The rain added the effect. Hazel's hands were shaking. Nego slid away and hid in the curtains. The egret had one foot raised, its feathers fluffed up. The bird was tall, just a bit shorter than Tagu.
The egret wasn't so much threatening as much as it was tall. Grey feathers edged its wings with long, black skinny legs and its grey plume on its head was sticking out in the air. The water ran off its feathers.
Nego felt much safer in the curtains. Taking a trembling step forward, the egret looked at her with intelligent brown eyes. Hazel stretched out her hand. Her eyes sparked a little, hope rising. The bird made its way to her and lowered itself.
'You never broke the promise, Jun. You never did,' she said while clutching its neck. She raised her arm to stroke the egret's neck. 'You've grown a lot.'
Jun stretched out his wings and looked at the open door. Snapping out of reality, Nego appeared out of the curtains. 'I hope you don't mind water, because that's the only way out.'
Hazel looked at him. Her eyes were shining with happiness, they didn't make Nego's spine shiver. She stood up, looked towards the crashing waves and took off her coat and threw it at the back of the boat adding to the boots and gloves they had both thrown to wear later.
Nego kicked his fur jacket to the back. 'I need my cloak back,' he said. 'You don't plan to leave your weapon here, do you? And we're going to need supplies.' Jun nodded. Hazel closed her eyes and took Jun's beak in her hands.
Jun folded back his wings and raised one foot to put her arms back to her sides. The egret took off. Hazel ran after him with Nego tailing after them. The egret spread his wings to fly next to the ship.
It turned in sharply to land on the railing. Hazel opened the door and walked carefully across the boxes. Quietly, Nego found Yarrow with his cloak and Hazel found her javelin and boomerang. Nego climbed down to the lower deck and unleashed Tagu.
'Escaping off the ship. You know the drill.' Tagu looked at Hazel and the egret. 'That's Jun,' Nego answered. Tagu huffed and rumbled. 'Objective is to, I don't know. Maybe escape and find talismans. We could find yours first.'
Hazel gently parted the fur around Tagu's neck. Even in the heavy rain, Nego managed to catch a glimpse of something shining in the rain. On a string that was as light as a feather but as strong as the rope of the rigging, a tiny buffalo carved out of moonstone reflected two colors.
Pink, blue and shades of green mixed together. 'I think, we have found our first Talisman,' Hazel whispered.
Not the end, book two will come out. If you want to find what egret Jun was based on search on 'Ono, the lion guard wiki.' (Yeah, a Disney character from the lion king sequel) Anyway, I thank all the guest who reviewed and the one person who dared to follow this story and the other equally cool person who favorited it. I think of all the guest and people who decided to see what this story was about as great individuals.
If you want to see more, please look out for book two. I hope that we'll get twice as more reviews and two followers this time and not just one. Not forgetting the guest, I thank all of you guys.
