Chapter 24 - Aloryk

The new females are even more of a mixture of physiques, colors and attitudes than the original females the Goddesses gifted us to protect. Truly, humans come in such an exciting array of differences, it makes me wonder if they are all from differing tribes and whether all their tribes live amicably together. This is something I shall have to ask my Polly, once I am done helping, and finished with washing her lush body of the sticky clay.

Daffy , the new female I am tasked with helping, is relatively calm in my arms. She is lean, but tall, with a shining dark mane not unlike well-preened Trixikka feathers. She will have no issues attracting a mate, I am sure, but she does not compare to the mouth-watering curves of my Polly.

No-one does.

"It's not broken," she tells me as I walk toward the Healers hut. "It's just sprained. We were running from those awful things back there and I went over on it. If you guys have some ice-… or bandages? I should get it elevated."

I grunt in acknowledgment. Daffy's ankle does look painfully swollen and bruised. "You are a healer to know these things?"

"I'm a physiotherapist… or, I was." She tries to move her ankle but winces.

Now that I am further away from the excitement of the new arrivals, I can scent this female more clearly. She is acting calm in my arms, but she stinks of fear and apprehension. It is understandable given her circumstances. My Polly wore the scent of confusion for her situation for days after she awoke from her sleeping pod. "What is a fee-see-oh-thrip-pest?" I ask, deciding that keeping her talking is probably the best way to take her mind off both her injury, and her fear.

After some time with Daffy and the Healer, it is confirmed that she is correct in her knowledge of her injury - and of how to treat it. Some eager Protectors are now on their way to the peak of the highest mountains in our territory to retrieve as much ice as they can in an obvious bid to secure affections from the new female. I grin at the thought, happy that I already have my Polly and knowing that I would do exactly the same for her should she ever be in need of it. Goddesses! Even if she just wanted to play with the ice and snow, I would bring it to her, or her to it.

My skin-stars start racing all over my body while my mind conjures images of a piece of ice melting its way down between my Polly's wonderful breasts.

Only for the image to come to a complete, jarring halt.

I cannot go to the top of the mountains for my female. Not while my wings are not yet properly healed.

The Healer is busy, kneeling before Daffy while he binds her injury. I know his thoughts on my wings. He is not hopeful at all, and only seeks to ease my pain until my body is used to the new, awkward set of them.

But Daffy is the Healer from her own, human tribe. She will not know the ways of wings, but it may be worth talking to her about my own recovery. Perhaps she will have a more hopeful outlook.

I do hope so. A female like my beautiful Polly deserves nothing less than a whole male.

After seeing to my duty to Daffy, I deliver her to a hut that has been cleared for the new females. Alana is there, trying her best to comfort the ones who weep, and the one that seems too stunned by her ordeal to speak. Before trying to find my Polly, I intend to make a visit to the Elders on my way.

An idea had occurred to me while I had been attending the meeting with my High Spear. Part of the reasoning for that gathering is now resolved, what with the rescue party now returned. High Spear Rynn had asked me to attend to see if I could recall more of our journey from the cave by the salt-waters. He had an Elder with him to etch out a map of our lands on some stretched hide. My High Spear also described how Zarriko's tribe will likely not take too kindly to finding out we have found the other females and they have had no part in the rescue. This was not a matter for my mind to dwell on, though. I have my Polly, and soon my heart-stars will ignite and Zarriko's tribe will have no claim upon her. Besides, the High Spears agreed that it is the female's choice, and I shall make sure my Polly will always want to stay at my side.

No, in truth, when the others had been discussing the other tribe and how their High Spear is probably more concerned with his own mate now, my mind had narrowed to the sap stain the Elder had been using to map the path from village to cave. His fingers were permanently marked from the dark liquid.

It had made me think of my Polly and her love of skin-etchings.

* * *

When I have secured my surprise and go to find my Polly, she is with Chaz-Titi, on their way toward the river with some accompanying Protectors.

"My mate," I practically purr as I catch up with her. I have not seen her nearly enough this day and I plan to rectify that by seeing a whole lot more of her before the twin suns turn in for their slumber. She stops, and I lean down to nip playfully at her ear. "You were not going to wash that luscious body without me, were you?"

Her reaction surprises me. Or rather the lack of one. I have learned that being playful with my Polly normally brings a gorgeous pink to her cheeks and scents the air with the delicious perfume I have since learned is her body readying itself for my cock.

But there is none of that.

"Uh," she says, shaking her head and pulling away. "Yeah, all the clay is starting to dry and it's getting uncomfortable, so…"

She carries on walking and I look to my friend, Chaz-Titi with a clear question on my expression. She is no help, however, offering me only a frown and a shrug.

