Read Online Aegis Rising by S.S.Segran - Free Book Online

Tegan’s head and hooted, “Akol m’man, you don’t know this girl unless you’ve been around her long enough. She’s got her ways with animals, wild or not.”
    Tegan grunted at the sharp elbow on her head and shook it off, then got up and shoved Kody. He tottered backwards and nearly tipped over, all the while snickering. Chayton slunk past and exited the shelter. No sooner was he gone than the door opened wide and a slender form stepped in. Seeing the six of them in her shelter, Huyani smiled and welcomed them warmly in her own language. Akol laughed.
    “There is no need,” he told Huyani. “We may speak to them in their tongue.”
    “Ah,” she said with a gleam in her eyes. “So they know.”
    Akol looked sheepish.
    Huyani shook her head with a smile. “Really now, brother.”
    The five gawked. They’re siblings!
    Turning to the boys, Huyani greeted them. “Nice to see you, Jag, Aari, Kody!” Her accented voice sounded like a nightingale’s song; the friends felt lifted.
    Mariah smiled. “Hi—I’m Mariah. I remember you.”
    Huyani nodded. “Hello, Mariah. My name is Huyani. It is lovely to see some color back in your cheeks now. And you are . . . ?” She fixed her dark brown eyes on Tegan.
    “Tegan.”
    “Nice to meet you. How are all of you faring?”
    “I feel almost good enough to do a backflip,” Kody said. “That is, if I could do one in the first place, which I can’t.”
    “We all feel that way,” Aari confirmed as Huyani looked at the others with concern.
    “That is good.”
    Kody looked around the cabin. “Where are we?”
    “Hold on, Kody,” Huyani said gently. “I must still examine each of you to check your condition for myself. Questions may come later.” As Huyani lifted Jag’s chin to see his facial cuts in the light, a rumbling noise sounded. She paused and shared puzzled looks with Jag. After a moment, Jag roared with laughter. Looking at Mariah, he called out, “That was you, wasn’t it?”
    Everyone stared at Mariah as she blushed, embarrassed. “Blame the hungry pet lion living in my stomach, people.”
    The shelter filled with howls of amusement. Huyani consoled Mariah. “I will make something for you.”
    “Thank you,” Mariah said weakly. Huyani shepherded the friends toward another end of her neyra once she had checked on their condition. She gently pushed them down onto a padded divan made from moose-hide, and then went into the kitchen quarter with Akol.
    “How did the meeting with the Elders go?” Akol asked quietly, out of the friends’ earshot.
    “I will tell you once we have the five settled down properly,” his sister murmured back as she nodded in the direction of their visitors.
    Tegan leaned back comfortably and gazed around, her gray eyes smartly picking up details. “I still want to know where we are,” she muttered.
    Aari patted her shoulder. “You and all of us.”
    A good fifteen minutes passed, or so Tegan estimated, when the delicious fragrance of grilled meat seasoned with herbs and spices tickled their noses.
    Mariah sniffed the air and gushed. “That smells good .”
    Kody licked his lips. “If it’s what the guys and I had before, then you two are in for a special treat.”
    Tegan eyed him. “I won’t ask when you guys ate your meal, but I will say that your appetite never fails you. You’re impossible to fill up or shut up.”
    “What I don’t get is how you stay as slim as the rest of us,” Mariah said.
    “I work out,” he boasted with mock pride.
    “Sure, and my grandpa Joe was a merman,” Aari retorted.
    “Hey, I thought you said he was Bigfoot.”
    “Oh, good grief . . .”
    Jag tried not to burst out with laughter. Tegan and Mariah both covered their mouths, struggling to not snigger at the pair’s repartee. Kody and Aari’s consistent banter was well-known at Great Falls High School in Montana, where the friends would be going into their third year the coming fall.
    Huyani called from the kitchen.