"We are friends, Miranda," he told her weakly, exerting what little strength he had to reach out with a paw and take her small hand. "If you haven't noticed, I'm very protective over my friends. You're all I have, and there's nothing I wouldn't do for you, or any of the others either."

She chuckled in her throat, smiling as she leaned down and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Be that as it may, I owe you a big one, Tarrin," she told him.

"I'm not keeping score, Miranda," he replied in a voice barely more than a whisper. Her form was becoming fuzzy, and he found it a sudden chore to keep his eyes open. "I'd do… anything… for a friend…"

And he surrendered to sleep, leaving whatever reply she had for him unheard.

Miranda stared down at his inert form for a long time, stroking back his tangled blond hair, pulling it out of his ear gently. The door opened, and Keritanima stood there. "Regrets?" she asked simply.

"No," Miranda replied. "I don't love him that way, Kerri. I'm just thinking about what friendship can really mean, that's all." She stroked his hair again. "I could feel it, Kerri. When he healed us, he touched us. I could look right into his soul. He healed me and Sisska, knowing that it was going to kill him. It would have killed him, if you hadn't stepped in and saved him. I feel unworthy."

"I think you're more than worthy, Miranda," Keritanima told her gently. "And so did he. If anything, you've been a good friend to both of us, and if he's taught me anything over these months, it's how important friends really are." She was quiet a moment. "What else did you see when you looked into him, Miranda?"

Miranda's eyes were a mystery. "A friend," she replied with a gentle smile.

Her name was Ariana, and everything about her was exotic.

Her wings absolutely dominated her entire appearance. They were very large, bird-like wings with white feathers, some of which were over two spans long. They folded nearly three spans over her head, and their tips brushed the wooden deck. Fully spread, those wings had to have a breadth of nearly twenty spans. She was very tall, seven spans in height, about Allia's height, thin, willowy, and maybe just a little bony. Or she would seem that way, if not for the fact that she was generously buxom and had the wide hips of a heartstopper. She was very sleek, athletic, and her visible corded muscles rippled whenever she moved. The most surprising of her musculature had to be her rock-hard, ripped abdominal muscles, but then again, powerful abdominals would be necessary for a flying being whose wings were attached so far forward. She would literally have to hold the rest of her body straight while flying, and that had developed exceptionally powerful muscles in her body.

Her body was impressive enough, but aside from her wings, it wasn't the next thing that got one's attention. It was her hair. Tarrin had never seen such a deep shade of blue before, and had never dreamed to see it in a human-like being. But her hair was undeniably blue. A deep blue, like the skies over the sea, or maybe the water on a sunny day. In a curious reversal of normal coloring, her eyes were an amber-like yellow not too far from Keritanima's eyes.

If her appearance was striking, her clothing was not. She was garbed in a ragged wrap that went around her neck and over her breasts, tying behind her, and a pair of loose-fitting cotton breeches given to her by one of the performers. A piece of rope served to keep the garment from sliding off her hips. She had been kept naked, Tarrin had learned from Dolanna after waking up, naked and chained to the magical device that drained her of life to make the Zakkite vessel fly. She seemed unconcerned with the amount of skin she was showing, skin that was deeply tanned. Exposure to the sea's uninhibited sun had left its mark on her.

Tarrin thought he could understand how that would feel. He had never felt so drained before. He felt almost feeble, even after spending the entire day sleeping, but he couldn't tolerate laying in that bed any longer. After having a nasty fight with Keritanima over going for a walk, he did so. But it only took climbing the stairs to the deck to convince him that it may have been better to let Kerri win the fight. But coming up had brought her into view, and then curiosity got the better of him. He'd forgotten that she was still here, even after Dolanna had told him about her.

Memories of the attack had started unravelling in his mind, and it scared him. Not that he had lost control, but at the raw power which he had displayed. It even frightened him. Never had he performed such Sorcery before, and he doubted he could ever match that feat again. It had taken losing a dear friend to bring that out in him, and he desperately hoped that it wouldn't ever show again. He had no doubt that the carnival performers had to be absolutely terrified of him now. He couldn't blame them. He was a little frightened of himself. That she had survived the onslaught was a miracle. She had been on the first ship he'd attacked, the one he'd sheared in half. Blind luck had separated the chains, and she had flown free of the wreck before it sank.

She was one of six. Five men and women, wearing wraps and borrowed robes, rested below under Dolanna's care. They were traumatized and horribly scarred by their enslavement, both physically and emotionally. Tarrin remembered the wicked, horrible scars Azakar had on his back, the visible reminders of life under an Arakite's whip, and he wondered if the other survivors were similarly marked. That people could be so cruel to each other completely mystified him, but if there was one thing that life in the world had taught him, it was that human beings had no limit to the evil and cruelty they could inflict on others of their own kind. They were the only race Tarrin could think of outside of goblinoids that were so self-destructive.

The Aeradalla regarded him for a long moment. standing at the rail, then she beckoned to him with a long-fingered hand. He approached her quietly, coming close enough to thoroughly analyze and memorize her scent. It was light, metallic, curiously similar to Allia's. But where Allia's scent was coppery, hers was more like bronze, but not unpleasant at all. His tail swished back and forth rhythmically as he looked at her, waiting for her to say or do something.

"You are the one?" she asked in a richly timbred voice, a contralto that would sound heavenly when put to song.

"In what way?" he asked calmly.

"You saved us," she said after a second. "Your powers of magic are unparalleled, furry one. Seeing it from the receiving end was very eye-catching."

"Well, it's not something I do on purpose," he told her after a slight pause.

"Yes, the Sorceress told me," she agreed. "I am Ariana Ak'Kalani. I am in your debt."

"I think we can forget about debts," he told her immediately. "To be honest, I had no idea you were on that ship. Saving you was purely accidental."

"I know, but credit goes where it is due," she said adamantly. "I'd never have gotten away if not for your intervention. That places a debt of life to repay to you."

"Don't worry about it," he told her with a dismissive wave of his paw.

"I'll not worry about it, but it will always be there," she told him. "I'll leave it up to you when and how you wish it repaid."

"Thanks," he said in a grunt. That was as good as forgiven, as far as he was concerned. "Dolanna said she thought your race was extinct."

"It's a belief we encourage, because of the Zakkites," she replied calmly. "They have hunted us for thousands of years to power their ships. Those of us who remain live as far from their reach as possible."

"How did they catch you?"

"We can't survive without contact with the other races forever," she said. "We usually trade with the Selani for what we need, but sometimes we have to go further. I was caught in a Pelan border town by Arakite merchants, who sold me to the Zakkites."