--75
It looks like all of the strange gadgets and things have gone away. That's too bad. I really liked the look of some of them! I bet it would have made following some of these signs more interesting if we could use a wind-up hair dryer with giant gears to get the job done, don't you think? And all the outfits were really snazzy too
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I'm not in the barn anymore.
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I don't want just anyone to know. How about you come to the base of the tree? Bring a rope.
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[And she is. Above crouches, awkwardly bipedal, on a great root of the tree within sight of the elevator. She's using the tip of her gigantic beak to break up the clumps of falling snowflakes landing on her. It's fairly cold out, though not remarkably so. Her wing membranes are bloodlessly pale but for the purple blotching that had formed around various old injuries.]
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She recognizes Above, having seen her in the air more than once and waves.]
Hello! I'm Krile.
[It's hard for her to tell if Above is cold or not, since she's not sure how she normally looks--is that coloring healthy or not?]
So where do we have to go?
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[Above flares a wing-finger, then shifts to all fours and clambers down the root and towards the girl.]
Hi.
[Above was just going to have the rope tied to the space heater, but Krile is small, and during the zombie invasion the pterosaur had caught various people. Yeah. Why not?]
First, to the edge. You know about how if you go too far down, you're back up high again?
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Yeah, everything just goes in a loop. Is that how you get to this place?
[She heads to the edge of the Access Point. Is Above going to fly her there?]
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[At the edge, she cranes her neck to look at Krile through one red eye, bright with sudden mischief.]
Think you can trust me?
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I guess that makes sense. [She grins--as hard as it is to discern the mood on Above's face, she recognizes the glint in her eye.] Is there any reason for me not to?
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[So someone had said the other week ago; Above was rather enamored of that phrasing, and said it with a little more pleasure than was strictly necessary.]
The best way is to make the rope into a kind of sling, like for a swingset, at the base of my neck. I don't mind.
[She's already "crouching", bending her forelegs to get that neck closer to the ground.]
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[There's a teasing tone, though. She starts fashioning the rope into a sling, and she's surprisingly good at it--having once had a pirate friend can be beneficial in unexpected ways.
She carefully loops it over Above's neck and settles it at the base like she says, stepping into it.]
Okay! That should work, I think.
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[She means the heater. Above maneuvers her neck so it's along Krile's body. She sounds like she's grinning.]
Throw your arms around my neck. Pretend you like me! And make sure you hold on. You fall out of the rope, and I have to catch you with my beak.
[She illustrates this by snapping it. The sound is enhanced by a "recording" that telepathically "sounds" very crocodilian. Under the voluminous notfur coat, her neck is relatively thin.]
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I'm sure you're very clean, but I'd rather ride on the outside.
[She adjusts herself a little to make sure she won't fall.]
So should I look up at you adoringly or just wear a silly grin on my face?
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[She stands straight, Krile along the underside of her neck like it's a branch. This feels awkward and she's got to keep her neck rigid, but Krile's lighter than Above thought, and it's not too bad. She takes the couple steps necessary to get to the very edge, and "crouches" again.]
I hope you're ready!
[She goes over the edge. Whatever the effect is that makes things fall slowly, it seems to switch off for flyers. With the passenger she is very top heavy, and she dives, using her wings just enough to keep it a dive and not, say, an uncontrolled tumble.]
[Flying is always, always bliss, though somewhat less so when zombies are involved. She will never be tired of it. Above's bill opens and a gleeful cry erupts from it.]
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The smile somehow widens at Above's own shout. Despite being upside-down and very cold, Krile can't help but enjoy any kind of flight, and this is no exception.]
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