The Return to Irithara (Children of the Sun Book 2)

To say that Yorin was a peculiar person would be an understatement. He was incredibly friendly, yet at the same time seemed to have the nuances of normal behavior a bit backwards. In a way, he reminded Nira of Mel, but while Mel was optimistic and hopeful, Yorin was clearly depressed.

When they’d talked about Relioth creating the Aperios, Nira hadn’t noticed it because she had been so cold, but when she thought about it more, she realized that Yorin hadn’t sounded scared or even unnerved by his oncoming death at the hands of Relioth as revenge for killing his children—and holy crap, Nira still couldn’t believe someone as heartless as Relioth had had children and wanted to avenge them. In fact, Yorin had sounded relieved by it, like he wanted to die.

Not enough to take his own life, but he was clearly guilty enough about whatever he’d done—or hadn’t done—to not want to continue living. Nira would have tried to make him feel better, but there were two problems with this. First—Yorin could be lying to her about everything, and she hadn’t known him for long enough to trust him, and two—what could she even tell him? He was impossibly older than her, and she was working with only a fraction of the information she would need to make an attempt at comforting him.

All she knew was that there had been a war between the Eternals from Irithara and the ones from Enoria, and that the ones from Irithara killed most of the Enorian Eternals. That was it. She didn’t know why or when it had happened, and Yorin refused to tell her anything.

But that really wasn’t the issue at hand. No, the issue was that apparently not all Eternals could teleport. In fact, it seemed that as far as Yorin knew, not one of them could. Then again, Yorin didn’t get out much, so Nira couldn’t take that as fact. Still, the problem at hand was that Yorin couldn’t teleport, so the trip would take longer than she’d thought.

“Are you sure you saw Relioth transport this way?” Yorin asked for about the fourth time. They still hadn’t left his ‘house’ because they’d gotten stuck discussing what the best way to get to Aleara was.

“Yes,” Nira replied, folding her arms and sighing tiredly. “I stepped through one of his portals or whatever it was.”

She’d slowly started slipping back into her Iritharian accent subconsciously, even when speaking in Global, which made her a bit sad. She wanted to hold onto some of the things Enoria had given her, but it would most likely be for the best in this case. If a day came when an Iritharian royal spoke in an Enorian accent the monarchy would probably fall apart.

Yorin didn’t look disbelieving anymore—now he was fascinated instead. And a bit excited. “You didn’t happen to ask him how he managed to create this portal by chance, did you?”

Nira wanted to facepalm, but since she needed his help, she forced herself to stay calm and polite. “No. I had other things on my mind when I was being basically kidnapped by a mass murderer.” Okay, maybe not so polite, but Yorin didn’t seem to be offended. More the opposite, actually.

“Ah, yes, excuse me, stupid question,” he apologized, his voice slowly getting softer and softer, as he ducked his gaze, as if embarrassed by his eagerness to figure out how the whole teleportation thing worked. “It’s just…not even Enor himself could transport himself instantly from one location to another, and he was the one who came up with this whole thing.”

Before Nira could ask what Yorin meant by that, the Eternal continued rambling.

“Then again, maybe not even he knew what he’d created. And Relioth has been getting strangely powerful lately. I assume you know about the attempted assassination?”

Indeed she had. She’d had a front-row seat to it, in fact. Once again, Yorin didn’t give her a chance to speak.

“Well, if the bullet was truly made of pure othrin, a century ago, Relioth most likely wouldn’t have survived that, and if he did survive, he definitely wouldn’t recover as quickly as he had.”

Yorin finally stopped talking and instead stared pensively at a tool on the table that Nira couldn’t identify. It kind of looked like a pen, but with all the wires that were sticking out of it, she knew it definitely wasn’t one.

“Anyway, let’s not worry about that right now,” Yorin said suddenly, looking back at Nira. “Let’s get you back home.” Nira resisted the urge to sigh. Yorin was probably more excited to go to Aleara than her, and she’d been trying to get there for a month.

“Now…” Yorin muttered to himself as he started going through the mess of items around them, clearly looking for something, while Nira just watched him with a frown. It seemed there was some kind of system to the chaos because a few seconds later the Eternal turned back to face Nira holding ski goggles and an old parka.

Nira frowned harder. The parka she understood, but why the goggles?

“I can protect you from the cold somewhat, but not the wind, so….” Yorin waved the goggles around. Right, Eternals could read minds, Nira still hadn’t gotten used to that. But that still didn’t explain anything.

“What do you mean? Why would I need those in a car?”

“I don’t have a car,” Yorin replied, looking baffled by Nira’s thought process.

“Oh.”

So he was going to give her a lift by transforming into a dragon. Nira wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She hadn’t actually flown like that yet. Well, there was a first time for everything, she supposed, as she tried to stop herself from getting too anxious.

Without saying anything else, Nira put on the parka and the goggles. It must have looked a bit strange since she was already wearing a coat, but she couldn’t care less. The parka was warm and comfortable, and that was all she needed right now.

