The Stranger's Sister

The woman's brother climbs up beside the stranger with a huff and a grunt. He lowers his hind legs and spreads his wings in invitation, raising the bristling fur of his spine for her to grip. Brothers carry their sons and nephews. Sisters carry their daughters and nieces. If two people have no family, it is a shame. It is unbalanced, but it is sometimes necessary. The yoesis has a hundred mouths and a thousand things even hungrier than mouths. And beneath the two people's hoofs and snouts and tongs and eyes, the stranger's brother is settled into each of them. They take and they give, they fly and they