Page 11 of Nixx
“No, that's okay. I have to see someone in the morning, but I'm available in the early afternoon, of course.”
“What a slacker!”Udoo says mentally.“He tries to find an excuse not to come.”
“No worries,” I intervene with a firm tone, “you will leave at the beginning of the afternoon. It takes less than two hours to reach the coast.”
The moment of conviviality being largely passed since the inopportune arrival of Kryll, we leave the basin and go back each one on our side to our occupations.
***
The next day, I meet Lokk for the first meal. We eat some boiled vegetables with eggs and a cup of kafae. We eat quickly and take a group of young Erians to train them in combat.
This morning, it will be an archery class. But not before having done the workshop to prepare their arrows. No training, no matter how intensive, will give good results if their arrows are poorly shaped. These youngsters are usually extremely attentive to this course and so proud when they manage to produce their first quality arrows. Making your arrows that are ideally suited to your bow and arrowhead, far from being a chore, is one of the pleasures of archery.
While we are in the middle of a demonstration on the size of the feathers and their orientation on the shaft, which are determining factors of future stability, I receive an alert from the third village. Like yesterday, they have been visited by a group of vorks. The inhabitants are not afraid, because they can get to safety with a flick of the wing, this is not the case for the layers. These small animals, which can be found in all the territories, lay eggs in abundance. They come and go freely on the land and lay their eggs for a male to fertilize. We are satisfied to take eggs to boil them, it is not the case with the vorks, which decimate the layers with voracity.
I inform Lokk that we have to go there as backup. We end the course and let the youngsters train under the supervision of a warrior. Then we equip ourselves with bows and crossbows.
We arrived at the third village, which is a one and a half hour flight, the vorks disappeared but left in their wake eggshells and blood trails. We follow their tracks by flying over the forest. Impossible to land in a not clear place, they would have the upper hand. But these animals are cunning and hide in the thickest corners of the forest.
“Nixx, I'm exploring with Kryll, Jaxx, and Kurr to see where the object that set the sky on fire the other night crashed and if it caused any damage. We'll be on the shore in about twenty minutes,”Udoo informs me.
“Oh dear, I forgot about that. We could have gone there with Lokk, we are not very far from the zone now. Well, it is not very serious, with two groups, we will go twice as fast to inspect all this portion of the coast,”I answer him.
“Lokk, this group of vorks is well hidden now. We drop the tracking and we join Udoo and the others. They are on the way to the coastal sector. We are going to take the part more in the north and them, the part more in the south, and we shall meet on the spot half way.”
“It is most likely a rock that fell into the sea without causing any damage. It's a good thing you insisted that Kryll goes with him, so he won't have the leisure to cause trouble in our community during this time. This man is becoming more and more of a problem and his aura is getting darker as the weeks go by.”
“This son of a vork is a nuisance on his own,” I say. “And I don't know how to deal with this problem peacefully.” We fly towards the sea while discussing Kryll's latest exploits. My instinct tells me that I'm not out of the woods with him. Udoo informs me mentally that they are going along the shore at a great height to increase their visibility. For the moment, they have not found anything suspicious. We now continue over the seashore, carefully inspecting the area overflown.
“Nixx, we found . . . what crashed. A small group of strange creatures surrounded by the debris of odd materials, on the sea and the beach. They are in the cove of the Nose. We’re going down.”Udoo informs me.
I tell Lokk about the information provided by Udoo and we accelerate toward the place in question.
“Nixx, hurry up, Kryll is a madman, he wants to slaughter them all . . . that son of a vork, he just slit two of them! Shit—”
I speed up as I hear Udoo's panicked tone in my head. We'll be there in five minutes at most.
“Kryll, wait for me, I'm coming. Stop everything immediately!”I order him.
As I fly over the entrance of the cove indicated by Udoo, I easily recognize the dull gray wings of Kryll, who is brandishing a blade already covered with blood, his aura is almost black besides.
While I approach quickly, while mentally telling him to stop this carnage immediately, I perceive two disemboweled creatures at his feet, as well as another inert one a few steps away. The one that Kryll is about to slaughter is undoubtedly a female. Of similar appearance to our Erianes women, she is however slightly smaller and less thick and especially, she is deprived of wings, as well as the other creatures arrived from the sky at the same time as her.
A little further on, Kurr and Jaxx are holding two more of these creatures, their sword blades to their chests. Udoo and Kryll are arguing. Kryll's chest is splattered with blood that doesn't look like his own. He still has the blade half raised, ready to fall on the small female who doesn't look very dangerous.
“Stop immediately Kryll!” I say to him while posing behind the female who faces Kryll.
This one doesn't turn away, she stays focused on the most imminent threat—Kryll. Strangely, she faces him with courage, despite his pale aura, while she is unarmed and he displays an attitude of unreasoned violence. Always on the defensive towards Kryll, she always turns her back to me, in a non-defensive posture. She must be a good twenty centimeters less than me and presents curves more marked at the level of the hips than our women.
I look at her with curiosity. I feel a strange sensation while observing her. She has a fiery mane braided low in her back, while the hair of all our people goes from light brown to black and our women usually wear it up to the shoulders.
I interrupt my inspection to question Kryll and Udoo:
“Udoo, I want a detailed update on the situation and a clear explanation of this carnage.”
“Kryll,” I interrupt him as he is about to speak, “you will explain yourself later.”
I have full confidence in Udoo and there is no doubt that he will be able to analyze the present situation with calm and wisdom. Whereas everything in Kryll's attitude indicates a wave of deadly anger.
