Unlikely Friends: Chapter 2

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Milarose watched the golden kainu gallop away, kicking up clouds of dust and dirt in his wake. Icarus...what a ridiculous drakiri. He didn't seem to have a bone in his body dedicated to self-preservation. 

Shaking his head, Milarose turned and kicked off the ground again into the air, wind whipping his mane back from his face as he flew high into the sky. He looked out across the vast grasslands that rolled out around the barn, long blades swaying in the breeze like an undulating ocean of seaweed. In the distance, he spotted the black and white hides of the two cows he had brought, not too far from the tree he had left them by. 

When he'd seen the stranger approaching the barn, Milarose had dropped the cows off somewhere he hoped they wouldn't run away from, and now he flew to pick them up again. Of course they protested when he picked each of them up in one arm, braying and writhing, but he had a good grip on them both. 

As he touched down in the pasture, Milarose heard a young voice call from in the barn, "You found some!"

He set the cows in the grass and watched them run to the other side of the large enclosure, throwing themselves against the fence he had repaired for this exact purpose. It rattled slightly but stayed firm even under their panicked attempts to escape.

"Mila, what were you yelling at?" came another small voice, deeper and more insistent than the first.

"Nothing you need concern yourselves with," he replied as he walked over to the wide barn doors. But rather than pulling them open, he leaned to the left of them and reached one large arm through a window in the side of the barn, waiting patiently. "How is your leg, Sammal?"

He heard small grunts and the crunching of dry hay under small hooves before he felt a thin rope placed in his hand. 

"All better," Sammal chirped, her voice fading as she hurried to meet Milarose at the door. 

The dracus pulled the rope and heard the locking mechanism shift before the doors slowly opened. Every time it opened without problem was a relief, the first few times he'd had to pry the doors open with his claws and rebuild the lock he'd created from scavenged pieces of metal and gears from places he visited. Was he paranoid to lock up when he left the barn? Perhaps...but he had important charges to protect.

Sammal, a young diluted jade sprite with yellow streaks in her mane, intriguing tabby stripes and a remarkably small horn for her age, greeted him with a bounce and a small kick of her back legs. The sickly child he had found limping through the wilderness with a badly broken foreleg and a skin condition that had all but stripped her of her fur was a distant memory as he looked at Sammal now. 

"Where are the others?" Milarose asked, expending a minor effort of will to shrink his size so he could fit more comfortably in the barn. Once upon a time it had been an annoyance to have to do, but if it meant he was able to take care of his charges more effectively, he would do so. 

"Giada saw a mouse and tried to hunt it but he missed, so he and Rubin are trying to find it," Sammal said, smiling as Milarose reached out to brush hay out of her mane where it had gotten stuck. 

"Helmi? Solpor?" Milarose asked, looking in the direction of the hayloft where he knew one of those two liked to spend his time. 

"Solpor was down here a second ago, but Azrinal started fussing so he went to take care of him," Sammal said. She let out a sigh and followed Milarose's gaze to the hayloft. "Helmi's up there still, hiding. I think he's mad but I never know why anymore."

Milarose stood on his hind legs so he could look into the hayloft, catching a glimpse of vivid green fur and gold scales before the bantam dracus vanished back into his hiding spot. 

"You'll have to come out soon, Helmi," Milarose warned. "Azrinal isn't going anywhere and I'm going to need your help feeding him. You might as well try to get along with him."

When he received no response, Milarose sat on his haunches and looked down at Sammal with warmth in his gaze.

"I don't know what I'd do without you," he chuckled. "This place would fall apart without your watchful attention."

Sammal smiled bashfully and scuffed the hay on the floor with her hoof as she said, "I don't do that much, Mila. Solpor helped a lot today. I didn't know how to make Azrinal stop crying, he's so little."

As if he had been waiting for a signal, Solpor--a young Q'Lin with black satiny fur and frosted white specks, a dark brown mane and curled tail who was all elbows and knees--walked out of one of the four stalls where the children slept at night. He had a burlap sack tied around his waist with a sandbag on one side and an olive-colored, white maned dracus whelp on the other. 

Azrinal was the youngest child Milarose had ever found, abandoned at the oasis in the desert far away. The poor thing's eyes weren't even open and he still didn't have his milk teeth. He was the reason Milarose had gone out to find the cows.

