“Nice night for flying,” Xandros noted, and executed a rather lazy barrelroll. Painted silver in the moonlight, vapor trailed off the edge of his wings.
I was more content when flying than at any other time. Up here, in the clouds, was where I belonged.
The landhopper was sitting in a small clearing along the riverbank. There was an official spaceport within the confines of the Tazier compound, and flights in and out were monitored, but we had parked outside the zone. Unless the Taziers had reason to expand their surveillance, we should have escaped detection.
Rhodes beat us there. Once he set a goal for himself, nothing else existed for him. He was a driven kind of Drake.
He was already in two-legged form and standing with hands on narrow hips. Even our humanoid bodies tended to have incredible upper musculature, enhanced by the flying we did as beasts. That his cloak was under Rhodes’s arm rather than clothing his nakedness did not faze him in the least.
We were accustomed to such, of course. Humans, however, were not. Even though there should not be anyone to see us other than the local wildlife, it was a habit I would rather not encourage.
“Put your cloak on,” I said as I shifted to my humanoid form.
Rhodes glared at me before complying. “I was about to leave without you.”
My dark brother had an equally dark sense of humor. That is, not one at all. He was serious.
“No way you have been here longer than a few minutes,” Xandros stated as he finished his shift.
“How many barrelrolls did you do?” Rhodes asked.
Xandros peeled his human lips back from his teeth. “Only a few.”
The problem with brothers is that they knew each other far too well.
Xandros stopped to stare up into the trees. I followed his gaze, to see a flash of blue.
“Blue jay,” he stated in human English.
If you paid any attention at all, you soon realized that our hulking brother preferred sniffing flowers to pounding his enemies, barefoot or not.
“Appropriately named,” I noted.
“Relative of the gray jay,” he said. “Which is also known as a whisky jack.”
I humored him. “They named a bird after an alcoholic beverage?”
He snorted, the crisp air causing his breath to steam. “Maybe the beverage was named after the bird.”
Humans were a quirky species, it certainly was possible, considering they had named one of their brews after a large quadruped.
“It is just a bird,” growled Rhodes.
I headed off another edgy brotherly commentary. “Load up.” I reached to hit the ramp button.
The second my finger pressed it, the world around us lit up. Something fastened to the underside of the hopper exploded with a dull “whump”sound. Xandros yelled something incoherent, but Rhodes’s assessment was dead on.
“Stunner!”
I twisted away from the concussive wave, but it swept over us…
Taking my consciousness with it.
4
Jaz
By the time I made my way back to our family compound, night had fallen.
