The Colors in the Dark (@Hyacinthus)!!

[wandering_giraffe]

Arlen was crouched on a branch, his violet eyes intensely scanning the foliage for his target. He was precariously perched, one foot balanced on the branch, his right arm hanging onto the trunk, and gravity threatening to yank him off his branch. He was relaxed but tense, (the kind of tense like a coiled spring ready to release all of its energy).
Suddenly, movement from behind him. He whirled around, ready to pounce, but it was just his sister, Aranwyn, who landed on the tree branch next to him.
"Aranwyn!" He protested, then looked around, before lowering his voice to a whisper.
"You're scaring away the prey," he tried to look angry but failed miserably.
Aranwyn folded her arms, ruefully looking at her brother.
"I sincerely hate to be the bearer of bad news...but it's the village chief. He wants to see you. I think," and she scowled, "it has to do with his son, Malequinon."
Arlen's face paled, the hunt forgotten.
"Thanks sis. I guess I better go, then. Tell mother that supper will be later than usual."
He tried to put on a front like everything was fine. He didn't want to worry Aranwyn, or his mother. His mother was older, and ever since his dad had died it was Arlen's job to provide for his family. He didn't see it as a job, it just came naturally to him. He loved his family.
Aranwyn unfurled her wings and prepared to leave.
"I'll see you at supper then?"
Arlen nodded.
"See you at supper."

—————————————————————————————————

The village tribal council was a mess, the council angrily arguing amongst themselves.
The door opened, and the room fell silent.
The chief, Eldriquion, was a figure that commanded respect.
He walked in, holding some black feathers, and sat down at the head of the council.
"We all know why we're gathered here, yes?" His deep voice boomed out across the council.
"Well, we do but it doesn't feel right," one of the oldest members cautioned.
"It's been a week since the competition. Arlen won fair and square. The murder wasn't even brought up until two days ago, and we're supposed to reach a conclusion on a viable suspect?"
The other council members agreed, causing a din to fall upon the room.
Eldriquion stood up.
"Silence!" He roared angrily. He held up black feathers.
"These were found on the body, by my dear son. Now, who in this village has black feathers? Only one man: Arlen. Is that evidence enough for you?"
The council consulted among themselves, some reluctantly agreeing, other only agreeing because of the chief. But two refused, insisting there wasn't enough to convict a man to death.
Eldriquion bribed the council.

Finally, a resolution was reached. The council ended up traditionally passing the punishment of execution upon Arlen. The chief ordered it to be reduced to exile.
The vote was passed.
And that's where we find ourselves, a confused and angry Arlen being read his punishment by an indifferent council. He was so shocked by it all he had no words.
Arlen was flanked by two guards. He was struggling to keep his composure. It all didn't make sense. He knew Malequinion hated him, but this much?
The guards tied him up and threw him in an old rowboat some fisherman had abandoned.
"This is practically murder!" Arlen angrily yelled, finally finding some semblance of protest.
The guards pushed the rowboat, sending it out to sea
With the way he was tied up, he couldn't even use his wings.
There was no food on the boat...no water...no spare clothes. He was, for all anybody else knew, dead.
He thought about his family. They don't know where he is. They thought he was out hunting.
He could feel tears running down his face. He cried until he had no more tears left.

A week passed.

Then two weeks passed.

Arlen survived by managing to catch some rainwater when it would storm.
He was in a lot of pain, his stomach cramping from no food, his lips dry and cracked from a lack of sufficient amount of water.
His muscles cramped and ached, any small movement causing him to cry out in pain.

He was stuck, lying at the bottom of the small rowboat, weak and hurting.
The boat bumped into something with a loud grating noise.
The boat stopped rocking.
Arlen summmoned the last of his strength, managing somehow to get up and fall facefirst onto the beach with an agonized cry.

[Hyacinthus]

There were fewer things in life better than vindication. The feeling of being proven right-- or at least coming out on top of a situation where you've been slighted. It was just one of those beautiful feelings that you got addicted to if you had an addictive personality-- and Kolara had a hell of an addictive personality. That was half of the reason she enjoyed her visits back home; To soak up that vindictive sunshine in the presence of her village chief. And to help her mom around the house. That was secondary, though.

