Earth 481
It was early morning, the red and gold lights of dawn still lingering in the sky. Ariele Clan Peregrine had risen early, as she always did to the sound of the dawn chorus. After fifteen years as Chief Guardian of these orchards, she could identify the individual calls of all the passerine species. Beautiful nuisances was her personal name for them. She slid silently from the bed and walked just as quietly out of the sleeping quarters, not wanting to disturb her mate and fledglings. Pausing near the outer door, she slipped into her loose robe, then tied the orange and green sash that showed her rank about her waist. A final few moments while she ran her hands through her feathery hair and then she eased open the door, meeting the cooler early morning air.
She went barefoot, for she enjoyed the feel of the morning dew against her skin. She took the path through the Home Garden, glancing at the food plants as she went. The weather had been good this year and what she saw delighted her. She made a mental note to ask her mate or eldest sibling to make one of her favourite dishes - early in the year for that though it was. The harvest would be more than sufficient.
Before long, she was walking through the orchards with their neat rows of fruit bushes, all draped in nets to keep the pesky birds away. She saw fruit of all colours - red, yellow, orange, purple, green and almost black ripening. The scent of the ripening fruit was heavy on the air and - although her diet was mostly meat - her mouth began to water. She decided that she would allow herself the privilege of rank and carefully picked a small orange fruit. She nibbled it as she walked, some of the juice running down her chin.
Then she stopped in horror, the half-eaten fruit falling unnoticed from her hand. In front of her, all was devastation. She had lived long enough to see three Great Storms but that was not what she was now looking at. The nets had been deliberately torn from the bushes, branches torn off and thrown to the ground, fruit trampled and squashed. The passerines were beginning to come to this unexpected feast. She would have screamed out her rage and horror if she hadn't glimpsed something from the corner of her eyes. She swung round to see a woman watching her and not just any woman. An ugly Surface-dweller. Who was actually smiling at her.
''You!'' the word was a shriek.
For all her species sophistication - those who worked in education and culture had the highest social rank - Ariele's species were predators. She extended and flexed her talons as she started towards the intruder. For the moment, her rage distracted her - she failed to notice the danger behind her until someone else - two someones - grabbed her. She was swift and agile but they were strong and they had hold of her half-unfolded wings. Then a hand clamped over her mouth, pulling her head back. She felt a pain at her throat and then she was falling. Knowing she was dying.
The woman walked forward and looked down at the creature her men had just killed, her mouth twisting in disdain. There were some who might have considered the Avianoids graceful, even beautiful. She wasn't one of them.
''OK, we're finished here''' she looked around with satisfaction.
The next Avianoids to come on the scene would assume it was the work of surface-dwellers. She took a small yellow fruit out of her shoulder-bag - she had allowed everyone to take a small number of fruits - and bit down into it. Delicious.
With any luck, General Laurel Lance thought, she had just started a war.
