Chapter Ten

"Momma?"

Jeha glanced down at her son, who was tugging at her tail. "Yes, lovey?"

"Momma, there's a strange male at the gate. He looks sad, Momma."

Jeha blinked and set her repair work aside; allowed her son to lead her through the cottage door. Sitting impatiently at the entrance to their tiny dwelling outside one of the few major Glacial gryphon cities was the largest specimen of their species she'd ever seen. He was patterned as no gryphon could naturally appear to be: brown on top, grey on the bottom -- black here, white there. And those eyes! Huge, luminous grey eyes that stared back at her with such an intensity, Jeha feared they'd pass right through her.

Surreptitiously, she wiped her paws on her short apron and approached the gate. "What may I do for you?" she asked courteously, pushing Daeka behind her with a small shove.

"Lady, are you a midwife? My mate is in labor and I ... I cannot help her." His brows drew together and he glanced over his shoulder, feet and wings itching to be off.

Jeha shook her head. "I'm sorry, sir. I'm not a midwife. There's one in the city -- if you give me a moment, I can arrange something."

To her approval, he did not increase his paternal jitters. First gryphlet, then, she reasoned with a fond remembrance.

"Point me and I shall go," he proclaimed, lowering his forequarters slightly.

Jeha was amazed. "By yourself? It's a day's journey from here to the city. You look tired; please, just wait for my mate to come and he shall take you --"

"I am quite well, lady. You have no idea how fast I can fly. Please, point me, I cannot wait to be taken."

Dazed, Jeha gestured to the rising wisps of smoke curling to the cloudless tundra sky. "Th--" With a bound, the stranger thrust down huge patterned wings, arcing over their heads at a fascinating clip.

"I wanna be like him, Momma!" Daeka exclaimed, beating his own wings in parody. Jeha only sighed and walked back inside.

Sular trotted through the streets of the Glacial city Darinvar, talons ringing on cobblestone. Every so often, his keen sense of hearing would pick up the muttered phrase "clan scum." The prejudicial nature of the Glacials irritated him, but it was rare he had to actually deal with them, anyway.

For more than two years, they resided in solitude, enriched by the love they shared. It was Sular who traveled beyond their borders for essentials, concealing his non-Glacial markings with local dyes prepared by Ziara, every-so-often sneaking into Tyan's clan camp to exchange news with Zayla and the fading Kernow. His last visit had been particularly taxing -- on him and Ziara both. Courageous and proud ex-Clanleader Kernow Flurrith had finally passed on. Under the cloak of darkness, they'd smuggled Ziara in to see her father before his commencement ceremony the next morning. Tyan sulked all day in his tent while the clan came out in full to honor Kernow, sending his corporeal shell to a glorious rest.

Ziara often remarked during her pregnancy that Kernow would not be able to see his grandchildren. Quietly in response, Sular would tell her that although it was true, she would be able to see her father in their offspring. The pregnancy itself had surprised them both, because of their supposed incompatibility, Sular never thought about controlling his fertility or Ziara to seek preventative herbs. In the end, after the initial shock, peace had descended, bringing a sense of fulfillment to their lives.

And now, he was on the lookout for one who could safely bring that fulfillment to light. Finally, he accosted a merchant, who directed him to Mistress Leianay's small dwelling around the corner.

"Yes?" came the answer to his polite, but fervent knock. Sular sat on the step outside and was then face-to-face with a fresh-faced young gryphoness. She noted the look on his visage and flashed him a smile. "Yes, yes, I know." She tipped her head coyly to the side, setting her feathered earrings jangling: " 'But you don't look like a midwife'!" Leianay grinned and reached out for a bag that hung on a peg by the door well. "Well, let's go!"

Leianay staggered briefly at the entrance to the mountain lair. Self-consciously smoothing windblown feathers and fur, she unlatched her traveling bag. Sular gestured for her to follow him into the bedchamber; the midwife needed no further directions. Her pert, creamy, black-tipped ears caught Ziara's labored breaths rasping through the lair. As sure as a well-placed arrow, she honed in on the clan female.

