Jin tackled Garran behind the boulder.
The first feather struck the stone with a sound like a nail gun.
Three more followed. One punched through the loose back of Jin's shirt and pinned it to the rock.
He stopped moving with an undignified jerk.
Kessa caught his collar and yanked. Cloth tore. Jin landed on his elbows beside Bram, who was already digging splinters out of the reel.
“Nobody,” Jin said, “is buying the dance video.”
The feather volley stopped.
Dust began sliding across the stone again.
Garran peered around the boulder. Jin watched his face harden.
The raker stood at the quarry mouth, wings spread. Blood ran beneath the damaged joint. The loose feathers lifted around it as its chest expanded.
There was their opening. While it dragged in air, it wasn't throwing anything.
There was also a considerable stretch of exposed stone.
Jin picked up a pebble, waited for the chest to fill and tossed it around the corner.
The wind hit.
The pebble flew back past his ear.
“Right. Bad opening.”
Bram grabbed his arm. He held up the reel.
The frame had cracked. The iron axle was intact, with two wooden handles and a length of rope still wound around it.
He swung it in a small circle.
Garran shook his head and pointed at the open ground.
Bram pointed at Jin.
“You have known me for an hour.”
Bram swung the reel again. Pointed at the wounded wing. Pulled both hands apart.
Jin looked from the rope to the bird.
Oh.
It wanted to suck things in.
They could supply something inconvenient.
He took the reel in his left hand, keeping the spear in his right. Bram's fingers tightened on the frame for an instant before letting go.
Jin nodded to him.
“Expensive lunch.”
Garran crouched beside Kessa and drew two quick lines in the dust. She nodded, shifted her spear into her good hand and moved toward the boulder's far side.
The chapter on the author's official page was reproduced here without permission, though that page supports the author.
Jin waited until the last impact, then ran out.
The bird lowered its beak toward him.
He swung the reel overhead and threw.
It flew low. Too low.
The first handle clattered against stone.
Then the inward wind caught the trailing rope.
The loop whipped up under the open wing. The axle struck the bloody joint, and the rope wound around it as the second handle spun over the feathers.
The wing folded.
The raker screamed through a half-filled chest.
Jin was already dropping flat. He let the spear go to catch himself. The gust tore across his back and drove him sliding over the stone. A quill ripped a hot line along his ear.
Garran came past him.
The veteran stamped onto the rope's loose end and pulled it across his hip. The trapped wing jerked downward.
Kessa struck the opposite leg.
The raker kicked her spear aside. Its good wing slashed toward Garran's neck.
He ducked. Feather tips shaved a pale strip from the boulder behind him.
Jin pushed himself up.
His spear lay three paces away, where it had skidded from his hand. The bird was turning toward Garran.
He ran to the weapon, registering those steps as he went, and snatched it up.
Then he backed along the same short line.
The yellow eye found him.
The beak opened.
Garran hauled on the wing. Bram rushed from cover and seized the rope behind him.
The bird's chest twisted away from Jin.
He selected Replay.
Three paces vanished beneath his feet.
At the endpoint he planted his left boot, turned his hips and drove the spear upward behind the lower beak.
Iron punched through the soft floor of the mouth.
The shaft slammed against his palms. He kept both hands on it and drove until the bird's head snapped back.
The talon coming toward his stomach dropped.
Garran pulled him clear.
The raker hit the stone with its wings still spread.
Jin stood over it, shaking so badly the spear rattled against the beak.
“And that,” he told the yellow eye, “is why you pay for lessons.” The source of this chapter is novelping.com.
The body loosened into drifting light. His spear fell free, followed by the reel and its tangled rope.
RECLAIM DETECTED: EXP +90
LEVEL UP: 11 → 12 → 13 → 14
LEVEL 14: 7/40 | FREE AP: +15
Jin laughed.
He couldn't help it. Three more. Three actual levels, and he was standing over the place that thing had fallen.
He spent the fifteen: six Strength, five Agility, four Endurance.
MODIFIERS: STR +20 | AGI +25 | END +20
AP REMAINING: 0
Bram sank down beside the wrecked reel. He picked up one handle, looked at the empty space between his hands and let his head hang.
Jin crouched beside him.
Then he noticed the feathers embedded in the boulder.
Still there.
He tapped Bram's shoulder and pointed.
Bram lifted his head.
They looked at each other.
Garran caught them trying to pull out the same valuable quill and separated them by their collars.
Kessa sat on the boulder and laughed until she had to press her good hand against her stomach. Garran held up the ruined hood, shook his head at Jin and tucked one surviving feather behind his ear.
Jin left it there.
Bram finally freed a quill. He presented it to the empty hood with a solemn bow.
“Don't encourage him,” Jin said, laughing too.
Later, back at the cedar, Jin took the feather from behind his ear and tucked it into his pocket.
His silver reward was waiting at the watch building. First he wanted to show Theo what had tried to turn him into poultry feed.
He called for the crossing.
The feather burned cold against his thigh.
TRANSIT NOT STARTED: UNSUPPORTED CARGO.
MATERIAL BOUNDARY FAILURE RECORDED.
P1 PATCH CANDIDATE AVAILABLE.
Jin slowly took it out.
“You waited until I had something worth stealing.”