But those visits came and went, as did Kolara-- never too eager to stay in one place for long. She needed to stretch her wings-- so by the evening, she often made her way back to the mainland, enjoying the afternoon sun on her back as she flew.

And boy, did she fly. Certainly like no other Yoreiqi could. She could disappear into the distant horizon and not get tired. She could reach the heavens and not miss a beat of her wings. That's what it meant to be the queen of the skies-- the apex avian.

Of course, even she eventually had to land, and land she did-- near to a strange sight just off the western coast. A lone boat... a Yoreiqi boat. And a familiar, yet unfamiliar body, just inches away from it. What was that? One of the tribesmen, striking out on their own?

Out of sheer nostalgia for home more than concern for the fallen Yoreiqi man, she came to a swift landing not even a blink from his boat-- The beating of her wings kicking up a mound of dirt as she slowed to a gentle touchdown. Her talons weren't the biggest fan of sand, but so close to the ocean it was compacted enough that she didn't instinctively tear through it and lose her balance.

"What's this? A lost bird?" Kolara strolled over to the fallen man's side, before rather unceremoniously flipping him over off of his stomach with her talons to get a better look at him. "You dead? Or just lazy?" She was, more than anything, curious if he was from her village; She'd only just started visiting again, so her not knowing or remembering every mug from home wasn't exactly strange-- but the Yoreiqi folk had so many clans along the islands that he could've been a nobody to her.

[wandering_giraffe]

Relief came in the form of the cool sand pressing against his face. Then severe exhaustion claimed Arlen, and he stayed where he had fallen onto the sandy coast.

Until...

Until an angel came along.

Harsh, bright light met Arlen's face instead of the cool sand.
Was he dead? Is this the afterlife? Arlen wasn't particularly religious but the seemingly supernatural figure above him seemed to indicate that he was not in Le'raana anymore.
"Am I dead?" He half repeated half asked himself in response to her question.
"Is this the afterlife? Are you..." his damn eyes wouldn't focus, so he closed them and opened them again.
"Are you an angel? You must be an angel."
"Listen, oh beautiful angel of this land, before you pass judgement, I must say that I was framed for a crime I didn't commit."
He realized, that his wings, and the rest of his body, was still tied up. Pesky Yoreiqi guards...

[Hyacinthus]

Kolara was a firebird— in name and in presence. Her wings practically glittered like gold in the sun, and her eyes were every bit as illuminating as they were piercing. She struck, in her mind, quite the inspiring and intimidating presence into the hearts of anyone that bore witness to her presence. She was called a destroyer, a dominator, a divine beast, even.

Perhaps that was why being called a "beautiful angel" caught her so far off-guard.

"Wh-wha-" Her face lit up like a phoenix's flame as she staggered backward a bit, before she recovered from the unexpected shot to her heart. "Ahem— I mean, you're not dead. And I get that a lot, but smooth talk isn't going to get you out of those ropes."

She did not, in fact, get that a lot. And smooth talking was, in fact, about to get him out of those ropes.

Casting her gaze down at the fallen Yoreiqi, Kolara's golden eyes narrowed a bit at the sight of the bindings on his wings, arms and legs. Within moments they began to sizzle— and before long they snapped— weakened from the controlled flames. After so long at sea, the man was at last free to stretch once again.

"You're welcome," Kolara haughtily stated, fighting (and losing) a desperate battle to keep the rather pleased smile off her face. The 'beautiful angel of the island' was feeling rather generous today— and so, leaning back against the man's boat, she decided to sit and make sure he caught his bearings. For a little while, at least.

"So? What's your story?" She asked, crossing her arms, her wings folding to rest as she did so.

[wandering_giraffe]

Arlen felt the ropes that were mercilessly digging into his skin melt away.
"Thank you," he said as he struggled to get into a more comfortable position, finally deciding to sit crosslegged and massage his wrists, which had lost feeling.
Arlen cautiously moved his wings a few times to make sure they weren't broken.
"My story?" He paused, thinking.
"No one has ever asked me that before," he said truthfully.
"Well...I'm from a small village on the northern side of Yoreiq...I used to hunt a lot, and I had a mother and a younger sister." His eyes grew sad.
"But...I was framed for murder, and exiled to wherever this is. Unless I died in the boat." He added that last sentence as more of an afterthought. Because the figure standing in front of him had to be an angel.
He looked around, the territory around him unfamiliar.
"Where are we exactly?"

