Page 82 of The Hunter

“Must be some big fucking birds…”

Tas chittered. “They are our dens. The birds nest higher.”

Telok lifted his gaze. Several colorful larkhets were visible in the upper branches around the village’s outskirts, many of them roosting in nests of twigs and grass. He did not doubt there were more of them out of sight.

Ayali chittered. “I would not fit in such small dens.”

The other thornskulls chittered with her.

“I do not think I could make the climb,” Koss said.

Droztar scratched his abdomen with a lower hand. “I would fall.”

Cole laughed. “If I want to test my upper body strength, I think I’ll do it a little closer to the ground.”

Lacey shuddered. “That’s a big no from me. I prefer to keep my feet on something solid.” She tilted her head as she regarded the dens. “Didn’t Ivy say she stayed in one of those with Ketahn?”

“She did,” Telok said. “Ketahn kept such a den for years.”

“I couldn’t imagine being carried in and out of one of those things.”

He placed his hand on her back. “I would not let you fall.”

She chuckled. “That’s not the point.”

“Wait,” Cole said, turning to face Tas, “we’re not staying in one of those, right?”

Tas hummed, lifting a hand to tap his chin. “If you are split into smaller groups…”

Cole turned on his heel. “Well, was nice meeting you all. I’m going home.”

“I will den here,” Garahk said, thumping his foreleg on the platform.

Chittering, Tas waved his hands placatingly. “No, no. I speak in jest. We have plenty of space on the platforms for all of you to rest comfortably. Sophia also keeps her den on one of the platforms.”

“Oh, thank God,” Lacey breathed.

Tas beckoned them with an upper hand and strode to the bridge leading to the centermost platform. “Come. Let us meet with the council so we may move swiftly to more pleasant matters.”

They followed him across. Telok stayed close behind Lacey, tension coursing through him as the bridge bounced under the weight of their group. Though she was more surefooted after her time in Kaldarak, she kept a tight grip on the sides.

The quiet that had greeted their arrival faded as chatter arose amongst the onlooking winddancers, who were beginning to gather in small crowds.

The group reached the central platform. Tas led them around the trunk, past several buildings, including the one that held the looms. A pair of weavers stared at the passing hunters, their work forgotten. More winddancers were inside and around the other buildings, where they’d been carving wood, shaping blackrock, and molding clay. No matter what their tasks had been, they all watched Telok and his companions. He read the same emotions in their eyes that he’d seen in Tas’s back at camp—curiosity, excitement, and caution.

And much like Garahk had when the shadowstalkers first entered Kaldarak, Wen’Xal Tas reassured his kind with warm words, telling them that these were new friends of their Nedrayas. That after the meeting with the council, proper introductions would be made.

Telok found himself just as guarded and on edge as he’d been during that initial journey into the thornskulls’ home, though his reasons were different. Entering Kaldarak had been striding into the den of his old enemies, facing vrix who he’d fought years before, whose friends and family had been slain by him and his kind. He’d expected hostility, had expected violence.

He feared neither from the winddancers, who had no such bloody history with thornskulls or shadowstalkers. No, his tension was entirely due to the conversation ahead. He knew Garahk would not refuse the winddancers’ request…and Telok would not abandon his companions.

As he saw more of Tovuunshai, it became apparent that this place was far smaller than Kaldarak, and the winddancers numbered far fewer than the thornskulls.

How many of their kind had been lost to the kurghests? How many more hunters and foragers could a village this size lose before they would begin struggling to gather adequate food, before they would be left defenseless from outside threats?

On the far side of the platform, they came to another rope bridge, this one leading up. Telok followed it with his gaze to the next tree. Its trunk split into several huge branches that spread outward, leaving a large space atop which had been built another platform bearing a big, round building with a high, steep roof.

As he crossed the bridge, Telok glanced back to find many winddancers clustered on the platform behind him, talking excitedly to each other, but none of them followed.