Sheilah didn’t know much about the Thunderbirds. The clan itself lived in the snowy reaches above the Redstone, and rarely came down. When they did, it was at their sufferance, and they looked down their noses at everyone- with the exception of the Dragon Clan, with whom they regarded with a begrudging acknowledgement and a touch of fear. They called themselves the Lords of the Storm, and claimed sovereignty over the skies.
The Thunderbirds themselves were supposedly massive things, large enough to pick up and carry off people in their brutal talons, but this one was much smaller, only as tall as a person itself.
The girl and the Totem stared at each other, Sheilah eager and predatory, the other cool and arrogant.
Sheilah herself had no weapons, the result of a tumbling spill down a muddy embankment. The Thunderbird itself had a razor-sharp beak and its cruel talons.
It had also somehow called a lightning bolt that had struck Sheilah.
Shielah’s head hurt and her ears rang, her body jittered and trembled, the colors of the world kept washing in and out, she had no weapons, but she couldn’t help but grin eagerly up at the giant raptor. Even though the Dragon in her couldn’t seem to heal her, she couldn’t help but feel that predatory thrill of the hunt.
“Sheilah- By the ancestors!” Fialla shouted from behind her.
The predator shifted its gaze from Sheilah to Fialla and then back to Sheilah.
“Is this worth the hunt?” Shielah asked in a shaky voice, refusing to break her gaze with the totem animal.
“Sh-” Fialla began, then switched what she was going to say. “It’s a totem, Sheilah. We can’t hunt it.” Fialla advised.
“It did a number on me, Fialla.” Sheilah complained. “I hurt and it’s not healing.”
“...Calamity?” Fialla offered, but Sheilah shook her head, never breaking eye contact.
“Hunt it, Fialla.” Sheilah repeated. “I think I’m gonna pass out here for a little bit, if you don’t mind.”
Fialla drew her bow to her cheek, and the gigantic, human-sized bird of prey ruffled its wings, creating crackling rumbles in the air as it did. Suddenly it leaned forward and launched itself at Fialla, screaming a lightning bolt at the young half-elf.
Fialla watched Sheilah make a scrambling grab for one of its legs, and then the brilliant bolt slammed into Fialla, knocking the wind out of her, sending her tumbling to the ground, strangling on lungs that didn’t want to breathe correctly.
She struggled to turn herself over, but her limbs didn’t seem to get the message. Her eyes were seared and she could only see things dimly. She struggled to move her arms and legs, her chest hurt and everything felt both painful and numb. She wasn’t even sure she felt her toes anymore.
Her ears were ringing, or perhaps something was screaming, she couldn’t tell. She let herself feel the power of the Dragon, but something was off; the normal blooming heat in her breast didn''t feel right, as if it were held back by constricting ribbons of pain.
Her vision started coming back around the periphery, but everything else was blotted by a white-black blotch that seemed to eat up her vision wherever she looked. She struggled to get her arms and legs to move, but couldn’t tell if they actually were moving or not.
Suddenly her chest unhitched and she took a huge, gasping breath, followed by another, and the Dragon’s power bloomed in her heart and her vision cleared. At first she’d thought that her ears were ringing, but the Thunderbird was laying in the dirt, its head near her feet, screaming.
As the Thunderbird launched itself at Fialla, Sheilah made a scrambled grab for it in a panicked dive, hoping in some way to get between the Thunderbird and Fialla.
Instead, her hands closed on its leg, just above its murderous claws. She gripped as hard as she could and struggled to move her legs, but her footing was loose and instead she was dragged along the ground.
The thunderclap from the bird’s lightning was point-blank; Sheilah went deaf immediately. Still, the bird had slammed down onto the ground; maybe if she was lucky Fialla had been spared. The weight of the bird pressed down on her; she pushed with her feet, boots churning in the forests’ rich soil even as the bird struggled to right itself.
She threw an arm around the bird even as it struggled, she couldn’t tell if she was screaming, her hearing had been reduced to a high, thin, sweet whine. Her eyes burned and watered, but she grabbed and seized one of its wings, locking her limbs around it in a classic arm bar. She could wait for her senses to come back; the bird wasn’t going anywhere.
Unfortunately, without a weapon, neither was she.
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One of the bits of lore her ancestors had passed on to her in their communion atop Adlan’s Rest was that the Thunderbirds were, at one point, considered to be the scales of life and death. That they could control who lived and who died.
She had no idea what that meant, but Fialla was family, and if she could, she would demand that the scales be tipped in her favor, that Fialla, if she were dead, be restored to life.
