by C. Litka
After being on the ground for the better part of a week, I'd almost forgotten that this was still the Pela. I'm uncertain if it was the sudden quiet - all the birds and even the insects seemed to have suddenly decided to hold their collective breath - or Hissi's seemingly loud and alarmed bark behind us in that hollow silence, that spun me around. In the sky, and coming in low, was a large, dark feathered bird with a wing span twice that of a talon-hawk. It was less than a hundred meters off. I'd my darter out in an instant, and switched to lethal darts as I raised and aimed it. I waited a heartbeat until I could see the blue dot of the drive field on its feathered chest and let fly two darts. I saw the blue flash as the darts discharged their lethal energy. I waited no longer, before diving under the poles of the sled for what little cover it offered. Hissi was already there and KaRaya landed next to me, her spring charged air pistol in hand. The creature struck the ground just behind the sled, bounced, and landed on the sled, upsetting it and covering us in a smothering blanket of feathers. We all rolled out, my darter and KaRaya's springer aimed squarely at the slowly settling heap of feathers. It didn't seem to be moving on its own, but we still backed away, keeping our weapons aimed at it. The meadow still held its breath as a little breeze stirred the dark feathers, which shimmered in a dim rainbow of blues, greens and violet.
'A shadow-hawk,' said KaRaya, holstering her weapon. 'A rather rare bird. It's long tail feathers are in great demand. We'll be able to sell them for a nice heavy bag of silver coins,' she added, looking up with a rather wan smile. 'I'm beginning to believe you are, indeed, a lucky man, Wilitang. You seem to be able to attract coins out of the sky, though you might want to warn me when you do. '
I bit back an angry retort. I'd been as guilty as she was in failing to keep a skyward watch. We hadn't seen any large dragons since our arrival and I had assumed that they stayed clear of these larger islands, if only because they'd have to fight gravity. This dragon-sized shadow-hawk, however, was clearly designed to fly in gravity.
'We seem to have grown rather careless. We'll have to be more watchful.' I might have added more, but Hissi landed on my shoulder and gave me a frightened look. 'Thanks for the warning.'
She gave me a low hiss that was, for once, subdued and un-sarcastic.
'Right. Keep an occasional eye on the sky, they might hunt in pairs,' said KaRaya. 'I'll pluck its tail feathers and rig up a sailcloth envelope to keep them nice and neat. You repair the sled. We'll need to work fast, since the remains may attract other beasties...'
I let out a long breath, holstered my darter and helped KaRaya pull the sled free, and then set out re-stowing our supplies and repairing one of the legs, while she carefully plucked the meter-long tail-feathers, their rich colors shimmering in and out of blackness as the light struck them. We carefully wrapped most of them in canvas, stiffened with a few saplings to keep them from getting bent. KaRaya stuck two in her hat, that trailed behind her. And then we headed off before any beasties arrived.