Come noon people dared knock at the door and shutters. He had barricaded himself in the house, hoping to escape a realm that would not let him alone.
"Tunu!" Voices outside called. "Tunu, the chief wants a fawn to be brought to him!"
He could not care less what the chief wanted anymore.
Of course, he roughly understood their excited voices. Any kobel could find any captive with ease, so demanding one was making a show. Making sure the tribe knew about it.
And there was only one reason for their leader to have a fawn brought for dinner.
"Tunu, come out! The others are restless!"
He was not listening. He had laid on the bed to caress the scales on his tail like an infant. There was no point staying stuck in indecision. There should have been no reason. But his thoughts kept crashing against an invisible reef, leaving him stranded.
Outside they wondered if he was even there, weighed breaking in but no one dared for fear of angering him further.
So the moment passed.
And he thought he would be left alone but they came back, even more vehement, knocked all they could in a panic.
"Tunu! They are fighting! Tuorka is defying the chief!"
This time they would have forced their way in no matter what. He knew that, he knew how grave that was and that he should do something.
He, the scaled kobel, should do something.
He could feel his heart beating, demanding to act. Burning wild just as it was before he plunged his teeth...
"Go away!" He screamed.
That only made the kobels outside bang harder, start hitting the door before they all calmed and the surroundings went quiet.
Then, after a few seconds, a weak voice called him.
"Tunu? It's me..."
He had got up, rushed to the door.
"I would understand if..."
Door open, the kobel had already pulled Elua inside to slam behind her, push the lock and block the entrance.
"Tunu, what the hell?!"
She was rubbing her arm. He had pulled her without thinking, so hard that it had hurt her. With the shutters closed the room was plunged in darkness, yet she could see him frantic.
"Sorry! I'm so sorry!" He took her hands. "I don't know what took me, I just..."
"It's fine! It's fine." She lied. "Forget about me, you have to stop them! Tuorka is going to kill the chief!"
"I'll go! I will stop him!"
"Tunu, wait!" She held him back. "Promise you won't kill Tuorka!"
That paralyzed him. The scaled kobel looked at her, his eyes peering into hers, seeking he didn't even know what.
"Promise you will spare him." She insisted but with more restraint.
"You fear me too, don't you?"
"No, of course not..."
"I fear myself."
He had said it out loud. All the doubts, all the questions in just three words. Had anyone, anyone, cared about him, they would have seen it. Not even knowing who he was anymore. This power, this thrill, this body, this thirst.
It had taken her those words for Elua to finally get a hint.
"It's true! I fear my actions, I fear hurting the tribe, I fear..." he glanced at her arm "hurting you. Am I wrong for wanting to be a wyvern? Am I being punished?"
"What are you talking about? Tunu, now is not the time..."
"Do you like me?"
He got closer, his tone almost pleading. He dominated her with this crushing physique.
"Do you sincerely like me? Or are you just lying to please a beast?"
"Stop it!" She pushed back. "You are the lying one! Saying I look good and pampering me when I know, I know you will grow tired of me! There are so many pretty kobels, I know it will happen!"
What had not even occurred to him was laid bare. Just as she could not understand his concerns, he could not fathom hers.
He didn't know what it could feel like, to be the sudden center of attention of a lifetime in the shadow of others. How unthinkable it felt to her and the many betrayals her pitiful face had awarded her.
"I know it's coming, the day you tell me to go away, because I am nothing!"
He answered the only way he knew.
And when they both calmed he caressed her cheek, his scales against that fur.
"If you fear me, you have to tell me." He childishly offered. "And if I get bored, I will tell you. Until then, I'll trust you. Even when you fret at my touch, even when you step back from me... I'll trust that you like me for real."
She put her head against his chest: "You make it sound so easy! But if you are really okay with me being... me, then I'll try. I will believe you can actually like someone like... like..."
Her eyes went wide. She broke from that warm embrace and he shook himself out of it as well, all surprised.
"The chief! Tuorka!"
"Right! On it!"
He opened the door, he took her hand and felt how much slower she was compared to him so, for fear of pulling her too hard again his fingers let go.
"I promise." He said.
The crowd followed him through the village, toward the center where their chief had established residence.
There, most of the tribe had left their tasks, secured the captives and flocked to see their leader facing the kobel who used to be their champion. And between them, like a trophy, sat a young fawn in the dirt, all frightened.
Tunu had come too fast for anyone to realize he was there yet. Rumors had only begun at his sight.
"All it will bring you is an illness." The warrior warned.
In front of him the chief was defiant. The warrior had a spear, him but a knife, yet of the two he was the most feared, not for strength but for his intent.
He pointed that copper blade at the captive.
"I will follow the path of the wyvern! This is why we live, this is our blood! To shirk from it..."
"He is here!" The crowd finally warned. "Tunu is here!"
They let their new champion get through, approach the two kobels. At his sight the fawn between them got terrorized. And he himself would look only at that frail child.
Both the warrior and the chief let him come in silence. At this moment he could feel it, the tribe divided, torn between two paths and waiting for him to decide their fate. Every single kobel would listen and follow if only to not be left behind.
Because if this went on, otherwise, the tribe would fight itself.
So he approached that young fawn, held him by the neck and forced him up.
"What do you see?!" Tunu asked. "When you look at him, what do you see? I see a child. And the thought of eating him disgusts me! It should disgust you too!"
He threw the captive away, then turned to Tuorka.
"But I will become a wyvern! That's our destiny, that's my fate! And if feeding is the only way, then we should feed. And if it disgusts us, it only means we've grown too weak!"
"Wyverns don't live in tribes." The warrior answered.
Whatever that meant, Tunu discarded it.
"When we next raid, I will feed again. I will force myself if need be! Don't call yourself kobels if you fear that."
"Why wait?" Tuorka pointed out. "There is food right there."
And he pointed at the child.
But once more the scaled lizard only got angrier.
"Not him! Not the prisoners, only my enemies! Those I defeated myself! I will earn my horns, I will earn my wings and my breath!"
There was, after all, this belief among hunters of becoming what one ate. Rituals to inherit the strength of the fallen. It was only natural to gravitate in that direction.
In front of him the warrior shook his head, then raised his spear.
"I won't let you drag our tribe in your madness."
"Then it's a duel!" The chief chimed in. "Whoever wins is right! Tuorka, which of us will you fight?"
It was a strange offer because everyone knew that Tunu would win. Yet the warrior chose Tunu. And that was because there was even less doubt about him against Kreil.