His stomach growled, reminding him of an impending problem...lack of food and lack of water.
"Erm, would you happen to know where a freshwater spring is? I haven't had water in a concerning amount of time." He did notice that he hadn't stopped feeling lightheaded. Arlen figured that was just from falling out of the boat but the lightheadeness persisted.

[Hyacinthus]

"Fucking birdmen-- always with their traditions and herd mentality. I guess I shouldn't even be surprised to hear any of that!"

Unconsciously, Kolara's talons tapped the ground impatiently as she vented her frustration from hearing the Yoreiqi guy's story. She wasn't specifically upset on his behalf-- no, having had her own dealings with the tribesmen of the islands, it was nothing short of a reminder of her own internal aggression towards their ways. With a disgusted 'ugh', she shook her head, freeing her mind of the haze of emotions for a little while; Her crimson mane of hair whipping about a bit as she did so.

Calm, girl. At the very least, the man before her hadn't done her any wrong. Yet.

As Kolara had only just returned from Yoreiq herself, she was still dressed very much like a Yoreiqi native-- a very, very lavish native. Her waist was wrapped in arguably the most luxurious sarong one might see in the commonplace-- A crimson, silken cloth adorned with gold-weaved trimmings and embroidery, the likes of which one would never see on the islands. Even among the the traditional, bright-colored garbs of her people, she easily stood out-- which was the entire point. She wore a wrap of fine red silks around her chest as well, rather uncommon among Yoreiqi women.

Granted, she was a bit more... 'gifted' there than the average Yoreiqi woman, so it was more for hunting practicality than anything else.

"...Here." From a pouch tied at her waist, she retried two items-- one, a rather light-looking water sleeve, and the other a small, closed bag-- inside of which was a bit of dried fish her mother had prepared for her before she left. She had a much heavier appetite these days; She wouldn't miss either. "You're not dead, and I'd rather you not die in front of me. That's all." She explained, diverting her eyes to literally anything else.

Angel...

"I-I just happen to be in a helpful mood at the moment, okay? Be grateful." She further clarified, further averting her gaze to hide the bit of red the began to creep back onto her face. "Anyway, you're not on the islands anymore-- you're on the mainland now, and it doesn't sound like you'll be heading home anytime soon. You'd better come to terms with that quickly, and pick yourself up-- The people here, the things-- they'll all chew you up and spit you out if you treat it like Yoreiq."

It was sound advice. It was also Kolara trying to come off as tough and cool in front of him. She'd sooner die than admit that, though.

[wandering_giraffe]

Arlen gratefully took the water sleeve and the bag containing the dried fish, trying to drink the water slowly.
"Thank you, m'lady" Arlen said, eating the dried fish and occasionally taking a sip of water.
He finished both the food and the water, offering Kolara back the containers.
"Is there a village nearby?" He stood up carefully, the lightheadeness slowly dissipating.
"Wait...did you say 'mainland'? What I was on wasn't the mainland? Oh gods above..." he trailed off, speechless at that revelation.
"You sure you're not an angel? Or a phoenix, at the very least."

[Hyacinthus]

For dramatic effect, Kolara turned away and stretched her wings while the Yoreiqi man recovered his strength with her fish and water. She could tell just by the tone of his voice that he was far out of his scope-- unsurprising for someone who had never been off of the islands. It was something that Kolara herself never understood about the tribes--they kept mostly to themselves, when there was this, entire world out there that they could've been a part of! She remembered the first 'outsider' her tribe had met with in her years-- a Essyrni trader who'd traveled too far adrift and needed a quick stop to rest before making his way back toward LeRaana proper. THAT was the spirit of adventure, right there!

She had gotten all caught up in her thoughts, and nearly missed the man's words to her which once more caught her off-guard-- though not nearly as badly as before. Again with the 'angel' comments! She gave her brilliant, golden-red wings a flap-- mostly to hide her own embarrassment as she cleared her throat, and her mind, before turning back to him with a rather proud look on her face. "Phoenix is close enough. Am I not magnificent? You'll not find another like me, you know."

She hoped, anyway.

