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Chapter 28: Desire

It was early in the morning, some time a little after dawn, and Kilyan was perfecting a sling he'd fashioned from scratch at short notice: he snapped off a long tree root that was reaching from the wall, and after letting it soak in the pool of water, he bent it into the folded shape of a sling. He was swinging the tree root strap around, practicing with different rocks, his dark and muscular body half in shadow near the thin fingers of white sunlight that reached down into the cavern.

The boy Inden sometimes flew out through the hole in the ceiling and returned some hours later with wild roots and nuts and fruits he'd gathered in the forest. Kilyan slowly fed Avi every morning, and everyday, the little queen became a little stronger as she mended. Wynn and Inden seemed to grow closer, and Wynn came to know and love her father more with each passing day. Kilyan loved Wynn's roundly innocent eyes, her shrill laughter, and the way she sometimes fell asleep against her father when it was very late and they had sat up talking. Avi would sometimes find the strength to talk with him, and how her eyes shone when she gazed at Wynn! Kilyan had never seen Avi so beautiful as when she was looking at their daughter.

They were cozy down in the little cave together. But they couldn't stay there forever, Kilyan knew, which was the reason he was trying in some way to fashion a weapon. For sometimes late at night, Kilyan thought he could smell winged warriors lurking, watching and waiting for the moment when Kilyan and his companions might emerge. Kilyan didn't have much of a plan, but he knew they would have to leave some time soon and he did not plan on exiting the cave unarmed. No one else seemed to smell the winged warriors -- except for, perhaps, Inden -- and Kilyan said nothing the better to keep everyone calm.

Everyone was sleeping that morning as Kilyan sat near Avi, breaking his new sling in. Rather than use a paw-sling, he decided to fasten the strap to a "Y" shaped stick, and after having Wynn roll the boulder aside a crack, he would use this "pup's sling" (as it was called) to pick the winged warriors off one by one.

Still tying the strap to the stick with quick and skilled fingers, he noticed Wynn's ears twitch, then his daughter slowly came awake. Inden was sleeping against the far wall, several feet away from Wynn at Kilyan's insistence. Kilyan paused what he was doing to smile at his little daughter as she yawned and stretched her arms above her head. Those little breasts. He remembered how Lea's had budded: so ripely plump and shivering. He had been fascinated with Lea's budding breasts, and with a frightened leap of his heart, he realized Inden probably felt the same about his daughter.

Wynn smiled back at her father, then asked what he was doing.

"Making a sling for the son you plan on having with Inden," Kilyan teased with a little smile and Wynn blushed.

"Wynn, there are things a young female must know," said Kilyan on a more serious note, "and since it's fairly obvious that you are nearing your moons --" here Wynn blushed again and looked uncomfortably away "-- it is time your father had a talk with you." Kilyan sat up very straight, his arms and legs folded after setting the sling aside. He tilted his head and asked gently, "Has your mother had this talk with you?"

Wynn's cheeks flamed up again and she shook her head so hard that her silver ears flopped.

Kilyan nodded grimly. "Well, it's time. I am not familiar with the customs of the jungle, but if you're going to come and live with me in the summer village, there are things you must know, Wynn. For instance: you are not to let a male touch you before your first mating season! Is that understood?"

Wynn nodded glumly and stared at her little toes. Her legs were folded as well and she bowed her head over her fiddling fingers. She looked a great deal like Aliona in that moment, but when her lip poked out, she reminded Kilyan of the teenage Avi he had known ten years ago.

"I don't mean to seem harsh, my daughter, but the customs in the summer village . . . there are severe consequences for those who do not follow them! Inden may not kiss you, he may not touch you, he may not even hold your paw! Understood?"

"Yes, Father," Wynn answered.

"Good. I plan on building Inden his own hut when we return, the way fathers build huts for sons that wish to leave home early. His home could be next to ours so that I could keep an eye on him. He could be a warrior in our village, and you would see him sometimes. Inden will never be turned from our home. He saved our lives. Looking after him now . . ." Kilyan's eyes drifted sympathetically to the sleeping form of the young winged wolf lying on his side near the wall. "It's the least I can do."

