LUC

I wasn't sure how long Jessie had been gone, but I knew relief flooded me when the metal door of his enclosure was pushed open to reveal his long, dark hair and smiling face.

"Luc..." he started, trailing off in his human language as he walked up to my sitting figure in his nest. He was holding on to something, and when I looked inside, I saw a pile of fish. I churred, feeling hunger stab my stomach as Jessie made that amused human sound.

"Food, eat," he said, sitting beside me and cradling the container in his lap. I devoured fish after fish as Jessie stared at me. When the last one was gone, he placed the box on the floor at the edge of the nest before getting up and taking my hand. I followed him out of his enclosure and through the cave network — passing humans on our way as he walked me into a metal contraption similar to the one that had brought us here previously. The enclosure took us deeper into the ground, stopping as the mental clanked and shook as it hit the surface below. Jessie let me through the metal-fortified tunnels, stopping at a door before tapping on a beaming tablet propped beside it. I sniffed the air and shifted my ears. I could smell Tali — a couple of humans and... a hatchling.

I looked down at Jessie, who stepped away from the entrance as the metal sheets pulled apart to reveal an enclosure. He walked me in, pulling me after him, and I didn't have enough time to take in the space before I locked eyes with a hatchling. Tali was standing in front of them — they were female, with brown-red skin and feathers in varied hues of red. The brown spots on their body told me they were young — as well as their smell. Weak pheromones, not fully developed.

"What is this?" I asked, approaching the Helli, and looking at Tali as the humans spread out, giving me space.

"The hatchling is a runt," she said, cocking her head at the hatchling, who was churring in distress. "Like you."

I observed them, noticing that they were indeed smaller than normal. "The humans had this?" I asked, unsure what the situation was here. I doubted Jessie would be okay with imprisoning a child.

"I think they brought me here to talk to her... and to talk to you," Tali said, unease in her stature. "I'm only entertaining this because they made the female well again. I do not know what they want me to say or ask, and even if I did, how would I tell them?"

My face moved to look at the hatchling again. "What is your name?"

"J-jargia," the young one said as her blood-red eyes moved from me to Tali. I could see how Tali knew the child was a runt now. Its wings touched the floor like mine, and it was small — thin — like it hadn't been having much to eat. I felt a pressure in my chest when I realized the child must have been abandoned. There was no way humans wouldn't have gotten a hold of it with the presence of a flock of adults.

I could have been abandoned. I thought to myself, thinking back to how hard childhood had been for me. I'd hatched in a clutch of six — four males and two females, but I had been the smallest egg — I shouldn't have hatched at all, and when I hatched I shouldn't have lived past my first five years. One of my clutch sisters had shared food with me up until my adolescence when I could hunt by myself, and I left my flock shortly after being an adult. There wasn't anything for me with them besides bringing my kills that the likes of Kao and other males would steal from me. It was also common for me to be left behind when I couldn't keep up while traveling. My parents were scarce — they'd had three other clutches before my father passed, and my mother only really had time for her strongest children. I was barely acknowledged because I wasn't supposed to exist at all, and the defiance I had by my continued existence peeved her more than anything.

I pushed back the overwhelming feelings to focus on now. "Do you know where you're from?" I asked, reaching out to touch the youngling's head. The female nodded, then shook her head. The feathers on her chest and neck were still standing. She was still fidgeting with her fingers.

"I don't know how to get there..." she trailed off. She was shaking a little — not cold, just terrified. I could smell it, just like I could smell the air of embarrassment and perpetual submissiveness that lingered on the feathers of low-ranking birds. I knew that had been me at some point — was still me many times when I interacted with other Helli, but with Jessie I was different. I felt confident. I had a purpose. I wasn't embarrassed about existing. Jessie barely understood what my being a runt entailed, and I doubt he even cared.

I lowered my head a bit, showing the young one that she didn't have to be afraid of me. "Do you want to go back to your flock?"

She shook her head without a second thought, and I turned to Tali. "Possible run away — maybe abandoned. It could be either."

Tali nodded in agreement with my observation before crouching down so that she was on the same level as the child. "How long have you been here with these creatures... these humans...?"

"Long..." the child trailed, staring into Tali's multi-colored eyes. "They talk to me a lot. I don't understand... I think they want information on my flock... there are — were — humans with us. They passed after a while," she rambled, turning a finger between two other digits of her hand.

I churred at that, turning to look at Jessie, who was now in a deep conversation with the dark-skinned female. I called out his name, and he looked over at me.

"Book," I said, making his eyes go wide before turning to Ola. He said something to her, and she strolled away, bringing back a human stylus and a book with her. She handed it to me, careful not to touch my fingers before backing away. I took it, writing down the little the child had said to me and Tali.

"When we were at your nest, you wrote on something like that," Tali commented, staring up at me from her crouched position. "Can the humans understand our writing but not our speech?"

"I don't think they understand either yet," I answered honestly. "They seem to be devising a way to read it."

She churred, watching me. When I stopped writing, I nudged the book and stylus toward her. "Between the both of us, you know more about what the humans want to learn. Where the humans are being taken," I said. "Write something for them."

"Why?" she asked, turning her gaze to the humans behind me. "You should know that Helli rarely do business with each other. There is a buyer for these creatures in the south that then works with smaller traders. They're taken to an enclosure that they can not reach — it's up in the mountains, and from what you'd made me understand, tiny lungs are susceptible to giving out. Plus, why send them a crusade they cannot win?"

