in which the exiles encounter a stranger.
The raggedy amalgamated bird didn’t look like it’d preened in a long time. Kretchket instinctively took a big step back, in case the bird sneezed. A sick bird is an ostracized one, but Kretchket needed this one’s information.
Training one eye on the stranger’s dangerous-looking talons, the gyrfalcon started, “Hello, my good and fellow raptor. How do the winds blow for you today?”
The sharp-looking bird raised its head when addressed. It had a faraway look in its eyes, and barely seemed to register Kretchket or his ragtag flock at all. It waddled with great alacrity to the pile of bones under the overhang of stone at the opposite end of the crag, pecked and toyed with the collection of bones, selected a fresh, large femur and began to toss the bone against the sheer wall of the crag with apparent enthusiasm.
Kretchket looked over his wing at Twittirt. The sparrow shrugged deeply in a puzzled way, as if to say “you got me, man”. With a hopeless sigh, Kretchket approached the strange bird-who was now beating the bone wildly against the ground, sending bits of pebble and tiny shards of bone flying-and ventured a greeting again. “Lord… er… Bone-crusher… I come from a land far away. We have traveled far, through unfriendly territory. Er…” The bone in the big bird’s beak split down the middle. The raggedy bird, looking halfway between an eagle and a vulture, cried out excitedly in a language foreign to the travelers, and dove upon the shattered bone like a wolf upon a sheep.
The gyrfalcon threw his wings up in exasperation, turning to his tired-looking flock of refugees, who looked at him with faces displaying varying degrees of hopelessness and expectation. Damn it. Kretchket beat his wings fruitlessly in the dry air, stirring up stale dust. “I don’t know! Stop looking at me like that, I don’t know where we are, I don’t know this fool’s language, I got you all lost, I don’t know how to get back, we never should have left, I convinc-“
“Kretchk-“
“No! Stop! Don’t interrupt me! I don’t know where we’re going, none of us have eaten in days, we’re all going to di--“
“Shut up, you eggbound old hen! Look behind you!” Twittirt glared up at the falcon towering over him, nodding towards the stranger meaningfully.
Kretchket turned again to the bone-eating bird, gaping blankly. The foreign raptor had sneaked up quietly to come to a stop right in front of Kretchket, half a shattered bone in its beak. It held its head low, wings nearly dragging on the ground, in what the gyrfalcon assumed was a peaceable manner.
“Uh-f-for me?”
The eagle-vulture blinked calmly at Kretchket. He didn’t understand a word this weird giant pigeon was saying, but whatever! Maybe they wanted a bone? Thinking maybe the strangers didn’t get his point, the lammergeier dropped the bone, tapped it towards the falcon gently, and meekly backed away to his own half of the femur.
What a curious bird, Kretchket had decided! He glanced again at his sparrow companion and shared a puzzled look with him, before gingerly and awkwardly picking up the too-large bone and carrying it back to the edge of the crag and the withered sapling, where the remnants of the Highperch exodus waited.
Training one eye on the stranger’s dangerous-looking talons, the gyrfalcon started, “Hello, my good and fellow raptor. How do the winds blow for you today?”
The sharp-looking bird raised its head when addressed. It had a faraway look in its eyes, and barely seemed to register Kretchket or his ragtag flock at all. It waddled with great alacrity to the pile of bones under the overhang of stone at the opposite end of the crag, pecked and toyed with the collection of bones, selected a fresh, large femur and began to toss the bone against the sheer wall of the crag with apparent enthusiasm.
Kretchket looked over his wing at Twittirt. The sparrow shrugged deeply in a puzzled way, as if to say “you got me, man”. With a hopeless sigh, Kretchket approached the strange bird-who was now beating the bone wildly against the ground, sending bits of pebble and tiny shards of bone flying-and ventured a greeting again. “Lord… er… Bone-crusher… I come from a land far away. We have traveled far, through unfriendly territory. Er…” The bone in the big bird’s beak split down the middle. The raggedy bird, looking halfway between an eagle and a vulture, cried out excitedly in a language foreign to the travelers, and dove upon the shattered bone like a wolf upon a sheep.
The gyrfalcon threw his wings up in exasperation, turning to his tired-looking flock of refugees, who looked at him with faces displaying varying degrees of hopelessness and expectation. Damn it. Kretchket beat his wings fruitlessly in the dry air, stirring up stale dust. “I don’t know! Stop looking at me like that, I don’t know where we are, I don’t know this fool’s language, I got you all lost, I don’t know how to get back, we never should have left, I convinc-“
“Kretchk-“
“No! Stop! Don’t interrupt me! I don’t know where we’re going, none of us have eaten in days, we’re all going to di--“
“Shut up, you eggbound old hen! Look behind you!” Twittirt glared up at the falcon towering over him, nodding towards the stranger meaningfully.
Kretchket turned again to the bone-eating bird, gaping blankly. The foreign raptor had sneaked up quietly to come to a stop right in front of Kretchket, half a shattered bone in its beak. It held its head low, wings nearly dragging on the ground, in what the gyrfalcon assumed was a peaceable manner.
“Uh-f-for me?”
The eagle-vulture blinked calmly at Kretchket. He didn’t understand a word this weird giant pigeon was saying, but whatever! Maybe they wanted a bone? Thinking maybe the strangers didn’t get his point, the lammergeier dropped the bone, tapped it towards the falcon gently, and meekly backed away to his own half of the femur.
What a curious bird, Kretchket had decided! He glanced again at his sparrow companion and shared a puzzled look with him, before gingerly and awkwardly picking up the too-large bone and carrying it back to the edge of the crag and the withered sapling, where the remnants of the Highperch exodus waited.