Two
Okay. Lesson learned. The red berries with the yellow dots on them were not edible. Or at the very least, not palatable. After retching once and spending twenty minutes or so washing her mouth out at the stream, Avocet sat again by the very fringes of her colony's territory, watching the horizon of the distant desert as she had been doing for a week. Surviving on whatever she could scrounge up from the forest floor, Avocet was still dangerously weak and couldn't move very far from her spot. Besides, even if she could, she didn't want to. She just knew that if she waited long enough, her mother would show up. She had to. Either her mother, or Rail. One of them would show up. What happened hadn't been her fault. Heck, Elder Condor hadn't even said anything about the accident when he left her on the edge of the forest. Peregrine's death was never even brought up, so why was she being punished for it like she'd killed her cousin on purpose? Avocet couldn't figure it out.
She sighed, feeling the breeze ghost through the fluffy down covering her head and trailing slightly into her eyes. She dug her foot claws into the dirt at her feet, raking it up out of boredom. She could feel her stomach rumbling. She hadn't eaten much of anything substantial in several days. She'd gotten lucky one morning and discovered a dead squirrel near the ravine. It hadn't been much, but it had taken the edge off her hunger. Her tiny wings ruffled and she sighed, gazing up into the sky and watching the clouds pass by slowly, drawn by a gentle breeze. Her eyes narrowed, again remembering that she could probably never reach those clouds and find out what they felt like as she soared through them.
A flurry of wing beats drew her attention to the east in the direction of the community. It was a flock of birds flapping off in that direction, completely oblivious of their grounded relative on the ground below. Avocet sighed heavily and stood up, moving into the trees to scrounge for something to eat that she could keep down.
As she moved through the undergrowth, pushing plants and other shrubs aside, she kept her weakened eyes trained on the ground, seeking out anything that looked either edible or familiar. Movement to her right alerted her to a white-tailed deer hightailing it into the trees and she ground her teeth together. She needed to catch something to eat with some actual substance to it. She crept silently through the mossy floor of the forest, her birdlike feet barely making any noise whatsoever. The tiny claws on her thin, bony fingers flexed in and out and she scanned the forest floor carefully. She made up her mind to try to hunt something. If she couldn't catch anything, she'd resort to a patch of mushrooms she'd passed earlier. They tasted bland and soggy, but she'd eaten them before and they didn't hurt her. They would hold her over if she absolutely had to.
She scented the air, trying to pick up a whiff of anything familiar. The scent of smoke met her nose and she pinpointed it in a northern direction, away from the territory. Avocet narrowed her eyes, glancing backward toward the ravine and the direction she knew her mother would come from, but simply hadn't yet.
She wouldn't be gone long. This had been her mindset whenever she left the line of trees skirting the edges of the territory; that she wouldn't be gone long. Just in case, she left a feather on the ground at the base of the tree she'd been using as her bed before darting further off into the forest. Following the smell of the smoke, she would stop and close her eyes now and then, trying to trace the source. She knew enough from her brother venting about humans to her mother to understand that smoke meant humans, which probably meant supplies she could scavenge. At least she hoped so anyway.
The game trail she was using was well worn and easy to follow. Her claws dug into the soft Earth as she moved along it, keeping her eyes trained for anything out of the ordinary. She was dimly aware that the sun was beginning to leave its zenith in the sky above her and the shadows were growing long again. She had plenty of light now, but it wouldn't stay that way for long. She needed to find food, and soon. Hopefully, the human hunters wouldn't be around when she finally found their campsite.
She paused, scenting the air again and finding the smell to be closer. She felt a strange tingling sensation through her scalp at the idea of either food or confrontation with the humans. She wasn't sure which impulse was the stronger of the two. Either way, she knew she was getting closer. Her claws twitched in anticipation. Or adrenaline. Again, she wasn't sure which. For all she knew, she was terrified, but the growling of her empty stomach and the instinct to feed drew her on a straight course. Any adult Avian would have had the knowledge and foresight to be more cautious when approaching an enemy base camp. Avocet had none of those things. At only seven years of age, she was already the size of a preteen human, but possessing only a three foot wingspan, which was small for the Avians at that age, she lacked the experience many of her peers already possessed. The most she could rely on was her raw talent and rage if cornered. She just hoped she wouldn't have to make use of those struggle-bug tactics.
