Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Never Going Home (REWRITTEN)

I didn't want to go back to my home enclave. I'd been gone six weeks, it felt like six months, and I'd been happy with that.

Ethat had our belongings in a vine cocoon dangling from his neck. Itek had shifted into his griffon form. Sunlight shone off his gorgeous tawny pelt, revealing the dapples of his pantere heritage.

"We aren't sure when we will return, and I know it is short notice," Korr was saying to the head man-servant, with the other household staff gathered in meek submission behind him. "Several weeks. You'll all be paid your wages during this time, but there is no need to prepare meals or such. Enjoy the reduced work."

"You're taking Theia with you?" Yanice inquired, her tone properly dulcet.

Obviously, because I was standing next to Itek in riding clothes. I gripped his feathers in one hand.

"Of course," Korr said. "Why, do you think you or Delia should come along to attend to her?"

Itek scratched one talon along the stones.

"Yes, true, we don't know anything about making her presentable," Korr agreed. "I wasn't thinking we may need to travel with a lady's maid going forward."

"I can take care of myself," I said tersely.

"She does know little of presenting herself in a way that will reflect well upon your clans," Delia said, bobbing once and looking up at Korr with a viper's sweet expression.

I left Itek's side to walk up to stand next to Korr. "We aren't going anywhere with genteel accommodations. You'll be blistered and calloused and sunburned within a day. We're travelling rough."

Yanice and Delia would get a blister on their soft little butts within five miles of Haven.

Korr snapped his fingers. "You're right, pet. I hadn't thought of that. They're human and gentle-bred. They should stay here lest they become more trouble than they're worth. This mission is too important to risk on unessential luxuries or fragile companions."

He placed a hand on the small of my back and guided me towards Itek.

"Promise you won't let me fall," I hissed to Itek.

He slicked all the feathers of his ruff down and cocked his head enough to glare at me down the length of his massive beak.

I grabbed a handful of feather and braced myself on his shoulders and tried to vault neatly onto him like I wasn't scared out of my mind or rode like a sack of potatoes. Ethat launched himself into the air with a gust of wind, caught a seabreeze, and sailed into the blue.

Korr shifted, but gave me a single draconic wink.

Itek shifted his wings and worked his large pawed back feet. His body clenched, a ripple warning me, and with a tremendous spring, he launched into the air. I managed not to scream this time. Itek managed not to shoot up into the sky at a terrifying angle.

Korr glided just below us, while Ethat kept the point, drifting back and forth in the air in wide, sweeping arcs. I kept my hands twisted into Itek's feathers and my face buried. The wind still tore at me, trying to pull me off him, and sending me tumbling.

It was the fastest way back to my home enclave. It'd taken me weeks to get to Haven. It would take us days to get back my enclave to see if it was still there or not.

————————

"You know he won't drop you," Korr said. "Nothing bad has happened."

My hands were shaking so badly that morning I could barely hold into Itek's feathers. "You're a shitty diplomat."