"Anyway, you're worrying about the wrong stuff, aren't you?" She leaned over a bit to get a better look at the man, getting a better look at his face-- and more importantly, the innocent look in his eyes. "A village? You're just short of the Serha Plains-- the hordes further inland'll have you roped back down and sold off like livestock before you find any villages out here. Weren't you listening when I said 'The people here will chew you up and spit you out?'" She chastised, a hint of annoyance coming off in her voice-- mixed with concern. She didn't exactly want the guy she just saved to wander off and get killed, after all-- that would've been a waste of dried fish.

[wandering_giraffe]

"So don't go to the Serha Plains...got it..." Arlen carefully said.
"But...can you not just fly over them? I mean that's why we have wings, is it not?"

The dried fish and the water were doing wonders for him. He was feeling much better than about 15 minutes ago.
He cautiously spread his black wings out, testing the slight wind that was in the air. He was not used to this heat.

"Well...you seem to know your way around here. Where do you recommend I go? Honestly I'd like to go back to my village and prove my innocence...but that's going to be difficult."

[Hyacinthus]

"You really are a bit clueless, aren't you?" Kolara frowned crossing her arms over her chest as she made the arguably less-than-needed conclusion. Of course he was; He'd never been off the islands. Expecting him to have any idea of how to fend for himself on the mainland wasn't exactly fair... Thinking this through, Kolara raised a hand to her face, and massaged her temples while trying to think through next steps.

"I dunno what kinda flying you're used to doing, but I'm not taking my chances guiding you across the plains before I see it for myself. You're a little thin for a tribesman, I'll give you that, but..." She paused, a little more thinking going on in her head. Before long, she nodded to herself again.

"Alright, let's see how high you can get. You've gotta be able to put some height under your wings if you don't want to get shot out of the sky by an arrow. And I am NOT saving you if you get shot out of the sky for being too weak-winged." Her own wings flared in response to the very thought of flight, yet she held back on taking off herself, until she got a better idea of what the Yoreiqi man was capable of. They weren't known for their long-distance flying after all-- More than anything, she wanted to know how much of the way to the nearest town she could think of she'd have to carry him. Somewhat impatiently, she flicked her index finger upward. "Go on, then-- up you go. And don't worry about leaving me-- You can't."

[wandering_giraffe]

Arlen listened to her think things through.
"Well, I'm about as clueless as every other Yoreiqi," Arlen shrugged.
"My kindof flying? Not endurance flying, that's for sure. I hunt. Sometimes I like seeing if I can catch peregrine falcons. If it's a good day, I can." He smiled, getting the feel for the hot, sweltering air.

"Oh? Is that a challenge, Phoenix?" He was getting his energy back. He didn't much like having to fly over a hostile plain, but he wasn't going to admit that.
And as soon as she pointed upward, he shot up fast, clumsily at first, but gained his bearings pretty quickly.
"Where are we going?" He yelled over his shoulder.
Arlen's figure, with his black wings, painted a sharp contrast against the blue sky. He was not used to flying very high up, so he slowed his ascent, saving his energy.

[Hyacinthus]

A... challenge?

A wide, toothy grin spread across Kolara's face as she eyed the Yoreiqi man's takeoff. Clumsy, impractical, but serviceable. He had potential. As her wings stretched one last time, capillaries coursing with molten-hot blood, she felt good about being able to compliment him on at least that much.

Because he wasn't anywhere near as good as her.

Two flaps. With one, she had already pushed herself off the ground, kicking up a small storm of sand from the sheer force alone. With the next? No sooner than the man's inquiry on direction finish did a bolt of red flash past him-- almost slamming into him-- as it overtook his height in moments.

She stopped ascending, just within eyesight-- her form blocking the sun, yet somehow just as radiant. Her golden-red tailfeathers flourished as she, midair, performed a graceful somersault before stabilizing with another beat of her wings-- which gave off a near-fiery luminescence which directly contrasted his own wings of midnight black.

Oh, she was ready to have some fun.

"I said, up! Let's see how high you can go!" She challenged, ready and willing to go back down and drag him up with her talons if she needed to.

