The horn blared from the hilltop.
Captives stopped their work, ears perked to wait and when another horn answered, then several more they rushed for shelters.
Up on that hill the kobels called a mountain the tribe was arming itself. With so many designated as fighters they knew where their weapons were, where to assemble, but still a panic gripped that crowd.
And when they saw the monster fly around in the sky they lost all heart.
All they had were javelins, a dozen bows for all of them with only the suppletives used to that art. So they looked defenseless as that creature, far and high in the distance, made a mockery of the two walls defending their home.
When Tunu came out of the tower and saw it, for however small it was his heart leaped.
A wyvern!
A wyvern, another one, he could tell, there was no doubt, that creature shared their blood. And already his heart was beating faster.
Savae emerged just behind him.
"What's that? A monster?"
"It's coming right for us!" Tunu exulted. "That wyvern is looking for a fight!"
"A wyvern..." The warrior muttered.
There was hardly anything they could do to prepare, but disperse. A wyvern's breath could scorch the plateaus with ease and so the kobels knew better than to just stand there with their puny spears and axes.
The warriors were converging to the tower, looking for the only one able to confront that threat.
Their chief was at their helm.
"Don't you dare!" The kobel scolded Tunu before he could say a word. "You are in no shape to fight! We hide and wait for that thing to pass!"
"I can take it!"
"No!" Savae shot back. "The chief is right. We wait for the right time to pounce."
"Listen to her, Tunu. If it lands, we can creep on it. That's still fighting!"
More than that, if they took the fight there was no telling how many kobels would die. It would be a hollow victory.
So he could tell they were right.
He agreed with them.
But his heart!
His heart would not let him! His heart craved that fight. It was beating hard, pressing in his chest, a familiar warmth that emboldened him beyond all reason.
So all the scaled kobel could really think was what would happen to him if he could kill that wyvern. If he could kill a second. If he could get a second heart. His imagination was running wild, making him dreams forbidden dreams to his kind.
"You hide then! I'll fight it alone!"
"You will...!" The chief was about to say, but ate his own words and spit. "You better win you demon, or I will haunt your bones."
He ordered the warriors to go hide. The tower could be engulfed in flames but it was still their best shot. As they withdrew Savae hesitated, wavering between her wisdom and madness.
She too could fill it in every fiber of her being, the need to kill.
That monster was getting closer now. All around the hill tribesmen were cowering, hiding everywhere they could. Running to one another by instinct. Indeed, even the forest animals were sheltering among the bushes.
Savae offered him her sword.
"Kill it."
"With pleasure."
She looked at his face and for the first time, for a brief moment there wasn't just a vicious hatred in her eyes. Why that was hardly mattered; it was already gone.
With her the doors closed and Tunu, alone in the flowery court, paced away from the tower to seek a better spot for that fight.
With just a sword he was practically defenseless.
And he felt invincible.
But then he noticed something between the monster's legs. As if they were tied. And his feeble eyes discerned something hanging on them.
He went from surprise to disbelief and then, to complete shock.
There was a kobel under that wyvern, a kobel sitting on a piece of cloth the beast held in its claws. Tunu still thought he was hallucinating but the closer they got, the clearer it was.
So the monster circled the hilltop, approached and slowed down to land, slow enough to let that passenger hop off and onto the ground.
Then the kobel snatched that piece of cloth, waited for the wyvern to hit the ground in turn before throwing the cloth around its neck. There in the field of flowers they looked so peaceful, if only a bit tired by their trip.
The kobel looked old, still firm and strong but his short fur slowly greying here and there. He wore leather and carried bone weapons.
The wyvern, some two meters tall at the shoulders, looked younger than the one Tunu remembered in the cave. Smaller than he himself had turned into.
He was left speechless.
Then his heart skipped a beat.
"Tuorka!"
And the old champion turned to meet his eyes.
It was him, it was Tuorka. It was the kobel that had left the tribe so long ago, the one that had defied him in duel. His new scars could not hide such a familiar face.
The wyvern took a step back, wary of that scaled kobel. Likewise Tuorka took a moment to react. The memories of his exile remained strong even after all this time. An exiled kobel that showed up was to be killed, it was that simple.
"Tuorka!" Tunu repeated, suddenly tearful.
He embraced the old warrior, he hugged him like followers wished they could with him.
"Where have you been?! It's been so long, come! We have to throw a feast for your return!"
"Tunu."
If he said little, that word carried a lot. Relief. Questions. Fatigue. The tone of a traveller at the end of his road.
The scaled kobel turned to that wyvern. His joyful expression soured quickly. Even though the monster did not attack, he still felt hostility. He could feel those beastly eyes weighing him like mere meat.
"This is Uokror." Tuorka interceded. "He is a kobel like you."
"A... kobel?"
"Yes."
The wyvern had spoken. The wyvern, impossibly, had spoken. This was the kobel language. Even as tortured as it was, this was a tongue a kobel could understand.
And suddenly Tunu's reality swirled under his feet.
Another one like him.
He could scarcely believe it. His heart believed none of it. And yet, there it was, a talking wyvern telling him he was a kobel, which meant, which meant he had found it. It meant Tunu had found another one like him.
Finally. Finally Tunu was not alone anymore.
All he felt was anger. Anger, confusion, jealousy. He had thought, when such a time happened he would be in bliss. And indeed the questions hammered in his head, all he wanted to share, all he wanted to learn, to understand his own experience.
"Here." Tuorka added.
He stretched a hand near the wyvern's head - the winged kobel's head - who gagged, then spit out a black sphere barely holding in the kobel's grip.
The old champion approached and kneeled in front of Tunu. He was offering that sphere.
A simple piece, rough and dark as charcoal.
"I brought you a new heart."