"Has he slept all day?" Milarose asked, reaching into the sack to pull Azrinal out, lifting the child into the crook of his arm close to his chest. He set the improvised sling on the ground and gave Solpor a pat on the shoulder in approval. 

"Most of the day," Solpor confirmed, deep voice cracking slightly. "When he was awake, all he did was cry."

"I know you prefer peace and quiet, Solpor, I'm sure that must have been difficult to handle," Milarose said. "Thank you for stepping up to help. I can take things from here."

As soon as he said the words, Solpor's demeanor changed, his head lowered and his shoulders slumped, eyelids sliding half shut as he turned and walked toward his stall on the far end of the barn. Solpor certainly wasn't a social butterfly; interacting with others seemed to exhaust him quickly, which made his willingness to help even more valuable.

"Sammal, can you please go out and see how panicked the cows are?" he asked as Azrinal began to stir in his arm, snuffling around looking for food. "The farmer who raised the them told me they can't be milked if they are stressed."

"Sure!" Sammal chirped, scampering off out of the barn doors. She reappeared a moment later and said, "They're eating grass! Is that normal?"

"Yes," Milarose chuckled. "They eat grass. They're used to small herding animals running around them, ask Helmi if he would round them up into the stalls outside?"

"I don't think he's gonna come out Mila," Sammal said, looking uncertainly up at the hayloft.

"He will, unless he wants me to tell Rubin he can wrestle with him after all," Milarose said, raising his voice so he could be heard by both children. 

"Do it!" a headstrong voice shouted from some forgotten corner of the barn. A moment later, a young kainu with chestnut fur covered in lighter spots and turquoise blue scales stumbled out from behind a stack of hay, shaking his head to dislodge a clump from his growing horn. "I wanna see Helmi climb the walls again!"

"Shut up, Giada!" Helmi snapped, his voice muffled by the hay but no less indignant. 

"Huh?" asked another young kainu named Rubin as he trotted out from the stalls. He had dark reddish brown fur with an equally dark mane and yellow eyes. He was covered horn to hoof in dust and hay, though it was especially caked on his muzzle and in the corners of his nostrils. Their hunt for the mouse must have gone poorly, though not from lack of trying. 

"Alright, everyone calm down," Milarose said as Azrinal began to cry again. "Helmi, come down here and help or I will come up there after you, and then no one gets to go in the hayloft anymore because there will no longer be a hayloft." 

"HA! Mila called himself fat," Giada snorted as he trotted over to stand beside Rubin. The two were a study in contrasts. They were the same age, but where Giada was slender and sleek, built for speed and agility, Rubin was stocky and muscular, built for power and strength. Despite how different their personalities were, they were attached at the hip and had been since they'd been brought here half a year before. Giada was smart and cunning, unafraid to give his opinion on anything and everything. Rubin, however, seemed not to understand what was happening half the time, but he was always down to wrestle.

"He's not fat! He's an adult dracus," Sammal protested, shouting to be heard over Azrinal's crying. "Be nicer to him, he does so much for us."

"We can have this discussion later," Milarose said hurriedly, relieved to see Helmi sliding down the ramp that he'd built leading from the ground floor to the hayloft. "Helmi, please get the cows into the milking pens and lock them in. Rubin, please move one of the bales of hay into the trough so they have something to eat and distract them."

There was a flurry of motion as the little ones went about their tasks, and Milarose didn't miss that Sammal had taken her weight off her right foreleg, the one that had been broken. She would need to rest tonight and make sure she took it easy.

Milarose moved to the barn doors once more and watched Helmi herd the cows to the milking pens he had constructed out of thin young trees lashed together with rope. Hello was able to change course rapidly to keep the cows going in the right direction, sharp claws digging hard into the ground to drive himself forward. He might not have wanted to, but this work suited him.

Meanwhile, Rubin emerged from the barn with a heavy bale of hay balanced between his short horns. They were perfectly shaped to carry the bale and drop it into the trough, which helped immensely with this task. 

As he watched the children work, Milarose moved Azrinal so the child's front was pressed to the warm scales on his chest. The babe was so thin Milarose could feel ribs under his skin. His little body trembled with the force of his wailing, each cry reaching into Milarose's very core and calling to him to do something to soothe the child.

