Page 21 of Nixx
“Sarah, welcome to our world!” Azarr told her. “I'm glad you came to my land. Your visits are always interesting, he added, squeezing my shoulder and smiling broadly. Lokk, welcome to you too. Rather than repeat the whole discussion in front of different members of my Bastion, I preferred to convene everyone in the great hall. Especially if this will lead to big decisions.”
Azarr leads us to the vast entrance of the mountain, to access the council chamber. We enter a vast blue entrance, made shiny by the various polishings over the years.
“Sarah, I'm sorry, but you're not going to be able to go to this meeting. It's my people's business. Nixx is exceptionally accepted as the leader of the Western Bastion and allows us to hear his testimony on the case that brings him here. And of course, Lokk as his right-hand man.”
“She stays with me,” I intervene, tense, because I don't want her to wait without supervision.
“It's okay, I'm not going to do anything stupid,” she says, “I'll wait for you here.”
I can hardly insist now that everyone, including her, agrees on the course of this damn meeting. I meet the amused look of Lokk who seems to have understood my dilemma.
I turn to Sarah one last time before following Azarr and Zull down the hallway to the great hall.
“Don't move, and yell if you need help!”
“I'm not a child anymore!” she grumbles, lifting her chin in protest against my instructions.
I frown, glare at her and step into the hallway. What a pity that this female doesn't hear my mental commands! Although, I'm not sure she would obey.
Sarah
I watch Nixx leave with Lokk and Azarr, for this discussion which does not concern me. The few Erians who rush after them into the hallway look at me curiously. Azarr seems to be nice. Well, nice is not the right word, because he looks intense. But this very handsome man with deep bronze wings radiates calm and assurance.
While inspecting the room where I have to wait, I think over the last events. First of all, the fear that seized me when Nixx and Lokk left me in this inaccessible cave. I thought for a few minutes that all they had to do was leave me there to get rid of me. But they came back, they are not that kind of men.
And then the lake scene, much hotter than a Coca-Cola commercial. I'm bored, left there waiting for ages. I observe in detail this great hall.
From what I saw while landing on the plateau and inside this room, the rocks are mainly composed of cobalt, azurite, and blue calcite with manganese, which gives them this blue color, more or less pronounced. It would seem that the constructions are troglodytic. But be careful, the work of arrangement was carefully made. The walls are almost smooth. There is no doubt that they have been polished for a long time.
I am eager to inspect the other rooms and galleries. But I have been more or less forbidden to follow them. I wouldn't want to break the trust they have begun to show me by disobeying.
I finally decide that going outside to explore a little bit shouldn't be a problem. And I want to see with my own eyes this famous canyon that Nixx told me about.
I leave the entrance of the Complex and wander on this cliff dug with numerous smaller entrances. I can't imagine seeing this blue troglodyte city. I wonder if the Bastion of Nixx is too. As I get closer to the edge of the cliff, I see other smaller exits. I don't dare look at them and just look around.
I see some birds. A small bird with a coat of black and the lower back and rump show a greenish blue hue and a dark purple tail. Very nice. Another one has a dark blue head, neck, and coat. A nice orange tint adorns each side of his neck and the underside of his chest to his tail. I pass a rodent, with a taupe coat. It looks like a large guinea pig with legs. I follow him to the edge of the cliff.
I inspect the sky to see that there are no more large pairs of wings; obviously, everyone is attending the meeting of their leader Azarr with Nixx. They don't seem suspicious of me, who is not one of their people. On the other hand, in their eyes, I do not represent any danger, without wings as I am. So, I stroll around, I smell these unknown flowers. What a pity that Nixx took me on board without me having the time to take the portable analyzer. When I tell Eva about all the things I saw, without it being recorded in our database, I'm going to get yelled at.
Arriving at the edge of the canyon, I take advantage of the spectacular panorama; the cliffs of a sustained blue open majestically, separated much lower by a river of an almost fluorescent blue! It is absolutely magnificent!
While I am lost in the contemplation of this landscape, a movement draws my attention. I suddenly see coming out of one of the small secondary openings of the cliff, a little Eriane. Her small wings are chocolate, just like her hair. Besides, I understood that it is always the case; the wings and the hair are of the same color and turn gray with time. The colors can be plain, or mottled. But all shades are shades of brown or gray, it seems to me. And the eyes are usually matching.
Little Eriane did not see me. She looks into the sky and notices, as I do, that it is empty; all the adults are meeting inside the Complex. I don't know the growth rate of Erians, but it is not very big and must not be very far from three years. I understand that their wings are not operational until they are four to five years old. I suspect that this one has escaped adult supervision and doesn't belong on top of the cliff.
Suddenly, I see her running toward the edge as if she was taking off. My instinct tells me that she is about to jump, without even knowing how to fly. I jump and catch her wrist at the edge of the cliff. Unfortunately, her momentum and mine throw us off balance and we both fall. I manage to grab with my free hand, a root that is sticking out. Our fall stops abruptly. We only fell two or three meters, but I don't see how we can manage to climb back up, loaded with a child with unusable wings.