Is my mate unhappy with me? Have I done something to displease her? The thought is as uncomfortable as a barb to the tail or nasty bout of feather mites.

I suppose I have been a while with helping Daffy and then getting my mate's surprise from the Elders. And waiting around with mud caked upon your skin is not pleasant at all.

I must make amends.

My Polly wades into the riverwaters without thought and I follow along behind, keeping near as she dunks her whole body beneath the fresh waters. A plume of red clouds surround her as the clay is dislodged from her skin, and soon, her beautiful mishi flower hair clings to her head with the weight of the waters.

"Polly," I say to her, wading closer. She does not look at me, though. At first I think she is watching the other females - the ones who had been caught up in the clay battle - as they bathe close by, each with an accompanying male to ward off any interested dentixxi. Then, I wonder if she is watching the younglings, laughing and splashing their vexed Caretakers downstream. But no, her focus is unfixed. She is looking at nothing.

I… do not like this.

"Polly?"

She finally looks to me and seems to shake the daze from her head. "What? Sorry, I…"

Her words trail off and do not pick back up again. Crouching in the waters beside her, I do not care that my wings will be waterlogged, or that my bindings will need changing as I reach for my mate, pulling her into my lap here in the river. "What is it, my Polly? Have I upset you by being away from your side for so long?"

"What? You?" her nose scrunches adorably, but there is a pause between that and her ‘no, you haven't done anything' that makes me think she is not telling her full truth.

"It is alright for you to be angry with me, little mate. I left you all dirty," I say, my hand rubbing at the covering on her knee. "And not in a fun way."

She blinks at me, and I can clearly see when her mind realizes I am talking of making a mess of her with my seed. She shoves at my chest, but I can see the smile she is trying to fight.

She is not winning that fight.

"My PJs are all wet," is what she says instead of acknowledging talk of my seed. She plucks at the covering on her top half and it slaps back to her chest with an oddly arousing sound. With how her coverings are now sodden, they mold perfectly to her curves. The sight is mesmerizing and inspires my cock to swell.

My Polly peers around my wing, oblivious to my staring and says something about regretting not taking her ‘PJs' off before ducking into the waters. Glancing at over my shoulder now, I follow her line of vision where my High Spear is circling his Zahreenah in the protective cage of his wings so that she may bathe uncovered. There are also half a dozen males currently fighting each other in the shallows for the privilege of providing the same protection for Chaz-Titi. It is the same every time my friend wishes to bathe in the riverwaters, and, like always she cheers the males on, this time, still covered head-to-toe in mucky clay.

"Woo, c'mon now!" she bellows before putting fingers to her mouth and making a shrill whistling sound. "Is that all you got? Y'all haven't even ripped each other's loincloths off!"

I turn to my Polly where she is still cradled in my lap. "I…" She looks at me and I swallow. Such a precious gift I have been given and I cannot even give her privacy to bathe like the other females. "When my wings are healed, you will be able to bare your body in the waters."

Polly's brows furrow and she looks back to the others. "What? No, I-" She shakes her head. "I wasn't complaining about that, I just…" She sighs before leaning her head on my chest. "I'm just a little tired, I think. Can we go back to the hut?"

My Polly does not talk as I carry her from the waters. I half expect her to complain and demand that I put her down, but none of that is forthcoming, either. So, I continue to carry my mate back to the village, with riverwaters dripping down my body, and her still in her wet coverings. It bothers me a little that she does not fight me on this. Normally, when I try to carry my mate, she protests about dropping her.

When we are perhaps half the way back, we are met by Xadyn who is carrying Daffy and her injured ankle. He is followed by five other males who are all jostling for position behind, presumably to be the next lucky male who gets to hold the new female. "Brother!" Xadyn greets, his face split into a wide, proud smile like a youngling after his first successful flight. He looks to my mate and bows as much as he can with a female in his arms. "Female Polly. It is a good day, is it not? I am showing our new tribesfemale the riverwaters." His face falters a little before he continues, leaning forward to say, "the others are still unsettled," as if it were a great secret.

"Can you blame them?" Daffy scoffs, grinning at Polly. "It's all a bit insane, right?"

My mate is stiff in my arms. "I…"

"I'm only not in a ball, crying with the rest of them because my life was already a giant shit-show, so this is either a fresh start, or the cherry on top of a fuck-my-life sundae, you know?" Daffy says, shrugging at my Polly, but my mate does not respond. It is like she is frozen.

The reaction is a curious one, but my Polly is very tired this day, and I still need to make it up to her for leaving her side for so long.