Disclaimer-I do not own Hawksong. Instead, I just write fanfic about it.

Just a little background: Hawksong is the first book in a series of four, written by Ameila Atwater-Rhodes. It's about Danica Shardae, a hawk shapeshifter who is heir to the Tuuli Thea, the throne of the avian shapeshifters (not birds. "Birds" is rude). Her people are in a war with the serpent shapeshifters, the serpiente that they have been in for a couple millennia. So to end the war, she and the king (called the Diente) of the serpiente, Zane Cobriana, (a cobra shapeshifter) as her pair bond (which is like a husband). And the book is about that, pretty much.

But this fanfic isn't about them at all…ok so read it and review it! By the way it's when the war was still going on.

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I was about to die. I had gotten shot down from the sky! A serpiente arrow had pierced my graceful raven's wing that grew from my back when I was in my Demi form.

But when I fell, no one seemed to notice me. Well, except for the serpent who came over and stabbed my thigh. She only missed my stomach because I'd rolled over. But then she was convinced she'd killed me, and ran. It felt like she had. That wound was deep, and cut through to the bone.

Everyone had left the dead to rot in that field. I recongnized a few of them, no older than myself. My parents had died because of this war, and my alistair that I had been raised with had been killed last month. I was only fifteen, he eighteen, yet he was dead. So there had been no one to stop me from enrolling in the avian army and fighting to avenge the dead that I had not been allowed to cry over, because it was improper. So I hid behind my mask. Avian reserve, it was called. To me, though, it was denial. I hated it, yet it was the only way we had survived-by not losing strength, crying over the dead.

"Help!" I called. "Somebody! Please!" But there was no one around to hear my pleas. I blacked out, too tired to go on.

When I woke, it was dark. I knew that I wasn't dead, and wasn't going to soon unless I got attacked. I tried calling for help again, but none seemed to come.

I cried. If I had done this in the presence of my people, they would have been scandalized. I cried for my mother and father. I cried for Jabir, my dead alistair. I cried because I was fifteen years old and about to die alone. But mostly, I cried because I'd been denied showing my emotions for fifteen years. I cursed the ground, the serpiente, and the sky. A raven does not do that. A raven puts on a mask of denial, a mask of reserve. A mask of lies. Just like every single other avian.

"Hello?" I heard a voice. "Are you alright?"

"No," I answered miserably. This had to be a dream. No one, avian or serpiente, would go out on a battle field at night. "I think I'm dying. I hope I'm dying, so that this war will end and everyone will stop all this killing." At that point, I didn't care if the whole avian court saw me like this. I was dying, and didn't care. Maybe I'd get to see my parents and Jabir again.

"I know." The voice was masculine, probably a couple of years older than me. "Where are you?"

"I don't know. Somewhere on this dammed field, amidst all the dead."

I heard movement, and felt someone trip over me and curse.

"OW! My leg!" I hissed in pain.

"Sorry. Didn't know you were there." He stood up, then helped me get up. "My name's Tarun."

"Mine's Shani. And thank you."

He seemed surprised. "For what?"

"Saving me. I would have died out here alone if you hadn't come along," I answered honestly. Avian reserve, whatever. I guess because it was night, Tarun didn't care about avian reserve.

"Oh, it's nothing," he said in an offhand voice, but I think that he was hiding something. Oh well. I'd figure it out in the morning. "I was on my way to my cousin's house…I inherited it when she died in the war."

"I'm sorry about your cousin." And I was. I'd lost family to this war, too. Everyone has. Even the royal family has. The golden hawks. Danica Shardae would be our queen in about a week. She'd lost an alistair to this war, like I had. But I was just a common raven, so that's all we had in common.

"It's ok. She was in the army. You don't often live long if you're in the army. It's only a little ways away from here. I'll take you there and you can rest." He didn't sound sad, but you never know with avian reserve.

"I know. All of my family were in the army, and they're all dead." I tried not to sound sad when I said this, but I felt a couple of tears drip down my cheek.

"I'm sorry. It's hard losing family."

"Everyone has lost someone to this damn war. Everyone knows loss."

We arrived at a small cabin, deep in the woods.

"This is it. Go inside and sleep. I'll talk to you in the morning," Tarun said.

I went inside, and fell asleep on the couch.

When I awoke, it was morning, and I was in full human form. I must have shifted sometime last night. I tried to get up, but there was a sharp pain in my leg. I cursed. Tarun must have heard me, because he came out of a room and said, "Shani? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I looked at him, and recoiled. He did too.

A serpiente. A serpiente had saved my life.

"Don't kill me!" I hissed. "I have a sword coated in avian poison!" Avian poison was a creation that was made by the falcon shapeshifters. It killed serpiente with only a scratch, but only caused fatigue to my people.

He looked shocked. "You're avian!"

"Yes I am. A raven, and proud of it." I tried once again to get up, but the wound was too deep.

He shut his eyes, took a deep breath, and said, "I will not kill you. This war has taken enough people from both of us. But you have to promise that you will not harm me in any way."

I looked into his eyes, which was a mistake because everyone knows that serpents can work magic with their eyes. They can catch hold of your mind, then kill you with your own weapon before you even notice that it's gone.

