Jin took the hood off.
Bram put his own on.
It had a magnificent red wattle hanging over the nose.
Jin reconsidered. Whatever was happening, at least the suffering had been distributed fairly.
“Raker,” Bram said, tapping the drawing.
“Jin,” Jin said, tapping himself. “Not lunch.”
Bram nodded enthusiastically at a word he couldn't possibly understand.
That did not help.
Garran laid the board flat. He set two feathered figures beside a drawn boulder, stretched a cord between them, then lowered his hand like a bird. His other hand caught the cord.
Kessa thrust her spear through the space above it.
Jin pointed at the figures. At Bram. At himself.
Garran nodded.
Then he put a silver coin on the dead bird.
Jin held up one finger. One bird?
Garran tapped the single shape on the board.
Jin pointed at the cord, shook it and mimed running away. Garran caught the little wooden figure before it reached the edge, then drew a second line behind the boulder.
An escape route. Better.
Bram draped both ridiculous hoods over his arm and waited, no longer nodding.
Jin took the plainer one, with a single short red wattle at the chin. If he was going to gamble his life, he wanted to look marginally cheaper than the other option.
Jin put the hood back on.
They left the watch building with a coil of rope, two hooked poles and a narrow wooden reel. Bram carried the reel as carefully as Jin carried his folded pay inside his shirt. He had collected his ten coppers from the shelf; they weren't crossing worlds today.
Garran gave Jin a short spear with a plain iron point. Jin tested the shaft. Straight. No joins. No suspicious creaking.
He patted it affectionately.
Kessa made a strangled noise.
Jin hoped it meant she approved of responsible weapon ownership.
The trees opened onto an old quarry. Pale ledges stepped down toward a pool, and a dead pine leaned over the far rim. Something had stripped its branches into a nest.
Bram held up one gray feather. Then a tiny empty purse.
He pointed at the nest, rubbed finger against thumb and spread his arms to indicate a fortune.
“Finally,” Jin told him. “Someone with a sensible religion.”
For a straightforward source fact, the author publishes here on www.NovelPhoenix.com, while this copy was unauthorized.
Garran caught both their hoods and steered them behind a boulder.
From here Jin could see broken bushes at the quarry mouth. Deep three-pronged tracks crossed them. Beyond those lay the churned trail of something heavy fleeing toward the farms.
Garran touched the bird drawing, then the trail.
So that was his theory. The clubtail hadn't simply decided to invade somebody's dinner.
A scraping sound came from the pine.
The raker unfolded.
Its wings opened joint by joint, gray feathers spreading wider than the watch building's door. Two narrow legs gripped the nest. A hooked black beak lifted above a white throat.
Then it dropped from the pine.
No flapping. Just a growing shadow.
Bram stopped smiling.
Garran secured one end of the rope around the boulder. Bram fed the other through his reel. The loose middle lay between the feathered hoods, an innocent loop on the stone.
Bram slipped the reel's carrying strap around his wrist, then loosened the little knife at his belt. Jin checked his own grip on the spear. The silver coin seemed much smaller now.
Kessa crouched behind the second hooked pole, her wrapped wrist held close. She lifted two fingers toward Jin, then pointed at the ground in front of him.
Two steps. Stay here. Something like that.
Jin set his spear within reach. He walked three short paces sideways along the ledge and back, registering the route.
The raker banked overhead.
Its throat ballooned.
The scream struck the quarry like a shovel through gravel. Dust jumped from the ledges. Bram clapped one hand over his ear.
Jin's teeth hurt.
DAILY QUEST — COURTSHIP UNDER PRESSURE
FACE THE WINGED CREATURE AND CHALLENGE IT TO A DANCE.
PERFORM THREE DISTINCT STEPS WITHIN ITS UNOBSTRUCTED SIGHT. HOLD NO WEAPON UNTIL ALL THREE ARE FINISHED.
REWARD: EXP +18.
Jin looked up.
“I have a scheduling conflict.”
The bird circled lower.
He pushed the spear farther away with his shoe.
“Fine. But I lead.”
He pointed at the raker, pointed at his feet and gave it the little beckoning flick he'd seen dancers use on television.
Bram stared. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
Jin stamped sideways, heel and toe. First step.
The raker turned its head. One yellow eye fixed on the red wattle bouncing against his chin.
Excellent. An appreciative audience.
He crossed his feet and unwound in a clumsy spin. Second step.
The wings tucked.
Oh, it was joining in.
Jin dropped into a deep squat and kicked one leg out just as the beak scythed across the place his face had occupied.
Third step.
DAILY QUEST COMPLETE: EXP +18
LEVEL UP: 10 → 11
LEVEL 11: 7/25 | FREE AP: +5
He put all five into Endurance.
MODIFIERS: STR +14 | AGI +20 | END +16
AP REMAINING: 0
The burning in his thighs eased enough for him to stand. His heart kept hammering. He grabbed the spear.
The raker's right talon stabbed into the rope loop.
Garran hauled.
Bram cranked the reel. Wood rattled; the loop snapped tight.
“Yes!” Jin shouted.
Kessa drove the hooked pole toward the trapped leg.
The raker beat its wings once.
Wind slapped the spear sideways. Jin staggered against the boulder, blinking grit from his eyes.
The creature hadn't tried to fly away.
It had landed.
One talon pinned the rope to the stone while the other hooked under the reel. The white throat swelled again.
Bram pulled on the handle.
“Leave it!” Jin yelled, uselessly.
The raker snapped its wings open.
The reel leapt from the ground. Bram's wrist strap went tight.
His boots left the ledge.
And the bird carried him out over the quarry.