Watching Sorrow

Chapter Sixteen

At the ship it took mere minutes to gather the  power cells and return to the sandcat; however it was still too late to use the sandcat to return to the small settlement. While all the other adults had been gathering the requisite cells Paris had been gathering the most expensive bottles of his hooch to bring along for the ride… he felt it was better he have something better to sell when they got off this planet. Ships rarely offered aid to others without at least a small bribe to help pave the way.

As Paris came from the hold, he noticed the darkness had already started to make its introductions to the planet. He could, for a moment, only stare in horror as he saw te spires in the distance crumble as bodies started to launch themselves to the skies; and haunting nightmare inducing cries echoed into the air from the small creatures.

“People, I would suggest you FLEE!!!” was heard from his mouth shortly thereafter.

It took mere moments for most of them to get there, Shazza and Riddick taking the longest had to make a dive for the earth, listening as the small predatory avians flew centimeters above their skin, howling in hunger that the two could nearly feel.

Shazza got up moments after she could no longer hear them over her and ran towards the others, and the illusion of safety merely made her more eager to get there… unfortunately she was too early to rise, and the second wave of the creatures literally tore her apart, carrying her still shrieking body into the skies to devour her.

Riddick got up and joined the others, helping them to close the large doors, pausing before they finished closing to stare in wonder at the much larger versions of the creatures pushing themselves up from beneath the earth, and like the smaller before them become lords of the skies… basking in the freedom to fly; and to hunt.

Kedar was very stressed at the moment, Rhios had sent the children to the ship, but he had kept Jack there with them… which was not the plan! He couldn’t even get Rhios to explain himself, he was too far lost in the instincts to even understand Kedars questions.

Jack was taking this rather well, surprisingly she seemed to have an odd understanding of labor that Kedar could not help but be grateful for. She would set cool cloths upon Rhios’ head and wipe the sweat from his torso, whilst making gentle crooning sounds to him which seemed to soothe some of the wildness in his eyes.

Kedar and Rhios both stiffened as a small blue green light appeared before Rhios glowing gently and warmly twinkling, it settled itself upon his stomach and with a small flash turned itself into a small tattoo of a flower petal upon his stomach, joining three others there.

Within ten minutes Riddick was watching the so-called adults start to tear each other apart, Imam and Paris had already tussled over Paris’ attempts to flee the cargo bay, Johns and Frye were screaming about the necessity of returning to the ship. When Johns went for his gun though, he placed his knife at Johns’ groin to get the man to cool down, they needed every able bodied being to get those heavy batteries to the ship… not that that was his current priority really; but this was wasting his time.

Finally the other “adults” pulled themselves together when Frye claimed that Riddick would lead them to safety. He  couldn’t help the small arch of his brow as he stared at her temerity for a moment before he resigned himself to playing their guide-dog.

Of all the things that Kedar had been preparing himself for during the labor of his bearer, he had not thought that it would be the near silent pain that would bother him the most… the agony etched on the face of Rhios, partnered with his refusal to cry out and the short gasping breaths he released when he could not stop himself; that was true torture for him as he could not help him at all. And to think that he had thought it would be the messy fluids he would have to prepare himself for! He sent a swift glance at Jack, truly the girl was very much calming his bearer to a stable level, he would not have been doing so well in her place… perhaps that was why Rhios had refused to let her go.

Rhios swam in and out of clarity with what was happening in the world around him. The pain was consuming his thoughts a great deal, and he was finally nearing the point where pushing would actually do something. He could feel the magics of his youngling swirling through his skin and he knew that it was finally almost time he needed them to be prepared. As he opened his mouth to speak a second youngling sent an electric rush of its power into his skin, it was… agonizing.

Suddenly a vision flew across his eyes and he remembered quite forcibly the last three eggs that flown into the circle of eggs at the last moment so long ago. And he couldn’t help the whimper that left his lips at the thought that crossed his mind… Magical creature Quadruplets. His whole body shuddered at the thought of trying to keep track of four magical babies with various powers and strengths… moments later he gratefully allowed his mind to be submersed into his baser instincts once again.