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Finally, FF.Net is up!  All rejoice!

This is the sequel to Bright Eyed Herald, so you might want to read it first.  I know that B E H isn’t done yet, but the plot pretty much is, so there.  Translations of the Tayledras words used are at the bottom.  This fic focuses on Treesong, Windance’s sister (if you read B E H you’d know that!), but Windance does show up, just not yet!

Disclaimer:  None of the concepts, and about half of the characters, belong to me, they belong to the great Mercedes Lackey.  All bow before her!

 

 

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Treesong settled down comfortably.  If she would have to be here for a while, she wasn’t going to be cramped or cold.  Her duty this time was to watch the Hawkbrothers, to see if there was any danger from them.  She personally couldn’t believe that the Tayledras were bad, but it was her duty.  In all the time that there had been one of her people watching the new Vale, not once did they even give any indication of any knowledge of the whereabouts of her clan. 

She watched the changing of the scouts, some returning, briefing those who were going out.  She was only one person, so she could hear only the conversations from the eastern scouts, but still, there was no indication that the Tayledras had discovered k’Ren’fa.  She watched the bond-birds, listening to their conversations as well, using her limited and untrained ability at Mindspeech to do so.  Once again, nothing from the birds.  Her own Kyth was among them, the only bond-bird not belonging to the Hawkbrothers of the k’Valdemar Vale.  And once again, nothing was noted amiss about an assumed unbonded bird among those of the scouts.  Kyth had found her one day as she was watching the same post she was now, and instead of alerting the Hawkbrother scouts, she had bonded with her.  She had trained her from where the kestral’s parents’ bond-mates had begun, specializing in the silent watching of her clan.

Sighing at the uselessness of it all, it meaning the duty of watching unobservant fools who never looked right in front of their eyes, Treesong called Kyth back, smoothing her crest feathers.  Her bond-bird relayed much of the same information the scouts had exchanged below her: there were fewer change-beasts near the Vale’s borders, and other useless things that had nothing to do with Treesong’s clan, k’Ren’fa.

Treesong settled back against the smooth bark of the v’raka she used as her watching post.  She started the meditation that her Eldest had showed her, slipping into a light trance where she could use the beginnings of her mage-Gift to See the mage lines nearby.  The Eldest had told her to practice, and she didn’t have anything else to do unless someone approached or left the Vale, and she would feel the resonance in the Veil to alert her through the trance.

Suddenly, without warning to her sharp senses, she was caught from behind by a strong arm.  “Who are you, intruder?” someone demanded angrily from behind her.  Or below her.  Or even above her.  No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t feel her attacker.

“Why should I tell you, stranger?” she cut back, noting that he spoke much of the same language she did, with slightly different pronunciations and emphasis she used.

“Because, you are trespassing on Tayledras lands.  Explain yourself.”  The male voice, no matter how arrogant, was light, and musical.  Treesong shook it off.  Now was not the time to lose her focus.

“Ever think that maybe these aren’t your lands, that someone else may have been here first?”  She wrenched away from him, surprising him with her strength at her sudden move.

“Of course these are Tayledras lands.  Why would they be contested?” his voice was light, as if he was teasing her, but showed none of his surprise.

She spun around to face him, a long dagger suddenly in her hand.  Kyth fanned her wings, regaining her balance with a squawk of protest.  Treesong spotted him on the branch closest to the one she on, to the side and slightly below hers.  He wore clothes similar to hers, a scouts gear, greens and browns meant to blend into the forest.  He had his climbing stick strapped to his back, and his bow in hand.  He looked young, but he already had pure-white hair, so she assumed that he must be a mage, which would explain why she couldn’t feel him at all.  But when she looked into the pale blue of his eyes, she almost lost herself.  There was something in them...

She broke free of the odd feeling just a simple glance into his awoke in her, and examined the rest of the stranger’s face, avoiding his eyes.  He looked somewhat tired, so she surmised that he had just returned from his stint of scouting.  “I don’t have to explain myself, to anyone.” She glared at him, angered that she, one of the best scouts and trackers of clan k’Ren’fa, had been caught by a Tayledras.  Of course, convieniently forgetting his so-blue eyes...

He was indeed tired.  He didn’t feel like dealing with a trespasser, not now that he was no longer on duty, but the rest had already left, and there would be no scouts this near the Vale.  What he wanted to know was how this girl, well, woman, he corrected himself, for she looked to be around his age, eighteen to twenty, had gotten past all the scouts and bond-birds without being caught before this.  And he knew the only reason he had seen her was because he had noticed the lone bond-bird winging towards this tree.  And there was another thing that bothered him about her, something teasing the back of his mind.  “If you’re not going to tell me anything, maybe if I take you to one of the Elders, perhaps then you’ll say something.” He sighed, and motioned her down before him.

He was not expecting her next move.  “Why?  I’m not one of your Hawkbrothers to order around.  I will not listen to some mage-scout order me.” she glared at him, a usual expression he had noticed, at least when she looked at him.  Treesong launched Kyth off her arm, sending the kestral back towards her own v’raka’kele that she now shared with Shirl, instead of her sister.

She smirked, still glaring, somehow managing both expressions at once.  She couldn’t resist the last word before parting.  She was incredibly patriotic towards her clan, and although she knew she would most likely get in trouble from her clan for it later she said “I’m leaving now.  Zhai’helleva, inzari.  I am Treesong k’Ren’fa.  And you trespass on our land every single day.” She jumped up quickly to the higher branches of the v’raka, and leapt from tree to tree so quickly she knew that the tired scout would never be able to follow her.

He wondered at the ritual good-bye she had spoken, wondered at the clan name, wondered how she knew he was a mage-scout, and wondered how he was supposed to explain this to the Elders.  But most of all, he wondered at the feelings this strange Treesong awoke in him.  Zhai’helleva, ashke.  From Firestar k’Vala.

He started.  He had meant to say inzari, not ashke, and didn’t enjoy the thought of that unconscious farewell.

 

 

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            So, here ya go.  Please R/R? Pretty Please????

            Translations of the various Tayledras language used in this fic (I got them off of: http://members.tripod.com/deakins.l/ ) :

ashke : beloved

Zhai’helleva : Wind to thy wings, greeting

inzari : hated enemy

k’ren’fa : Bright Eyes, a kind of nickname, the name of Treesong and Windance’s Clan

v’raka : big tree

v’raka’kele : big tree that houses ekeles

ekele : the houses of the Tayledras, in the trees.