Unlikely Friends: Chapter 3

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It was easier to hunt and travel in the early evening. Most of the time, Milarose didn't even leave home until the day was over. But he needed to ensure Azrinal ate as his first priority that day.

He hunted deer mostly, as they were abundant and worth the effort of chasing them down across the grasslands. They were also easier to butcher and cook, as the children preferred the tougher parts of the deer cooked. Only the older children would eat the tender cuts raw and even then only if they were fresh. Milarose himself didn't have a preference, if he had the time and inclination, he would cook. If he didn't, he would eat his prey raw.

Milarose had spent all night hunting and into the wee hours of the morning. He looked out across the field he found himself in as he pushed a metal rod through the ankles of the four does and two bucks he had hunted. Had he heard something? No, no one else should have been out here, this area was incredibly secluded.

He kicked off the ground with his catch, intending to return home, but his gaze was drawn to the ground by a splash of red, yellow, gold and bright orange among the tall, dark green grass. It took only a moment for him to puzzle out what he was looking at, and Milarose sighed in annoyance. It was the kainu, Icarus. 

The dracus flew down to land on the ground, setting his deer aside where he could quickly grab them again should he need to leave in a hurry. But as much as he wanted to just continue on, he couldn't rationalize leaving Icarus there so close to the barn.

He expected the kainu to stir as he came closer, but the drakiri remained still in the grass. Milarose watched closely and felt his heart sink when he realized he couldn't see the kainu's chest rising and falling with his breath.

"Damn you," he muttered, reaching out to slide his hand under the drakiri's head and watching it slide bonelessly to the ground when he set it back down. "Why didn't you go home? Why were you even out this far?"

The kainu's throat convulsed suddenly and his eyelid slid slowly open, iris rolling down from the back of his head so his pupil could slowly focus. Milarose jumped back with a start, his skin crawling and his tail lashing in alarm.

"S'a funny story actually," the kainu rasped, voice as parched as his throat must have been from the dryness of his nose and lips.

"Do you realize I could crush your head in one hand?" Milarose demanded, angry as adrenaline pumped through his veins for no good reason. "Why are you lying here looking like a damn corpse?"

"I've always wondered what it might be like to be one?" he suggested, trying to sound cheeky, but the rattling, dry cough he let out didn't help him any. 

"If you startle me again I promise you won't have to wonder," Milarose snapped. He shook his head and lifted Icarus so the kainu still laid on the ground, but he was at least sitting up. Icarus stayed sitting up for approximately ten seconds before he let out a groan and rolled onto his side.

"What's wrong with you?" Milarose asked, quickly losing his patience. 

"Dehydration I suspect," Icarus croaked. "I laid down to rest and well...now when I sit uo the world goes a little sideways. I must say though, it was lovely to wake up to being caressed by a handsome fellow whose name I still don't know."

Milarose stared at Icarus, clearly unamused, and said, "You know, you talk a lot for someone dying of thirst. There's a river two miles southeast of here, did you not know that?"

"Unlike your magnificent self, I seem to be vertically challenged and without the ability to fly," Icarus replied. "Hard to see things far away."

"You have a nose, smell for water," Mila pointed out, growing increasingly more frustrated with the kainus's excuses. 

"Do I? Could have fooled me, the thing hasn't been of much use to me lately," Icarus mused.

"Enough!" Milarose growled, and the grass around them whipped into a frenzy in his anger, stirred by wind that seemed to originate from himself. "The more you speak, the easier it seems for me to leave you here to die, you insufferable curr. Why are you out here? Are you alone?"

"I am alone," Icarus confirmed. He was quiet for a moment before he said, "Would you believe that I was following a fairy?"

Milarose closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed one dirty hand over his equally dirty face, suppressing another sight before he asked in his best trying-not-to-explode tone, "What is a fairy?" 

"Well actually I'm not entirely sure it was a fairy," Icarus admitted. "But it was a bright light! I was in a dark forest with giant illuminated mushrooms as big as whole trees!"

Milarose squinted and shook his head in confusion. "Mushrooms? That forest is half a continent away, how long have you been walking?"

"I couldn't tell you," Icarus said as cheerfully as he could manage. "But I can tell you my belly feels as hollow as a walnut after a squirrel has found it."

Floundering in frustration and disbelief, Milarose looked back at the deer he had caught and then at the struggling kainu. He could just leave him...he could do it. It would be so easy. But he imagined how Sammal would look at him if she knew he had turned someone in need of help away.

"If you try anything stupid you're going to regret it," he said gruffly as he picked Icarus up out of the grass with one arm and held him tight to his body. Then with his other hand he grabbed the metal pole with the deer hanging from it and prepared to leave.

"You smell just delightful," Icarus said. "Like warm hay and adventure--"

"Stop smelling me," Milarose ordered, already thoroughly regretting his own decision to take this kainu in. He shook his head and leaped off the ground into the air, expending energy and magic to fly. It wasn't much harder for him with Icarus, because he was so much larger than the kainu, but he had to force himself to concentrate on where he flew.

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