by T Hearts
Asher was aware of the growing sound too, and immediately his gaunt terror fled him. His mind making the same connections as IO.
“IO, get out of sight.” He said quickly, voice low and looking stoic as he backed up to the flatbed.
“What will you do?”
“Let them know what they’ve done.”
IO shot into the gulley, flying low so that she couldn’t be seen immediately as the men rounded the shallow hilltop and broke into the clearing, then arced up behind them into the sky. There was no cloud cover and so she had to fly higher than she wanted to.
Asher feared many things. Bears, mountain lions, the canyons on dark nights with the wind whistling through the rocks, but men with guns turned him into a different creature entirely.
He lost the fearful look in his eye, drawing his own shotgun up to his shoulder with a grim jawed glare as the horses drew to a halt before him.
IO, circling above in the sky and keeping her shadow out of sight, counted six colourful paint horses, a man upon each and all armed with guns, two with shotguns the rest with what looked like net guns and ropes. What had they hoped to do? Lasso the Febris and walk or drag it all the way back to wherever they had come from?
The man at the head of the party of horses held up his hand and stopped the others as they looked on in panic at the dead Febris and the skinny man in park ranger khakis. Tall and wiry, with a sun weathered face that was set into a permanent scowl.
Asher took one look at the party and cocked his gun.
“Hunting – regardless of species – is illegal here without a valid and licenced permit, sir.” Asher bellowed across the gulf at the man.
He looked lost for words.
With a deep and bewildered sigh, he took off his hat and ran his fingers through his greyed hair. He hadn’t expected there to be a park ranger out there so quickly, nor did he appear as though he knew what to say that Asher could believe.
Three of the men in the party spoke quickly and in worried voices at the leader – who IO dubbed, bossman, though she couldn’t hear what it was they were saying as they talked over one another.
“Would y’all just let me talk damnit!” He snapped back at them in a muffled voice.
But Asher spoke before the man could think of a lie to sell him.
“You have two choices sirs. Leave the park boundaries immediately or I will be calling in a higher authority to resolve this issue.”
“Higher authority?” The bossman chuckled suddenly, giving a little smug point to the sky, “I don’t think that beast there is part of his jurisdiction, or a matter for him to resolve, sir.”
He turned to his party, trotting the horse around in front of them. The horse was nervous, it didn’t like the smell or sight of the dead Febris.
“Look at this kid being all brave and stupid.” He laughed, “Good joke, amirite? Now stand aside so I can collect my property and be on my way.”
The bossman lifted the barrel of his gun in threat but Asher ground his heels in, steadying his aim.
“You’ve been given your warnings sir.”
“Well you best get your higher authority to deal with it then. Cause I aint leaving this thing here.”
“Done!”
The bossman’s head snapped up at the sound of IO’s voice, her wings silhouetted against the bright sun.
“What in the goddamn-”
IO’s heels connected with his head in a sharp cracking sound and launched him several meters out of his saddle and nearly into the gully. The horses scattered with panicked snorts and shrieks as her wings beat the air, smacking men from their saddles. She bounced lightly, leaping at men like a Raptor and ripping their weapons from their hands, kicking, and slashing with her feet and talons.
The men, with no clue as to what had hit them, panicked and began sprinting as fast as they could after their horses with those– who still had their feet caught in the stirrups– being hauled unceremoniously away.
The bossman scrambled cursing to his feet and drew out a gun from a holster on his side, aiming it wildly at the quick moving Avio and –
-BANG-
The sound echoed through the air over the panic and the bossman yowled in pain as the gun he held exploded into smithereens in his hand, splintering his face with shrapnel.
He fell backwards, casting IO a furious look as she flapped into the air and brought her talons down again. With a yelp, he managed to roll out of the way and started up running for his horse, cradling his hand to his chest.
Victorious, IO flared her wings out either side of her and let out a vicious howling screech after the men that echoed throughout the gully as they scrambled away in a cloud of dust.
“Remind me never to get on your bad side.” Asher half-laughed through a choked voice of terror. IO shook herself down, trying to will the feathers along her spine to settle.
“That was a good shot Asher.”
“That…that wasn’t me.” He admitted, nervous and uneasy once more. “I still have the chambers loaded.”
“Then-”
Her feathers rose again as she leapt up onto a high rock, alert and full of fury. A ranger jeep was racing towards them with Peyton – as IO knew from the terrible driving it was performing over the rough terrain- but it was coming from a different direction to where the shot had come from. It couldn’t have been Peyton. Not that she could have seen what was going on to shoot anyway.
“What’s going on! What happened!” Peyton yelled as she bundled out of the jeep. IO ignored her, retracing her steps and position. Asher was behind her to her south-east, the bossman in front of her to the west with everyone scattered behind him, Peyton had just arrived from the south.
“Hang on Peyton.” Asher said warily, holding Peyton back before she approached the Febris or IO. “IO’s on something.”
Cherry-eyes scanned the horizon eliminating everything to her south. Northwards, there were hills, rocky cliffs and canyons. It must have come from the north.
“What is it?” Peyton asked, seeing IO arch her wings above her.
IO hissed. A terrifyingly feral Raptor’s sound that made Peyton shudder.
