Sunar talked with his sister for some time. For the most part he let her ramble. She had been bottling a lot of emotion while he had been unconscious, so he provided her a sounding board and let her get it all out. After a while someone knocked on the front door, and after a brief murmur of conversation three pairs of feet moved through the apartment. His three friends entered the room, and Lenar spoke first “We all say that the Four Titans never do anything halfway Sunar, but I think you took that a bit far this time!” His three friends laughed heartily, but Sierra got a defensive look on her face. He thought fast, winked at her, chuckled a little, and immediately regretted the chuckle.
He did hide his wince, however, before he spoke, “Hey, sis, I bet Sarah wants to hear all about what happened, and that you haven’t talked to her yet.” She started to give him a look, then rolled her eyes and flounced out of the room. She knew when he was dismissing her so he could talk to his buddies, but she also knew he was right, and that her friend needed some attention. He felt a moment of gratitude for the way his parents had pushed her to nurture that friendship, then his own friends shut the door and looked at him more seriously.
Gorshun, as he tended to do when Sunar didn’t beat him to it, spoke first, his tone half-serious, “So, we have a Titan who has spent all these years holding secrets from his Fellows, then goes and plans to jump out of a window without even letting us know. What shall we three do about our errant fourth member?”
Lenar made his face very serious, but Sunar could see a mocking glint in the human’s eye, “I don’t think we can make him a non-Titan. We never agreed that was possible.”
Seben answered, and put gravel in his voice in that way only dwarves could manage, “Indeed. But, we have to do something. He didn’t talk to us for years about this. Maybe he should get The Silence from us in return?”
Gorshun nodded, “Yes, The Silence, some silence from us for every year he held a secret from us. Punishment it is, then.”
They all folded their arms, turned cold looks his way, deliberately turned their backs, and made as if to leave. “Wait. Please, guys. Please wait. Look, what was I supposed to say? I have been working on this so long, I don’t even remember when I started. Mom and Dad have told me about the first time I accidently roared, and that it was about my wings, but I was practically still a baby. It is not something I talked about, it was just naturally….” He saw Seben’s head move, and saw the slightest edge of a smile through his friend’s beard.
He had to grin himself. They had gotten him, and gotten him good this time. They understood, but wanted him to say it; be willing to be vulnerable to them. Well, he had. The weren’t going to leave, he just had to wait.
So, he did. The minutes dragged on, and his three friends finally began to shuffle their feet, and Lenar let out the tiniest giggle. That broke the moment, and they all three turned around laughing. Gorshun spoke, “You should have heard yourself, man! ‘I was a baby, please don’t leave me!'”
The other two chimed in, making fun of him. Part of him bristled, but he deserved it, he should have told them. Mercifully, the teasing stopped when he started to laugh, and they saw it hurt. Gorshun put a hand on his shoulder, “Of course we are not going to leave a Titan behind. No, brother Sunar, we are going to help you. You will fly, we will see to it.”
Sunar felt great relief in his friend’s forgiveness. He played along with their jibes, asked them for help in planning his training. They sat and talked for a long time, about everything in the world.
Until Master Ikthan arrived.