Ziara lay in a tangle of bed sheets on the floor, amniotic fluid pooled on the stone beside her. When they entered, she opened one eye, the pupil a mere pinpoint against a perfect ovoid of ageless amber. "Back .. so soon?" Her voice was but a whisper. A contraction rolled along her grossly-distorted belly, making her gasp.

Leianay smiled as she set her kit beside the sweat-soaked sheets. "Your mate clear picked me up -- as if I weighed nothing at all!" she chatted amicably, fussing around Ziara. "I've never even dreamed of flying so fast!"

Ziara put out a paw, which Sular deftly caught and pressed against his cheek. "My love can outfly the wind," she murmured.

Leianay placed professional paws to Ziara's sides, feeling for the positions of the gryphlets. "Large babies," she muttered softly, using the soft pads of her fingers to prob.

"Small but wide ... lucky lady, you are, dear." Pausing a moment to arrange herself at Ziara's business end, Leianay fixed Sular another winning smile. "Potent fellow, aren't you? I feel three gryphlets. Rare, very rare -- we usually only have one at a time."

Sular turned his head to blush, but was yanked down by Ziara's death-grip on his ear. Leianay threw a sheet over the gryphoness' business-end and squatted down. "Here we go ..."

Leianay finished wiping her paws on a clean towel; she threw the soiled linen into a compartment in her carry-all and grinned up at Sular. The large male glanced upwards, and the midwife was pleased to see genuine happiness fill his sad eyes. At his feet curled Ziara and three pudgy, sated gryphlets. Two had dull grey coats of baby fuzz, the other a deep coal that could either turn midnight blue or a rare Glacial black.

"Can I talk to you a moment, Sular?"

The head came up again, looked down at Ziara for confirmation. "Go on," she told him in a happy, but hoarse, tone. "I can manage for a while!"

Reluctantly, Sular detached himself from his family and ambled over to the antechamber of their room. Quickly, Leianay drew him to the side, her voice pitched so as not to be overheard.

"I don't know how to say this --" the midwife began, her ears flicking nervously. She paused to curl her tail against her hindquarters and looked up at the Changed Vahazayan. "You're the ones that the heralds were talking about, aren't you?"

She watched as the paternal light left those strange grey eyes, slid from their polished surfaces as quickly as water drains from a hole. Down went the eight white crest feathers, slicked back against deep brown; ears pinned to his skull. White nares drained of blood, translucent; she could count the blood vessels clearly. Sular stared at her, mouth working, but no sound issued forth. Finally, he spoke: "Y-you would not!" It was a deathly whisper, invoked in his accented tongue.

In one step, he was upon her, in Leianay's face, black paw gripping her by the shoulder, lifting her up effortlessly. "Jeyahern," he growled, steam -- steam!? -- puffing at her, "I swear to thee, thou layest a hand in this matter, I shall seek thee out!"

Leianay went limp, eyes focused on his paw. He was desperate and high on adrenaline and parenthood. "I would never do such a thing!" she whispered, words pouring fast and furiously, trying to shift away from the intense pressure of his paw. He held her by paw pads alone, no extension of claws at all. "I -- I have relations in Flurrith-Clan! My parents would take my brother and I there every summer -- to get away from the city!" Her eyes shifted madly, from paw to eyes and back again. "I ... used to play with Ziara! She doesn't remember me, but I recognized her from the off-set. Please -- please, Sular! Believe me!"

The glazed look left him abruptly. Quietly, he lowered Leianay to the floor, shifting backwards, eyes downcast. He was shaking, utterly afraid that he had hurt her.

"Duarthé," he murmured in embarrassment. "Forgive."

Leianay clutched at her shoulder, inspecting and not finding any bruises. Sular was strong, but not in an overt way. "No, I cam sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up."

The sad grey eyes pulled at her. "Perhaps it was for the best that you did," he told her, running a paw through his crest. "We were lucky this time. Perhaps not so later on."

Leianay reached out to touch his other paw gently, inwardly marveling at the subtle warm radiating outwards. Was this a showing of his trueform? she wondered with half a mind. "I promise you, Sular -- I will tell no one where you are. On my oath of office, I swear to you."

"Kandé orth, lady; kandé orth."

Leianay smiled. "If only that I can see the triplets, that is."

The grin that split the Vahazayi's face couldn't be matched. "I am sure that can be arranged, lady."