Wynn guiltily brought her knees up. Inden had already touched her. Curious about their bodies, they had already tried, in fact, to have sex. Wynn was the one who egged Inden on. She lay under him and he tried very carefully to get inside her. It hurt so much when his cock started to plunge that she'd broken down crying, and Inden -- frightened and alarmed -- quickly pulled out and kissed her and held her as she cried. She had later confessed to Inden that just having him there on top of her, so hot between her legs . . . it had given her such strange and yet delicious feelings. She had wanted to try it again, but Inden refused: he had no desire to see her cry in such a way a second time, and besides, they were too young.

"We'll wait a few years," Inden whispered, cupping Wynn's face. "Let's not grow up too fast. I don't want to lose . . . how do you say . . .? Trust. Trust from your father."

Inden had then nodded at Kilyan, who was sleeping beside Avi some several feet away.

"But I like when we touch," Wynn whispered, childishly pouting. "Inden, when you're with me, I -- I've never felt so close to anyone!"

Inden smiled down at her. "Me too," he said. "Now go back to your father, hmm? I'll see you in the morning."

Inden kissed Wynn's nose, making her giggle softly, and she had crawled back to her parents and snuggled between them.

"Wynn? Are you listening?" Kilyan said, snapping Wynn out of her reverie.

Wynn's head jerked up. She hadn't been listening at all, of course, but she immediately said she was. Kilyan didn't buy it.

"Then what was I saying?"

When Wynn only blushed and bit her lip, Kilyan shook his head wearily. "It's starting already: you're acting like a teenager."

"What do you mean?" Wynn asked with large green eyes.

"When your brothers Roan and Zane started getting close to puberty, they never listened to a word I said. I'd look up and Roan would be gazing off into space or Zane's eyes would be following after some female. They started thinking about girls nonstop around the age of eleven or twelve. We like to call it the puppy love stage in the summer village." Kilyan smiled at his daughter's obvious discomfort. "I guess I'm going to have my paws full keeping you and Inden apart. I bet he's already kissed you, hasn't he? How long have you two been alone together here?"

"Not long," Wynn lied, and this time she didn't blush so that Kilyan believed her.

To avoid more lectures from her father, Wynn went back to sleep, and Kilyan returned to his dark meditations. As he sat near the pearly streams of sunlight, a plan started to form in his mind. He could have Wynn roll the boulder aside a crack, and as he shot rocks at their attackers, the others could escape out through the hole in the ceiling. He knew he would be left behind, but it didn't matter: Wynn and Avi's safety was all that mattered to Kilyan.

As Kilyan sat debating whether or not he should share his plan with Avi, Avi slowly came awake. Hearing her wings rustling weakly, Kilyan looked anxiously in her direction. She sat up slowly and carefully, then smiled at Kilyan. Kilyan smiled back, glad to see that she was returning to her strong and solid self.

"Kilyan good father," Avi said, eying Kilyan warmly. "He protect Wynn. Avi don't have to worry anymore . . ." Her dark eyes drifted with content to Wynn, who was smiling in her sleep, her chubby cheek on her arm.

"So you were listening," Kilyan said, amused.

"Yes," Avi admitted. "So. Our Wynn is in love. What Kilyan think of Inden?"

Kilyan's green eyes darted a glance at the sleeping prince as he continued working with his sling. "We'll have to wait and see. He seems all right so far, but . . . they all seem all right in the beginning. Who should know that better than you, Avi?"

They smiled at each other again.

"Avi," Kilyan began after a pause, "now that you have no one to escort you back to the jungle (now that Ryo is gone, he thought with a dismal pang), I don't think you should go home straightaway."

"Kilyan --"

"Avi, you can't fly!" Kilyan snapped over her, his face suddenly hard, and Avi was silent: she had seen that look on her mother's face any number of times; it was a look that meant "No, arguing! You're going to listen to me because I love you and I'm afraid for you!"

