i: The Familiar

​She stood about eight feet tall, thin, with feathers from head to toe. Not huge plumbs, they looked like fur from far away. She wore a loose fitting linen gi. Her body structure is mostly human: two arms, two legs, a torso and a head. Only her fingers are a little too long to be mistaken for a human, her eyes a little far apart and her head twitches a little too fast and a little too often. She nervously glanced down a large pile of forgotten battlements and glided soundlessly across the heap as only an aviary could, her hollow bones allowing her lighter than air leaps and landings on glass and rubble, her keen sense of balance keeping her from falling into the ragged edges of old sheets of metal to some long forgotten mechanical colossus.

Suddenly there was a sound behind her. She twitched her head around. It was about twenty feet behind her. The rumbling became more violent. Spot darted behind an old turret shield and peered through a hole. Out of the ground a long slender antenna flopped out, about a meter in length, followed by a second. They jerked around for a while feeling around. Spot lifted her head above the shield to get a better view.

A claw emerged, followed by a second and then four legs, and crustacean torso about the size of a beagle. It’s front half looked around, it’s two eyes looking in all directions at the same time. It held a long pipe in its smaller claw. The back half curled underneath him unarmored and vulnerable. He clicked, first quietly, then a little louder.

Spot whistles and stepped out into the open. Nimrod hurried over. “What took you so long?” whispered Spot.

Nimrod clicked quietly but agitatedly.

“Don’t swear.” She looked at the pipe, “Is that going to work?”

He clicked and waved the pipe about pinching it about a quarter of the way down one side.

“Okay, we’ll cut it when we get back.” She glanced over her shoulder, “There’s some soldiers back that way. We’ll have to take the long way.”

Nimrod made some angry sounding hisses.

“I’m sorry, we didn’t bring the dogs with us. We would never stand a chance. We aren’t dressed for it.” Nimrod lifted the pipe. “Yes, yes. Soon enough, you’ll show them all. Now let’s get going.

Spot sprinted away from the soldiers who were patrolling the valley and Nimrod kept pace surprisingly well. Along the way they darted over and through old tanks and turrets. They were on the north side of an ancient battleground. Spot stopped and looked back, Nimrod wasn’t following. She whispered his name and twitched her head this way and that listening for his clicks.

There was a rustling some ways back. She stood peering down a large fissure in the ground. She could just make out Nimrod hovering over a skeleton. She threw a rock at him. “Knock that off you disgusting bug! We have food back home.”

Nimrod looked up at her and dropped the skeleton. He climbed his way back out of the hole and they were on there way again.

About a mile later Nimrod clicked inquisitively. “What? I don’t know how that hole got there. It’s probably from the war.”

Nimrod sounded confused.

“Well, the old king was a wizard. He could do stuff like break the earth. Look shut up, we’re coming up on Pravus, we’ll need to be really quiet until we’re in Moenia.”

Nimrod asked about their plans.

“Yes, they said they would bring your suit. We’re meeting them at the Lion's Table. Now shut up until we get there.”

"Yes, it's the place with the good stout. I'd think you were Irish if you didn't have ten legs. Now shut up and let's get moving!"