But in that brief glimpse I caught of his eyes, I could see truth, sincerity, and hope.

I took in a deep breath, and said, "You have my word that I will not harm you if you do not harm me."

He looked at my leg. "Do you want help with that?" I must have looked suspicious or something, because he said, "Remember, we have each other's word that we won't do any harm."

I thought about it. On one hand, my leg was in really bad condition and I could barely move with out immense pain. On the other, he was a serpent, and could grow fangs at will. And since my wing got clipped, I couldn't fly. I could grow my Demi wings, and shift into my raven form, but that wouldn't do much good because I had no flight, which was the only power we had that the serpiente didn't.

I tried to move my leg again. It hurt like Hades. "Okay," I said. "Just as long as you don't use any black serpiente magic on me."

He looked confused. "Magic? No serpiente can do magic. You could call what our dancers do magic, although you would think that dance is scandalous, being avian. I'll see what I can do to your leg, though. I'm no doctor, but Eman was. My cousin," he added, seeing the confused look on my face.

He tried the best he could to fix up my leg, although it was still in a lot of pain. And I still couldn't move it.

"I still can't move," I pointed out to Tarun. But neither of us could figure out how to do anything about that. I wanted to get up, to see if I could do anything about my wing. But I thought it might be a bit…rude to ask Tarun if he could help me stand up so that I could check my wings. After all, he could turn on me and poison me with his snake's fangs any second.

"Wait a minute." I looked after him quizzically as he disappeared into another room to get something. He came out with something that looked like an extremely uncomfortable chair on wheels.

"One of Eman's friend's invented this. It was designed for one of her patients, who died in the war anyway, but maybe you could use it?" he said.

"Not a bad idea. Just one thing: how do I get into it?" I responded.

"Oh, right." He helped stand up, but before he got me into it, I said, "Wait. I want to check my wings. I got clipped with an arrow before I got that wound." He looked kind of uncomfortable, but I spread them anyway. "I need your help. Please don't damage them any further-"

"I said I wouldn't harm you. Pythons have honor, too, you know." Ah. So Tarun was a python. Always good to know.

I could tell I had hurt his feelings, though, so I said, "I didn't mean to suggest you didn't. But since you are serpiente and aren't used to wings, I was just warning you to be careful. Could you check them over for any wounds, please?"

I tensed at his touch to my wings (instinct had kicked in), but he was gentle and didn't damage me any worse. "I think I see where you got clipped with the arrow, but it doesn't look too bad. I'll see if I can do anything for it."

When he went to go get his cousin's stuff (he helped me onto a stool so that he could still fix up my wings as best he could, while I didn't need to lean on him any more), I looked at him. I had just glimpsed him before, but now I really looked at him. And it stunned me how much I found him attractive. I was used to black hair (I had it myself, as did all crows and ravens), but his light skin and blue eyes stunned me. Avians tended to have tan skin and warm brown, black, or gold eyes and hair. Also, serpents are cold-blooded, so Tarun's touch to my skin was cold. But serpents tended to have jewel-tone eyes and light skin.

So it was a shock how different he was from me, but how attractive.

He fixed up my wing, and then said, "Are you hungry? I haven't eaten since…yesterday, before I left the market."

I suddenly realized how famished I was, but was wary of eating serpiente food. What if he cooked meat? I was vegetarian, like most avians. I debated this, then realized that I probably wasn't going to be leaving here any time soon, so I said "yes, that would be lovely." I forced myself to smile, despite my pain and the fact that it would be a serpent cooking for me. What if he tried to poison me? Serpents are immune to almost all poisons, except avian poison. He seemed to guess my worry, because he said "I promise not to poison you." He caught my gaze as he said it, then realized that I wansn't used to serpents catching my gaze and looked away.

He cooked…I don't know what it was, and didn't want to ask. I ate a lot, so much that Tarun said, "Shani, I doubt that I've ever seen anyone, especially an avian lady as graceful as yourself eat so much food in one sitting." I looked at him (whoops, caught his eye again) and realized that he was making a joke.

Which confused me, because when had it been ok for us to joke informally?

He must have seen my expression (whoops, forgot the avian reserve…but then I was with a python, so what did it matter?) and said, "Sorry. I forgot how formal avians are."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that you are more formal in your speech, don't joke as much, don't dance, hide your emotions, and aren't use to the contact of skin-on-skin." As he said these last words, he reached out and touched me cheek softly.

I felt myself blush. "Relax, Shani," he said. "I won't bite."

"Dear sky above, I hope not." Wait. Why was I joking back with him? He's a python, for Sun's sake.

A lot of days passed like that. After a week, my leg had healed enough so that I could limp around the house for a little bit each day. Since wings are delicate, though, they were taking longer to heal. It is said that shapeshifters heal faster than humans, although this was hard to believe, because it was taking so long for my leg to heal.

After two weeks, my leg seemed well enough so that I could walk around outside, always wary of war. But no battles seemed to happen. I wondered why, because battles were so common in this war.

