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side, snaking both arms around his waist
as though they were lovers.  She didn't know anything about firesticks, but she
was careful to leave that arm free so that he could defend himself.  She wedged
her shoulder under his broken arm to prop him up.
    “ Téigh ar! ” Mikhail growled.   “ Faigh an ifreann as anseo! ”
    “Leave!!!” she
shouted.  “Before he smites you for your insolence!”
    Jamin looked from her
to Mikhail with first dismay, and then hatred as he jumped to the conclusion
she intended for him to jump to. 
    “You told me that you
loved me, and now you betray me for a demon?”  He bolted out of the opposite
side of the stream and headed in the same direction his compatriots had gone. 
    As soon as Jamin was
out of sight, Mikhail collapsed, dragging her down along with him.  She
maneuvered her body to prevent him from landing face down in the dirt, pinning
her beneath his enormous wings.  Wiggling to extricate herself, she picked out
a mouthful of feathers which had become dislodged as she'd cushioned his fall. 
Thanks to her efforts, he'd landed on his side.  She sat down and cradled his head
so that it rested upon her lap. 
    How badly he'd been wounded was attested by his
blood-soaked clothing, which had turned copper upon drying.  Only the totality
of saturation and distance had prevented Jamin from realizing the stranger’s
clothing was soaked with blood.  She touched the base of his throat and was
reassured by the steady throb which greeted her sensitive fingertips.  Although
Mikhail was deathly pale, his pulse beat steady and strong. 
    “You're too large for
me to drag back to your sky canoe,” Ninsianna said.  “I'm afraid I would reopen
your wounds if I even tried.  We shall just have to wait until you wake up so
we can do it together."
    Until now, he'd been
laying down in the dim confines of his broken sky canoe.  It wasn’t until she'd
tucked herself beneath his arm that she realized how big he really was.  She
was average height.  Even Jamin, who was tall for her people, was only two hand
spans taller than the top of her head.  But Mikhail towered above her by nearly
a cubit [2] . 
Her shoulder barely reached his armpit and her head didn't quite reach his
chin. 
    “Your wingspan must be
a good twenty cubits!”  She touched his wings with awe.  “Can you fly?  Like
the eagles?”
    The meaning of the
omen She-who-is had sent when she was walking down to the stream became clear. 
What magnificent wings!  Even bigger than the mated pair of golden eagles who
circled above the Hiddekel River.  Mikhail's wings were brownish-black, with
sable-brown stripes the closer you got to his skin.  She ran her fingers
through his feathers, relishing the contrast between the stiff primary feathers
and soft downy under feathers, which had a smattering of grey speckled feathers
on the underside of one wing, but not the other. 
    Wings!  The goddess
had sent her a man with wings!  As if she would ever want to have
anything to do with Jamin after this?
    She ran her fingers
through hair the color of roasted acorns, a sharp contrast to his flesh which
was as pale and pink as the clouds trailing across a morning sky, not the light
brown complexion that graced all but a few of her own people.  She
traced the differences as he slept, her fingers memorizing each exquisite
detail of the creature the goddess had placed into her care.   His chiseled
features were not those of the Ubaid, but the flint warriors shaped to adorn
their spears.  Sharp.  Beautiful.  And deadly.  She ran her fingers over his
chest.  His physique was impressive.   Very impressive.  Even pale from
blood loss, he was the most powerful creature she had ever seen.
    Her very own demi-god!
    “Thank you for
rescuing me.”  Ninsianna touched the hairless skin above his lips and wondered
at the absence of the scratchy growth Papa and the other men scraped from their
faces in the summer and allowed to grow