Well, this story kind of came out of nowhere. 
This is my response to the February 2018 Gang of Five fanfiction prompt challenge, which entailed making a story about undying love. In this case we shall explore the love of two of my characters from Mender's Tale, Arial (the sister of Ruby) and Nahoda (the unluckiest fastrunner in the Mysterious Beyond). It is not my best work by any means, but I had fun writing it. And, as always, I look forward to your thoughts. 
Nahoda’s Concern“Sometimes in times of great adversity it is necessary to…”
“Um, Chronos…”
“... consider all of the possible variables in a situation…”
“Um…”
“What? I am trying to do one of those profound quote thingies here!
“....”
“I’m trying to make a Seven Hunter’s quote in a one-shot fic, aren’t I?”
“...yep.”
“Well, I have to put something up here now.”
“No, really, you don’t. We could just…”
“No, we have to finish what we started. Ahem…”
“...”
“...”
“…”
“…”
“Can’t think of anything now?”
“Sigh … screw it. Let’s just put something from Taunt up here and call it a day.”“If you do not first chase your tail then how can you expect to catch it?”
~TauntThe female fastrunner stared at her male counterpart with a bemused expression as he walked around the tree with his head bowed in concentration. Beside the mighty pillar of wood, embedded in the ground, stood their new nest, a testament to the vows they had made to one another. All around them stood the verdant fields of their benefactors, the great pack which included her sister. Nonetheless running around like an absent-minded worrier would do neither of them any good.
“Will you stand still, dear?!”
Arial could only give an exasperated sigh at her mate’s antics. They were forming a new life together in Seeker’s pack territory, it seemed like the Mysterious Beyond was descending into chaos, and both of them were feeling the drive to perpetuate the species, but yet he seemed contented on this night to pace around in circles.
She had fell in love with a fastrunner, darn it! Not a fastpacer!
Well, okay, perhaps this side of him wasn’t exactly unknown to her. He had nearly been killed by sharpteeth, her parents, by Mender, a threehorn, sharpteeth again… well a lot of things now that she thought about it. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t get moody about it.
As if to comply with her command in the most minimal manner possible, Nahoda stopped his forward movement, merely allowing his tail to twitch with all of the ferocity of a dead belly-slider. Each lurch of the tail collided with the tall grass
Arial closed her eyes as she took a deep breath.
Don’t make me strangle you, Nahoda. “Do you think they are alright?”
The female did not speak immediately as the words echoed in her mind. When the pacing had begun she had assumed that Nahoda was again concerned for the possibility of children and was trying to deduce how to convince her of the ënecessity’ of traps for any predators that escaped the notice of their benefactors. However, the use of ëthey’ here indicated something else entirely.
You’re an idiot, Arial. I know that my parents are alright, but what about Nahoda over there? He is so nervous that he is practically… wait what?“Nahoda, what are you doing?”
She could only stare at the male who was now wrapping a vine around the tree and proceeding to tie it on one end. She did not need to see any more in order to know what she had to do. With the stern determination that could only come from one’s mate, she stood between the male and the next part of his plan.
“What did I say about traps, dear?”
Nahoda could only groan as he rubbed his beak in embarrassment at his forgetfulness. Before he could react further or make an excuse, however, he found his mate with the vine in her hands.
It only took her a moment to wrap the vine around him and to secure the vine to the tree.
The resulting look of annoyed exasperation in the form of a glare was enough to tell Arial that she had succeeded. At least now he was no longer focused on his nervousness.
Nahoda sighed. “Really, dear?”
To which she nodded. “Really. Now if you are done trying to dig a hole in the ground with your pacing, or make a trap to trap yourself again…”
“Now you are beginning to sound like…” but Nahoda didn’t get a chance before the vine was placed around his beak.
“Like I was saying before you interrupted what I was saying,” Arial continued with a mischievous glint in her eyes, “I know that you are concerned about them, but we just have to wait. I’m sure if they are willing to be found then that flyer will find them.”
It only took a moment for Nahoda to remove his temporary muzzle. “And what if they don’t want to be found? What if they got attacked? I barely made it over here, and they…”
“...are still in the good territory they had before,” Arial finished with a sympathetic look despite her hands still being firmly planted on her hips, “And no disrespect, dear, but I think if your parents have lived as long as they have lived then they have better luck than you.”
Nahoda couldn’t help himself. “Your sister will be glad to know that her sister still has her way of talking.”
--------
The flyer landed loudly upon the ground as the exhaustion finally hit him. He had been traveling the entirety of the day in search of the elusive fastrunners. In fact, had this been any other request he would have cut his losses and told them that they could not be found. But this was Seeker’s pack he was talking about… and a flyer had to keep in mind opportunities to make themselves known. Letting such a client down was not an option.
These things have better have my promised fish ready! Allies of Seeker or not, Rexas does not work for free!That was when he bothered to take a look at his surroundings. This was the right tree. There was the same odd imprint of a fastbiter claw in the bark, the remnants of vines and who knows what in the branches, and the signs of a nest in the making. So where could his benefactors be?
“Are they alright?”
The flyer hesitated as the voice came from the other side of the tree. Tilting his head to the side as he walked forward on his quadrupedal wings it only took him a moment to discover his patron’s fate.
