19 Venus

I woke up to Dimatri carrying me. I was still to tired to think much about why he carrying me until far too late. I did not realize it was too late until I heard a bird. If the bird had been Mira I would not have reacted but Mira had no where near a call that deep. I jerked in Dimatri arms and looked towards the sound. My mind screamed Royal at the same time my childish self clapped in glee. Then took a quick down ward spiral into fear, shame, and horror. I started running my hands over my hair trying and no doubt failing to tame it.

The action caught the attention of everyone present and I felt myself blush as shame won out. My eyes swung to Misha and I glared. I rolled out of Dimatri's arms and turned my glare on him next. Kylian began to back away but I caught the movement out the corner of my eye.

'What have you done?' I questioned looking over the five of them. Sorrel and Amiri looked between eachother before seemingly agreeing to drop to their knees. 'What is going on Misha?' I asked turning my glare back to him. When he did not answer I began to advantage. He began to retreat. 'Misha, explain why I am looking at a royal bird!'

'This is Prince Rithô of the Nephit. His has had his Medic prepared a communicator for you,' he said quickly. Someone had at least been smart enough to put my dress back on me. I looked towards the so called Medic who was hold a case.

'And what prey tell does this communicator do?' I questioned.

The Prince said something and Dimatri responded back fast. 'The communicator will allow you to understand vebal communication with all those who have a spoken language in the data base. It will also help us understand your verbal communication,' Misha replied.

I raised my eyebrows and narrowed my eyes, 'And how does it work?'

'It is placed behind one of your ears, Princess,' Kylian piped up.

'Can it be plaved now?' I turned my narrowed gaze on Kylian and he srunk his head. Still I saw and heard him say something. The Medic responded.

'It can Princess.'

"Let's get this over with then," I said moving my hair to one side and bending my ear forward. It was the first time the skin behind my ears had been it the open air in such a manner. I saw Kylian come closer to me. I flicked my eyes in his direction and sighed.

'It will be over quickly Princess.' I heard him say. I also heard the click of talloned toes clicking on the warm stone under foot. I was still bare foot. What a disgrace. I was presented for the first time to an alien royal as an unadorned low born female with no class or manners. As if that wasn't bad enough we could not even speak.

'You are beautiful as you are Princess,' Dimatri said.

'I have committed a grave insult by showing myself to a royal like this, Dimatri. If he was human I would be lucky not to be accepted of insulting his house, his bloodline, his kingdom, and his name by appearing before him as such.'

I saw the Medic approach and chose not to see if he held anything. If I was killed tonight on this unknown planet then I would have earned it. He was careful not to touch me. A fact that made fear tighten in my gut. Perhaps I was too much of a disgrace for even the Medic to acknowledge. Then I felt it. Pain and hot fire. Kylian garbed me and pulled me away from the winged Medic as soon as I growled. I felt blood flow down my neck. The smell of iron thicken in the air. Iron and copper. I hissed showing teeth that snapped into place with a click. Eight fangs that normally stayed concealed with my gums slid free in a threat.

I dug my fingers into Kylian's arms where he held me but I kept my nails out. My feet were pressed flat to his thighs ready to launch myself at the male who had made me bleed. I knew I should be calming but that wasn't going to happen while the pain behind my ear continued to worsen. Pain to my skull. The worse it got the less my mind wanted to lash out at the male and more want to flee. Instincts were a bitch at times. The pain wasn't stopping but the male was too far away to be cauing it which made me turn on Kylian. His mane protected his neck from my snapping fangs.

Distantly I recognized him and the others trying to talk to me but I could not see or hear anything past the pain. It beat at me. There were a few points that were almost an sure fire way to kill a human. The head was one of those. It was why the human skull incised our brain almost completely. Only a few small gaps to allow the connection of nerves remained. The common people had a large opening at the base of the skull to allow the brain stem access but royal lines had a layer of bone plates that shifted and moved as we did. It was one of the things that set the common people from a royal blood.

I saw Amiri grab the Medic but no longer cared. I had a new target. My own ear. A royal in pain was a dangerous thing. Royals can and would tear of full limbs if the instinct for survival thought the effects would be worth it. It this case my nerves said my ear was the problem. The pain it was causing wasn't worth the fact it helped me hear. Dimatri yelled and grabbed my hands as they reached for my ear. He had not accounted for my feet. Feet which without my hands were perfectly hand to try to do the job. Misha grabbed my feet and growled loudly at the Prince. His feathers were puffed up making him appear as big as Sorrel who held my head steady.

The Medic came closer which made me growl. If I did not trust the Leoc'ain near me and recognize their smells I would have ran off by now. The feathered Medic moved around the thing causing me enough pain that if the Leoc'ain let go he would be the first one I would rip apart. Then he did something that made the pain sky rocket. I screamed. The wail made the guys drop me as they dropped. The birds all held their heads while while their wings went limp. I tore the device causing me such pain off and then turned on the Medic.

He like the Leoc'ain was on the ground. No one was able to grab me fast enough as I pulled a dagger from my stone and leaped at him. He rose an arm fast enough to knock me back. An act that made me scrape my right shoulder on the stone. I hissed but kept my distance. The pain was still there but compared to before it was manageable. I dabbed my fingers into the blood on my neck. "You will not be doing that again."

As everyone came back to themselves they watched me wearily as I paced over the stone. I kept touching the skin by my ear lobe. I was still bleeding but this blood was coming from inside my ear.

'If you wanted me dead there were less painful ways to do it,' I told them. The Leoc'ain. I should not have trusted them. They looked horrorifed.

'It should not have caused you such pain but it is fine Princess. The communicator was removed. You will heal,' Kylian said.

'You had them try to dig a hole in my skull. I will bleed out before that can heal. Even if it does not my bleeding time is coming soon Kylian! Do you honestly believe I can afford to keep losing blood?' I showing him my ear and neck. I was still bleeding. I was not healing. 'I trusted you and now I will die for it.' I felt the tears gather and fall. I had not cried in year but I had. My brothers would never know what happened to me. My people would believe I had abounded them. My bloodline would die. I turned from them and looked up. A red moon sat above us. Not white or blue as my own moon sometimes was. How long I wondered. Until I died.

I heard speaking and then I heard frantic bird squawks. I turned to look. The Prince had the Medic under foot. The Medic had been a snowy white that reminded me a white pigeon. Prey. I saw now I was right in more ways than one. His wings were smaller. His mouth and nose were a beak. Unlike the Prince who had a set of hands and wings the Medic had only wings that reminded me of harpy wings. No one seemed inclined to help the poor little Medic as the Prince stared him down and closed his toe talons around his foot. The other birdmen stepped forward and proceeded to do the same all over the Medics body. When it was all said and done he was filled with bleeding holes. Sorrel lifted me into his arms.

'We are taking you to their medbay, Princess. None of us will allow you to die.' I did not hold much hope of my survival. If it was just a skull hole I might live but if the communicator had damaged my ear I would die before my time.