I gently swipe the berry paste from Mirko’s beak. His tongue follows my finger and nips back into his mouth. It is enough to make me smile.
With another weekly Lookout session ending soon and the clear night moving about us, I bank our fire on the rock and lie next to Mirko below our awning. Surprisingly, sleep comes easily tonight on the warm wood despite my worry for Father, and my upcoming blood time. The stars blur as my lids close. Images spin in my dream.
I am little,
twirling in the kitchen
with a dishrag about my waist.
Father jerks me to a halt
for acting like a girl.
I am curled on his lap
as he reads the Oracles
and rehearses that I am male.
I repeat it over and over.
“I am a boy. I am a boy.”
I pull on one tunic,
until I’m wrapped and bound
in a cocoon of male clothing.
My breath strains
against the gauze covering my face.
“Tiadone,” Jenae calls.
Her pale brows raise.
The Monast fades,
and Zoae flits around her head.
“Tiadone, I have reached you!”
“Jenae?” I stretch my hand
to her soft cheek,
but my fingers slip through air.
She smiles.
“I speak to you and Mirko through vision,
as visionaires speak to each other.”
Mirko’s wings open next to me.
“It must be possible because my rapion
is a Singer!” I eagerly say.
She nods.
“That was my thought!
I knew I felt your presence, Tiadone,
when your father was boxed.
But I want you to know
he’s released now
and recovering at home.”
“Father is well?” My voice quivers.
Jenae lowers her eyes.
“He is released, Tiadone.
He will recover. But he is not well.
There was the confinement,
lashings,
and withholdings of food and water.”
I bite my lower lip.
“He is weak and frail
There will be no further punishment.”
I blink and nod slowly.
“Tiadone, it is good to see you!
Even if
your twists are horrid.” She laughs.
A grin tugs at my lips.
“And you are as clean and prissy
as any girl.”
“Well, I deserved that, I suppose.”
Moments pass.
I have ached for a friend
since Ratho left.
Only Jenae would be brave enough
to reach me.
I turn from thoughts of Ratho’s dream
of Jenae.
Mirko lifts upward.
Zoae joins him.
Warm drafts tumble down.
The rapion touch.
“I must go, Tiadone.
I have risked another visionaire joining us.”
I gesture thanks.
She begins to fade.
“I feel an approach!”
And she is gone.