With the braziers, they could see each other without trouble. But even without them, their horns could tell every detail.
And so Tunu knew that monster perceived every beat of his heart.
He was still catching his breath when Tuorka emerged in turn.
"Uokror." He called. "By the stars you're alright."
"Good of see you too Tuorka."
"Shut up. You can only cheat death so many times you scoundrel."
The old kobel had approached, had crouched to touch his friend's head. To put his forehead against his.
But they weren't alone.
"Uokror." Tunu asked between two breaths. "How did you grow scales? How did you... become a wyvern?"
"Sure, you ask him that."
Tuorka had started to check the chains. The closest one, keeping the beast's neck in check, stretched to iron stakes stuck deep in the wood.
Even swords would not dent those links, so he was left to his work.
Tunu insisted.
"You fed too, right? You have the heart of a wyvern, and you fed it. Or did something else happen? I... I don't know what's going on anymore!"
"Why doubt? You have scales. Next all tribe has scales."
Both kobels froze for a second. It was never quite easy to understand what Uokror said, but those words could only mean he knew. He knew what Etelet was doing.
And he sounded so joyful, quietly joyful.
"So, I should give up on feeding? I should give up on that heart, is that what you are saying? I can... I can still achieve my dreams?"
"Yes."
His own heart did not deny it.
But then the chain broke.
And Tunu turned to look at Tuorka, at the old kobel who, with just his bare hands, had broken the heavy iron link.
Uokror shook his head, then raised his neck to look around.
With this he was as good as free, Tunu realized. All there was to stop him was the scaled kobel that had struggled the last time to hold him still. All the other chains held no chance against that maw.
For a second the champion braced for a fight.
But his heart did not follow, nor did Uokror react.
The beast, rather, was watching Tuorka who was approaching the second chain holding his wingtip.
"Keep talking." He told Tunu. "Sounds riveting."
"What do you think you are doing?"
"Freeing my friend."
"I won't let you."
"Then kill me."
And he started to work on that chain too. Huffing and straining. The metal seemed to hold just fine. Both the scaled and winged kobels were watching him work in silence.
"There are other tribes out there. Kobels, not kobels, who cares at this point. Let's find one. And when we get there, their shaman will want to kill you too, of course. No, they'll have two shamans. Let's find a tribe with to of them, Uokror. I want to see them bicker."
Tunu had moved to stop it, but just the presence of the creature had him in check. He didn't fear for himself but for the harm the beast could inflict on the rest of the tribe.
So the second chain snapped. After pressing and pulling so much the kobel had been able to force one link to snap.
The wingtip, as soon as it was freed, touched his old shoulder.
"It is you tribe. You have tribe."
"My only tribe is here!"
The kobel's voice got strangled to not shout. He had put his head against the beast's neck.
"They'll kill you, I know they will. There is no future for us here."
"No." Tunu reacted. "No, I will protect you two. Uokror has followed the path of the wyvern, once he is freed I will make sure everyone bows to him."
But the kobel was not listening.
He only fretted when his friend gave him a push.
"Tuorka. It is you tribe. I stay. I give scales. You want scales, no?"
"Don't trust them. I beg you don't. We'll find somewhere else, I promise, just stay with me."
"I all way trust. I stay."
"Always. You always trust."
They remained together, each holding the other, while the first flies buzzed around to the corpses. Even in the cold air they would not miss it.
It was Uokror that eventually turned to the scaled kobel.
"You ask heart? You feed, you grow strong. Have scales. New heart? Shaman give scales."
"So which heart should I choose?"
The creature was puzzled.
"Uokror, I was told you can help replace my heart. Put this one instead. Is that true?"
"Yes. Why? You want? She not want."
"Who doesn't want what?"
At the kobel's confusion his peer only left the old warrior's shoulder to approach with his wingtip, touch Tunu's chest.
"Heart. She is beast. She has no want place... place... replace you heart."
"A beast? What? What do you mean a beast?!"
And Uokror, suddenly worried, turned to Tuorka. The old warrior felt his friend's eyes begging for help.
"He is saying your heart is alive. It's not a heart, it's a beast. A monster."
"Yes. Monster."
All this time, Tunu had known that the thing in his chest was foreign.
And he had told himself it was the heart of a wyvern, containing its spirit maybe to believe it was not evil. And if it was evil he had imagined it was something like a curse. An artifact.
But that was just denial, and those words forced him to face it.
From the very beginning, he had known.
From the very start, from the moment he had awakened in the lair he had been able to tell, that the warmth in which he bathed was not his own. That what pulsed in his chest had a life of its own, its own feelings, its own thoughts.
And as if to confirm it, he felt it beat again, almost a message to tell him, something.
Suddenly, he was a carcass, held together by internal strings from a formless puppeteer. Suddenly Tunu had to conceive just how little of himself there ever was.
"Help me!" He told the wyvern. "I need to get rid of it! Replace my heart, right now!"
"She not want. She fight."
"Tunu..."
"I don't care!" The kobel screamed, loud enough that the lower floor could hear him. "Get rid of it! I don't want that thing controlling me!"
"Tunu." The old kobel scolded him. "If Uokror is saying that it means whatever is in your chest is too strong for him to beat."
And again, the heart proudly beat to confirm.
He could vividly remember how his wounds had closed so easily, how his body had survived fire, how he had beaten the winged deer. That had never been him. Nor his blood.
Rumor downstairs tipped him that time was running out.
But Uokror, calmly, answered as well.
"Control? She is no control. She is heart." And the winged kobel looked for more words. "She, she does the all you want."
Tuorka could hear those rumors in turn. He clenched his fist.
"You sure you want to do this?" He asked his friend. "We can still go."
"I stay. Give scales. Is good."
And they bumped heads.
"Yeah, if you say so. It's fine. It's fine."
Moments later the first fighters emerged. But already the roof had gone quiet, with just Uokror remaining, head free, quietly welcoming them with his friendly, primal gaze.
They froze at this sight, even without noticing the bodies. They retreated until the young shaman in turn reached the roof.
He saw the beast, that free neck. Still he approached, but warily.
"You... you didn't do this. Did you? How did you break your chains?!"
"I was hungry!" The winged kobel lied.
That made Etelet fall back, stumble and fall, suddenly terrified. His mind repeated that those were now claw wounds but in the relative night, and against a monster, there was nothing sure.
So he waited there, bracing for the moment that beast will kill him too.
And when he saw Uokror staying quiet, he called.
"Bring new chains! Restrain him! Hurry!"
Tunu too, while climbing down the wall, could feel his friend's heart beat. And in those beats he could almost read how the fear would prevent him from understanding that Uokror was staying out of pure willingness.