Luky and the Birdmen
Chapter 16

“Luky!” A voice called. “Luky, wake up!”

Luky opened his eyes and instantly felt like he had to vomit. He rolled to his side and ejected all of the salt water he had in his stomach.

He repeatedly coughed until he noticed that the sun was shining, and seagulls were flying above his head.

He turned around, and his eyes met Aurielle’s. She was smiling.

Luky scanned his surroundings. There was not much left of their boat, but the sea was still, and there was light, sun, birds, and...Ezra!

The boy-lynx’s gaze returned to Aurielle. “Did we make it?” he asked, his heart pounding.

“We made it,” she replied, and Luky jumped in her arms.

“Quiet, you two!” Ezra nonchalantly shouted, covering his eyes with his hand. “Someone’s trying to get some sleep here!”

Luky was so relieved to see the man that he jumped to his feet. He ran to him and hugged him so tight, it was like he would not let him go for a while.

Once there was enough hugging for a lifetime, Luky lay beside Ezra. Aurielle reclined beside the boy-lynx, and Luky decided to take both their hands in his paws.

They lay still for a moment, rocked by the calm ocean waves. The sun was like a warm blanket of comfort, and the seagulls were like welcoming music.

“Where are we?” Luky asked after waking again.

Ezra raised himself up and leaned on his elbows. “I haven’t got the slightest clue.”

Luky made a pout. He’d expected that answer. After all, they were sailing on a large raft, with nothing but an empty horizon surrounding them.

“But we made it,” Aurielle consoled him. “If we made it through that storm, we’re definitely going to find our way.”

Ezra smiled. “I can always use you as an oar!” He laughed and lifted Luky up, then he rubbed the cub’s head with his fist.

Luky had never seen Ezra like this. So happy. So...father-y. It made Luky feel all warm inside.

Ezra released Luky, but the cord around his neck got caught in the cub’s clothing and snapped. Ezra’s pendant fell on the raft. Luky picked it up and handed it to him.

This time, he’d give the man a break. He wasn’t going to ask questions about it.

Ezra first hesitated, then he took the vial in his hand. The look on his face was...complicated—that was the best way to describe it.

Ezra ran his thumb along the vial’s strange inscriptions, then he looked into Luky’s eyes.

Luky could feel it coming. Ezra was going to tell him everything!

“You want to know what it says?” Ezra asked.

Luky nodded with all he had.

“It says never forget, always remember in Old Elven.”

The cub’s eyes rounded. He had ten more questions, so he’d start with the first one. “What does it do?” And the next two. “Do you drink it? Is it like a memory potion?”

Ezra chuckled and shook his head. “It’s not a potion, boy. It’s an echo.”

If Luky could round his eyes more, he would have. What did Ezra mean by echo?

“You see,” Ezra began as he shook the vial. He did it carefully, drawing large circles in the air. “It’s based on the magi’s memlock, the spell that catches memories.”

He opened the vial and handed it to Luky. “Listen.”

Luky took the vial in his paw. He first hesitated, but after Ezra nodded, Luky brought it close to his ear.

Nothing happened at first, but as the shadowy liquid settled inside the vial, he could hear something distant. It sounded like...laughter. A child’s laugh.

Just hearing that laugh brought a smile to his face. The laughter dissipated, fading away, leaving Luky enraptured.

Ezra took the vial back and closed it before securing to his belt with what was left of the leather cord.

That laugh must have belonged to someone important. It explained why Ezra was so careful with that vial and why, when he’d thought to be close to death, he’d given it to Luky for safekeeping.

Ezra was now staring deeply into the vial. Come to think of it, he didn’t look sad. He looked lost.

“This is my daughter’s laugh,” he confessed, his voice almost inaudible.

Luky felt a lump down his throat. Even if he was just a boy, he knew that tone. Now, he realized that the look on Ezra’s face was grief.

“I immediately saved this from my memory after she...” Ezra paused. “Like this, I can never forget what she sounded like.”

“What happened to her?” Luky instantly regretted asking. He was prying.

The man inhaled deeply and looked up to the sky. Tears were showing, but he wasn’t letting them out.

Was this the first time he was talking about her?

“Fate happened,” he said. “Boy, I loved my daughter with all my heart, but choices I made screwed it up for the two of us. For the three of us.

“I was gone most of the time, always traveling, always on the run. Even if I did my best, sometimes, someone’s best is just not enough.”

