The Tribes of K'haren - Completed

Chapter 4.1

'Hello there.' Kran said with a broad smile. Nume rolled her eyes.

'What are you doing here?' she asked accusingly.

'I could ask you that same question...'

Nume looked around to check whether anybody else was there. 'I told you, I'm leaving. But you have to stay here.'

'Oh, and why must I stay if you may leave?' he asked.

'Because...' Nume stopped speaking, she couldn't think of anything anyway.

'See.' Kran said contentedly. 'I'm coming with you. I won't stay and take the shame.'

'Then help me find the...'

'... young male gseirut we can use to run away?' he finished her sentence. Nume nodded. 'It's standing over there.' he said, pointing to his right.

Nume walked into the direction without hesitation. 'It's not harnessed...' she realised when she'd found the male.

As an answer, Kran held up a harness he'd apparently stolen from the breeder's tent. 'You really should have thought of that... What would you do without me?'

'Be less pissed off?'

'Fair point.'

Nume couldn't help smiling. Together, they put the harness on the young male who didn't like it too much. He'd probably never been ridden before, young gseirut, especially male ones, were usually only ever used for carrying spare tents and stuff.

They had to hurry now, the sun would rise at any moment. Then the breeder's family would come to feed the gseirut. Nume climbed up onto the male and Kran sat down behind her. He didn't have a clue how to fly a gseirut. As a member of the Great Leader's family, he usually just sat somewhere on the huge back of the main male while the Great Leader himself lead the mighty creature. Teaching his successor how to do that was the last thing any Great Leader did before giving his role away.

The gseirut underneath them became nervous and started making a high sound that alarmed the others, who started sniffing the air. Then Nume gave the gseirut the sign to take off. It didn't move. Great, Nume thought. As it seemed, nobody had cared to teach him the signs. Of course not, he would follow the others anyway and from a certain age on he'd just be left behind. Nume leaned forwards over the creature's neck, found its earhole and imitated the high sound.

The gseirut immediately panicked and took off, stretching out its large wings. Once it was in the air, many others followed. They circled for a while and when the main male appeared beside them, Nume wondered whether she'd stay with the gseirut she was sitting on for long enough for him to grow to that size. Then the main male started landing again and all others followed. When Nume's male wanted to land as well, she made the noise again and he quickly gained height again. Uncertain where to go, he started paying attention to the two phraio sitting on him.

Nume told Kran to hand her the walking stick out of her backpack. When he did so, she took her jacket off and knotted it onto the stick. The gseirut was still circling above the city and Nume thought she could hear people cry far away but she didn't have time to look down.

'Hurry!' Kran said, his voice full of fear. The thought of being captured after a failed flight attempt terrified him.

Nume ignored him and held the stick forwards like a flag. She covered one of the gseirut's eyes with it, thinking the gseirut would then turn to where he could see. Instead, the male harshly turned to the right where her improvised flag was and turned fast circles. Nume held the flag straight up, not knowing what to do and the gseirut flew straight forwards into the direction he had been looking when the flag had been removed from his eye.

After a few failed attempts, Nume managed to direct the unsettled creature to fly over the forest towards where Nume thought to remember the pond to have been. But she had to admit that the circles had made her lose her sense of direction. She couldn't see back over the gseirut's back so she asked Kran to climb further back and have a look around.

When he returned, he told her that the city was disappearing behind the edge of the forest. Only now Nume realised what she was doing. For a moment, she felt startled, nearly shocked. Then, immense joy filled her heart and she gave a shout, hastening the gseirut to a speed three times faster than before. Feeling sorry, she leant forwards and tickled its neck just above the nostrils on both sides.

A few hours later, the gseirut landed on a huge rock formation in the middle of the forest. Nume had no idea where she was, she'd spent the last hours trying to get the gseirut to land but since it didn't understand anything, it had just kept flying. Now it seemed to want to rest and so the two young phraio got off and put a rope around the gseirut's neck, just in case it would want to fly off without them. Nume held the other end of the rope as they climbed down the rocks, and the gseirut followed them closely.

The space between the rocks and the trees was very narrow but gseirut liked fitting into narrow spaces where they felt safe so that wasn't much of a problem. Nume waited, stroking the gseirut, while Kran disappeared into the forest for a while. He came back carrying some firewood. Nume was impressed. Her friend hardly ever did any physical work by himself. Nevertheless he'd always managed to stay fit and look good. As Nume remembered, nearly every girl her age had been into him for many years but most of them were already married now.

The two decided to stay till the next morning. Although a grownup gseirut could fly all day fully packed, this young one was not yet strong enough for such treatment. Nume considered binding it to a tree so it couldn't fly off but she didn't want the creature to get hurt in case it panicked so she decided to keep the rope in her hand.

//Check out that nice picture of an adult gseirut @Tschike has made! And don'tforget to leave a vote and a comment below ;) [The picture was made with DragonCreator, accessed through Kongregate]