"The human female here — Stacey," I started. Tali's eyelids flickered. "If she's returned to her pack, she might be picked up again. Would you want that?" I asked, and Tali cringed, shaking her head.

"I know you care for her, and not humans as a whole. I'm sure Helli like you do not understand protecting and wanting the weak among you, but humans are pack creatures. If we do not help them, they will try anyway, and even if they lose, the one you care for will still be in danger."

"Luc..." Tali said my name as she rested her hands on her knees. "I'm female, and you are a runt male. How much could we do? What stops me from taking the female and leaving this place? She is well now..."

"Nothing," I answered honestly. "But what if she doesn't want to go with you, and what if your flock wanted to punish you? She won't be safe. Also, don't you want to be able to talk to her?" I asked, reminding her that the humans were working on a way to communicate with us. I don't care why the humans are attempting to communicate with us, but if it helps me talk to Jessie, I would do anything to make that happen.

Tali chirped — it was a happy one. It was as if she'd briefly thought about the possibility of communicating with Stacey. She reached out for the book and stylus, and I put them in her hands, watching as she began to write. My eyes scanned the leaflet she was jotting down in now. She had a location drawn and labeled, and a handful of details about how much Helli were to be expected there. I had never flown that far — my furthest journey stopping at markets a few days away from my primary nest, but that was because the population density of Helli increased further south as the mangrove canopies growing on the side of mountains grew denser.

When Tali was done, she handed the book and stylus back to me, and I walked over to Jessie, pressing them into his small hands.

"Thank you," he said, grinning at me, and I purred, letting my fingers linger on his hand for a while before pulling them away.

We stayed in the enclosure with the humans until the much younger male — Luke — as Jargia called him, spoke to Jessie. Jessie had looked over at us, giving me an apologetic look before mouthing 'done now.' I looked at Tali, letting her know our time with Jargia was over. She followed me and Jessie out of the enclosure and into the metal contraption that pulled us up to a higher tunnel. Jessie walked us to the enclosure Tali had been made to stay in. She entered it without a fuss when Jessie got the metal sheet to move out of the entrance, staring squarely at me as the metal sheet moved back into place, locking her in.

Jessie said a string of human words I didn't understand before tugging at my arm. He seemed he wanted me to follow him to his human-given nest — the place that smelled like him, but not him. The nest we'd made love in last night. A part of me buzzed with excitement until a feeling of sudden uneasiness pierced through to be front and center, and then I suddenly remembered what I had been doing before I brought Tali and the other humans here.

The nest.

I still needed to complete the nest.

Maybe it was the euphoria of seeing Jessie again, and all the hassle with Tali and the humans that had made me briefly forget the big project I was working on. Seeing Jessie happy here was nice, but looking around — looking at all that humans could do, I started to feel nervous that he might want to stay here forever. I wanted him in a nest I built for the both of us. I wanted us to lie down together all day in seclusion as we ate and mated as many times as possible. I didn't want him to pick this hole on the ground as his future that I wasn't even sure I was in.

I refused to move, and Jessie spun on his heels, giving me a confused look.

"Nest. A while," I said, watching the look in his dark brown eyes shift into one of understanding.

"Okay..." he mumbled, squeezing my hand and walking me in the other direction — the one I knew that led to the metal contraption that had lowered us down into this human camp in the first place. He walked into the metal enclosure, dragging me in behind him before making it lift us upwards. When it stopped, rattling a bit as the metal poles rose to clear a path, I looked at Jessie. He seemed upset that I needed to leave, but I needed to remind myself that the nest I was building him was for our future. I didn't want Jessie to remain here with the humans. I wanted him alone with me like we had been when I had found him.

I needed to show that I was serious — that I could give him everything he wanted and needed. It had to be enough to trump whatever human comforts he would miss, and having stayed here a while, I knew that would be hard to beat. We walked through the metal tunnel that led up to the cave's mouth. I stepped out after Jessie and we walked a good distance away from the cave before he stopped and turned to look at me.

"Come back," he said, staring into my eyes. "Please."

I knew there was more he wanted to say — more he wanted to communicate, but we shared so few communally understood words that I could see him struggling with himself as the bump on his throat moved. His lips shifted a few times, but nothing I could understand came through.

"Back here, soon," I said, reaching down to hold his face. I would never leave you. The words bubbled at the tip of my tongue, wishing they had a human equivalent. He closed his eyes for a bit, taking in breaths as I ran my fingers over his cheeks. I leaned down, pressing my forehead to his — and then my nose, and finally my lips grazed his. He opened his mouth, and I pushed my tongue into his throat, pushing crop milk into him. He was used to this now and waited patiently until I was done. I pulled away, still holding his face as I chirped and ran a finger pad over his lips.

I dropped my hands, and he watched me reach to touch my back. I closed my eyes, gritting my teeth as I pulled at a mature feather, breaking it off me before bringing it into the view of Jessie's vision. He stared at it, and the fur on his brow bones shifted when I nudged it against his hand. It was longer than the length of his palm — a dark brown with mature thick barbs. His expression softened as he took hold of it, spinning it between two fingertips before looking up at me.

"Thank you," he said, and I nodded at those words I've learned meant gratitude. I purred, closing my eyes for a bit before looking upwards. The wings on my back moved, itching to spread after my confinement in that human burrowing system where I'd had to duck and squeeze past every turn.

Jessie stepped away, and I took that as permission to leave. Spreading my wings before letting the back of my feet touch the ground as I prepared to propel myself into the air. When I'd lifted off the ground, I gave Jessie one last look before jetting further into the air.