“Stay here and I’ll be right back.”
There wasn’t a chance for her to argue as IO bolted into the air in a whirlwind of dust.
She rocketed high. Straight above the clouds and with any luck too high for anyone to see her coming.
The cowboys were back on their horses, charging as fast as they could back to the road where a truck was waiting for them. As much as she wanted to stoop down upon them for a second round, they weren’t the priority. The unknown shooter was, and she needed to know what was going on.
She scanned the landscape, wingtips bending as she caught the updraft of a thermal and began to circle high above.
A single spot of indigo blue amongst the rocks caught her attention. With a tilt of the long forked tailfeathers, she dropped several hundred feet in a second before easing out into banking arc once more.
A closer inspection and she saw a person in desert camouflage, packing up a bag and about to take off. Pinning her wings back, IO dove. Several hundred feet above, she threw her legs forward, splaying her tailfeathers and primaries out to slow herself before she hit the ground at full force. With a gentle buffeting of her wings, she landed lightly upon a ledge above the shooter. The tiniest sound of pebbles being dislodged caught her attention and Griffin span around to face her, gun in hand.
Unshaken and determined IO snarled at her with disapproval.
“You’d better have a licence for that.”
Chapter 9
Knowing full well that it was a bad idea to fight an Avio who had the high ground, Griffin steadily let the gun go and backed away with her hands in the air to show she meant no harm.
IO crawled upside down towards her, flat against the sheer face of the cliff, wings spread out with bold patterns of white, blue, and red, like a strange wallcreeper, and staring hard at Griffin.
; The muscles in Griffin’s back twitched and twinged suddenly with a sharp pain, with a brief surreal moment within her mind’s eye of her lost wings and swallow-tail flitting and flaring to show and state her friendliness.
She could see them so perfectly that her heart hurt.
IO leapt down lightly, wings parachuting and slowing her landing. Dust billowed about into tiny whorls and a pale eyelid flicked across her eye to stop the grit getting in. Griffin remained perfectly still as did IO with her wings arched around her. The two silently stared each other down with cautious analysis.
She wore no GPS armband and the outdated remains of a flightsuit’s pants that were a faded black and red, the colours of Core, but the colours of the girl herself…
The vibrant pink and red in the black of her long wild hair with scarlet eyes to match. The long tail feathers – longer than Nico’s– huge wings with the artic-blue and cherry-red on black outsides, and the peach-pink to crimson and black undersides with pale feathers that spread across her shoulders and face.
A standard Avio in Risio colours, whilst she – Griffin – was the opposite.
“You’re from Risio.” IO said with firm certainty, being the first to move with a little tilt of her head. Her eyes lingered on Griffin’s exposed feathered shoulders for a moment as well as the wildflower crown and necklace she had made for herself, but she quickly dropped her gaze to the lithe scarred muscles of her arms and chest. “But also from the old h- from Core.”
Griffin nodded slowly.
“That was a quick solve. How can you tell.”
“The eyes. The colours. And the bones. All more delicate than me. Apart from that.” She tilted her head the other way, this time with a frown and a glance to the gun behind her and then to the embroidered badge on her jacket tied at her waist. The three concentric purple diamonds with a chevron on top.
“I’m an Amethyst.” Griffin confirmed for her, noting the continued confusion. Amethysts hadn’t been publicly official for long, so of course many were confused by the badge.
IO shot a glance at her pack. “What’s in there.”
“Make up.”
She scowled.
“No really. There is make up in there as well as a few other things. First aid kit, water, rations-”
“And guns for hunting?” Her feathers bristled. “This is a nature reserve you know. It’s illegal to hunt anywhere on park grounds.”
Now it was Griffin’s turn to be confused. She thought that her presence and juxtaposition against the Hasekuran cowboys was plainly obvious. Did this girl not know what was happening out here? Had she run into someone else’s mission? It couldn’t have been a mission, she wouldn’t have been working alone or so ill equipped. No, she was positive that this girl was a Stray, though she also didn’t appear to be fearful that Griffin might have been there for her to bring her in.
“I’m…not out here for hunting.” Griffin said slowly and patiently as if talking to a young Quartz-ranked soldier. “I’m here because of those men. The ones on the horses. You’re welcome by the way.”
IO’s tension dropped with her wings. Suspicion turned immediately to open curiosity and her feathers settled. Without the fury, she almost looked like a young child with the wide-eyed innocence. She looked so young, she couldn’t have been any older than fifteen, though gauging ages of synths was an impossible thing.
“The ones after the Agami?” IO asked with a tilt of her head, glancing back across the landscape to where they were.
“Agami? Oh, the Febris.”
“Febris?”
“Yes, they haven’t been called just Agami for years because there’s so many different kinds.”
“There are?”
“Oh yes. Febris, Amit, Adno, Olentya.” Griffin explained lightly, lowering her hands. “I think there’s a few newer ones which are all small and are being designed for different habitat niches.”
The girl looked intrigued and gave an involuntary flutter of her wings.
