Liking

A little afterthought of the Birthday Party story:

Liking

After much exertion and a powerful display of his prowess, the Den Asaan left his mate sleeping peacefully by the dim fire and went to scout the happenings of the keep from his favourite place at the parapets. He walked up the winding stair with a satisfied smile, recalling the cries of gratification emanating from his mate only an hour previous. He reached the parapets to find the gull sitting atop the stile near the stair. When the giant neared, it cooed at him, lifting its beak toward him for a bit of attention. The Den Asaan, no longer feeling that the gull presented any conflict, held out his arm and allowed the gull to fly to him.
      
       It cooed and bobbed its neck, begging the Den Asaan to lift his opposing hand to his chin. Rautu complied with his wants and the gull lifted its beak in the air, inviting the giant to preen his feathers for him. The Den Asaan responded with soft crooning of his own, purring to the bird in his dialect words of warm welcome and approbation. The gull had learned to obey him and with as all creatures that had been trained by the giant became endeared to him, gaining the Den Asaan's fullest of affections that he would not readily give to those he was uncertain were deserving of them.
      
       Although the giant could not understand the gull, its gentle genuflections and softness in cry was enough to gather some sense in his conveyances. The gull wished to fly and even more so wished to show the Den Asaan he could understand his commands. The bird made a few small hops and hovered to demonstrate his desires. The giant cast his hand out and the bird flew in the direction marked. He performed one circle and then returned, and the two of them practiced this motion for some time before their session was interrupted.
      
       Kai Linaa, after seeing that the party was well over, decided on a walk before rest to enjoy the night air and to bask in the success of her designs on the celebration. She walked along the parapets from the front gate and came to the portion overlooking the training yard above the commons. To her great astonishment, she found the Den Asaan whispering to his bird and petting his downy tufts with the back of his hand. She huddled behind the entrance to the stair and grinned, so diverted to see the ruthless beast so gentle when he believed he was alone. She watched their exercise of commands and short flights most fervently. She was under a mistake to believe her presence was unnoticed and after a few moments of her watching, the Den Asaan peered at her from the corner of his eyes and all the softness in his character was replaced with malice. 
      
       "Away, elf," he said in threatening tenor. "You will place nothing else in my hair today." The giant turned back toward his practice with the gull, thinking the elven woman would be sensible in obeying his command but his recollection of her misdeed had only caused her guilt of the event to surface and she drew close to him, wishing to offer a defense.
      
       "I'm sorry, Den Asaan," she said in her small voice, sidling the giant. "I just wanted the commander to laugh."
      
       The giant sneered and humphed. He stepped away from the woman, resuming his implementation with the gull, only to be approached by her again. Rautu regarded her with a glower and disturbed countenance, and he stared at her until she spoke. 
      
       Kai Linaa smiled coyly. She rocked on her inwardly turned feet and held her hands together behind her back. "I liked the two hats you gave me," she mused.
      
       The giant grew incensed at her prolonged intrusion. His fists tightened in billowing rage and his maw clenched. "You merited wearing them in that manner as a punishment," he roared down at her. "It was not meant to be amusing, elf."
      
       Kai Linaa made a small hum of apprehension and was then silent. She pursed her lips nervously and looked away. She was ignored and though she understood Rautu's desire for solitude after the humiliation he incurred at the party, she wished he would not be furious with her for her small transgression. She was worried she had lost his difficultly gained favour and her fingers fiddled with worry for it. A conversation of ease, she believed, would amend all but while such a strategy may have been successful on Unghaahi discourse with Rautu when he was incited was the last thing to which he could commit with a semblance of forbearance. She gazed up at the Den Asaan with beseeching looks, keeping her lips closed tight together. She observed that though Rautu was shorter and less overpowering than her mate, his menacing bearing and unsociable person made him more frightful. His wide shoulders and hulking pelts on his back made him seem much larger than he actually was and though he was not small by any means, this recognition of his immensity and ruthless nature brought a fear upon her that forced her to speak to rid of it.
      
       "It was nice when you told the commander you loved her," she said with a sideways glance. "It was quiet but I heard." She made a small aw and the sound had forced the giant to loom over her.
      