Kilyan's long lashes were lowered, his green eyes fixed with an adamant frown on his work. "This is what I want you to do. In a matter of hours, maybe around noon, when I can get a few clear shots, I'm going to have Wynn roll the boulder aside a little. While I shoot down the winged warriors, I want Inden to carry you and Wynn from the cave through that hole in the ceiling --"

"Kilyan!" Avi cried, and it was her turn to frown.

"Don't argue with me about this, Avi!" Kilyan snapped, his voice such a roar of a growl that Avi flinched and stared at him with large eyes. He sighed and slumped, dropping his paws into his lap. "Just don't argue," he said again in a softer tone, "_please. _"

Avi was silent a moment as she watched Kilyan. He had closed his eyes and his jaw clenched tight. She carefully crawled to his side, and placing her slender paw on the bulging muscles of his arm, she whispered, "Avi already lost Ryo. Don't make her lose Kilyan too!"

"We don't have a choice," Kilyan said in a low voice. "Just do what I say!" He looked at Avi with piercingly hard green eyes, and seeing his urgency, she was silent.

Kilyan's eyes went back to his work. He swallowed thickly before he spoke again. He hated to raise his voice to Avi, but this was serious: this was their lives! "When the three of you escape, fly for the summer village. Inden is strong and the two of you are small: he could carry you both. Find my mother there. Her name is Aliona. She will welcome you into her home. Don't come back for me."

Avi gasped, her eyes wide. "Kilyan, no --"

"Don't come back for me," was the repeated order, and tilting his head down, Kilyan looked Avi deeply in the eyes so that she would understand how serious he was.

Avi stubbornly shook her head. "Don't ask that of Avi."

"I'm not asking."

"Then don't order it of Avi either!" Avi snapped, poking Kilyan sharply in the chest. "Avi will never leave Kilyan to die! Never! If we leave cave, we leave it together."

Kilyan was startled when she leaned forward and gave him a hard, trembling kiss on the mouth. Caught off guard, he dropped the sling from his fingers, and they sat breathless, their foreheads pressed together.

"Please, don't argue with me," Avi whispered, her lips brushing Kilyan's. "Just . . . do what I say."

Kilyan laughed in spite of everything and squeezed his eyes shut, almost as if against his own feelings. "I love you, Avi. So very much . . ." He touched a tender finger to her lips and they smiled at each other again.

"All right, then, Black Ears," Kilyan said, setting aside his sling. "What do you suggest we do?"

---

Chief Yinzo sat seething, his bloody head bandaged, his remaining warriors slouching around with crossbows, sharpening daggers on rocks. They had been waiting outside the cave for days on end without a single sign of life inside. But Chief Yinzo was pissed: practically the whole village had been murdered by that damned shemale, while others had died later of their injuries. There were less than half a dozen of his warriors now. Meanwhile, his own goddamned son had betrayed him! And not only that, but he'd been struck on the head with a rock, kicked in his nuts, and thoroughly humiliated by that little winged shemale slut who had bitten his tongue the first time he tried to kiss her. Every wolf who had ever done him wrong and lived to tell the tale was in that cave! But the worst part was, there was absolutely no moving that stupid boulder.

Yinzo's warriors had grumbled and complained that the prisoners were probably dead by now: it had been many days and there was no way out of the cave. What could they possibly have been eating in there? Each other? But Yinzo, in a state of bitter rage, became almost monomaniac in his desire to capture and do justice to those who had escaped him. He ordered his males again and again to attempt to the move the boulder through any number of methods, but all attempts failed, and by the end of yet another day, Yinzo was sitting slouched in defeat, his red-veined eyes trained with bitter hatred on that unmovable rock. He was starting to think that maybe those damned sons-of-bitches really were dead.

It was to Yinzo's great shock, therefore, that the boulder slowly rolled aside a crack. The shifting of gravel, the sudden rise of dust made Yinzo and his warriors prick their ears forward and sit bolt-upright. The boulder stopped, leaving a crack just wide enough for a slender figure to emerge. Yinzo's eyes narrowed and his lips curled in a little smile: that slender figure belonged to the little winged shemale, whose charms he not been able to resist. He heard his warriors start chuckling darkly under their breath as the little shemale batted her lashes at them, and touching her paws to the boulder, she pointed her plump little buttocks in their direction, bent slightly with her legs wide apart, and let her tail flicker up behind her so that they had a clear view of her sex. Her tail fanned the scent of her moist pussy lips in their direction, and she turned, and (to Yinzo rage) she smiled and actually winked at one of the warriors, dragging her tongue over her teeth!

