, please just follow them. This is too important to mess up.”
Agor looked away, distracted by the human hurrying away from them and frowned. He hated that the humans were afraid of them. Although of warrior designation from the time he displayed temperament suited to it, he possessed a particularly vivacious personality and had a preference for seeking joy. He certainly didn’t enjoy frightening or intimidating anyone, especially not a smaller, more vulnerable species. He wanted to protect people. Not frighten them.
“And what of our avrhastal? You and I both know that we haven’t experienced the taliazon with any of the females on the colony ship. For the first time since leaving Gawallen, we see a female of compatible taliazon and instead of courting her for our avrhastal, which should be of the highest importance for us, we are purposefully kept away from her. Doesn’t that seem like an order directly against our best interest?”
Brydis stared down at the food he’d been studiously unwrapping, his crest flattening. “I don’t know,” he muttered. He glanced up at Agor from the side of his eye, his face turning partially from its stark profile. “I understand what you are saying, but I also know that these moments determine the future of our people. We’ve come too far… and there is nothing left for us to go back to. What we do now will lay out the course for everything.”
“And what if we miss her?” Agor swept a hand over his crest, smoothing down the blue feathers that rose anxiously. “What if we never experience any taliazon again, much less such a strong one? We will be alone.”
Sighing, Brydis reached forward in an uncharacteristic show of public affection, his hand grasping around the back of Agor’s neck, drawing him forward so that their brows touched. “You will not be alone. We will still be a family, charlathe.”
Unable to help himself, Agor softened just a little at the affectionate insult, leaning into his twin. Wryly, he peered up at his twin. “We shall, though having no one else to look at other than you in our avrhastal won’t be quite the same.”
Brydis chuckled, releasing him with a small shove. Agor lifted his wings to block any playful blows from his twin, his smile slipping when the other male suddenly stiffened to his full height, his crest shooting up with surprise as he stared over Agor’s shoulder. Lowering his wings, Agor glanced behind him curiously and drew in a sharp breath at the sight of a human walking at a clipped pace at the far end of the hall, heading toward the elevator.
Though her head was down, giving him a glimpse of little beyond the curtain of dark curling hair falling around her shoulders, the shimmer of taliazon dancing on her skin lit him up with awareness and brought a smile to his face.
Brydis’s head shot to him as Agor’s wings snapped open. “Don’t you even think about it—”
With a sweep of his wings, he cut his twin off—knowing that the male would forgive him later for his rudeness—and hurried forward, allowing them to propel his stride rapidly across the deck toward the female. Although his wings kept most of his weight off his feet, making his steps light enough to register little sound on the floor, she seemed to be aware of his approach because she suddenly froze like a small defenseless animal in the crosshairs of a predator and then shot forward for the elevator as if a hunting grifalc was dropping down to seize her.
His wings immediately lowered in horror of her obvious fear of him, his right wing abruptly, somehow, twisting forward around his right leg. The pull of the feathers that he stepped on was a brief shock that proceeded his immediate drop to the ground with a startled shout that was drowned out by his large frame hitting the floor.
He could hear Brydis calling his name, but it was the sound of the sudden rush of footsteps heading toward him that dominated his attention. Wincing as he slowly untangled himself from his wing, he lifted his head just as a small shadow fell over him and met a pair of warm, dark eyes so deep in color that he could barely discern the pupil. He fell in that gaze, a soft sigh of awe escaping from between his lips. From the sooty, thick lashes that framed those incredible eyes, his gaze slowly drifted higher to dark slashes of hair on her brow in place of the tiny tuft of feathers that marked his own. The warm golden-brown hue of her complexion, with the hints of violet taliazon teasing the edges of his vision as it played along her skin, was perfectly touchable. He was tempted to test if it was as soft and luxurious as it appeared but just barely managed to restrain himself.
“Are you okay?”
Her voice slid over his senses and his eyes partially closed in pleasure. Was there ever a voice so melodious and possessed such depth? There was a huskiness to it that was so different from the higher, bright vocalizations found within the females of his own species. Although his society prized brighter, sweeter voices, this human’s voice was not the least bit off-putting. Quite the opposite, in fact. He felt a sense of peace and comfort from the sound and a tiny shiver ran through him as she reached forward and skimmed her fingers against his shoulder in concern. She abruptly withdrew as another larger shadow fell over them and Agor cursed his twin’s terrible timing.
The slight widening of her eyes was the only thing that betrayed her obvious discomfort, but her tension eased quickly—no doubt due to his twin’s superior skill with soothing. Of the two of them, Brydis would have been the most suited to the rookery and tending their avrhastal due to his gentle manner and ability to maintain a sense of order and security if it were not for his own aggressive temperament that the educators believed would be more of an asset in the warrior class. Any sort of aggressive disposition was highly frowned upon with males going into rookery fields of work.
In Agor’s opinion, they missed out on something special with Brydis. A rookery would never be more secure than it would have been beneath his personal attention.
“He is fine,” Brydis quickly assured her as he bent down to grab ahold of Agor and hoisted him to his feet. “Agor never did learn to adjust his trajectory without leading into a disaster,” he added, with a clear warmth projected through his voice that made Agor grin over at her in embarrassment.
“I’m afraid that’s true,” he admitted, enjoying the ways her lips twitched with silent laughter and the flicker of amusement in her eyes.
His grin widened as she appeared to study him. Did she see the taliazon? He was not sure that humans possessed such an ability but a foolish part of him hoped. Perhaps he truly was a charlathe as Brydis said. Slowly straightening, he folded his wings behind him—pleased that he kept from wincing at the pain that shot through his right wing—and gave her a brief bow.
“I am Agor, as you have heard, and this is my avrhast twin, Brydis.”
Her eyes darted between them in surprise. “Twins? I wouldn’t have taken you for brothers by your appearance.”
Brydis coughed but it was Agor who couldn’t hold back a chuckle as his language system suddenly connected the dots.
“Ah, that explains it. Twin in your language means something else than it does with ours. With Geminidae, while males are born in pairs, avrhast twins are two biologically unrelated males who are breeding compatible.”
Her brows shot up. “Oh, your males breed with each other. What roles do your females play—I assume you have them if your people make a distinction of a male gender?”
Agor could practically feel the strained embarrassment from his twin, but Brydis thankfully interjected before Agor muddled things up more.
“Not with each other, but that we are compatible enough that our genetic material can combine to create offspring. A female carries half genetic material within her eggs among our species, but males carry a quarter and must find his twin—his complementary other half—to form his family group.” He cocked his head. “Although it occasionally happens that a male and female might know each other before he matures and locates his avrhast twin, it is more common for males to bond first and be together for many revolutions while they search for a female to complete their avrhastal.”
“Oh,” she murmured, clearly shocked by the way she stared at them. “You both… and one female… that’s really… ah… something.” She cleared her throat and the tips of her ears and cheeks darkened.
Was that a human trait of embarrassment? He found it both intriguing and charming in the extreme.
“I gather you humans are quite different from Geminidae in this regard,” Brydis replied gently, and she quickly nodded.