I was out walking one day, exploring the land around the house when I came across a river of water. It seemed to call to me, so I stripped down and went in. The water seemed to wash away all of the blood, hatred, and pain of the war I had fought in as a soldier. It also seemed to heal my leg. I felt so relaxed in that water, I didn't know how much time had passed. I opened my eyes to "Shani! Shani! Are you okay?" Tarun was calling, checking to make sure that I didn't die or anything. I realized that I'd fallen asleep on the bank of the river. I quickly put my clothes back on (I'd washed them in the river earlier, but they were still wet. And cold). "I'm over here. I'm coming, Tarun" I yelled back.

As I walked back to the cottage, I realized that my leg was completely fine and that I wasn't limping.

Tarun saw me a few feet away from the clearing where the house was. He gave me a funny look. "Shani, what about your leg?"

I looked down. It was completely healed, and it didn't even leave a scar. "I…don't know. I found a river, and went in. I guess it healed me." I looked up at him, and for the first time I realized that I wasn't afraid to meet his gaze. I gasped.

"Sorry," Tarun said.

"For what?" I asked, completely confused.

"Avians don't like to meet the gaze of serpents. Right?" he replied.

"No, it's not that. It's…" I trailed off, and Tarun said, "What?"

"I'm no longer afraid to meet your gaze," I quickly said.

He looked surprised. "Come inside. I'll cook dinner."

"Okay, but no weird serpiente dish," I said.

"I've always wondered," he said, reaching for my arm out of habit (I think) as we walked inside, "why your kind doesn't eat meat."

I shrugged. "I don't know. It's never served in the Hawk's Keep, so I never developed a taste for it." The Hawk's Keep is the main building in my land, the equivilent of the serpiente palace.

"Hm. Interesting," was Tarun's reply.

Dinner that night was different than all of the other nights. I didn't know why. It just seemed more…intimate, I guess.

"So, if your leg is healed, do you think that your wing will be, too?" Serpents aren't as good at hiding their emotions as avians, and I could see…pain, I think, on the python's face as he asked this question. It startled me.

"I…don't know." I spread my wings to check whether or not they were healed, and they were. I shifted into my raven form and flew up to the ceiling and down again. "Yeah, they're healed. But…I don't know if I'll go back. Everyone probably thinks that I'm dead, and I have no family or alistair. They're all dead." I thought for a moment, then said, "I guess I might stay…if that's alright with you. If not, I'll leave."

He looked as if he were thinking about it, then said, "stay, little raven. I've grown fond of you." The words were said in a joking tone, but his face was serious.

I smilied. "Me, too."

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. "Tarun!" a man's voice called. Our eyes both widened.

"I'll hide," I said.

"No! Don't. It's probably just my brother. He won't hurt you."

"Are you sure about that? I mean, we are in a war that has been going on for about two thousand years."

"Tarun!" the voice called again.

"Coming!" Tarun yelled. He went to the door, opened it, and said, "Hey, little brother. Shani, come here and meet my brother!"

I came over, and his brother's eyes widened. "You're living with a raven?" he said in a surprised voice. "Oh well. I guess it's not as bad now because…" he trailed off. "Zane Cobriana announced that Danica Shardae-her queen-" he pointed to me "-is his Naga. Which makes her our Naga."

Tarun's eyes widened. "Yamal, you're telling the truth? So the war is over?"

"The war is over?" I repeated. Yamal just shook his head, almost dumbfounded. It seemed like he hadn't yet gotten over the fact that his brother had been living with a raven for the past couple of weeks. "The war is over! The war is over! The war is over!" I hugged Yamal and kissed Tarun, which would have been completely scandalous if it were avians I was with. But over the past fortnight, I'd become less and less formal.

"Yes, the war is over. I'm on my way to visit my mate's family. She had been staying with them when she broke her arm, but I figured that you wouldn't know yet," Yamal said. "So I'd better be off, I guess…"

"No, stay the night. Look, it's almost dark out." I was as surprised as both of them when those words came out of my mouth. "That is, if it's ok with Tarun…"

Tarun nodded. "Yeah, brother, stay."

Later that night, as I trying to fall asleep (I had been staying on the couch), I heard them talking.

"Tarun, what's the bird's deal? You only just heard that the war was over, so why is she here? And how long has she been staying?" Yamal asked.

"She got shot down, then her leg was sliced open. She was just barely alive when I found her on my way here. I didn't know she was avian at first because it was night, but…I still helped her anyway."

There was a pause. "You love her, don't you?" Yamal asked.

"Shh, she's right out there!"

"She's asleep. I saw her. Answer me."

Tarun sighed. "Yes, I do love her. She has no alistair or family; she told me. I don't know if she loves me, but her wings and leg finally healed today and she hasn't left yet."

Tarun walked out of the room, and into another, where I assumed that he was going to sleep. I thought about what he had said. Yes, I do love her. I don't know if she loves me, but her wings and leg finall healed today and she hasn't left yet. Why was I still hanging out down there? Did I love Tarun, too? That was impossible. He was a serpent. I was an avian. I'd only known him for two weeks. But he helped me, even when he knew that I was a raven.

I made up my mind after a couple of hours of pondering this.