As soon as Helmi locked the cows into the milking pens, Milarose passed the child to him. Helmi carried Azrinal to the first cow and held the child under the animal, and Milarose watched intently as Helmi reached forward and pressed on the udder, squeezing a teet so when he lifted Azrinal closer, the milk dribbled between his parted lips to his bright pink tongue.

Azrinal latched on quickly and nursed with gusto, reaching out with small hands to massage the udder. Seeing Azrinal eat finally filled Milarose with such relief he felt light-headed. He sagged and leaned against the barn doors, closing his eyes for a moment and rubbing his face with his hands. 

"Does this mean he's gonna be okay?" Sammal asked nervously, looking up at him from just outside the barn doors.

"It means he has a better chance now," Milarose said. "But remember, little one, nothing in this life is guaranteed. He could still fade and leave us, Sammal."

"I know," the young sprite said solemnly. "I hope he gets stronger."

Milarose reached down to hook a finger gently under her foreleg, pulling it up slightly off the ground so he could see the joint more clearly. He tutted softly and said, "This is swollen again. Have you been resting like I told you?"

"Yes," Sammal said quickly, but she didn't look at him when she spoke. She squirmed in discomfort for a moment before he blurted out, "I can't rest! There's so much to do, and the boys are always running around causing a mess. I can't just--"

"You can do a whole lot less with an injured leg," Milarose interrupted gently. "Rest, and if you feel the need to yell at the boys, do so from a comfortable nest on the floor. Go on inside, I'll stay out here a while longer and make sure Helmi and Azrinal get back inside safely."

Sammal sighed and hung her head in defeat, but Milarose knew she understood why he said these things and why he wanted her to be careful. It was a long trip to Eirwyn, the only healer they had access to who Milarose trusted, and they couldn't leave the others alone long enough if Sammal needed to go to her again. 

"Are you gonna nap?" she asked hopefully, looking up at Milarose once more. 

"I think so," Milarose said with a slight nod. "It's been a long day, and I expect it will only get longer. I intend to hunt tonight, we're low on food and Solpor and Helmi's appetites are growing with them. I'll be in shortly, find a comfortable spot in the main room and you can rest with me."

The sprite nodded back and trotted away into the barn, limping a little more heavily than normal. Once she was safely inside, Milarose turned his attention back to Helmi and the cow, watching the striped and spotted green dracus. 

He often wondered what had happened to Helmi before he showed up at this barn. Milarose hadn't gone out looking for him. In fact, Helmi was the first of the children who had stayed here. He'd been a shy but sweet young bantam dracus for the first year. More and more, though, it seemed like Helmi was becoming wary of all the newcomers to their home. Now it was like he was hostile toward the others in the barn and wanted as little to do with them as possible. But as Helmi held Azrinal, he could see a warmth in the child's yellow eyes that told Milarose he was an older sibling. Helmi didn't like talking about his past, and it was difficult to try to guess what had happened with any accuracy, so Milarose had stopped trying.

Helmi's head turned suddenly and locked eyes with Milarose, whiskers and short, cervine tail lashing as he demanded, "What? Why are you staring at me like that?"

The moment was over, and Milarose felt sorry it had passed with such little consideration. But he could not force a child to empathize with him or to accept his help. So he said, "My apologies, I was just watching Azrinal. Make sure you support his head, he's too young to do it himself. Once he's done bring him inside please and lie him on his belly."

"Whatever," Helmi growled.  

When he finally laid down, Milarose pulled the soft, shaved wood bedding close into a pile between his front legs. Helmi came in a moment later with Azrinal gently clasped between his jaws, setting him in the mound of bedding.

"I don't suppose you'd like to join us?" Milarose asked. He received no answer, instead watching as Helmi turned and scurried up the ramp to the hayloft in a few bounding steps. "Thought not."

He leaned his head down to press his muzzle against Azrinal's cheek, checking if he was feverish. He felt cold, if anything, so Milarose pulled him close to his chest to hold him.

Sammal came to lay with her back against his hind leg and he wrapped his tail closer around her so she could rest her chin on it. Rubin and Giada came to join them soon after. Giada laid nearby without touching him, whereas Rubin shoved his head under Milarose's arm between his elbow and his chest--an odd way to nap, but to each their own he supposed. And although Helmi and Solpor would not join them, he at least could hear them in their respective, preferred spots.

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