Page 4 of Flower of Seshana

“He istoofriendly,” he interrupted sourly, drawing a melodic sound of surprised laughter from her.

The sound caught him so off guard that his wings partially closed for only a moment in the air. It was enough, however, to make the female in his arms gasp and cling to him harder as they dropped rapidly before he managed to stabilize his flight once more. Unfortunately, it all served to distract him enough that he failed to notice Quillen’s presence until the male swooped far too close overhead.

Drawing his head back, his gavo flaring with annoyance, Kethan hissed at the other male circling far too close for his comfort. Quillen’s purple eyes fell on Alexandra in passing and widened with fascination as his wings folded to make another loop around them. Unable to discourage the curious male, Kethan snapped his wings, propelling him through the air at a faster speed as he began to climb the cliffside once again.

His wings tipped, his coils fluidly whipping through the air as he flew close to the cliffs and emerging tree line so not to draw the attention of a passing zaron hunting the skies. Although the large winged predators had massive territories and encounters with them were infrequent, the Vahel learned from the time they were nestlings not to leave the nests at night when they might become lost in the fog, giving a zaron the opportunity to draw close unseen, nor to fly too high where a passing predator might spot them. The only exception was the rare mating flight when a female agreed to seal her life with a male. The risk then, andthe male’s willingness to protect her, held more weight than the most priceless of treasures.

As a young male he had been bewildered at the willingness of males to take on the flight. But now, with Alexandra in his arms, he could not wait until the mating flight was his privilege to claim.

Chapter

Four

The sharp rise in their flight along the slopes and cliffs of the Zir Mountains—and the focused stare of the other male who had ceased circling to fly at a fast clip at their side—was enough to make Alexandra cling to Kethan anxiously. The dark rock was as stark as the red desert sands that covered much of the planet and heavily shrouded in mist. It was disorienting and frightening as the peaks and stone spires broke the fog at unexpected moments, all of which the male holding her deftly avoided with a whip of his tail and the dexterous movement of his massive wings.

Worse, they were cutting through the mountains at a dizzying speed, neither male relenting in their pace, creating a hair-raising flight that made her stomach pitch and knuckles grow white with her grip on Kethan. She wanted desperately to squeeze her eyes shut but was at the same time terrified to do so—that somehow not seeing her path to potential demise was worse than watching the mountains unfold around her in a nightmarish display.

Kethan shrieked as the green male cut too close in a dive, his long body angling sideways to disappear in a sleek glide through a crevice cut into the stone looming in the heavy fog infront of them. Alexandra’s eyes widened. They had to be joking. But no, Kethan was heading straight for it. Her eyes slammed shut, her muscles tightening as his wings gave several furious flaps to shoot them through the air before snapping wide. The air whipped against her face painfully, but then her world was tilting as he twisted in the air and the brush of the wind was cut off completely as they passed through the cavern.

Every muscle in her body tightened with terror. Even her eyelids smarted with how tightly she clenched them as she buried her face against his chest. It was quite possible that they would never open again, even when she suddenly felt Ketha’s flight level out and the warmth of sun replaced the cool dampness of the fog. And still she was unable to open her eyes.

The male holding her let out a hissing, chuffing sound of amusement, and she felt the warmth of his jaw brush the top of her head.

“Look, Alexandra. This is what you came to see,” he rumbled.

She frowned against his chest in confusion and very slowly opened one eye to take a cautious glance around her. A gasp of awe escaped her, and both eyes snapped open wide in wonder. The hard world of stone and sand had melted away into a lush jungle hidden within the mountains. Wisps of fog still clung to some places, but the dense trees and plant life clinging to every scrap of soil among the stones grew in a diverse range of shades and hues. It was lush life that she never would have imagined grew on M285.

“What is this? Is this even possible?” she whispered.

Kethan chuffed, the sound rumbling deeply in his chest. “This is what we call the glory of Seshana. When our world began to die, life could only be found within the shelter of the caverns and in the highest mountains.”

“And so you separated,” she murmured.

He hummed in agreement, but the sound shattered in a vicious hiss as the green male suddenly dropped from above them where he had apparently been waiting unseen within the trees. A bark of amusement escaped him as Kethan neatly evaded him, his wings folding as he dropped low through the trees. Greenery rushed by them, faster than Alexandra could follow with her eyes. She pushed her glasses back up her nose and held them in place with two fingers as she stared in mute shock at the blur of plant life speeding by her, dotted by bright splashes of floral color. She felt like she was on a highspeed bolt train crossing continents on United Earth, until Kethan’s wings snapped open, jerking them abruptly into the air with such a sharp jolt that Alexandra was forced to cling to her glasses for dear life. The last thing she needed was to lose something so difficult to replace on a far-flung planet in the middle of a system outside the normal trade routes.

She smashed them to her face and screamed as Kethan rolled effortlessly in the air, pitching them into one of the dark pits that dotted the side of a bare cliff face looming ahead of them. She swallowed her cry as darkness engulfed them, the steady, fascinating beat of Kethan’s hearts against her ear pressed against his chest offering a strange sense of relief. She was aware of the downward pull as his coils dropped and the rapid snap of his wings drawing his forward propulsion up short. His tail lashed against the stone floor of the cavern, and he rolled forward on it as it gathered and whipped through the dark just ahead in a winding pattern visible in the light of her lamp as he slowly brought himself to a halt.

Alexandra clung to him as he remained completely still, as if he somehow sensed her sudden fragility and was giving her a moment to freak out before she collected herself. He was steady reassurance against her, his pulse the only sound in the cave for a long moment until she became aware of the snapping soundof the other male’s wings as he barreled toward them. Alexandra clung to Kethan, barely daring to breathe as the green male rolled on his long, winding tail before skidding to a halt with a toothy grin that was no less unsettling than Kethan’s smiles. Purple eyes glittered with interest as the other male observed her. His mouth parted and he drew a slow breath, his tongue rising against his upper palate, but he immediately snapped his mouth closed with a look of amused chagrin when Kethan growled at him.

“On edge, brother?” the other male queried, a lilting sound of amusement clear in his voice, indicative of casual teasing between them.

“Quillen.” Kethan greeted him with an unamused grunt.

“Brother? You two are brothers?” she interrupted as she traded glances between them. “You look nothing alike.”

Her hand closed over her mouth in embarrassment the moment the words left her lips. For all she knew there were patterns of breeding and inheritance with which she was not familiar. She knew hereditary traits were a complicated subject. Even in plants—which truthfully occupied her entire existence.

Kethan snorted in amusement but tossed the other male a sour glower. “Brother by chance and fate. My mother took him into her nest when we were young. His mother refused to tolerate living among the Vahel for a moment longer and left us, leaving Quillen behind. We were thus raised as brothers.”

“And have nested peacefully ever since—until now,” he amended with a trill of interest as his amethyst eyes narrowed on her speculatively. “Kethan never showed anyone such interest before.”

“Oh,” she murmured and gave a nervous shrug, the motion followed by both males watching her intensely. She could feel an embarrassed flush working its way into her face under their scrutiny. “It’s not so strange. He accidentally fell on me in thedesert cavern. Unusual circumstances have thrown us together. That’s all.”

“That is all,” Quillen echoed in surprise as he rolled each word over his tongue in his uniquely alien way with their hissing language.

“That is all,” Kethan agreed with a fierce clicking growl directed at his “brother.” “Cease being a menace and leave the nest.”

Quillen’s crests rose slightly as he gave Kethan a sidelong glance that she found oddly humorous by his obvious obstinance. “This is my nest too. Where do you expect me to go?”

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