Solar Song, Frozen Fate ✓ | lion girl, frenemies, frost curse

Chapter 2: A Broken Promise

Sovanna felt arms around her.

"Are you okay?"

She snapped her eyes open, saw a Human male, and punched him. He stumbled backwards then held his hands out in surrender. Empty, but he was a Human. She couldn't trust him. Sovanna leapt to her feet, back fur bristling, and with claws unsheathed. All her mind said was that he was an enemy. She flared her nostrils and growled, taking in fresh scents that wafted off of this stranger unlike the heavy scents that lay around Rukkatukin or the jungle Tumattamaku.

The Human wore a thick fur coat which was strange for this time of year. His skin was pale unlike the Humans around the enclosure. One of his eyes was gray, the other was such a light gray it was almost white. Unlike any Human she had seen, his hair wasn't red. Even Oolid had red hair, but he dyed it to show his allegiance to Kaunlutha. Nowadays he left it white.

But the most striking part were the brown speckled wings that came out from the Human's back. One was bent at the tip. The Human spread his arms open. It was what all Humans did to let Kaunlutha inspect. Obviously, this Human had been in Kaunlutha territory before.

Sovanna sniffed the air and tentatively walked over to the Human. He smelled of a fresh scent that reminded her of laundry day and of freshly washed clothes air dried. There was a hint of some earthy tang. Around his waist, he wore a belt.

"Take it off and put it far," she ordered and he did as he was told, laying it down barely arm's reach away from himself. Bits of cut hair rested in the white, furred collar of his coat as if he recently had a haircut. Sovanna inspected his face as close as she dared, staring at his neck wondering where the symbol was. All Humans who lived around this part of the planet Elgana belonged to a clan and each clan had a special tattoo they would engrave into the back of their necks.

She didn't dare touch him to move the tuft of hair to the side to inspect further, but it really seemed like he belonged nowhere. "Runaway?" she asked.

"Traveler," he replied.

Sovanna sifted through his belt with a tree branch and found a packet of thorns, probably poisoned for hunting, but no blow dart and not even a spearhead. The winged Human didn't even bring a map. Humans always had maps with them. They loved maps. They were so happy the day her father finally shared the map of the enclosure with the Humans, so they could keep track of the Kaunlutha population.

"What kind of Human are you?" she said. "Probably a Huamanoa." She giggled at his confused look. "Suppose I take you to Papa, the King. Ogalutha will—"

"No!" The Human raised a hand toward her and she growled. He set his hand down. "I mean, I'm okay. I only need time to heal my wing. And I'm not Human, have you never seen an Aerisi before?"

A what now? The foreign word passed through one ear and out the other. Sovanna shook her head. She never even heard of bird Humans before. On close inspection, the hair coming down to his cheek was not hair, but feathers.

"I'm not a completely pure one though. My father was an Aves, what they're calling the winged, flightless hybrids these days. The Humans have been integrating themselves into our world. But you wouldn't know that because you're all closed off here."

She wrinkled her nose at his sudden clipped accent. He was talking slurred, almost like her, until he started saying longer sentences. It was so Human it left a bad sound in her ears. She shook her head to rid of the it.

"So, you really are a Kaunlutha, right?"

The creature cocked his head. He still didn't lower his arms. Sovanna stepped away from him, backing into a tree. She sensed Trita calling her again, this time, angrier.