Sirocco

by T Hearts

  She danced about him, trying to pass him so that she could safely leap down to IO’s box. He swung out to try and grab at her shoulder but it was a feint and with a leg sweep he caught her knee, toppling her. Snaking her hand forward she caught Xavier by the collar of his armour and dragged him down too, then using using his own weight against him threw him over her head with a kick.

  The key card span across the walkway, and scrambling up, Griffin darted towards it. Her vision rippled and became blotted with blue-black splotches, a tingle spreading across her scalp and down the length of her spine, stopping her legs from moving for a moment.

  Perception alteration, a simple muser trick.

  Xavier was on her fast as she stumbled, grabbing her by her legs and pulling her back, then pouncing forward to get hold of her wrists. As a Preternatural, he was both stronger and heavier than she was, giving him the slight advantage. Griffin squirmed and twisted beneath him as he tried to pin her down and prise the key card from her hand all at the same time.

  He stretched out, struggling to grab it and with the very slightest of touches, his hand very gently pressed against the scars of her wings and the eternally tender shoulder blades.

  There was no thinking. Only reacting.

  Griffin screeched and thrashed sharply, blinded by the shock of pain. There was a crunch as her elbow swung back and Xavier yelped, rolling off clutching his face. Not waiting to see the damage she had done, Griffin snatched up the key-card and launched herself over the railings, landing shakily on the alleyway floor. Pain still racked her back, with a terrible ghostly sensation of the entire wing still being there and held in the grip of an invisible hand.

  ‘NOT NOW!’ She screamed at herself, shaking herself off and forcing herself to stand.

  Xavier hauled himself up, staring bewildered and bloody faced down at her. Her stomach lurched seeing the blood streaming from his nose.

  “Don’t just sit there!” Xavier howled at the two ranch hands who were still sat watching them slack jawed, “Get her!”

  They scrambled to their feet but didn’t so much as get a foot near her before they were on the floor unconscious with Xavier cursing them angrily.

  Griffin laughed breathily as she stepped over the unconscious men. IO’s box was right in front of her, with the girl staring wide eyed at her through the bars.

  “Well this was fun,” She called up to Xavier, with a smirk, “but I’ve gotta get back to work.”

  “You won’t get out of here Fae.”

  She rolled her eyes up at him.

  “Ugh. Fae, Fae, Fae. Enough already. You think I’d use my chosen name?”

  Xavier laughed, wiping the blood from his already healed nose and smiled coyly.

  “Of course not. Fairy.”

  The effect was immediate.

  Every feather on her body bristled with a pure white-hot rage. Her short fan of tailfeathers splayed and flicked free of her belt and her lip curled back into a feral snarl, baring her short fangs at him.

  Her dead name.

  She hated that name.

  Blinded by spite and fury, Griffin took out her gun and raised the key-card she had stolen from him with a defiant and feral glare, turning away from IO’s box.

  Xavier froze, bronze eyes going wide and skin turning a pale grey.

  “Fae. Fairy. What are you doing?” He said, pulling out his own gun now, a heavy charged sidearm, and discarding the net launcher to one side. Griffin ignored him, tossing her indigo hair over her shoulder and walked confidently down the alleyway between the stalls.

  There were so many options.

  She hit the metal door with the butt of her gun, the subsequent clang echoing through the barn.

  In the stall, a Xiezhi Lin raised its maned head blearily. It huffed in confusion at her, then shook off the plated scales that covered its back and started to circle around in the stall as it began to wake up. The clattering of its plates drew the attention of the Gattan opposite, and the strange Hasekuran tiger-gorilla beside it.

  Xavier didn’t need to muse to see what she was thinking as she looked up at him.

  “Fairy. No.” He begged. “Please. Don’t do that.”

  A smile spread across her face and she walked a little further down, Xavier following her from above.

  “I’m serious. Don’t.”

  -CLANG-

  The noise levels began to rise as the critters reacted to the loud metallic bang. Howls and snarls erupted from every stall. Xavier looked franticly at the doors.

  With a smile from ear to ear, Griffin ran up and down the alleyway banging on each of the stall doors as Xavier yelled at her to stop, scrambling along overhead to try and keep up with her.

  -CLANG! -CLANG!-CLANG!-

  Then as the noise grew to a crescendo and the first ranch hands began to arrive to find out the source of the noise

  IO watched her, red eyes bright with relief and happiness, and terrified excitement. She knew what she was about to do too.

  “Hang on IO. I’ll be right with you.” She said quickly with a gentle smile to the caged Avio, then looked back up to Xavier with her arm raised to open the lock to the stall door opposite to IO’s.

  ‘Fairy. If you do that, I will have to shoot you.’ Xavier mentally yelled at her. Sparks of fear – his fear- splintered down her spine, spurring her on more with defiance.

  “Shoot me then, Darling.” And with that she pressed the fob to the lock and slid the door open, releasing the two Gattan from within. Darting quickly to IO’s box, she beeped the gate open and leapt inside with her, then watched as the bull-sized cats charged down the hallway after the scarpering ranch hands. Long flexible tails whipped about, grabbing brooms and buckets, and launching them forward at the men. Xavier swore from above them, watching his men scatter like rats.

  Laughing at the scene, Griffin turned to reassure IO that everything was going to be fine, despite the cats being out of the cage. IO’s feathers had puffed up in excitement, and her big red eyes were wide and sparkling with amazement. Before Griffin could speak, IO grabbed her and held her tight, tucking her wings up around them both.

  “You came to rescue me.” She was nearly crying with happiness. “I didn’t know if you would or not.”