[wandering_giraffe]

Oh it was a challenge.
He grinned as she shot past him.
"Wow," he breathed, almost forgetting to fly himself as he watched her gracefully soar.
Up higher, the air was thinner...but it was also colder, more refreshing. Arlen felt the wind come back into his sails as he flew, gaining more energy by the second. He utilized the wind, almost using it as a launching pad, using smaller beats of his wings to build up speed, rolling into a barrel roll and using the force and the gusts of wind to rocket after her.
He set his sights on the wispy stratus clouds and as he flew past her, happily twisting into another barrel roll, he yelled
"Catch me if you can, Phoenix!"

[Hyacinthus]

Oh yeah, it was on. There was a marginalized part of Kolara's brain-- a part that she typically used to make good judgement calls when dealing with people, or assess the danger of any particular situation in regard to herself, or the people around her. She needed that part of her when she was on the ground, dealing with people who might've wanted to take advantage of her unique lineage, or otherwise harm her.

She left that part of her on the ground.

"Catch 'you'!?" Eyes narrowing, grin widening, Kolara's wings took on another mighty flap-- and in moments, she was piercing upward once more. The clouds gave way as she punched a hole through them from sheer windforce, and within moments she once more caught the Yoreiqi man... Literally, this time. Mid-roll, she practically pounced upon him; The talons of her wings clasping onto his shoulders as she unceremoniously lent her weight and momentum to him.

He'd been in the midst of a spin-- but with her near-unnatural propulsion, she pulled him just a bit further up-- where where even the stratus clouds dared not reach. She released his shoulders with her talons, before grasping them with her own hands instead-- a wild look in her eyes as instincts slowly began to make a mess of her sane mind. "Let's take you for a little ride," She proclaimed, an almost predatory glint in her eyes and edge to her voice as she looked from the man's face to the endless skies above.

With another few beats, the skies grew calmer-- colder, even, and the more defined, familiar stratus clouds gave way to misty, near-transparent altostratus. And as she gripped the man a bit harder, before attempting to once more pull him into a high-velocity barrel roll of her own, it became more and clear that she might've needed that rational part of her brain a bit more than one might initially expect. Because this was no longer a test of the man's wing strength-- any further up, and there might not be enough air for the two of them to share, at the rate she was ascending.

[wandering_giraffe]

This was exhilarating. Arlen didn't even know one could fly this high, he had never flown much higher than the treetops on Yoreiq, purely because he never had needed to.
I've won, he gleefully thought himself, but that thought didn't last long, Kolara rapidly overtaking him, and in fact, literally catching him.

Where Kolara had flown them, the air was much thinner, the sky a deeper blue. In fact, the higher they flew, the deeper the hue of the sky. The clouds couldn't reach up here, even the condensation trails their wings were leaving had disappeared.
The air felt brisk and invigorating. But even Arlen realized something.
The air felt too thin, and so he utilized a move he used when he was tracking peregrine falcons.

He went into a reverse loop, going down instead of up, the momentum carrying both of them down to a slightly safer altitude, and at the crux of the loop twisted into another barrel roll, uprighting both of them, still above where the clouds couldn't reach, but at least where they could breathe.
"I'm at a loss for words..." Arlen said, the adrenaline still flowing through his veins, Kolara still holding onto him.
"This is amazing...I should have left and explored years ago! You do realize what this proves though?" He asked Kolara.
"You most definitely are an angel. An angel of fire," and he grinned.

From up here, it felt like you could see forever.

[Hyacinthus]

Him taunting her into chasing him? Fine. She caught him anyway, which was never even a question in the back of her mind-- and honestly she'd only entertained it to see how much higher he could safely go without tiring himself out.

Him pulling her out of her ascent? Fine. She honestly wasn't paying attention, nor actively trying to pull him that far. She got a little ahead of herself, all things considered, and hadn't considered if he could hang with her that high up.

But he just couldn't keep his damned mouth shut! Again with the angel compliments! In a fairly unceremonious manner, Kolara almost immediately let him go-- pushing him away in the same motion that she did so, to give herself space to turn away from him and cover her face. Her golden eyes and crimson locks made it difficult to tell, but the moment he spoke those words, she lit up like an Essyrni fireshow.

"I-I already said I'm not a-- Wh-whatever! At least we know you can go a little higher than normal. You'll do. I-I guess." She eventually explained, not facing him for a bit longer. She was NOT getting this bothered by some random Yoreiqi. Not happening. "Let's just-- let's just get moving. We're going down a few leagues, into the clouds-- stay by my si--"

Nope-- she could NOT say that with a straight face.

