C4

C4 walked into the grotto while releasing zisself from the tether, ze looked around for J, there was a lot of stuff piled over against the side of the fairly large room. Ze started unfastening bags and adding them to the rest. Voices filtered up from a corridor in the back J came into view.

“Hey C4, glad you made it, has S left yet? 

“Not sure S, O and L are making sure everyone else gets out first, It shouldn't be long, the back wall of the pasture was about to be breached, and the roof was crashing in as well. How did you find this place?”

“Well, I was floating by and saw a couple of black wings fighting some wingless so I dropped in to help. Long story short: there were six surviving wingless, fighting, three black wings and we killed one and injured two. “Where are they?”

“We have all three stashed over there behind that pile of rubble.”

“Micah, is that you?”

 C4 froze, “who is that?”. Without waiting for an answer ze hurried to the pile of rock and peered around it.  

The wounded female seated on the boulder, stared up at him “You've grown. How's your brother?”

“My brother! of the other children that were kidnapped with me only three others besides me survived the wave of sickness that we brought with us. If they survive the escape from the compound, you can see for yourself if one of them is my brother. Did J put you in this condition?”

 “Yes”

“Good.”

“He put this knife in my eye, and nearly took off my right arm and wing. He put a battle rock in my other eye but a wingless medic got it out.” 

A groan came from a black winged figure on the floor. C4 stared at the prostrate form, his face turned from the customary gray/brown to a deep dark yellow, his eyes bugged. “You are the one that ran me down, killed my mother, kidnapped me, then dumped me off at the compound with a knot on my head and a sore gut.” 

 The form on the floor stared up at the young warrior standing over him. “I didn't kidnap you. You were mine to begin with.”

“How do you figure I was yours.”

“You are my son. Help me sit up, my hands and feet are tied, my wings are broken, I’m not going anywhere, sit me up, please.” C4 moved a large rock over next to the black winged warrior and assisted him to a sitting position on it. “My name is Quintus, don’t you remember me?”

“Your son, I don’t think so, no one at the compound has gendered, we were fed herbs, and given skin oils containing chemicals that kept us in a perpetual state of gender immaturity but encouraged advanced physical development. How can I be anyone's son let alone yours.”

“Thank you for your assistance. I got myself into debt with a very powerful magistrate. I had several children and he forced me to give up two of them, two very recently gendered sons.”

“But I don't have any. . . . . you made me a eunuch, I should kill you. When you are well enough to fight, I will fight you. Pachyderma Ptenos warrior code does not allow the killing of anyone who is defenseless even if they deserve it, but I will fight you someday, and I will be the only one to fly away.”

“I can see that you have the makings of a good and honorable warrior, that any father would be proud of. I had nothing to do with you being made a eunuch, I was told you would be made into a warrior.”

“I am a warrior, the youngest to reach level two. So why did you kidnap me?”

“I didn’t kidnap you, I was trying to save you.” 

“Save me! you sold me!” C4 stood stiffly and yelled at him, spit flying from his mouth to the wounded one’s face. 

“Magistrate Perkins said he was taking you and your brother. I sent both of you with his mother to a deep village to hide you, but his henchmen found you. I tried to get you to hide you again, but they got there first and took you.”

“Why didn't you fight him?”

“I did as much as I could, I managed to kill the henchman that figured out where you were. If I had done more, he would have taken all of my children and killed me and the rest of my coterie. He had already killed two of us and we were woefully outnumbered.”

“So why did you join the black wings? Aren’t they the ones that started the compound to build a better warrior?”

Quintus let out a sharp bitter laugh, “The magistrate is a follower of the creator”

“No way the creator doesn't work that way.” 

“Well J, welcome to the Real Wasabon, some of his followers do.”  

“So you want to kill all of us because a few who claim to follow the creator are bad.”

Quintus snorted out a laugh. “No I'm just setting up the supply stations, if the Creator is who he claims to be the good guys will live.”

“Do you really think that only the bad guys will be killed?! What about the three wingless you threw off the veranda?”

“I didn't know they were wingless.” 

“And that makes them guilty, worthy of death?”

“You know as well as I do that there are plenty of air streams, it is possible that they floated all the way down to the bottom of the gully.”

“Possible maybe, but not probable, you know better than I do that not all of the airstreams are gentle nor are they consistent.”

“Do you think you could untie me? I can't fly and I am not sure I can walk either.”

“Maybe I should throw you over the veranda and see if you can catch an airstream to the bottom.”

“Micah, come sit by me, let them argue that out.” The wounded female inclined her head toward the young warrior.

“Why does that name feel right?” Micah walked over and sat on the boulder beside her and leaned forward so that she could see him out of her one working eye. 

“Because that's your name, when your eye skin started changing color we started discussing permanent names and Micah is what you chose. You and your brother held hands and ran around the pasture up the steps to the library and back around the pasture and told us you found your names, you were Micah and he was Demetrius.”

“How do you know I’m Micah and not Demetrius or someone else?”

“Your voice sounds just like your father’s did when I met him at fifteen, and you have that odd shaped burn scar on your cheek. Do you remember how you got it?”

“How do you know all of that stuff and why don't I remember anything before being kidnaped?”

“You said you arrived at the compound with a sore gut and a knot on your head.”

“Yeah so.”

“Your sore gut was apparently from them making you a eunuch, I’m sorry about that by the way. The knot on your head was most likely a result of them hitting you and or giving you something to block your memory.”

“How do you know all of this?”

 “Because, I'm your mother.”   

“But my mother was killed when I was kidnapped.” Micah's eyes darted around the grotto as if looking for a way out. 

“She was not your birth mother, she was your brother's mother and she wasn't killed, she was injured and left for dead, I found her and took her to another Village.” 

“Does he know that she’s alive?” Micah gestured toward the wounded warrior arguing with J.

“I told him later where I took her and am not sure that she survived her injuries. Quintus doesn’t like the people that I left her with, We don’t always know who to trust.” Sounds of excited voices mixed with the sound of animals came from the front of the grotto. 

“That must be the last group,” Micah jump to his feet, “I think that I hear Theophilus shouting orders, He was my favorite combat teacher, I will…” Micah took a deep breath, shook his head and walked out of the sheltered area. “I will talk to you later”