Yinzo shot up from his seat and smacked the receiver of this flirtatious wink over the head, howling that the shemale belonged to him and only him. He then went to Avi's side, and taking her in his big arm, he kissed her hard on the mouth in front of them all. Avi's head fell back and she moaned as Yinzo's big fingers glided in her sex. To Yinzo's great pleasure, she even whispered his name. But her black eyes drifted lustily to yet another warrior, and that warrior jumped up and -- shocking them all -- shoved the chief in the shoulder and off of Avi. He snarled something in their guttural language ("She doesn't want you -- she wants me!"), and Avi looked on in amusement as the chief and his subordinate started a rough and wild brawl. She smiled to herself: two down. Three to go.

Moving with her hips swaying seductively, Avi passed between the remaining three warriors, who were sitting with their ears pricked forward and watching her every movement. Her breasts riding high, her plump buttocks flexing, Avi sat on a wolf's lap, and putting her arms around his neck, she started kissing him. The wolf kissed her eagerly back, but as their tongues pushed wetly against each other, Avi's black eyes fluttered beyond her partner and alighted with a lusty flash on the wolf sitting beside him. Her partner noticed this silent flirtation at once, and turned upon his comrade with a snarl.

Avi then let her eyes flash at the third and last warrior, who gazed back at her just as lustily. This was not lost on the other two, and soon, Yinzo and the remaining group of his warriors were wrestling wildly over Avi, snarling and biting and punching and growling, and all because they each wanted to be . . . desired.

Avi stood watching their snarling and fighting for a moment. Ever since she had witnessed the fight between Kilyan and Keeno, she had always loved the sight of males locked in fierce battle: their cocks and balls flapping, their tight muscles flexing, the ferocity of their flashing fangs and angry eyes. Avi sighed and felt her cock twitch a little. She kept up her flirtation, strolling among the brawling wolves and their flapping wings, idly batting feathers from her face as they drifted by, and giving a wink here and there, a silent kiss, a smile, until the males were at each other's throats. And as they continued struggling against each other for the affections of the little queen, Avi casually lifted one of the fallen crossbows, and aiming it at Yinzo's head, she let an arrow fly home between his eyes.

The fighting stopped at once at this betrayal. There was a pregnant silence as the other four wolves stood staring at their fallen leader, their mouths open. But slowly, their faces creased into scowls, and they turned burning eyes upon Avi. Their wings fluttering out, they lunged as one. Avi was ready for them, and so was Kilyan: a volley of rocks and arrows battered the lunging warriors, ripping holes in their wings, blossoming red flowers of blood on their chests, and they crumpled to the ground, splattered with blood and moaning.

"Cool!" exclaimed a voice.

Kilyan, who was crouched behind the boulder with his sling, looked over his shoulder to find Wynn and Inden standing there. Inden had been allowed to come in order to support Kilyan with more rocks, but Wynn had been told to remain in the back of the cave. Kilyan frowned at her and she blushed.

"I just wanted to see!" Wynn protested.

Before Kilyan could scold her, the boulder started rolling slowly aside, and Kilyan realized that Avi was moving it in order to let them out. He took a step back from the rising dust, pulling Wynn with him. Inden hesitated but shielded a coughing Wynn with his wings. When the dust had cleared and the boulder had rolled aside, the others emerged to stand with Avi.

Holding the crossbow as if she would fire it into the moaning and crumpled bodies of their adversaries, Avi looked so tough and yet cute that Kilyan almost felt himself getting hard. He looked with disgust upon Yinzo, whose wings were still twitching as the life slowly drained out of him. He glanced sideways, sympathetically at Inden: the winged prince was standing with his paws balled into fists, glowering at his father's limp body. Inden muttered something in his language, and Wynn (who was the only one who could half-understand the winged warrior tongue) tangled her fingers with his and smiled at him to comfort him.