Griffin smiled. Avios had trouble lying to one another, every little twitch was a tell, and what this girl was telling her was that she had no intention of hurting her and had not seen another new synth in a long time. She could also tell that she was trying extremely hard to not stare and come closer to poke at her, but was still giving her an analytical look of discovery. And, as was so painstakingly obvious, wanted to know where Griffin’s wings were at.
One of the few questions that Griffin took great pains to avoid answering.
“Do you like critters?” Griffin asked patiently before IO could blurt the question out, “Actually- have you seen any critters out here at all? It’s important that you tell me if you have.”
“Like?”
Griffin thought of a little test, just to see how long IO had been outside of ARCDA.
“Xiezhi Lin.” She said, thinking of the newest critter to have been created aside from the Katari-Amaru. Most Diamonds had never heard of it, she doubted that this girl would have known about it.
No reaction. Not entirely unexpected, but she tried again with something else. “Thryn?” - Nothing - “Gattan? Quetzal?” - again nothing - “Okay, how about Raptors?”
Her eyes immediately sparkled with interest.
“I found a flock of Raptors out here the other day.” She said proudly. “I called my sister to get someone to help with them, so they didn’t eat the tourists.”
“Right. Did she get help from someone in ARCDA?”
She shrugged dismissively and hopped a little closer to inspect her bags and weapons. Used to interference from Nico, Griffin paid no mind to the rummaging through her kitbag, carefully lifting the different packages of rations and medical supplies. Head tilted to one side as she heard a click, she nervously examined the rifle as Griffin dismantled it.
“So, you’re stopping these men from poaching?” She said after the gun was zipped away.
“Kind of.” It wasn’t poaching if the animals they owned were synthetic and not wild, but she wasn’t going to go into the semantics of it. “I was sent out here to investigate what they’re doing and then to shut down their ranch.”
“Are they doing something illegal?”
Griffin laughed, bemused by the question. It seemed such a human question to ask.
“Yes. Yes, they are. They work for Hasekura. Do you know what that is?”
“It…no.”
Griffin looked at her, surprised. Even Quartz soldiers knew what Hasekura was.
“So, you must know about ARCDA, where we’re from right? Hasekura is like…the rival of it. But instead of making their own synths from scratch they kidnap synths, critters, doctors, engineers, all from ARCDA.”
“And the Raptors were critters they stole?”
“Yes. And since some Hasekura scientists are legitimately insane, they would hurt and abuse them to get the results they want.”
IO looked uncomfortable.
“What kind of results?”
“I don’t know yet, that’s why I’m investigating.”
“Well you shouldn’t use any of your weapons.”
“You do realise that I saved your life back there with this.” Said Griffin with a tap to the rifle bag.
“That doesn’t excuse the harm you caused and can cause with it.”
“I don’t see you lecturing your friend about it.”
“My friend knows better.” She folded her arms across her chest, arcing her wings around her.
“Well I promise, I will not shoot anyone or anything so long as I am on park grounds.” Griffin gave a sweeping bow and scooped up the kit bag, slinging it onto her back with the rifle. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to move my stuff. You’ve likely given away my position.”
She turned and began moving off. Keeping low and to the shrubby underbrush, she was careful to move without drawing too much attention to herself. She headed north, hoping to go around one of the larger hills and save some energy as it would be a ten-kilometre hike plus the troubl
e of navigating the terrain. Running over the hills to keep up with the horses had been bad enough, she didn’t need to do it twice in one day. However, with such long walks over such a terribly uneven landscape, Griffin was beginning to appreciate why the ranchers used horses rather than vehicles.
The sudden beat of wings above her nearly made her loose her footing. She looked up.
IO was following her.
A huge brightly coloured Avio hovering about her was the last thing she needed. This girl had evidently never been given any form of training in stealth at all.
“Well?” Griffin said pointedly, slipping down into the shallow gully of a dried-up creek, hoping to be a little more concealed.
IO looked down at her with big red eyes, holding a steady glide into a gentle landing that she immediately began walking from. The effortlessness was remarkable.
“Well what?”
“Don’t you have to go clean up the mess those guys left?”
“Asher and Peyton will handle it.” She switched from walking to hopping like a crow along the ground, bouncing from rock and tree branch across with gentle bounds and breezy wingbeats. Every feather down Griffins back rose in aggravation. All she needed was for the Preternatural to be out on a hillside watching IO for them to know exactly where she was.
“Look Peaches, it’d really be best if you-”
“IO.”
“What?”
“It’s IO, not peaches.”
“Well IO,” Griffin said slowly, trying remain patient and placid, “you really should get back to your…whatever it is you’re doing out here. You’re going to draw attention to me if you keep fluttering about. And to yourself.”
That worried her.
The Amethyst part of Griffin that had been trained to protect others clawed and gnawed away at her chest. A girl as innocent and eager to throw herself in harm’s way would be an easy target and could likely wind up being captured or even killed by these mercenaries or worse, given to Hasekura to be pulled apart piece by piece.
IO pretended to not hear and continued to hop and glide alongside her. Increasing her pace, Griffin moved swiftly down the sandy pathways and around rocks. The other Avio wasn’t a muser, she was confident in this fact, as IO didn’t react to any of her loud and aggravated thoughts directed at the flitting girl.