       "You will not sigh at me," he impressed upon her.
      
       Kai Linaa's breath became short and her pulse quickened. She had seen the obstinacy and coldness the Den Asaan often displayed but she had never seen his malevolence. She felt backward onto the ground and her eyes opened wide with terror to see her reflection in Rautu's black sclera, but he relented when her horror was achieved and he turned his attention back toward his gull who was cooing at him to mock his hatred of it from the woman.
      
       "Do not encourage her," Rautu said firmly to the bird. He sat along the crenels of the parapets commanding the gull to fly out but the bird fluttered to Kai Linaa instead and sat beside her.
      
       It nestled its head into her arm as she sat up from the ground. The gull tucked itself neatly under her arm as if to tell her the Den Asaan could only scare and never harm if he was any attestation to this claim. She giggled at the gull's kindly way and placed it into her lap to pet him. 
      
       Rautu scowled at the woman, angered that his bird was distracted from their practice. He neared but was impeded when she smiled up at him, unafraid of him any longer.
      
       "Mr. Craw liked his hat," Kai Linaa said smilingly.
      
       The giant took a moment to understand that Kai Linaa had given his bird a designation based on the sound he made and groaned with his head in his hand. "Do not give my companion irrelevant names," he shouted. "You will call him what he is."
      
       "Bhontaa?" the elven woman said, recalling the Haanta phrase used. "But that just means One that Flies. I wouldn't call you Haanta."
      
       Rautu inhaled. His fury was tempted by being referred to as his race rather than his respected titles. "You will hear me, elf. You will address me by my designation-"
      
       "Why do you call me elf?" Kai Linaa interrupted, giving the giant inquisitive looks.
      
       "Because that is what you are."
      
       "I'm also a Kai Linaa."
      
       "You were an elf first," Rautu protested. He folded his arms and lifted his chin with a huff.
      
       Kai Linaa was pleased to see the giant's stubbornness prevail and stood to return his bird to him. She placed the gull on the crenel of the battlements and gaze up at the Den Asaan with a serious glance. "Do you like me, Den Asaan?" she asked in earnest.
      
       Rautu sighed and refrained from rolling his violet eyes.
      
       "I mean, I don't want you to feel like you have to like me because I'm your Traala's Anonnaa or because I'm your brother's Ataas Traala," Kai Linaa went on. "I want you to like me for who I am."
      
       There was a pause and in that silence, the giant deliberated whether to walk away from the conversation or to toss the elf into the training yard below.
      
       Kai Linaa, uncomfortable with the quietness of the giant's manner, said with the blush of her cheek, "I like you."
      
       "And therefore you merit my consideration?" the giant erupted. "It matters little who you are. Your accomplishments are what matter."
      
       "Does that mean you don't like me because I'm not a warrior or a hunter? I can learn those things, I think, if I try."
      
       "Hunt with my brother," the Den Asaan jeered. "You will be a sufficient enticement for his prey."
      
       The comment was meant in a spiteful jest but Kai Linaa was meant to understand it as wanting to rid of her permanently and her shoulders wilted in sadness. She nodded slowly, believing the giant loathed her presence, and began to walk away.
      
       Her dejected hobble and downcast eyes had drawn the Den Asaan's concern. He realized then he could not speak in the manner to her as he would with his brothers or mate and shook his head to see the woman so forlorn over his approval. "I would not allow you to speak to me if I did not like you," the giant admitted with some hesitance for repeating the odd word.
      
       Kai Linaa turned and was immediately happy. She leaped toward him with arms outstretched to embrace him. "Thank you, Den Asa-" but she was impeded in speech by the giant's enormous hand covering her features to keep her away from him.
      
       "Liking does not warrant involuntary embraces," he warned. "You will save that for my brother and you will not touch me unless I initiate." He put his hand down. He noted how Kai Linaa fought not to embrace him and though he was disturbed by the overall encounter, he was pleased that she was obeying his word. "And," he added, pointing at finger at her button nose, "if you place your ribbon in my hair again, I will command the Bhontaa to place something more unpleasant in yours."
      
       Kai Linaa laughed, knowing the gull would not perform such an unsavory action. She was beset with smiled for the truth of it: the Den Asaan liked her.