"Let's go," Kilyan said, tossing his tacky sling disdainfully on the twitching bodies: he and a shemale had defeated these powerful warriors with a sling and their own sad and desperate need to be a desired. It was pathetic. Taking up another fallen crossbow, he moved ahead of the others through the trees, and they followed after him. Avi didn't drop her crossbow and jerked her head for Wynn to walk behind her father. Inden brought up the rear.

Kilyan led the others back to the now-deserted village of the winged warriors with the intention of doing some thievery. They crept up on the village through the close-knit trees, their ears pricked forward, their bodies tense and alert. Kilyan gestured for the others to stay back and moved a few feet closer, crouching behind a tree that was just near the open gates. He couldn't believe it: bodies of winged wolves were strewn everywhere in the streets, bloody and blank and crumpled and broken. The place reeked of blood and death. Flies settled on the whites of eyes. It looked to him as if Ryo had proceeded to beat the bloody pulp out of her captors: not a movement, not a sound. Everyone here was dead.

Kilyan gestured to the others that it was okay and entered the village with them. Walking through the carnage, he wanted to shield Wynn's eyes, but he couldn't while holding the crossbow and telling his daughter to look away was pointless: everywhere he looked, bodies stared back at him.

"All right," said Kilyan, coming to a stop near a hut. "Let's get food and supplies and get the hell outta here."

Kilyan entered the gloom of the hut and the others followed after him. It was like any other hut. In the center of the front room, a barren fire pit full of ash. Pots and pans hanging from the ceiling, other cooking utensils on a shelf in the wall, wooden cabinets and chairs . . . a home. Kilyan told Wynn and Inden to wait by the curtain, they never knew if some winged warrior wasn't crouched in the shadows and waiting to strike. But the hut was empty, and Kilyan and Avi were able to gather food from the storage box without incident. They quickly gathered other things -- traveling packs, canteens, sleeping furs, eating utensils and bowls -- and left.

"Father kept your boat," Inden told Kilyan as they passed through the village. "It's still down on the beach."

Kilyan nodded. They could sail home then. Thank god! He was about to speak when something caught his eye and he halted. The others halted too. Avi followed Kilyan's gaze and let out a horrified sob: what was unmistakably Ryo's paw was reaching over the edge of a deep fire pit. The pit had been dug in the center of the village square, and Kilyan could see even from here that Ryo's paw was burned badly.

Swallowing thickly, Kilyan told the others to stay where they were and walked slowly toward the fire pit, dreading what he would find. When he stood at last over the hole, he was blinded by a sudden rise of tears: Ryo's black and burnt corpse stared unseeing at the blank blue sky. The scent of her charred remains was overwhelming. Kilyan turned abruptly away and closed his eyes, feeling sick rise. He could hear Wynn and Avi sobbing against each other, Inden's guttural voice as he comforted them and apologized for his father.

His head bowed, Kilyan peeled off his traveling pack and set to work. He grabbed an abandoned shovel that had been used to dig the pit, and going to the mound of earth nearby it, he started scooping it and dropping it over Ryo. She had died to save them, she had died making sure that they had a chance of escaping. The least Kilyan could do was give her a proper burial.

When the last of the dirt had covered Ryo and Kilyan was patting it with the flat of the shovel, Avi brought Wynn toward the lonely grave. Inden followed awkwardly after, his tail miserably low, his wings folded quietly. Tears flowing down her face, Avi said some words in the shemale tongue. Wynn spoke in her native tongue as well, but she couldn't finish whatever she was trying to say and instead broke down sobbing. Avi led Wynn sadly away and Inden followed after. Kilyan remained behind.

Kilyan stood in silence over the grave a moment, then slowly pulled off his warrior talisman, and kneeling down in the dirt, he scooped a little of the earth away and buried his talisman in it.

To receive a warrior's talisman meant to receive a lifelong friend. Kilyan only wished he could have given the talisman to Ryo before. She may not have understood the custom, but she would have been pleased nonetheless. And while he didn't really believe those things, he comforted himself that maybe she was somewhere smiling on this silent gift. Maybe.