The smell of smoke was now overwhelming to her sensitive nose and the white pupils of her eyes dilated on reflex to pick up as much low light in the forest floor as she could. She emerged from the trees to find a small clearing littered with ferns and moss-covered rocks. A smattering of small tents lay askew on the ground in a semi-circle around a dying campfire surrounded by rocks in a shallow pit in the Earth. A spit had been set up, but nothing was on it yet. Avocet crept forward, tracing the smoke and the metallic smell of blood in the air. She couldn't tell from which animal. She also caught the distinct scent of human close by, but she neither saw nor heard a single individual. She tucked her wings in close to her body, her claws twitching on reflex as she scanned the campsite. Her heart hammered in her chest, her legs coiled to spring at the first sign of danger. She felt an odd tingling that stretched from her forehead all the way to her lower back, but she couldn't figure out why. This time, the only thing she knew was that the sensation wasn't from hunger or anticipation.
Something wasn't right here.
The scent of blood, but no bodies, human or animal. A living campfire, with no one to attend it. A spit set up over the fire, which was in its dying stages from lack of fuel. Tents upended and knocked over.
Ignoring her instincts screaming at her to run, Avocet crept through the camp toward one of the destroyed tents. She crawled beneath the thin canvas, rifling silently through the belongings inside. She found a bag made of similar material to the canvas tent. It was filled with assorted essential camping gear; only a few of which Avocet recognized from the articles and trinkets her brother had brought home. She was familiar with the compass, which she took, the spyglass, which she didn't really need but took anyway, a tin of meat, which she snatched eagerly, and a crusty loaf of bread, which she grabbed disdainfully. She emptied the canvas bag and put her chosen articles into it to carry with her. Everything else, she didn't recognize and left alone. Scrambling out from inside the tent, she moved on to the next one, only to end up with less satisfying results with nothing inside of it. Emerging from the second one, she peered around the camp again, still expecting to see a human come bolting at her with some kind of weapon at the ready to slice her open. The smell of blood was still potent, but it seemed to come from all directions. And that tingling sensation running down her back wouldn't stop. By this time, blood roared in her ears as her heart continued to beat far faster than any human heart and her legs were so tense they were beginning to ache. Avocet was beginning to grow a little worried. It now felt dangerous to be in the campsite, but with no one around, she couldn't for the life of her place as to why. Looking up through the trees, she noticed the light beginning to fade already. The sun was now entering its descent. She had about five hours' worth of light left. She picked her way around the dying fire, taking one last look around the camp in case she missed something she should poke through. Her eyes caught a small red box sitting on the edges of the clearing near a little pile of rotting animal bones. She crept over and opened the box with a sharp squeak from the hinges. Inside were various colorful little baubles and bits of string, but she had no idea what these were or how they were used. Digging through them, she searched for anything that seemed useful. She hissed when something sharp stabbed her finger and she yanked a curved metal object out of her skin, sucking the appendage irritably as she tried to stop the bleeding. She continued to rifle through the box with her other hand until she came across a sharp hunting knife. She lifted it out of the box and slid the sleeve off of the blade. It was pretty long, serrated and sharp. It smelled of blood too, but it was clean. It must have been used and then cleaned and put back. She stuck the knife into the canvas bag and stood up, her eyes moving around the clearing. Now she was sure of it; something definitely wasn't right here. However, even as that thought crossed her mind, the tingling feeling shooting up and down her back finally stopped. Her wings relaxed against her back and the tightness left her legs. She felt like she could breathe again.
She yanked the strap of the bag up and around her shoulders, shrugging one wing out from beneath it and folding both behind her. She slowly moved out of the clearing and away from the smell of blood. Even though she felt safe now, for some reason, she knew she couldn't stay around that campsite for long.
Moving back through the trees and farther away from the campsite, Avocet kept her eyes trained on the sky. She was sure she smelled rain now, a pleasant distraction from the blood smell that lingered on her clothing. It hadn't rained in weeks since the dry season began. Perhaps sensing the storm, her mother wouldn't be able to hold herself back anymore and would come out looking for her. Avocet jogged all the way back to her tree by the edge of the ravine with that thought in mind, hoping that it would come true for her.
She sat down in the immense roots of the tree, nibbling on a crust of bread as she waited. She scanned the sky, hoping to see or hear wing beats off in the distance. Her own wings twitched at the thought. She'd already survived over a week out in the wilds on her own. In fact, the bread was the first thing with substance she'd had since before she left. She was trying to wait on opening the tin of dried meat. But she knew that she couldn't stay alive forever out here, especially if she refused to move from the treeline much longer. But a part of her remained convinced her mother was going to come looking for her. As long as that part of her mind was set on it, she knew she had to wait.
