[Silver]

“Slow down,” Nimbus instructed Stormy. His body language changed abruptly, which she accepted as part of the command. She descended and used her wings to slow their forward movement as well. She didn’t really know what they were on about, but she knew how to accept a command.

“What is it Kay? Are you doing alright? Maybe we should land so you can relax a little…” Nimbus really wasn’t sure what to do. As much as he wanted to continue the mission, he couldn’t ignore how much distress she was in.

[Silver]

It looked like the response she would have to a threat, but he couldn’t see a single thing that might elicit that response. It was like she was growling at something coming toward them, but they were alone in the sky. There was no way something could sneak up on them up here.

He could only assume that she was having a fit about flying. He probably should have given her a few practice runs before going on a long haul journey into the unknown. She didn’t seem like the type to randomly spook, though. If she was, surely he would have been more cautious.

[Silver]

Nonetheless, he gently urged Stormy toward the ground. Stormy was happy to oblige. Not flying was clearly less effort than flying, so she wasn’t about to protest. She wasn’t even that tired. Just lazy. She pulled herself into a tight circle which gently touched down on a safe enough looking patch of ground.

They had clearly landed in the field of some farmer, since the ground was cut into neat little rows. Stormy didn’t really care, and one of her feet crushed some poor little plant. Nimbus sighed, but that was the least of his worries right then. He slipped off her back with Kayua in his arms.

[Silver]

Kayua would just not let up. No amount of shushing or petting was calming her down. Her ears were pinned back and her fangs bared no matter what he did to try to calm her down. Even an offer of food was quickly rejected. Once he was on the ground, she began struggling to get away from him.

Now Nimbus didn’t really want to put her on the ground where she would be defenseless without him, but he didn’t seem to have much choice. He gently set her down and she immediately pressed her nose to the dirt. She began darting off following a trail only visible to herself.

[Silver]

“We better keep up,” Nimbus suggested. He jogged along after her and turned to see if Rhythm would follow suit. Rhythm chased after him, but he didn’t seem to be affected by whatever was getting at Kayua.

“Do you know what she’s on about? Can you smell it too?” he asked. Rhythm looked at him blankly with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. Probably not, he concluded. He couldn’t smell it, either, but he didn’t find that particularly helpful. His human nose didn’t lend itself well to that sort of thing.

[Silver]

The plants where they landed were short and easy to jump over, but Kayua was headed right toward row upon row of stalks. It was corn, he concluded. He didn’t grow it himself, but he knew well enough what it looked like. Few things were as tall and capable of thickly obscuring them. Of course whatever it was would be hiding in there.

“Stay here,” he said to Stormy. “You’ve done enough damage out here, we don’t need you stomping through the corn too.”

[Silver]

Stormy let out a soft sound, as if she was asking him if he was sure. She didn’t want to leave him because he seemed really tense. She wanted to be there for him if anything went wrong. “It’s okay,” he insisted. “You’ll be close enough if anything happens. I can trust you to roast some corn, right?”

Stormy purred and paced around in a circle. Once she had found the perfect spot, she plunked her butt down and watched as the other three ran off. From where she was, she could still see the rustling of leaves that gave away their position. If she had to, she could just grab him right out of there.

[Silver]

It was times like these that Nimbus wished his animal companions could just tell him what was going on. When it was something simple, he had become an expert guesser of animal problems, but this was beyond him. None of the usual stuff was working. He was just going to have to stumble along and hope nothing bad happened.

Kayua stopped so abruptly that Nimbus nearly tripped over her. He stopped just short of stumbling over her and took a large step to the side to steady himself. He stood very still and watched to see what she would do next.

[Silver]

Now Rhythm seemed tense, too. Normally Rhythm was pretty relaxed, but he fluffed up and even his feathers stiffened. It was something between the hackles on a dog raising and a goose puffing itself up to seem bigger. Nimbus kind of thought it was cute, but he was sure it accomplished its goals regarding other creatures. An angry Rhythm was not something he would want to have to fight.

A pair of glowing pink eyes revealed themselves in the shade of the plants. They were mesmerizing and strange with no visible pupil. They reminded him of a sunset. For a second, he was completely transfixed by them, so much so that he didn’t even move.

[Silver]

The odd foxy creature had a set of four tails, like other Fenlings, as well as big ears, but it still looked strange and alien. Its eyes were unlike any he had ever seen before, even counting Kayua’s own weird white ones. It had the same gems that she did, but in a pearly off-pink color. Most interestingly, its body seemed to be covered in little stars.

Its fur sparkled like glitter or tinsel, but somehow less superficially. It wasn’t like the creature was covered in glitter so much as the creature itself was glitter. Whatever it was, he found it fascinatingly beautiful. He wanted to reach out and touch it, but he knew better. At least that sense of self preservation still existed.

[Silver]

What he didn’t know was why the creature hadn’t yet run away. It and Kayua were looking deeply into one another’s eyes. Did they have some kind of connection? Was she controlling what he did? Or even worse, was he controlling what she did? Nimbus was confused and a little anxious, not at all helped by the tense fluffiness that was Rhythm standing at his side.

Nimbus was often confused, but rarely this thoroughly. Everything about this situation was strange and unexpected, from Kayua’s reaction to the lack of reaction from the sparkling Fenling. What was he supposed to do? All of his usual approaches seemed like they weren’t appropriate.

[Silver]

All he could do was stuff his paw into his pack and pull out a piece of jerky. He had brought it with him for a situation just like this. It wasn’t like he had never convinced a strange animal to follow him home before. Actually, he was probably the world’s leading expert on such an occasion.

If the creature was real and not some weird magical manifestation of the sky, surely it would like a treat. He slowly lowered himself to a squat and held it out at arm’s length. As he could have expected, there was little reaction from it. To his surprise, Kayua snatched it right out of his hand and started chewing on it herself. Of course.

[Silver]

“That wasn’t for you,” he said quietly but sharply. He hoped she would get the hint in his tone, but he doubted it. She had always been hard to teach. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand him, more like she didn’t really care if she was deciding to be selfish instead.

“Here, here’s another bit,” he said, revealing the part that was hidden in his paw. “Do you want the jerky? Do you eat jerky? Would you like blueberries instead? I have those too. Or maybe some water?”

[Silver]

He used his most soothing voice as he babbled on and on. This was one of his tricks for making animals trust him. There was something about his useless blathering that they usually found soothing. In fact, Rhythm began to visibly relax beside him. That wasn’t what he meant to do, but it was nice. He didn’t like when everyone was so tense.

Still, the strange glittering Fenling did not react. Nimbus was at a loss, here. The only thing he could think to do was reach out and grab it. That would surely elicit a reaction, but probably not one they were both going to like. It was still a wild animal, after all.

[Silver]

Or was it? Nimbus was seriously starting to consider the possibility that the creature wasn’t actually real. That it was some weird manifestation of magic that Kayua was sensitive to. Did it take the form of a Fenling because she was one? Or was it a coincidence?

Suddenly, it came to him. This creature bore a striking resemblance to the glittering fog in the distance. They must be related! Maybe it controlled the fog, or was created by it, or merely lived in it. He couldn’t really say which he thought was true, but they were all solid theories. If only he could get it to do something, maybe he would find out the answer.