New Beginnings || Aonung x OC

Chapter 4 - Kxor

When I landed at the High Camp base after our first flight, Tuk greeted us eagerly with a sun lily flower chain in her hands to celebrate my success in taming an ikran. He was about to thrash around in refusal but I gave him a stern glare to signalise that it was not up for debate. The sheer panic in my partners face was a sight for sore eyes once my sister placed the chain over his head. "Don't see this as an attack on your masculinity, it's more like a ritual to officially accept you as a member of our family. My family is also yours now; they will take care of you and watch your back if needed. And besides, the flowers compliment your dark blue skin excellently, my handsome ikran", I mused, leading him to the tree site where our ikrans resided. He held his head up slightly higher after my explanation, wearing the flowers with a bit of pride as an official member of the Sully family. "What's his name?", Tuk inquired, skipping along next to us. Honestly, I hadn't really thought about it until that point, my mind still couldn't completely grasp that I had completed the first step of becoming an adult so coming up with a name for him completely slipped my mind.

"I don't know yet, any suggestions?", I asked to which she clapped her hand in anticipation. "Well, he is blue -", she stated and my partner let out a puff of breath as to say obviously, "so maybe something with water?". I thought about it for a second and agreed with her logic. I wanted him to carry a name fit for a warrior, something he himself approved of - but then again, the ikran of my father carried the name Bob so they couldn't be that picky. "Kxor maybe?", I stated the first thing that came to my mind since the name reminded me of his tough demeanour. We used it to describe a wall of powerful waterfalls known for their deafening roar and deadly force. Tuk nodded avidly at my suggestion and the ikran beside me nudged his cheek against my face as a sign of acceptance. "It's decided then. I'm looking forward to being your partner Kxor", I declared and tenderly trailed the ivory pattern on his neck with my finger.

I spent the following days predominantly on the back of my ikran instead of on terrestrial ground. Before I could even dream about joining my parents and brother at their patrol routes or hunting trips, they ordered for me to become thoroughly acquainted with my partner and attempt diverse flying manoeuvres. Whenever I was up there, riding on his saddled back, I felt a sensation of freedom that I had never experienced before. I even welcomed the wind blowing through my hair and whipping into my face at the speed we were going at. In order to protect my eyes from getting dry up here, my mom gifted me my very own rider's mask just like she had with Neteyam. She commissioned a beautiful visor with dark blue fabric woven intricately into it to match my partners skin tone and delicate lenses which were manufactured by our clan's crafters from molted shimmyfly wings.

It took me a few days to figure out how to manoeuvre Kxor purely through my thoughts and not verbally express the demand but it soon came pretty natural to the both of us. One morning I approached him with a piece of cloth and proudly explained him my idea, the scepticism in his eyes was obvious but nevertheless he led me proceed. I carefully tied the fabric around his two pair of eyes and knotted it at the back of his head before I connected our queues. It was an ultimate test of his trust in me and I felt already honoured that he allowed me to proceed this far, as banshees primarily rely on their eyes to avoid obstacles and for hunting. Additionally, the secondary eyes are also highly sensitive to motion and act as an early warning system against attack from the rear, which assigned the lookout for potential threats during our flight to me.

I synchronized my breathing with his own and controlled the tightness of the saddle one last time before we finally took off. We swayed at first and I tried to calm down his terror through affirmations and soon he became accustomed to the feeling. A thought from me was followed by his execution, completely acting with one accord. At one point I took the cloth off and was rewarded with a loud and satisfied screech. In order to reciprocate his trust in me, I took the cloth and tied it around my own head, leaving me completely blind and under his guidance. I trusted him with my whole life and truly wanted him to understand the responsibility we bore for each other. However insane that exercise seemed at the beginning, it brought us even closer together than we were before.