She could feel the powerful wing trying to flex itself in her grip, and although the feathers were difficult to hold onto, she refused to let go, instead tightening her arms and legs around it as hard as she could.
Something in the wing broke, she felt it go with her body.
She wanted to let go, but was afraid of what might happen if she did. She couldn’t see or hear anything. She heaved with her body, and felt, rather than heard, the brittle snap of bone.
Suddenly, the thunderbird seized up and went stiff, and then all of the fight left it.
Hands touched hers, and she released her grip, falling back into the dirt. She looked up at the sky and realized that she could see again. Fialla was looking down at her, her mouth moving, though Sheilah couldn’t hear a thing the half-elf girl said. However, Fialla also held a bloody knife in her hand, and the knowledge that the bird had died made Sheilah take a long, satisfied breath.
It suddenly occurred to Sheilah that if she could lock her arms and legs around the bird’s wing, she could probably stand. She tried to turn herself over and discovered that her legs were weak and trembly. She pushed herself and managed to get upright on her knees.
She looked up at Fialla and gave her little sister a sheepish grin, shrugged and then tapped her ear and shook her head. She looked around herself; The Thunderbird had only dragged her a few feet. Fialla’s armor was charred and the smaller girl was a little wobbly on her feet, but she looked better than Sheilah felt.
Sheilah pushed herself to her feet and tried to straighten up, but a wave of dizziness and vertigo washed over her. Her sense of balance seemed skewed. Was she leaning? Was she standing upright? It was hard to tell. She sank back down to her knees and threw up.
She struggled to bring forth the Dragon’s power to heal her; she was so dizzy and disoriented that it was hard to concentrate, to focus. The feeling overwhelmed her so much she wasn’t aware of anything else until Fialla put her hand on Sheilah’s shoulder.
Just that touch, that feeling of sensation beyond what was going on inside her head was enough for Sheilah; the power of the dragon welled up in her breast and spread through her whole body. Her ears felt especially hot; and as it faded, she realized that all the pain and nausea had vanished.
“No more of that, please.” She complained, voraciously hungry.
“Not the best idea, Sheilah.” Fialla replied.
“I agree. Worst idea ever.” Sheilah replied.
“Seems like you can hear again.”
Sheilah nodded, and looked around for her weapons. She spotted her knife first, her bow and quiver were likely nearby. As she picked up her knife, something came over her, some feeling that seemed to move her without conscious choice or deliberation.
She found herself unable to speak as her body moved to the Thunderbird’s head. She watched her hand with the knife peel the skin away from the bird’s skull, watched her hand reverse its grip on the knife and bring its pommel down on the skull, cracking a hole in it. She watched herself thrust her hand into the quivering mass of jelly that was the brains, feel around until her hands closed around a slick, slippery thing that numbed her hand even as she pulled it free.
As her hand closed around it, she knew what it was, what it was for. A vision filled her head; the Thunderbird’s power dwelled in it, and she understood what it meant, what it could do.
A dread, ancient, terrifying voice filled Sheilah’s skull.
You have eaten my flesh, you have drank my blood. I will not let you go. It warned.
Sheilah looked up at Fialla in mute terror as she pulled from the thunderbird’s skull a grayish-white crystal that shimmered and flickered with lightning within.
“This.” She tried to speak, her whole body numb and shaking. She wanted to speak, but her throat closed, strangling her.
The stone slipped from her hand and she immediately gasped as her chest loosened.
She knew the owner of that voice. She understood its threat, its promise. She understood how inexorably it had wrapped itself around her heart and soul.
When you were born to the Clans of the Redstone, when you were born to the Dragon, you were bound to a Totem, and that Totem was yours for life.
In the ancient days, it was necessary to take brides from other clans, and when that happened, you had to give up your own totem and adopt the totem of your husband. It was a dangerous thing; Giving up a totem could kill you. Totems were greedy, jealous, and possessive.
It was impossible for a Dragon to give up their totem. The Dragon was at the apex, the pinnacle of everything. To relinquish the Totem was to die.
She’d known it, it was a story from the ancient days, the days of legend and lore, a story told around the fire. She’d known it, but it was something else entirely to feel the dread talons of the Tyrant Mother clutch themselves around her heart as she’d held the Thunderegg in her hand.
A threat. A warning. A promise.
Sheilah groped around her waist, and discovered she couldn’t find her pouches, either.
“Let’s...” Sheilah began, and licked her lips. “We need to put that... put it in a pouch. Don’t touch it.”
Fialla stared at her, uncomprehending.
“What is it?” Fialla asked curiously.
Sheilah let out a breath that she didn’t realize she was holding, and struggled to slow her racing heart. “It’s a Thunderegg.”