Chapter 13: Something New
Oriel grinned as she entered the clearing. Orkeck had not seen her yet. He was too focused on his target practice. Not daring to disturb him, she admired the way he held the bow with such grace. One eye closed, his gaze was set on the target painted on the tree. He let go of the string, letting the arrow whizz by and hit the trunk with a satisfying thump.
"Great aim, like always!" Oriel said, stepping up to her friend. He turned to face her, his eyes alight.
"Oriel! Do you have a message for me, or did you just come to spy on me?" He laughed.
"I have a message, you goofball." Oriel slapped his shoulder lightly. "It's Nymph. She wants you to know that tomorrow you and Elric will be exchanging guard duty. Something has come up, and it works better for Elric to monitor Schism in the afternoon instead of the morning."
Orkeck nodded. "That works for me!" He raised his bow and shot another arrow.
"Great! I'll go pass that on then!" Oriel said, extending her wings to take off.
"No, wait! Before you go-" Orkeck paused, and Oriel lowered her wings. He seemed to have something on the top of his tongue, as if he was debating whether to say anything or not.
"What is it?" Oriel pressed.
"Tonight, would you maybe want to spend some time together?" He asked, looking a little more nervous than usual. "I could catch something for dinner, and we could just hang out, just the two of us?"
"I'd like the sound of that." Oriel said with a grin, a warm feeling spreading through her. Was this a date? She kind of hoped it was. "See you then?"
"See you then." Orkeck confirmed, looking relieved.
It had been a wonderful evening. The food had been good, and Oriel had been having the time of her life. Orkeck was her closest friend in the clan, and whether or not this was a date, it was great to be spending time with him. She supposed she should have asked it was a date, but she didn't want to make things awkward of it wasn't, so she held her tongue.
As the sun began to set, the pair stood on a lanturn-lit balcony, watching the stars come out. Oriel felt at complete and utter peace. She was jolted out of the moment slightly only when Orkeck slid his hand into hers. She turned to him in surprise.
"Oriel, there's something I need to tell you." He said, slightly sheepishly.
"What is it?" Oriel asked. Orkeck had her full attention, and she was almost tremoring with anticipation of what might be to come.
"Well, it's just that things have been weird lately, with the deities waking up and the strange things happening all over Sornieth, and it's got me thinking about what I want in life." Orkeck began. Oriel was drinking in every word. "And the more I think about it, the more I realize-" He sighed, as if what he was about to say took great effort.
"I've realized I think I'm being called to serve the Windsinger." Orkeck said finally.
"What?!" Oriel was taken aback. This had not been at all what she had been expecting.
"I wasn't sure at first." He went on. "It can be so hard to tell with these things, but recently I've just felt a call to the skies, on the wind, towards the Cloudsong. And I've been talking to Fenn and Elric about all this too. It was a really hard decision to make, mostly because of-" He paused again, and looked from the sky into Oriel's eyes. "Mostly because of you."
"Me?" Oriel asked. Everything felt so surreal. He was just going to leave? Just like that?
"You're the closest friend I have, Oriel, and once I thought maybe it would become more than that." Orkeck sighed. "But it has become clear now. The Windsinger us calling me to his service, and I cannot deny his call. Not after my life was spared from the fall of the island."
"I understand." Oriel's voice cracked as she spoke. She wanted to be strong for him, to support him, but it was difficult. It felt as though her heart was breaking. He was leaving, for good. She would probably never see him again.
"I'm not leaving right away." Orkeck explained. "I don't want the others to be understaffed when it comes to watching Schism, and there are a few things I need to study before I go. I just wanted you to be the first to know. Well, the first to know after Fenn and Elric."
"Thank you." Oriel said, turning away, unable to hide the years that were now falling from her eyes.
"Hey, Oriel!" Orkeck pulled her closer. "I know you don't want me to go. There's a part of me that doesn't want to go too. I'm sorry I couldn't give you the life I wanted to give you. Let's just make the most of the time we have left together, eh?"
"I don't want you to leave my side until you have to go." Oriel said with a sob, burying her face in his feathers.
"Every spare moment I have will be yours." Orkeck vowed with a small laugh. When Oriel looked up, she could see his eyes glistening with tears too.
Oriel awoke feeling a weight inside her. Instinctually, she knew what was coming next. She cast a quick glance at Orkeck to make sure he was still asleep before she opened the door to her balcony and took off. With a sense of urgency, she made her way into the cherry blossom grove, where she would be unlikely to be disturbed at this hour of the morning.
She quickly gathered some feathers and bamboo and arranged them at the root of a tree. Then it was time. When she was done, two eggs lay nestled in feathers and surrounded by a soft breeze.
Orkeck could never know about these children. He would be leaving soon, and it would only dissuade him from answering the call he had recieved. No, they would be her secret, tucked away in the depths of the grove. When they hatched, she would raise them on her own, with the help of the clan. The first hatchlings to be born into the clan, what an honour. They would be loved and cared for, but they would never meet their father. It would be better that way.
Vowing to collect them later, when she could take them home without arousing suspicion, she left the eggs. Orkeck would be waking soon, and he must not know she had been gone.
Two updates today! I had a lot of time on my hands. I guess I owe you a bit of an explanation for the content of this chapter.
Oriel and Orkeck are part of an alphabet legacy challenge I have been doing for about a year and a half now (fun fact, Amberlyn was the founder of that! Orkeck is her great great great great great great great great great great great great grandson!) and now that I've started writing out my lore, I've decided that while I'm still doing the challenge, I will wait until a point in the lore where it makes sense for them to have a nest to breed them.
I've been working on this challenge for quite a while, so I don't want to outright abandon it, but Orkeck didn't quite make the cut for dragons I wanted to keep after my recent lair purge, so I decided he would be a temporary member of my clan, and then I'd write him out, leaving Oriel to raise their kid. I have gotten attached to Orkeck now that I've actually started writing him, but all his character development and direction in my head has always been moving towards him answering the call to serve the Windsinger, so I can't back out now.
If their relationship is feeling a bit rushed it's because a) their relationship is meant to be a bit of a fling and b) because I've been ill and sad and confined to my flat today, and Orkeck is RTB today, I decided to breed them together today to cheer myself up a bit. So, we have hatchlings on the way!
