The Dark Cloud

While Takabi didn't like the connotations of her observations in the least, she could not have denied the interest she felt in the changing landscape below her. The mountains she traveled over quickly transformed into an icy coast, which provided her sustenance in the form of many large seafowl and fat fish, straight from the sea. As soon as she noticed how scarce the ice-berries – small, tart little red berries that grew in abundance in ice and snow - were becoming, she made sure to pick a good number. She harvested so many, in fact, that they weighed her down slightly. It was lucky for the Tenklaki woman that fish was easy to digest and expel; the digestion of food unaided by any available berries would be inconvenient, to say the least, whilst travelling.

The further South she traveled, the more the landscape morphed before her eyes. On her 4th day of travel, the icy coast gave way to equally icy mountains, although with the passing kilometers, the ice was lessening, and the mountains became largely dark cracks dancing across a white landscape, excluding their snowy tops. The snow was becoming scarcer as well, for pines and other large evergreen trees started to multiply, shading the white with deep hues of green. By this time, the mountain goats had disappeared, and Takabi's talons instead sunk into the flesh of small, fleet-footed deer -their speed and other factors such as the trees made them hard to catch, though not prohibitively difficult.

While possessing nowhere near as much substance and fat as mountain goats, the deer were relatively easy to skin, and their meat was easy to prepare. Birds were also becoming more plentiful, and while she had never seen some of them, she had no qualms about targeting the fattest, most juicy looking fowl and treating herself to a good roast. While she was cautious and kept to the air as much as possible, the notion of the 'Savage South' quickly turned to more of an exotic banquet, as it was clear many of the local animals had never needed to avoid a swift airborne predator such as herself.

With the abundance of alien life came a slight change in the air. Every time she landed to sleep, she noticed the slight thickness of the air, which worried her little, although it was not drastic. However, as she left the arid mountains behind her and soared above rolling lands of green grass, Takabi noticed how warm and thick the air was, which made everything feel heavy to her.

As the winds started to change direction, she altered her course to the Southeast, in order to reach the 'Lorieni' that was described in the Great Explorer's old scrolls. Takabi knew little of the furred barbarians who walked the lands, although, she found herself slightly intrigued by what appeared to be different sorts of barbarian cultures recorded, with the least savage of these breeds residing at her destination. These were described as the 'Tall Ones', who were slender, long-furred and had pointed features. They were practitioners of magic, and were thought to be the most advanced of the barbarians. The next in the ladder where 'Broad Ones', more violent yet shorter, who possessed more fur and seemed to be the most common type of barbarian. Then, the 'Short Ones', who were the furriest and, according to the writings, the least intelligent and welcoming. There were more, yet she had decided not to read further, already feeling apprehensive about dealing with these odd, furred, crawling beings.

By the seventh day, despite the lack of truly rough weather, the strange southern climate was beginning to take a toll on her body. The wind did nothing to soothe the heat that she felt from the sun, and the lands below provided no relief; she had only been able to find one small brook of fresh water to cool her down and fill her water bottle, and the flustered avian humanoid made the decision to travel by night, if possible. However, this meant attempting to land in the dark, which was risky if she could not avoid any potential hazards. However, fate was not with her on this.

It had started with startlingly loud, cawing noises - a thousand screeches in the night. The noise struck a strange sense of impending doom on the startled Takabi, and before she had time to react, what appeared to be a large, fast-moving cloud flew overhead on the dark horizon. On slightly closer inspection, it appeared to be a flock of carrion birds. But what were they doing flying at night? She attempted to steer clear of them, all the while remaining on course. When this didn't seem to help her avoid them, she risked dropping down below them in order to let them pass overhead – an open invitation to attack if she was facing something capable of harming her, although she did not think these creatures capable of great damage to her person. This was a grave mistake. She had little time to react before the volume of the screeching increased, and the flock of creatures beset her from above, clawing and tearing at her.

Takabi let out a noise of surprise, and then instinctively dived away from the things, tucking her wings around her and dropping like a stone. This gave her momentary relief from their attacks, and she increased her speed, trying to flee as quickly as possible. A screeching to her left heralded yet another group of birds, which herded her even further off course, and she cursed under her breath as she tried in vain to right herself. It took her several moments to realize that these things were intelligent, and had managed to surround her from all directions in a matter of minutes by force of sheer numbers, regardless of how she dropped and weaved.

Another attack caused her to drop disjointedly in a blind panic; she was able to buffet a few with her wings and slice with her talons, but was unable to effectively fend off her attackers as she tumbled awkwardly through the air. They ripped at her skin and feathers, drawing blood and making her scream in pain, mind going blank as she was completely swarmed. She tried diving once more, and managed to break free of the flock, her body tucked in as compactly as possible. The air rushed past her, stinging the myriad of cuts she had sustained from the assault of the swarm.

By this time, Takabi was completely, woefully off course, and she had no idea where she was headed. All she wanted at that moment was to get away from her surprise attackers. She was flying low, and she realised too late that there were no more high altitude winds to help speed her escape, and she was beset once more. Frantic zigzagging and thrashing helped her situation no more than diving had, and she knew that she was in terrible danger of hitting a tree or other object. Yet she was also in danger of being literally ripped to pieces in the air, most likely leaving nothing but an odd looking skeleton behind in a remote area.

This lovely thought was the last that ran through her head, besides a string of colourful expletives, as she briefly saw a large pine tree and realised, again too late, that she was heading straight for it. Takabi collided against the hard wood with a sound thwack as she mercifully missed sharp protruding sticks of wood, before tumbling down several rows of branches and losing consciousness in an awkward heap.

A few minutes later, Takabi drifted back towards consciousness, at first wondering if she were dead. Raising her eyes to the stars overhead, she observed the dark cloud that attacked her veering off to another location, seemingly abandoning her. Struggling in a stunned stupor to right herself, the winged being turned over, realising her mistake too late when she lost balance and tumbled down the rest of the tree, hitting the ground hard and adding to her already extensive list of injuries. In that particular spot, she drifted in and out of semi-consciousness for an unknown amount of time; unable to move and at the mercy of the elements.

If it were not for her rescuers, she would undoubtedly have died there, near the side of the mountain known by the locals as 'Weathertop'.

A/N:

Sorry for the wait! I was being bad and reading other people's fanfiction instead of working on my own. (I'm loving it so far, Ms. Lailath! I'm hooked!)

Why didn't she get eaten by wolves during those days bleeding out on the ground? I dunno. Also, the Crebain leaving Takabi for dead without doing the smart thing and eating her while they could is what originally happened in the fic, so I suppose I kept it in for authenticity's sake, and for the fact that I can't fill every plot hole in this miserable narrative.

Yes, Takabi's kind eat very quickly and pass it through their bodies faster than others might, to give them enough energy for flight and detract from the Tenklaki race's Sueness. There is no biological basis for this, I just know that if birds eat and shit a lot, then so should Takabi.

I apologize immensely for the lack of canon-y goodness besides said flock of evil crows, and I promise that the next chapter will involve the dashing ranger himself, as well as hobbits! I suppose with the mention of Weathertop you may be able to guess which part of the story our unfortunate OC is thrusting herself into.

So far, so good; I haven't gouged out my own eyes yet!