When Yorin walked out of his house, Nira followed, preparing herself for the cold air that would hit her face the moment she stepped outside. Even then, she couldn’t help but shudder at how cold it was outside. Oh, how she missed Enoria’s ridiculously high temperatures. And the worst part was that it wasn’t winter yet, which meant the weather would only get worse from here.

At least the goggles protected her eyes from the icy wind, and once she put the parka’s hood over her head, the cold was tolerable. But who knew what it would be like to fly high in the air in this weather?

In the meantime, Yorin was presumably locking down the door, but Nira couldn’t tell for sure. He’d been doing something using the touchscreen next to the door for a while now, so it could really be anything.

“I’m just leaving a message for anyone looking for me,” Yorin explain, probably reading Nira’s mind again. Nira would have told him to knock it off, but she couldn’t bring herself to say anything with how regretful he sounded. Did he really care about these people so much to feel guilty about leaving them?

Well, he had apparently helped them without asking for anything in return, so maybe it shouldn’t have surprised her that much.

When Yorin finally stepped away from his house, he didn’t warn Nira at all before a bright greenish-blue light made her cover her eyes. Not even the goggles helped her see an Eternal’s real form. Nira wondered if the reason behind this was really just how bright an Eternal’s real form was, or if it was something else as well. Was it possible that she was covering her eyes because her mind was unable to comprehend what an Eternal was?

These thoughts quickly left her head when she saw what Yorin had turned into, though. In front of her wasn’t a dragon, but instead a huge, snow-white griffin. The blue eyes were still looking at her with a mix of ancient wisdom, sadness, and confusion, but this really wasn’t what she’d been expecting.

Granted, this wasn’t the first time an Eternal surprised her like this. She had been a bit shocked when she first saw the picture of Relioth showing his wings at that press conference and noticed that they weren’t bat-like, like Mel’s, and instead feathered. And gold, because of course they were. However, she’d assumed that if Relioth were to transform fully, he’d still transform into a dragon, albeit one with feathers.

You seem surprised, Yorin spoke in Nira’s mind and tilted his head at her. I thought you’ve seen one of us change before.

The telepathy was freaking Nira out a bit, but Yorin had a beak right now, so he probably couldn’t speak the regular way. Come to think of it, it was odd that Mel had no trouble speaking when in his dragon form.

“I…uh, I have,” Nira replied, finding it hard to maintain eye contact with a being almost twice as tall as her. Scanning him with her eyes once more, Nira noticed that she’d been wrong—Yorin hadn’t changed into a griffin, but rather a hippogriff. It didn’t surprise her that she’d been wrong, though, because she’d mostly been focusing on the giant claws that looked like they could tear a cow in half with minimal effort. Great, now that image was stuck in her head.

Then what seems to be the problem? Yorin stretched his wings as he said this and puffed up his feathers a little.

“It’s just…well, I thought you only changed into dragons,” Nira admitted, and Yorin nodded his massive head. Only then Nira noticed he had feathery ears on top of it. It would be kind of cute if they weren’t so close to the sharp beak.

That is the most common form. The reason behind this is that it is very difficult for most to visualize something in their minds well enough to transform. It can be taught, but mastering even one form is very time consuming, so if we have to choose, a dragon is a very useful animal to change into. The ability to breathe fire, fly, and rip enemies to shreds are all very valuable in a war. If you’re interested, I’ve done extensive research on the subject—

“That’s okay,” said Nira, if only to stop him from starting to ramble again. This guy talked more than Nef. Was that a common thing with scientists? Because there was no doubt Yorin was one. No one said they’d done ‘extensive research’ without being a scientist. Not that it would be surprising in this case—Yorin was the god of medicine. He most likely was, or had been, a doctor.

“Why do you change into a hippogriff, then?”

I am good at visualizing animals, and I think hippogriffs are much more elegant than dragons, wouldn’t you say?

Probably trying to prove a point, Yorin made an attempt to walk over to her, and almost ended up falling down into the snow as he lost control of his legs. It was hard not to laugh at him, but thankfully Nira managed to keep a straight face.

Excuse me. I haven’t had four legs in a long time, it’s very confusing, Yorin explained, shaking the snow off his wings and legs. And now Nira was a bit concerned that they would either never take off or fall down somewhere along the way. Thankfully, Yorin seemed to get his legs figured out soon enough, which hopefully meant he would remember how to use his wings as well.

Whenever you’re ready, Yorin said as he lay down in the snow, and it took Nira few seconds to realize what he meant. Feeling very awkward, she walked over to Yorin, and climbed onto his back, grabbing the feathers on his neck as the Eternal got up. Noticing the flinch doing that produced, Nira quickly let go and instead hugged Yorin’s neck loosely, hoping that wouldn’t hurt him too much when he took off.

Flapping his massive wings, Yorin was airborne in seconds, rising higher and higher until he was above the forest, and then he started flying in a direction Nira hoped would get them to Aleara. And the dread Nira had been feeling since she’d crossed the border became so much more present.