What else did she have left?
/ooo/
Three days went by. Avocet kept busy and staved off insanity by teaching herself how to climb trees. Her talons were stronger than she'd figured as they dug easily into the thick bark of her tree, allowing her to gouge her foot talons in as she alternated from one limb to another, slowly gaining altitude on the thick trunk. It was slow going, her hands and feet ached, but she kept at it. It was something to do and it was making her stronger. If elder Condor refused to acknowledge her strength after this, then she gave up. Climbing the tree turned out to be easy, it seemed.
It was the getting down part that she dreaded. She started out trying to go down headfirst, watching some squirrels manage it that way. However a quick reuniting with the ground headfirst taught her that she was probably a bit too uncoordinated for that particular strategy. So she settled with going down feet first from then on, at least until she had a better grasp of what she was doing and more advanced skills to handle it.
She had also been roaming further and further from the tree during the day in search of food. She reasoned with herself that as long as she returned to the tree before nightfall, she was safe. She'd scattered her feathers all over the place there. If her mother showed up, she'd definitely know that Avocet was still in the area.
The Avian juvenile had also taken to watching human hunters who came through. Most of them carried weapons that made horrifying noises, forcing Avocet to keep her distance. But she would sit in trees and watch them as they hunted other animals. Of course, actually applying those skills took a little more time to perfect, and by the eve of her third day after stalking those hunters, Avocet still hadn't managed to even catch a squirrel. Despite her grievances, she'd been forced to turn to the mushroom patch for nourishment.
However quitting wasn't in her plan. Far from it. This thought nudged the back of her mind as she crouched in some thick bushes, watching a rabbit nibble on some grasses in front of her. Mimicking the stance of the hunters she'd seen, she knelt as low as possible, her leg muscles coiled and ready to spring as she eyed what she hoped would be her meal that evening. It seemed that every fiber of her being was now following this tiny rodent; every twitch of the whiskers as it scented the air, every time the ears swiveled, the eyes twinkled in the setting sun. She was aware of all of it. The world had begun to revolve around this one, tiny rabbit.
Avocet licked her lips in concentration as she silently willed the animal to come ever closer to her. She was dying to spring, but she told herself just three more seconds. Just three more seconds.
Her legs burned from the coiled position for so long, her muscles cramping and her head aching from the exertion, but she held on. The rabbit drew nearer to her and she ducked her head slightly, raising herself up on her haunches by just a fraction. This meal could potentially save her life, keep her going for a few more days. Avians were natural predators. She could only survive so long on a vegetarian diet. She needed meat, and soon.
Blam!
Spooked, the rabbit took off into the bushes and Avocet raised her head up, gritting her teeth in fury and glaring off in the direction of the noise. She recognized the sound of the hunters' weapons discharging somewhere off in the distance. She made a face of disgust and hoped they caught whatever they'd shot at. She hoped it went down fighting, whatever it was.
Blam! Blam! Blam!
Avocet frowned. That was a little more noise than she expected. She wondered what they could be chasing that they had to attack it so many times in rapid succession. She scrambled out of the bush and over to a thick oak tree. She buried her talons into the bark and started climbing, up to the first branch about twenty feet up. If the hunters were headed her way, she wanted to be out of direct sight.
More noise coming from the distance and it seemed to be getting closer. Avocet peered down from her vantage high above the ground, hugging the trunk of the tree to stay as hidden as possible. The sounds were getting louder and she could now hear the screams of the hunters. But these weren't the celebratory whoops they made whenever they brought something down. These were screams of terror. They weren't chasing something, something was chasing them!
Avocet curled into a ball on her branch, eyes wide as one of the hunters burst out of the undergrowth and stumbled, falling flat on his face on the forest floor. He was covered in blood, though still moving fairly well. Avocet wondered if the blood wasn't his. He staggered to his feet, moving clumsily over to the tree she sat in, and then on to the next tree a few feet from hers. He tangled his feet up in the thick roots beneath and went down again with a cry, striking his head on one of the roots. Gasping, blood streaming from the cut on his face, he wiped it away and managed to get to his feet a third time.