The purple male stared at the flyer with all of the anticipation one would expect from a youngling despite his adult years. And also despite the minor inconvenience of being firmly secured to the tree with what appeared to be an entire layer of vines.
“Uh…” Rexas could only blink. His mother had not told him anything about what to do when confronted with someone who was tied to a tree. Especially not if they seemed perfectly nonchalant about the situation.
The male fastrunner’s excitement seemed to turn into fear, however, as a noticeable tremor appeared in his beak.
“No… please don’t tell me that…”
This finally made the flyer snap out of it. “Your parents give you their greetings. They are quite well and were delighted to hear that you are doing well and are with a mate.”
That was when he noticed the pink female reclining in the nest with a satisfied, if evil, look plastered on her face. It was enough to make the flyer shiver.
“Uh… you still have a mate, right?”
Arial merely smirked at the flyer. “Oh, I have him, alright.”
Rexas fled the scene as fast as his wings would carry him.
--------
“That was odd. He left in such a hurry that he forgot to take the fish.”
Despite the intense nervousness that he had felt on this day, and the fear of what might have been, the immense weight of his agony had been lifted in an instant at the flyer’s affirmation. His parents were alive and well. His loving mother and stern father. And now both of them could rest easier knowing that they had not sentenced their son to death when they chased him from the nest. If he could have embraced the flyer he would have.
But the flyer was in a hurry, he supposed. To Nahoda it was an immense relief, but to this flyer it was probably just a normal day. He still wish he could have given him his due, though.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sensation of another beak rubbing up against his own.
“See, dear? They are alright. Now how long have you been holding this in?”
Nahoda shifted awkwardly at that. Well, ëshift’ might not have been the right word. He more or less rubbed up against the tree to which he was fastened.
“Um… since I nearly died from that sharptooth attack. I considered going back just to make sure that they were there to chase me off again.”
Arial chuckled before patting him on the beak. “And you didn’t tell me about this until today, because…?”
Nahoda shrugged to the fullest extend his captivity would allow. “I didn’t want to worry you. I mean… there is enough to worry about. With the possibility of our own young ones soon, and the nest, and the…”
“...and the nervous mate who I love but who needs to slow down,” Arial finished before giving him the lightest of beak rubs.
The resulting response would have been comical to any onlookers who would have witnessed it, as Nahoda somehow managed to make a boisterous strutting motion despite his confinement against the tree’s mighty bulk. “I’m a fastrunner, not a slowrunner!”
Arial sat down with a satisfied smirk on her beak as she began to preen her feathers. The silence was permitted to drag on for a few moments.
“And until someone apologies for what they should be apologizing, they will be a no-runner.”
Nahoda froze. “Now come on, Arial. I was merely joking about… well…”
“You were merely joking about something that you shouldn’t have been joking?” Arial retorted back before sticking out her tongue at her mate playfully. Her sit had now turned into a lounging recline. “Do you remember what my mom said about love, Nahoda?”
“That sometimes you know it at first sight?” Nahoda answered after a pause.
Arial’s smile deepened. “And what else?”
Nahoda thought for a moment, trying to rack his brain for whatever life lesson Arial was trying to make so that his lovely, yet sometimes insufferable, mate would let him go. “That there is give and take in a relationship?”
Arial nodded as she closed her eyes. “And sometimes mates have to learn the other’s limits. So what have we learned about my limits?”
Nahoda groaned reluctantly. “You do not like me making fun of the way you sometimes talk.”
He was answered by an affectionate touch of her beak against his. “Mmm hmm… but do you know something else?”
Nahoda leaned in to the beak rub but did not answer his mate directly. He certainly had some ideas if she would let him off of this tree.
Arial grinned. “I accepted your nonsense long ago, such is undying love. Sometimes I just like you to feel how you make other people feel.”
Nahoda rolled his eyes. “Annoyed?”
Arial again rubbed his beak with her own, “Mmm Hmm..”
“And your intentionally doing the thing right now, aren’t you?” Nahoda prompted.
“Mmm hmm…” came the muffled reply before she mockingly replicated, “Hmm mmm…”
The two fastrunners maintained that position for several moments before he felt the vines loosen around his body. When he finally did land on the ground it was quite a relief. Now he could finally put an idea into action that had been budding in his mind.
It was when her beak again reached his, however, that she realized that the vines were now around both of their necks.
“Nahoda, what are you doing?”
He finished tying the vine with an exaggerated flourish and a smirk. “So we are stuck with one another, hmm?”
Arial rolled her eyes before quickly removing the offending vine, “Now, let’s stop this before someone sees, and we look silly…”
Nahoda’s eyes flashed with amusement. “You mean like your parents’ usual flyer telling them that you tied up your mate to a tree? I look forward to hearing what kind of parental response Rexas relays back to us.”
The look of abject horror that his mate gave in response was the stuff of legend. In response Arial could only open her beak awkwardly as the words failed to come. Finally deciding that his mate had worried enough, he allowed his beak to touch hers again, allowing them to resume where they left off. He was sure that they would find some kind of excuse in the coming day, but as far as he was concerned there was no need to worry about it..
After all, if he was used to his mate’s nonsense then he was sure her parents were used to it as well.
