[SpringsSong]

Dalirnis (1b113c) -- Kaedra (aa1a6c)

It wasn't a normal occurrance that any members of the Root strayed from Tengel, where their home was.  However, the situation had called for it--the herbs that Yenaya needed to work her magic on the dragons that kept returning to the Root with massive injuries grew in abundance in Idalani, while they did not grow in such abundance in Tengel.  As he was the youngest of the healers, and also son of the two lead sentinels, Yenaya had seen fit to send Dalirnis out on the task.

Of course, he was not alone.

"You didn't need to come with me, you realize," Dalirnis said as he spiraled around to land, and a slight huff came from behind him.

"Who says that I felt I needed to come with you?" a feminine voice, belonging to a Pipe with spines portruding from her back.  "Maybe I just wanted to come with you.  After all, it's been a while since I've seen anything other than Tengel's rainforest backdrop.  You know, I used to live here..."

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"You used to live in Idalani?" Dalirnis asked, turning back to look at the Pipe as his descent continued.  He couldn't help but marvel at how beautiful the Pipe looked in flight, even though her wings would otherwise not allow for flight--she was a Pipe, after all; something about them was magical when it came to being in flight.

"Yes--before I... before I felt the draw of the Root's blood in me, calling me back to Tengel to rebuild," she said.  "Back when the original Den-Mother was still around the Root.  You remember her, right?"

"I think I remember her a little bit," Dalirnis said.  "After I grew, I spent more time in the healer's den, learning from Yenaya.  Laeraenis would have known her better, I think--since she's your underling and all..."

[SpringsSong]

"Laeraenis is by no means my underling, Dalirnis," Kaedra said, laughing as she lighted upon the ground.  "She could be every bit my equal, or even my superior.  She insisted that I take the position of the lead den-mother simply because she felt that I would fit the role better."

"That sounds like my sister," Dalirnis said, nodding as he landed.  He folded his wings in tightly, flicking his tail from side to side as he looked around.  "Now, Yenaya described the plant that we're looking for as growing near the waterfalls, and in large clumps--"

"I believe I remember a plant like that," Kaedra said.  "The tribe I was in before... well, the healer taught me some of the herbs.  She said that the particular plant Yenaya's looking for could be used both to draw poison out and be used to heal surface wounds."

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"That's why she wants it--and as much of it as we can carry on our backs," Dalirnis said.  "Some of these wounds that the hunters have been receiving from the Battlehearts..."

"It's almost sickening to see how bad they can be," Kaedra said.  On more than one occasion, the surrogate leader of the aerial hunters, a Fairy Paragon named Morina, had come back barely clinging to her life.  However, you could not tell this from her patterning, for her coat color was about the same color as her blood.  "It is a wonder that Katalmach has not moved us yet, for our own safety."

"Mother has brought that up to him on more than one occasion," Dalirnis said.  He recalled the meeting where that had been brought up: Morina and Quocel, the surrogate leaders of the aerial and ground hunters, had mentioned how much stronger the Battlehearts had become.  Yenaya voiced her concerns about having enough herbs to heal the wounded.  Aerarnis and Raloi--the lead sentinels, and Dalirnis' parents--had said that the scent of the Battlehearts was moving closer to their territory.  "He just does not feel it fair to uproot the Root so soon after it was re-established.  Besides, where could we go?"

"There's always Roraldi Forest, or the Whisper Forest--if we are determined to remain in a forested area," Kaedra said.  "Alternatively, if we want to move the Clan somewhere where it would be highly unlikely that we would be bothered, there's always the desert of Wilt'no that we could move to."

"But all of those are on the other continent," Dalirnis said, frowning.  "Moving everyone would be the real trick..."

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"Would he rather move remnants of a clan after we've been attacked by the Battlehearts?" Kaedra rebutted, her tendrils curling up angrily.  "You heard the report from your mother herself when she went scouting out in Baian.  Their scent was far closer to the border of Tengel than it has ever been before, and there was a wounded Battleheart retreating from Tengel."

"Yes, I heard her tell the story to both Katalmach and to my father," Dalirnis said in a low voice.  "I would rather that the Root were moved to safety, but it's not a thing that would just take a little bit of time, Kaedra.  How are we going to get Paragon like Ianalnys, whose wings have proven on more than one occasion to be too weak for flight, or Eacetto, who is still so unsure of his wings that he can barely hover above the ground for a few minutes at a time--or Kyrindor, who does not have the blessing you have?" he asked.

"It will be a challenge, to be certain," Kaedra said.  "However, you forget that we have two masters of the element of water on our side--they could help those not blessed with flight make the crossing, if we were to move."

"Even if we were to move," Dalirnis said, sighing as he examined a patch of herbs growing.  "How would others who bear the Root's blood find us?  We've always been in Tengel, according to Katalmach and Kalach-cha."

[SpringsSong]

"Dalirnis..." Kaedra said softly.  She walked up beside the Nago, looking into his two ice-blue eyes with her eight green ones.  For a moment, she merely looked at him--did not make any moves to do anything.  Finally, she pressed her head underneath his chin, closing her eyes gently.

Dalirnis sighed as he wrapped a claw around the Pipe's shoulder.  It was something he had never really understood about Kaedra--how she loved him so unconditionally, even though he had his moments where his actions were almost as rash as his mother's, and almost as callous.  There were days where he wondered if the Pipe doubted his own feeling for her--feelings that ran far deeper than he realized, sometimes.

"I'm sorry," he said.  "I forgot that the Root has managed to survive for this long being scattered to the four winds--surely, if we were to move, they would find us eventually."

"That's right," Kaedra said to her mate.  "I was almost two-hundred and fifty miles from here, and I still managed to find the Root.  Some have come from even farther away than that," she added gently.

[SpringsSong]

"But to move to either Whisper or Roraldi... that would be a trip of anywhere from eight hundred and seventy to over fourteen hundred miles!" Dalirnis said as he looked down at the Pipe.  "I know that others from the Root have come from remote places on this continent, but... from the Lambastian continent?"

"If it means escaping the Battleheart menace, I'm sure that Katalmach and Kalach-cha would arrange a way for it to be made possible," Kaedra said, her voice soft as she stood up.  "Aerarnis reported that she was only able to take down the one she encountered because she had happened upon someone from another world, who single-handedly took down the beast.  All she did was bring back the beast's chest mark and heart."

"I know," Dalirnis said.  "Mother has expressed her concern to move, even if we would be abandoning our ancestral home--something which Rath'li and Iosaer will doubtless find challenging, since they are direct descendants of the Root's last great generation."