A piercing, hissing shriek made Avocet jump and her eyes whirled furiously, trying to locate the source before it located her. Something black shot through the trees below, almost too fast to follow. But Avocet's eyes locked on and, to her amazement, managed to stay locked on to a strange, black creature, humanoid in appearance but with frightening spines, a lashing tail like an Avian's but much more reptilian, and a gaping maw with saliva dripping ominously from its fearsome jaws. Snarling and screeching, it clawed its way across the forest floor toward its helpless and terrified prey. Avocet watched in horror as it bore down on the unfortunate hunter, grabbing his arm in a crushing hold in its surprisingly thin hands. The hunter continued to scream in fear as the black thing began to drag him away, back in the direction it had come from. Avocet watched until it was out of sight, though the man's terrified screams still echoed through the canopy. Those screams continued to sound off for several more minutes, not cutting off abruptly, but just going on and on, growing fainter and fainter as he was taken further and further away. Finally, though she strained to listen, his screams faded from her ears.
She could feel the cold sweat on her face, the way her talons gouged deep rivets in the trunk of the tree. That tingling sensation was back with a vengeance, coursing down her back like water gushing over her and extending clear into her wings, which had stretched to their full length. Her eyes were wide, her mouth hanging open. She couldn't believe that thing. Real, horrifying, and alive as daylight, she now was coming to terms with the reality that for the last two weeks, she'd been sharing forest space with that horror. She could've been dragged off ay any given time to who knows where by that...that thing, whatever it was. No story her brother had ever brought back came even remotely close to what she had just seen.
Too shaken to move, Avocet stayed in the tree for a long time, just staring at the grooves in the dirt where the man's writhing body had been dragged by that creature. Clawed hands gripping her ankles, tucking her wings in, she gazed blankly at the forest floor below her, knowing at some point she would have to work up the nerve to climb back down and risk running into that thing.
"How long has it been here?" she asked herself aloud. Could she even stay in this part of the forest any longer? She'd been here almost two weeks waiting patiently for her mother to come find her. But after those two weeks and no sign of her, and still not strong enough to venture safely back into the territory, Avocet was starting to lose hope. The elder Condor could have easily gone back and coldly informed her mother that she'd been killed or abandoned to her fate in a human village. If her mother now assumed her dead, then it would explain why she hadn't come for her.
Avocet raised her gaze, staring off in the direction of the colony barely visible through the treetops, the sun streaming through as it began its descent to the west. She flexed her talons, feeling a dull ache in her chest as she came to terms with her reality.
Her mother wasn't coming.
She folded her knees back, terror from that creature and despair at abandonment pooling together and welling up inside of her. Muffled sobs wracked her tiny body as she vented her sadness and frustration. But the part that hurt more than anything was the knowledge that she could no longer remain sedentary. With that unknown horror running loose in the forest, Avocet knew it was only a matter of time until it found her; the heavens knew why it hadn't found her already. Whether her mother came looking for her or not, she knew that she had to leave. She sniffed a few times, wiping her eyes on her sleeve and ruffling the feathers of her black wings. She scooted over to the trunk of the tree, digging her claws in as she began to descend. She did so silently, barely making any sound as she went slower than she'd ever gone before. She hardly even dared to breathe. When her foot touched the ground, it did so gingerly, afraid to step on any leaves or twigs. Her three bird-like toes stood easily, balanced on the soft dirt as she scanned the terrain around her. Even though the sky was still quite light, the forest floor was already very dark. Picking her way along the now familiar trail, Avocet made her way back to her tree. Her canvas bag was still there, along with a few leftover stale scraps of the bread she'd taken and been rationing ever since. They were hard as rocks and not very palatable, but she gulped them down quickly as last-ditch energy for her journey. She gathered the bag up around her shoulders, taking out the knife she'd picked up. She sighed as she took one last look at the roots of the tree that had sheltered her for a fortnight. Reaching around, she took hold of one of her feathers and winced as she yanked it free. She set this down in the roots beneath a rock to hold it. If her mother came by, this was her guiding flag.
Taking one last long look at her former homeland, Avocet adjusted her bag and turned her back on her people, just as they had done her. Tears flowed silently from her eyes as she bid a quiet farewell to her mother and apology to her aunt for what had happened. Then, without looking back again, she disappeared into the trees without a trace.
A/N: I normally like to wait until the chapters have been beta read before posting, but I'm already overdue and my sister is being pokey. So when we finally get around to editing it, I'll make any changes we agree on. Until then, I hope you enjoyed the new update. I'll see you in October, my lovelies! ~Luna