Page 127 of A Soul to Guide

“He comes,”the raven-skulled Mavka whined, jumping to all fours so suddenly that Raewyn fell to her back as her support disappeared.

“We were not doing anything,”the bat-skulled Mavka said when he was almost to them.

“No, nothing. Just talking. Right, Rae?”

Once more, Merikh’s sight flared a deep green.

Wasn’t ‘Rae’ the special name her friends called her? Not even Merikh had crossed that line with her, unsure if they were even friends. Why did they take it upon themselves to call her that?

Was itthateasy to become her friend? Even after they’d tried to eat her the day before?

“It’s time you leave,” he said to them before turning his snout in her direction. “I’m ready to give you my diadem, so you should start your experiments now.”

He’d only just made that decision upon seeing them all together. It was an excuse to break them up, so he didn’t have to watch this weirdly painful scene anymore.

“But she has not named us yet!”the bat-skulled Mavka shouted in protest.

“She promised us she would.”

“It’s difficult to name people I don’t know,” Raewyn laughed as she sat back up, turning her face in Merikh’s vicinity. He was producing his vibration for her. Then she grumbled, “And they didn’t like the first names I gave them. They said they were too hard to pronounce because they were Elvish.”

This was the hold up from them pissing off?

“Fine,” Merikh bit. “I will name you, then.”

“No,”the bat-skulled Mavka whined as he backed up to stand next to his brother.“We do not want you to name us.”

“They will be bad names. Mean names.”

Merikh rolled his head. This time, he turned his snout to the sky to hide his orb change that had flared red. When he’d snuffed out his anger and they returned to normal, he lowered his head.

Ignoring their complaints, he said, “How about... Ingram for you.” He pointed his snout at the raven-skulled Mavka, before moving it to the bat-skulled one. “And Aleron for you.”

They tilted their heads in opposite directions to each other, their pinkie fingers overlapping.

“What do they mean?”the bat-skulled one asked as he turned his head to his twin.

“Probably something terrible,”the raven one answered.“Like annoyance or destruction.”

“Ingram means raven of peace,” Merikh told the raven skull. Then he turned to the other Mavka while eyeing his feathered back. “Aleron means the winged one. To fly.”

“Then should I not be named Aleron?”the raven-skulled one said.“And he be named Ingram?”

“Yes. That makes far more sense,”his twin answered.“Since I have a raven skull.”

Raewyn giggled off to the side, obviously coming to the same conclusion Merikh did.

Idiots! They’re both idiots!

“You have the raven skull,” Raewyn said to the purple-orbed Mavka.

“What you see is not what you have,” Merikh sighed, realising they thought they had each other’s heads because that’s what they were always looking at.

They had no trouble deducing that with other Mavkas, but apparently, between them, it never registered.

“Then what do I have?”

“You have a bat skull, and bird wings.”

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