Chapter 309: 309: A Promise in the Skyless Desert (part two)
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Miryam twirled again, doing a clumsy barrel roll before flipping upside down and floating down to hover nose to nose with Kai.
<<I can fly. I can fly. Look Papa.>>
"You... you do not even have WINGS!" Kai shouted, waving both arms. "You are floating without flight parts! You look like a flying golden potato!"
Miryam squealed with laughter.
Kai stared longer, his amusement fading into something deeper. This was not normal. Not even among wyrmlings. Her mother’s abilities had never included anything like this. This... this was something beyond. She was growing in a direction not charted by her mother’s bloodline alone.
He found himself whispering, "Then... who is Miryam’s birth father? She is showing signs of something beyond my knowledge."
But the moment passed. Miryam zipped in circles above his head, a golden gleaming noodle in full play mode.
<<Papa come play,>> she called. <<Come fly with me.>>
Kai looked down at himself. He flexed his legs. Then looked at his thick exoskeleton. "Uh... sweetie, Papa cannot fly yet."
She hovered down beside him, bumping her head against his chest with a soft huff. <<Then you need to promise.>>
"Promise what?"
<<When you learn to fly... you will come play with me in the sky.>>
Kai blinked. Then smiled. "That’s a deal. A real promise."
Miryam’s eyes sparkled brighter. <<Shake claw with me to make it official promise.>>
He lifted his hand. She pressed her tiny clawed paw against it.
Then, with a heroic grunt, she tried to lift him using her air skill. The ground vibrated. A few pebbles rolled. Kai did not move a single millimeter.
Miryam frowned, cheeks puffed. << Papa, You are too heavy for me to lift.>>
Kai looked smug. "I am not heavy. I am just full of love and muscles. When you grow up a bit more... you can do it."
She tried again. Kai remained a proud boulder.
<<Maybe later, when I grow up.>> she grumbled, before flying back up and twirling again.
Kai laughed, collapsing onto the sand, arms behind his head. He watched her fly against the golden sky, a strange warmth filling his chest.
"I am going to need wings," he whispered to himself. "Or at least a jetpack from the system."
The wind howled softly across the dunes. Above, Miryam danced through the air like a ribbon made of starlight and scales. Below, her adopting father watched, wondering what kind of legend she might one day become.
The golden sun had dipped far beyond the dunes by the time Kai and Miryam returned to the Monarch Mountain. The desert wind had cooled into a soft breeze, carrying the smell of distant minerals and sun warmed stone. As Kai stepped into the tunnel leading back into his hollow rock, he felt the familiar sensation of his territory aura brushing across his skin like a greeting.
He carried Miryam on his back this time, her tiny claws gripping his shoulders as she lay curled up like a warm loaf of wyrmling bread. Her earlier flight had exhausted her physically, emotionally, and perhaps something deeper. Whatever essence had awakened that strange wingless soaring had also taken its toll on her aura.
She was fast asleep, her snout tucked between her forearms, a soft snore rumbling in rhythm with each of Kai’s steps.
The moment they entered the central hall, a dozen voices rose in a harmony of greetings, gasps, and giggles.
"Sir Kai is back!" Said Skyweaver.
"Kai!" Luna called the paused. "Wait, is she asleep? Kai! you really take her to play in the desert? You know she had waited a long time for this moment! I bet she must be very happy right now. She told me many times that she wanted to play with you in the desert."
Before Kai could talk to Luna or answer her one by one other women of the harem came.
Sha was the first to appear, bouncing from one of the upper ledges, her six limbs a blur of excitement. She landed beside him and reached out to gently stroke Miryam’s back with two of her hands. The others followed close behind.
Vel peeked from the shadow of the garden tunnel, holding a plate of half eaten fruit and wearing one of Akayoroi’s stitched silk tunics that somehow still exposed her thighs. Naaro walked behind her, talking softly to her cactus and blushing when Kai caught her eye. Azhara was next, trying to act cool, leaning on a spear, but her wide smile betrayed her usual flustered joy. Then came the rest.
Akayoroi descended from her chamber, her crimson gown trailing like a waterfall of dignity. Behind her, the four injured assassin sisters followed, now with bandaged limbs and determined expressions. The twin sisters were next, it was hard to tell them apart. They were already helping the male ants near the forge tunnel. And standing to the side were the four veteran ant warriors from Kai’s days in Mia’s team: Vexor, Flint, Shale, and Needle.
All of them bowed or waved in some form of greeting.
Kai nodded and held a finger to his lips. "She’s out cold. You should’ve seen her fly."
Shale, the only one bold enough to speak despite the tension of command, chuckled.
"Wait, she flew? With what? Those little toes?"
"No wings," Kai replied, stepping past them. "She just... floated."
Vel blinked. "Are you serious?"
"She learned air control," Kai said quietly, his tone somewhere between awe and tired dad who had seen too much magic for one day. "She flew without wings. And she wants to race in the sky."
Everyone looked toward the sleeping wyrmling, now snuggling into Kai’s neck, making a soft cooing noise in her sleep.
"She’s going to be something else," Azhara whispered, her voice half fearful and half reverent.
"Yeah," Kai replied. "Something terrifying."
He moved to the newly built egg chamber, passing through the passage with carved honeycomb walls. The chamber was radiant with ambient glow from heatstones embedded in the dome above. Moisture hung in the air, soft and warm, carrying the scent of nutrient rich essence. Around the inner wall, the eggs had been carefully placed in embedded nests, each one dipped in the pool of essence liquid.