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He peered over at her and chuckled. “Probably because neither one of us were eager to see you fall to your death. Rookery perches aren’t exactly designed with human safety in mind.” He hummed softly to himself. “Perhaps we will install a safety bar if you wish to make a habit of coming out here in the future.”
She glanced over at him and smiled. “That would be wonderful! Thank you.”
He nodded and peered at the mountains. He could feel the taliazon shifting, announcing that his twin was drawing near, but with the low light, he was still not within visibility range. Jill craned her neck as she doubtlessly also felt it, her lips pursing. Then he heard it, the hum of a descending flyer seconds before a dark winged figure burst into view above them from over the side of the rookery. Jill jumped and Brydis’s wing curled more forcefully around her, and he snagged her waist with his arm as his body went on high alert until he heard a familiar chuckle as the shadow descended toward them in a sharp swoop.
“Waiting for me? Here I intended to surprise you and you’ve turned the tables on me instead!” he chortled as his dark wings snapped around them, gathering them close as Agor’s nose buried against their mate’s neck. “And never a better surprise,” he murmured with a happy sigh that plucked at something that resonated within Brydis’s heart.
Sighing, Brydis leaned into his twin, his head dropping so that they touched brows. “It’s good to have you home,” he admitted. “It has been difficult with your absence… for both of us.”
Agor hummed softly. “As necessary as it was, I now understand why sheering seemed like such an exciting time when we were young but was met with less pleasure by our parents. I’ve never been happier to return home.”
Jill peered up at him. “I take it that it went well?”
He grinned down at her, his aguila fluffing flirtatiously. “Of course. Did you have any doubt? It took a few tries for me to get back into the rhythm, but I believe that we finished the entire division within record time.” He tipped his head toward the entrance. “They wait inside… with their mates. At least those few who are mated. As it happens, they agreed with your thoughts on the matter. And, since this was your idea, I hope that you won’t mind keeping the females company while we are out among the valkeli. It should only take a day to sheer the flock and then we can be on our way to the port tomorrow.”
Brydis’s wings twitched uncertainly. “You wish to leave her alone with Geminidae in our rookery?”
“With fellow mated females, yes. I figured she might also enjoy meeting them since she may undoubtedly have questions regarding the lives of Geminidae females… things that we were unable to successfully answer.”
Brydis grunted in acknowledgement, but he glanced at Jill’s face as uncertainty, excitement, unbridled delight, and nausea swept over her features one after the other.
Leaning in he whispered, “Are you okay?”
Her eyes cut to him, and she swallowed nervously as she gave him a jerky nod. Agor’s lips immediately pressed into a thin line of worry as he peered down at her. Noting his expression, she smiled wanly and snuggled closer against Agor.
“I’m fine,” she assured them. “It was just a tiny attack of nerves. I’m excited to meet females of your species of course. I’m sure that I can keep them suitably entertained while you guys work. Tea and girl talk… how hard can it be?”
Chapter33
This was impossible. She had nothing in common with these females, and the way that they were staring at her let her know that they knew it too and weren’t going to make the effort to meet her halfway.
The five Geminidae females sitting at her kitchen watched Jill with expressions of wary curiosity and intense scrutiny. She gave them a tentative smile, unable to help feeling that she was entirely over her head as she searched for what she needed. These were real talias, and at that moment, she felt like a pitiful imitation as they observed her hustling haplessly around the kitchen.
“I’m so pleased to meet you—” she began as she filled small bowls with the fruit that she had labored over cutting earlier that morning.
The strange varieties of fruit that grew in snowy and cold regions were a marvel to her and tasted wonderful, but their rinds were certainly a bitch to cut through. As they were her favorites, however, she couldn’t think of anything better to offer their guests. She’d already pulled out the bread and their coveted jar of honey, the latter of which was being peered at suspiciously by a lavender female nearest to her while a lovely pink female with a cherubic face drizzled a tiny bit on her claw as she regarded the golden liquid curiously.
“I am sure you were curious,” a lavender female interrupted. “If I were an outsider, I would be curious to see what sort of female my ‘mates’ are supposed to be with.” A hard smile stretched across her face.
The disdainful emphasis on mates made Jill’s smile falter as the hit scored. But of course it would. Some part of her still believed that she would wake up and be told that this taliazon thing was a mistake.
“Are you suitably educated on how you compare?”
“Iridi!” the pink female with rose-colored plumage gasped as she stared aghast at the female beside her, the honey on her claw momentarily forgotten.
Iridi huffed, her lip curling in a faint sneer. “Come on, Mariia. We all know that we are incapable of mating outside of our species. Whatever this is, it is not a true taliazon bond. It is impossible. Our scientists have said as much.”
A dark yellow female with gold aguila and feathers shook her head in protest. “You can see the mating marks of the taliazon though. There is no way to fake that, and you know it. Many have tried to fake a taliazon mating bond for some personal benefit and have failed every time.” She lifted a claw in warning. “My Dender has said more than once that there is more than we know in the cosmos and that certainly pertains to this sector that none of our people have ever been to before. Access that’s only now possible due to the cosmic fault.”
Iridi narrowed her eyes at her friend and tipped her head in acknowledgement though her expression soured a bit as she did so.
“There is that,” she reluctantly admitted. “But for this to happen so soon? It’s clear that they didn’t even make an effort to utilize the matching program to find a potential mate on Geminos, Veroli. Instead, they mated with the first female they came across who obviously simulated something similar to the taliazon at their meeting. They simply took an expedient and easy companion… a much weaker one at that,” she added, her eyes flicking knowingly over Jill. “It gives them too much control over her and makes her vulnerable to anything they desire. How will she rule her rookery? She cannot.”
Veroli shrugged her wings and gave Jill an apologetic smile. “You understand that this is not personal. It just feels very sudden and strange to all of us.”
“Yes, I suppose,” Jill said slowly as she set the bowls on the table, feeling increasingly uncomfortable by the minute. “I can see how it would be strange for you since it goes against everything you thought you knew, but understand it is even more so for me. We never had anything like the taliazon and now suddenly I’m impacted by something I never knew existed. But,” she quickly added as Iridi’s smile grew, “that doesn’t mean that it’s not very real and that it isn’t a beautiful and incredible thing for my avrhastal. More than that, we enjoy being with each other, why wouldn’t we take a chance instead of holding off for something and someone more familiar?”
Iridi’s smile disappeared as she continued to regard her with a thoughtful look as the other females at the table watched the exchange with open interest.