Luky wasn’t sure whether he should hug Ezra right now. He turned to Aurielle, who was looking at the ocean. She’d heard Ezra’s story for sure.

“Boy, and you, too, Your Highness,” Ezra seized their attention. “Us dads might not be the wisest, the strongest, or the smartest, but we’re doing the best we can. Just know that we love you until the end and beyond.”

The boy-lynx gave in. He was hugging Ezra again, who actually needed it more than him.

To his surprise, Aurielle joined in on the hug. They were three adventurers, lost at sea, but certainly not lost within their hearts.

“What’s this?” Aurielle mumbled as she left the hug and wiped her cheeks.

Ezra looked, too, but he couldn’t see. When Luky looked, he saw the figure coming their way. Was this a mirage? An illusion?

No, it was real.

That vessel with Hauian-blue sails was coming straight for them.

Luky turned to his friends. “It’s a boat!” he exclaimed and repeated it ten times.

Aurielle rose to her feet. Ezra did the same. All three were now waving at the vessel that would soon meet them.

“I can’t believe it!” Aurielle said.

“Me neither, but it’s real,” Ezra assured them.

Luky jumped around the raft that was rocking left and right. “It’s real! It’s real!”

The three adventurers weren’t lost in their hearts, and now, they weren’t even lost at sea anymore.

This trading ship that was headed to Vanhaui soon invited them aboard. The ship’s captain was a kind man who agreed to make a pitstop at Taj-Kaa-Port, so Aurielle and Ezra could continue their mission.

Now that they’d overcome two storms and an island of birdmen, the two felt like they could take on anything.

Moreover, they were much closer than when they’d started. The two realized they could learn more than an extra thing or two from each other.

Before leaving the Spice Isles, Luky hugged his friends tight, bidding them safe travels. Aurielle and Ezra were headed for a new adventure. The boy-lynx, on the other hand, was going home.

Aurielle swore she’d come to visit him in Bravoure once her quest was complete. Ezra promised him a bed in a Taz home at the center of a beautiful forest.

Luky shed a tear after the ship parted again. He’d miss his friends, but he knew he would see them again soon enough.

The boat docked at the harbor of Shelb in the early morning. Luky bid the captain goodbye and, with a lump down his throat, he headed up the main road.

He was going to L’Ours Clam, the inn where his father would probably be waiting.

Luky wasn’t even sure how long he’d been gone. During the entire journey back from Taj-Kaa-Port to Shelb, he’d been preoccupied with one, sole idea.

How could he ask for his father’s forgiveness?

Luky realized why his father was always so protective. The world was a dangerous place; the boy-lynx had witnessed that firsthand. Even if he was eleven, he was still a young sindur cub.

Luky arrived at the inn, his heart pounding in his chest. He was so afraid. His father was going to be so mad.

Luky hadn’t cared for being scolded on the island, but now, it was all he feared. He was about to burst into tears when the inn’s door opened.

There he stood, the man who had raised him like a son. He was dressed like a traditional Bravan soldier, and his blond hair glistened in the sun.

He’d probably seen Luky arrive from the window and had rushed downstairs immediately.

Luky ran to his father, sobbing. “I’m sorry, Dad!” He couldn’t stop crying. “I’m so sorry. I wanted to go on an adventure, and I went, and I’m sorry.”

Instead of pushing him away and yelling like Luky would have expected, his father squeezed him in his arms, tight. Was he crying too?

His embrace was so strong that Luky couldn’t get out even if he wanted to.

But he didn’t want to.

“I’m so glad you’re okay, furball,” his father whispered. He sounded relieved instead of angry.

What was going on? Why wasn’t his father angry? Luky was angry at himself. Why wasn’t anyone else?

“I feared the worst,” his father said again. “By the gods, I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“I’m never leaving again,” Luky promised.

He would, eventually, but not for a while.

Luky was so happy to be back here. Even if it wasn’t home, it felt like it, just because his father was here.

He’d tell him all that happened on his journey, and he’d even tell him about the birdmen. Or maybe he shouldn’t. A strange feeling occupied his mind, somehow.

Maybe the birdmen should remain a secret after all.

The idea hadn’t crossed Luky’s mind until now, as he pondered on how he’d tell this story. How quite peculiar that he couldn’t even find words to tell.

Perhaps the brood of Quetza should remain a mystery.

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