Page 2 of Suncatcher

The speaker nodded, and the crowd turned as one to stare at the horizon. “Each year, they encroach farther. We will need to move west again. I will find us a new place before the next Meeting.”

Everyone shifted.

“We have two fledging youngsters,” the speaker continued. “Meet Gully and Estuary.”

All eyes swept the small ones, but didn’t linger long.

“Does anyone else wish to speak?” the speaker asked. No one did. So she nodded. “That is all.”

She leapt into the air, her wings snapping outward as she took off. Several others followed, quickly diverting in different directions.

The brief Meeting was over, but many remained, including Driz.

Another goyle, Drain, edged closer to her. “Mate?” he asked, as he did each Meeting.

“No,” Driz replied, as she did each Meeting.

He nodded and directed his question to someone else.

Driz had observed mating. She knew it was necessary for offspring, but it didn’t appeal to her. Her eyes settled on Mist again. At least, the idea of it hadn’t appealed to her until she’d noticed Mist.

She had been working up the courage to approach for the last three Meetings, and wouldn’t miss her chance yet again.

Driz walked over to her.

“Hello,” Driz said, nerves churning her stomach and twitching her wings.

Mist frowned, leaning away warily.

Driz understood she couldn’t mate with Mist. But an invisible pull drew Driz to her anyway. And she still wasn’t certain how to ask. “Would you like to partner?” Driz tried.

Confusion twisted Mist’s face. “No.”

Driz nodded and stepped back hastily. Mist moved away and accepted a standard mating request. She took to the air with her chosen companion, joining the other pairs circling upward toward the stars.

They collided in flight, his wings curling over and around her as they dove, falling and tangling. Driz wanted to be in his place.

Something hot, angry, and overwhelming burned through her. She spun on her toes, ignoring a tentative request from a young goyle, and hurled herself off the edge of the cliff. Alone. As she always was. As they all always were. It was their fate, and their nature now.

Driz flew east, toward the faint line of light that had nothing to do with the elusive sun.

She soared above the land, the disappointment and rejection of the night rushing through her along with the wind over her wings. Her unwanted gift dug into her palm. The glass beads cracked and shattered easily, and she let the shards fall into the darkness.

A twinkling campfire caught her eye. A welcome distraction. She banked left and landed a distance away, approaching on foot. As she neared, she heard the sound of voices and the wonderfully strange buzzing music humans made. It lured her, the call tugging at her insides and soothing her agitated heart.

She passed their sleepy mules who didn’t mind her presence. When she was calm, they sensed her only as a strange moving stone, not a threat.

A large boulder rested between her and the human’s camp, and Driz pressed against it. She couldn’t make out many of their words. They spoke rapidly, their speech slurring and blurring together. Someone laughed, a loud, boisterous sound, and Driz’s mouth tugged into a reflexive smile. Safely hidden behind the barrier of stone, she was a little less alone.

She peered at their three wagons, longing to go rummage through them, certain they were full of treasures. A rifle leaned against the side of one, its barrel shimmering with the faint residue of blight, along with traces of gunpowder.

Driz shivered. It was common to find raw blight in the wild, but its distillation and purposeful use unsettled her. Like with everything else, humans had figured out how to exploit the powerful remains of the dead gods for themselves.

Goyles were forbidden from interacting with blight. It cursed its users. Driz was already enough of an abomination to risk touching the stuff.

Driz stayed there, melding with the stone, listening until the crackle of the fire quieted and the music and conversation stopped. When she eased away from the boulder, several alarmed beetles fled from where they’d been burrowing into her hair. She caught one and ate it, enjoying the crunch between her teeth.

She moved on, flying east again, to where a dark unnatural line snaked its way over the land. As day walkers, humans had difficulty at night, their eyes not equipped for it, despite their fires and lights.