Chapter Fourteen
Pew
Disclaimer: See Chapter Two.
Author's Note: As Birds of a Feather and Rulers of the Skies are linked, I've decided to use this as a bit of a intro too the sequel too Birds of a Feather's sequel.
This'll also explain how the bird-kid Elaina encountered wound up in Alagäesia.
Six Hours Beforehand…
It was an hour before dawn.
Pew was awake with his eyes shut, fighting his own fears.
Now or never. He told himself grimly, before quashing his fear of director Walker's retribution.
Pew reached up and with some difficulty unlatched his crate, before stealthily slinking out of the observation lab, and into a small wardrobe he'd walked past many times before.
He slipped inside, and quickly pulled on some warm, but rather baggy clothes.
After a few minutes, he emerged in grimy, and somewhat mismatched clothes.
After this, Pew made rapid progress to the main entrance, and he was over the fence, and running across the red desert sand, dodging trees as he went, before the guards saw him.
A klaxon sounded, and when Pew glanced back, he saw a big black four-by-four Toyota land cruiser speeding after him.
Pew hesitated for a second. Stuff it, he thought a second later, then he took a running start and jumped into the air, and began to fly, somewhat awkwardly, westward.
The Land Cruiser pursued Pew relentlessly, never giving him a moment's respite.
Pew looked around desperately, and spied a small country town off to his left, and angled his black-and-white wings towards the hills beside the last house in the town.
Five Hours Before Incident At The Grove
Jack West jr. stood on his porch and rested his artificial left hand on his hip, as he drank his first cup of coffee for the morning, and watched the sun rise.
As he drank his coffee, He saw a strange sight: A scruffy teenage boy wearing ratty clothes, with massive, oversized, magpie wings, flying awkwardly towards his house!
And somewhere not too far away, was the sound of a V8 engine.
Who, or whatever the stranger was, Jack realised,-as the stranger landed awkwardly, and headed towards the mine where the remains of several ancient wonders were housed; oblivious too Jack's presence.
He probably needed help.
Pew couldn't believe his luck when he saw the abandoned mine shaft.
I'll just slip in there, lose them, then be on my merry way! Thought Pew with a grin.
He dashed inside, and kept running, until he came to a large chamber, where he stopped dead.
After telling Lily and to stay in the house, Jack woke Sky Monster, and explained the situation to him.
'Christ Huntsman, you hit your head on the porch or something?' Asked Sky Monster, but he quickly got dressed, and grabbed his a Remington twelve-gauge shotgun, that he normally used to defend the Halicarnassus, the modified 747 that Jack had stolen during Desert Storm.
Jack had already grabbed a pair of .45 calibre Desert Eagles.
They exited the house, just as the Toyota pulled up, and a group of men in their twenties piled out.
'Oi! What the bloody hell are you doing on my property?' Shouted Jack, levelling his pistols at the two closest men, while Sky Monster lined up another pair a bit further away.
One of the men, who seemed to be the one who was calmest and most in control, came up to the porch step, and ended up staring down the barrel of one of Jack's pistols.
'We're sorry to bother you, sir, but we're looking for a fugitive, who we believe might be hiding on your property, you wouldn't have seen anyone you didn't know come onto your property over the past hour would you?' Asked the man.
'If I had've seen anyone trespassing on my property an hour ago, they would've been hanging off the front gate, now beat it.' Said Jack in a quiet, angry voice.
'We'd still like to have a look around, just in case.' Said the man reasonably.
Jack cocked his pistols. 'Are you with the police?' He asked calmly.
The man hesitated.
'Get off my property.' Said Jack.
The men charged.
Sky Monster fired, sending one of the men crashing backwards, before Jack set about putting shots into the other four men.
Pew's jaw dropped open, before him was a solid gold mini-pyramid, with a diamond studded peak.
Surrounding this, were an odd assortment of objects: A bronze, satellite dish-like mirror, the head of a giant bronze statue, the lower section of a octagonal, marble pillar.
Suddenly, shots sounded from outside.
Pew spied a small opening at the base of the pyramid, and immediately crawled inside, and crawled out of sight.
He soon came to the end of the little passage.
As he was about o back out, a strange humming from above his head caught his attention.
Pew twisted around, and saw a small crystal glowing an icy blue.
There was a blinding flash, then Pew blacked out.
Okay, that brings Jack West jr into the picture.
That also gives me a way to bring in a couple of characters from the far future in the sequel to Birds of a Feather.
Author's Note: The Character Pew is inspired by the magpie in Footrot Flats.
And if you hadn't already guessed, this is set in outback Australia.