"Stay close. I'm not circling back for you if you get lost!"

She would, in fact, circle back for him if he got lost.

That settled, and without waiting for confirmation from the man, she dipped backward-- almost as if she intended to fall out of the sky-- and began to glide back downward into the sea of clouds below them. From so high up, they didn't need to waste unnecessary energy on trying to stay aflight-- It was just a matter of stamina. Even as she dove into stray cumulus clouds, the glow of her crimson wings and tail somewhat illuminated a path for the man to follow.

[wandering_giraffe]

Arlen laughed as she practically stopped in her tracks and shoved him away, him dropping like fifty feet before catching himself and laughing some more.
Arlen stylishly fell sideways to follow her, one wing dipping towards the ground and the rest of his body following.
"You sure about that?" He teasingly yelled after her before flapping his wings to speed up.
He flew right beside Kolara and soared at her speed, shooting an unabashed grin her way.
"Soooooo...where exactly are we going?" He asked, flipping upside down.
The cold air brought out a playful side to Arlen he didn't even know he possessed.

[Hyacinthus]

Don't get cute with me. You're lucky I was feeling bored, or I would've left you on the shore."

She talked a big game, but she was still slightly red in the face-- even with the winds in her face and the mists of clouds on her skin. Part of that was certainly due to her getting a little hotheaded moments earlier— figuratively and literally— but part of it was... well.

She was quickly beginning to prefer the tied down, close to death birdman that she'd found earlier.

"Anyway, we're heading east— across the plains, toward that mountain range." She didn't point— she didn't feel as though she needed to. The mountain range in question was far off in the distance, but it was visible despite that. Its peaks even poked into some of the far-off clouds, a testament to how truly massive the chain was. "I would've dropped of off at one of the nomad camps, but knowing you, you'd probably end up in raider's hands either way. There's a city near the base of the mountains— Ketra, it's called. That's where we're headed."

It was the real reason Kolara wanted to fly skyward— both to keep herself and the Yoreiqi's scent out of of the horsemen's noses, as well as to keep a decent visual on the mountains themselves. If they got separated, at least he would know to just keep flying that way. "It'll be a day or so by flight— so I'd curb the tricks and turns if I were you!" She admonished, before descending a little— avoiding a particularly heavy cloud.

"...What's your name, anyway?" She eventually followed up, feeling somewhat awkward about leaving off on a mean note.

[wandering_giraffe]

Arlen grew solemn, righting himself with a flourish, a thin cloud scattering in his wake.
When Arlen saw the mountains, his breath caught in his throat. Even from afar, they were beautiful.
Snow topped the peaks of the mountains, clouds weaving through the mountain range. From this far, the mountains looked purple.
"You don't have to take me to Ketra," he said  quietly.
"You can just drop me off wherever. I'll survive. I don't want to be a burden. If I get captured by these raiders it will be my fault," he said, flying straight through a dense, gray cloud, lost in thought.
"Names Arlen. Arlen Vaer, at your service." 

Thunder clouds rolled in the distance, lighting flashing through them.
"We might need to fly higher. There's storms up ahead."

[Hyacinthus]

Kolara groaned internally, mentally facepalming at the atmosphere she'd knowingly brought about between them now. Godsdamnit, now he was making her feel even worse. It wasn't like she was outright trying to make him feel bad for flying-- hell, he was better in the sky than quite a few Yoreiqi that she'd flown with, but... UGH. "...Look, I never-- I never said-- You're not a..." She started, before catching herself mid-sentence. "...Listen, you-- I already said I was gunna take you someplace safe, so I'm gunna do that-- Because I want to do that! So cut the mopey act and just be grateful, damnit!"

Getting an honest response out of Kolara was probably more difficult than out-flying her. Probably.

"A-anyway, we'd better not fly any higher-- not this far inland. There's... we're not the only ones up here, after all. We'll fly through them." She went on to explain, also eying the storm clouds ahead. She didn't call herself the queen of the skies for nothing; a small smirk-- or a confident smile-- illuminated her face as she swung in a little closer toward her flight partner. "You'll be fine. Just stay close... Arlen."