Chaos and Change: Eyes of Stars' Story

Chapter Three

After the plains of Malnev, the varied landscape of the anory lands was amazing. Yesinal led Eyes of Stars all around it, exploring crags, forests, river valleys, canyons, caves, even warm plains like what she was used to. The place was huge, and comfortably filled with creatures even more varied than the landscape. There were other wynds, and whorlings, and jracini, and tigons, and dragons, and runner cats, all sorts of other creatures.

Yesinal watched those other creatures from afar, most of the time, since her bond was uncomfortable with most other people. He was always worried about changing them. Well, that seemed silly to Yesinal, since if things didn't change, they were boring-- or dead, which was probably boring, too. So Yesinal didn't see why he was so twitchy about it.

Already life was more interesting with her bond in it, and not just because she wasn't as lonely anymore! He was really nice, and really sweet, and liked it when she nibbled tangles out of his long hair or cuddled up to his dark side to sleep. He protested, afraid he'd change her, but deep inside, he craved that contact and affection-- she could sense it-- so she ignored what he said in favor of what he felt. His cat was fun, though she'd gotten a scolding for chasing her around a little too enthusiastically once or twice already, and it had only been a couple weeks! Daaruuv hadn't seemed to mind-- a little hissing didn't mean anything, after all!-- so she thought her bond oughtn't to have minded, either.... But she was good and tried not to do things that got her scolded.

Most fun, though, was catching things her bond had changed. It didn't really happen all that often... once or twice a day. More, maybe, when he was agitated. But he was so obsessive about looking for things that he had changed that he caught even the smallest little shift. It was something of a game to try and find things before he did, a game she usually lost, but she didn't really mind. If she could laugh at whatever it was he changed, or be proud of it, or say she liked it, maybe he'd be less twitchy about it.

Well, she could dream, anyway.

At the same time, though she was happy, there was something... wrong. Missing, maybe. She felt it, nagging at her, after her first couple weeks of living at the anory. When things slowed down, when everything she saw wasn't new and exciting, when she started to settle into her new "family" of wynd and cat. Her bond sensed it, and though he wanted to help fix it, she couldn't explain it enough for him to help. It made her sad and restless sometimes, and made her clingy with Eyes of Stars, though even having him and Daaruuv snuggled up with her didn't quite make it go away. It helped, but didn't make it go away. It wasn't all the time, just when things weren't busy or she wasn't doing something that demanded a lot of concentration. But it was often enough that it bothered her, and so of course it bothered her bond.

It was Hivele who finally told her what the problem was, though not out-right and certainly not pertaining to herself.

Since Eyes of Stars didn't really like being inside when he could help it, Yesinal was by herself when she went to visit Hivele-- because Hivele liked the sythyn-constructed buildings more than the wild caves or open lands. Yesinal thought he just liked the books, and put up with the walls and ceiling because that's where the books were. That morning, when she went in to visit him, he was, as usual, pouring over one of them.

In answer to how he was-- "fine" didn't count, because that wasn't really an answer, so she bugged him for the truth-- he finally sighed and said, "Lonely."

"But you have your friends in the library," Yesinal protested. "And me, don't I visit you often enough?"

"You're sweet, Yesinal," he told her with a small smile, "but you aren't my bonded. I miss having my kret around me, a number of minds connected to mine, stray thoughts and sharing of affection."

He always was a little flowery with his words-- it probably came from the books-- and usually she teased him about it, but right then, she didn't mind. Really, she didn't even notice. "We usually do have lots of bonds, don't we?" she realized.

"I have neither seen nor heard of a kret of less than three," Hivele nodded.

"You did," Yesinal pointed out.

"Not at the start," he corrected gravely. "When I first hatched, the kret was three strong, and I the fourth. When you hatched, all but Althal had passed on. We were actually looking to bond again, but she simply didn't last until we found someone new...." He looked melancholy, like he often did when he thought of his lost kret, but for once, Yesinal didn't try to cheer him up. She was too busy with her realization.

"I've gotta go!" she exclaimed. "Thanks, Hivele!"

He called a puzzled, "You're welcome?" after her, but then she was barreling out of the building and arrowing straight for her bond.

Eyes of Stars was grazing quietly under one of his usual trees. He'd grazed or lain under it so many times that no one could remember what kind of tree it was supposed to be, its leaves, flowers, fruit, and even bark had changed so many times. Perhaps that was why he kept coming back to it: no one could get angry about it, since they didn't know what was right.

His head shot up, then, at the sound of her galloping towards him-- she wasn't entirely sure whether she was really galloping, but she thought she ran a lot like Eyes of Stars, albeit much less gracefully, since she liked the way he ran and couldn't really remember much running from home. Or maybe he could just sense her coming, since she was so excited.

"Yesinal?" he called worriedly, ears perked and feathers fluffing. Daaruuv, who had been lounging in the dappled shadows of the tree, rolled onto her belly and flipped her tail in unconcerned greeting.

Yesinal skidded to a stop, sending grass and dust up everywhere, including onto Eyes of Stars and Daaruuv-- the former of whom just shook himself impatiently, and shed sparkles instead of dirt, and the latter of whom yowled in protest and promptly slunk farther away.

"Yesinal, are you all right?" Eyes of Stars asked, nosing her between her young horn-nubs.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she gasped, out of breath. "I just thought, I just realized, because Hivele said, and he's feeling the same, and I want to go talk to Kaz or the owner or somebody, so we can go and the feeling will go away, and it'll be great, and--"

"Slow down, slow down!" Eyes of Stars interrupted, half laughing and half concerned again, or still. "What did you realize, and what does Kaz have to do with it?"

"I'm lonely!" she exclaimed, as if he should have figured that out by now. Well, he should have! "You're great, and I love you, and I'm glad I bonded you, but you're not a whole kret, you're just one person. I wanna have a whole kret, and then I'll be happy!"

"A whole kret?" he repeated blankly. "How many is a kret?"

"Four is good," Yesinal answered cheerfully. "So we've just gotta bond a couple more, and then I'll stop feeling all sad! See, that's what I've been missing, having more people in my head!" Eyes of Stars looked a little overwhelmed, but Yesinal just patted his shoulder-- she was growing, slowly!-- and started back the way she'd come. "Come on!" she called at him. "Kaz'll know all sorts of places we can go, I bet!"

Her bond, with one last nervous shake, trotted obediently after her.

Daaruuv didn't bother moving. But then, she was a cat.

Chapter Four

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