"(What's wrong?)" I ask her, coming over to her side as she stares sadly at them.
"(They have been too cold for too long. They have gone...dead.)" she tells me, her voice shaky and laced with sorrow. I see Annette close her eyes, trying to block any tears from coming out like she did when I told her about her missing village. Just like then, I feel powerless to help her outside of just trying to stay near and comfort her. "(If she does not already know, she is going to be devastated when she wakes up.)"
"(Well, I suppose we will just have to hope that we can help her. First though, she will have to heal and wake up.)" I say softly to Annette, patting her back as I look back over at our guest. Her breathing has gotten a lot less heavy and she's stopped shivering. Her little beak mouth is moving softly as she sleeps, almost as if she is whispering something to herself but no sound is coming out. I can only hope that she will sleep well for now. Tomorrow and all its hardships will come no matter what, after all.
I'm woken up by the sound of a voice I don't recognize speaking Yoto in a panic, sparking panic all my own as I jolt awake. I almost bolt upright but Annette's tangled up with me for warmth, since our only blanket had been loaned to our houseguest, and she's keeping my from sitting up too much. I turn my head, looking over Annette's body as she groans herself awake as well, seeing our guest looking over her unfortunate eggs in a fervor. I manage to untangle myself from Annette as she starts to wake up and quickly hop out of bed, briskly walking over.
"(Wait, calm down!)" I say to her in Yoto, trying to seem friendly despite my poor pronunciation. Her face whips around to me as she holds the entire bag of eggs closely to her and see those piercing sky-blue eyes again sunken slightly into her face with clear signs of exhaustion all over. I can only imagine what this poor girl's been through.
"(Who..who are you?
What
are you?!)" our guest asks me, clearly scared as she hugs the sack of eggs and backs away from me. Her legs fail her and she ends up falling on her ass, giving me a full view of her womanhood that causes me to blush. I wasn't sure I'd ever get used to the constant nudity of Anthros.
"(I am a) human." I say to her, having to use the English word for my species. "(Call me Max. I brought you in here out of the rain.)" She looks between myself and the entrance to the cave, seeing that the rain is indeed done for now after having the remainder of the day and all night yesterday.
"(He caught you as you were falling. Max is good.)" Annette says from behind me, her hooves softly clacking on the floor of the cave as she steps past me and closer to our avian guest. "(You are obviously very tired, and it looks like you haven't eaten well either. Can you tell us what happened?)"
She looks between myself and Annette for a while, keeping the bag clutched tightly to herself as she seemed to wrestle with what to do. Honestly, I can't blame her for being freaked out just by
me
. Add in whatever trauma had brought her to carrying a heavy load of eggs for who even knows how long and I can easily say I'd probably react the same way in her situation. I do want to help though and thankfully I see her relax just a little as she seems to regard the both of us.
"(I..I have been flying for nearly two days straight now.)" she says slowly to the both of us. "(My flock, we were attacked by lizards. They were colorful and they spit. My flock...we couldn't fight back. We didn't know how.)" She looks at the both of us as she talks, probably to gauge our reactions to her tale. Based on how she's looking at us, I'm guessing she can see the pain on both of our faces. The situation was all too similar to how I'd met Annette in the first place.
"(The mothers gathered up the eggs and gave them to me. Told me to fly far away, since I am the best flier. To find somewhere safe past the trees, where the lizards were unlikely to follow. They would follow me if they could, but only if they were sure that the lizards had not followed them.)" she continues softly, her body seeming to lose what little energy it had as she told her tale. "(I have stopped only once, to drink some water. The rest of the time, I flew with the eggs no matter what. To keep them safe. I...I cannot fail. My flock is counting on me. I even kept flying in the rain, since I was having a hard time losing the lizards.)"
I watch Annette tear up as our guest finishes her tail, then Annette gets up and slowly walks over to her. I consider joining her for a moment, but I'm not sure that dealing with an alien creature like me wouldn't just add to the stress this poor girl has gone through. Annette kneels down in front of her, gently placing her hands on the bird-woman's shoulders.
"(You are safe from lizards here but...I am sorry.)" Annette says, taking a deep breath and blinking her tears away. "(The rain and the wind and the cold were too much for the eggs. They...they are all dead.)"
"(NO!)" she screams, shaking her head. "(You're lying! I've flown so far...so hard...I..I..)" Our guest's words died in her throat as he opened the bag and looked in at the eggs. The pulled one out and gently stroked it before holding it out for Annette to see. "(See, they are fine? Not a crack or scratch anywhere! I have
not
failed my flock!)"
"(Listen to them.
Feel
them.)" Annette replies, her voice a bit shaky. "(There is no warmth. No heartbeat.)"
"(No. No. They cannot be. I cannot have failed. No.)" she replies, her arms starting to tremble. She accidently drops the egg, but Annette manages to catch it before it hits the ground. Our guest reaches out, trying to snatch it away but Annette gently grabs the fingers at the end of her wing and presses them against the egg. The two of them just sit there, the bird-woman trying to pull her hand away but not having the strength for even that despite how little strength Annette is using.
I watch the slow breakdown as she starts to focus more on the fingers that are pressed to the egg, going from silent denial to self-doubt and eventually watching as tears form in her eyes as the truth starts to become undeniable. Her whole body starts to shake, then collapse all together as she begins bawling hard enough that tears start coming to my eyes as well. Annette just holds her softly, trying to be a comforting presence as best she can before she turns to me.
"Please go outside and dig some holes." she says to me softly in English. "I'm going to try and get her to eat and drink a little, then give her some time to see if she's ready to bury the eggs."
I say nothing, only nodding as I leave the two of them alone in the cave. I take a deep breath and wipe the tears from my eyes, looking up at the gray sky and cursing how appropriate it is.
"(I am so sorry.)" the bird-woman says to the mound of dirt covering the eggs. I had dug multiple holes with my hands using my super strength, but she insisted that the unborn children inside the eggs would rest better in each other's company. I wasn't about to argue with her, especially as I held her upright since her legs just didn't want to support her weight. I had offered her a chair, but she felt it disrespectful to sit in front of the makeshift grave after failing in her duties.
Annette was back in the cave, making some form of stew she was sure our guest would be able to eat since she hadn't been able to keep anything else down while I had been digging the holes. Our guest had warmed up to me surprisingly quickly after seeing that I had dug holes for each of the eggs to lay in and asked me to stay with her while she saw to their burial. I ended up needing to help her with that as well, following her directions on how to arrange them and being careful that no damage came to them before we had gently poured dirt on top of them.
After her apology to the eggs, I stand silently with her in front of them as she starts to take a series of deep breaths. I prepare myself for what I'm sure is another round of intense crying, ready to support her as long as she needs but the crying never comes. Instead, to my amazement, she starts to sing. There are no words, but the notes that she lets out into the open air are beautiful...haunting. They seem to infect the very air around us with a somber mood, and I almost think for a moment that the gray skies above us are about to begin raining all over again.
I listen silently as her song goes on, growing softer as it goes on. It almost seems like it's changing its very nature, going from somber and heart-wrenching to a peaceful finality. I feel like I want to cry, but the tears can never push past the sense of calm. By the time her song finally dies out, her own tears have dried from her eyes and she looks from the mound to the clouds above.