  The feathers were so soft and warm that Griffin had to hold her breath to supress a little sob of her own. Squirming a little, she gave IO a gentle pat on the back to let her know that she could barely breathe, but also to escape the heartbreak of envy.

  How she wished she had her own wings back rather than the pain of ghosts.

  “Don’t sound so shocked.” Smiling, she took a discrete deep breath and rubbed her still pained back. “Your sister would have killed me if I didn’t.”

  “San’s here?”

  “Yeah, and we gotta go meet her.”

  “But…you let the cats out.”

  “I know. Fortunately, there is a back door.” She smiled and put her arm through the bars to unlock the back gate that lead out into the outside enclosure.

  Taking IO by the hand, she led her out into the sun. IO squinted at the brightness. It had been days since she had been outside and as soon as the breeze jostled the soft feathers close to her back, she stretched her wings out to their fullest extent and cracked them like sails in the wind.

  “Thank fuck,” Griffin breathed, relieved that no harm had come to the girl, “they didn’t hurt you.”

  IO nodded and gave her tailfeathers a quick shake. She looked about the enclosure and her face fell.

  “We can’t fly out of here. The-”

  “Net, I know. Its electrified.” Griffin craned her neck and twirled on the spot. They had fixed all of the holes she had previously seen, and secured the netting a little more. Even if IO jumped up, there wasn’t enough room for her to hover without electrocuting herself. “Hopefully though, San should be solving that issue.”

  “What about you?”

  “I’ll be fine.” She reassured IO with a smile and a gentle sq
ueeze of her hand, despite the fact that she had no idea how she was going to get out other than back through the barn.

  “But-” IO blinked as something caught her eye and squinted at Griffins chest. “Wait, have you been recording the entire time?”

  “Live streaming actually. Say hi to Mykonos.” She smirked. “Always save footage for posterity so you can save your posterior.”

  A sharp whistle from above the barn caught their attention. One that IO knew immediately.

  “San!” She yelled up to the shadow racing overhead.

  “With a tree?” Griffin noted.

  Not part of the plan, but she was both glad that San could improvise and yet terrified that she was able to fly with a lump of petrified tree likely three times her weight.

  Swinging the branch down, San tore through the electrified netting. The sound was terrible, the metallic twang and snapping of wires and the hot buzzing of electricity rattling the air, but San kept on swinging until there was a hole big enough for IO to escape from.

  Her scene had caused a disturbance amongst the ranch hands who were now yelling and howling to one another. The sound of gunshots filled the air and San twisted evasively, looping high and then launching the branch at the men shooting at her below. With the loud screams and the sound of crunching wood, Griffin could only assume that her aim was perfect.

  “IO, go!” Griffin ordered, giving the younger sister a little shove. “Up through the hole!”

  “What about you?”

  “I told you. I’ll be fine, I’ll just use the front door.”

  IO pouted and with a final thankful hug, she reluctantly took to the air in one powerful leap, joining San in spiralling high out of reach of the ranchers.

  Smiling, Griffin raced back inside and let herself out of IO’s box, checking to make sure that the Gattan had left the alley before she did so.

  With all of the commotion, the other critters had begun howling and screeching, including the Xiezhi Lin which had begun headbutting and pawing the door with fury. Its huge bearded head looked like a wolfhound with its long snout and wet nose, as did its huge dinnerplate sized paws. With forward facing pronged horns on its head, and a plumed tail longer than its armour plated body that it could wield around like a heavy whip, both ends were dangerous. She’d never been so close to one before and despite the urgency of the situation, she stopped and stared up at it.

  It paused in its attempt to escape, reared up onto its hind legs with its forepaws resting against the door and regarding her with huge hazel eyes. It sniffed at her. Huge whiskers brushed through the bars and tickled against her arms and shoulders to acknowledge and understand what it was looking at.

  With a snort, it looked up at the people running behind her and growled ferociously. Griffin knew who it was, she could already feel the tingle across the back of her head. She smirked to herself as she looked over her shoulder at the Preternatural and his mercenaries.

  “Fairy!”

  “Darling.” She responded sardonically, “It’s been lovely meeting you, but I really have to go.”

  Without waiting for him to bark an order to his men, she beeped the lock and kicked the stall door to slide it open. Then with a huge cheerful Risio smile, Griffin waved at him with a honey-sweet “Bye!” before catching hold of the scaled plates of the Xiezhi Lin as it charged out into the alleyway, barely giving Xavier the chance to move as it galloped towards the open barn doors.

  Chapter 21

  With a powerful leap, it launched itself through the huge barn doors over the heads of the crowding ranch hands, with Griffin still clinging onto its side. The moment it landed it span around, the long tail striking the crowd down with a collective crunch of ribs, then threw back its head and howled victoriously at the sun.

  “Good critter!” Griffin applauded, rubbing behind its huge rabbit-ears.

  It looked her out the corner of one eye, its foot-long whiskers twitching and brushing against her leg. For a moment it tensed beneath her, about to throw her off, then relaxed. If it was that it knew that she had let it out, or that it recognised her as being not human, she wasn’t certain, but she was glad that it was content with her being beside it, though not wanting to press her luck she let go and slid off.

  Shaking itself off, the Xiezhi Lin’s huge head snapped around and it snarled at every ranch hand in sight, flicking its tail behind it in warning. The rumble of its growl vibrated the air like a shockwave and sent a savage tremble through Griffin.

  The effect was galvanising.

  Every feather down her spine rose in excitement, her heart pounded a quick tempo in her chest and the deep ache across her back and in her small but sharp fangs was so feral that she couldn’t help herself but hiss and gnash her teeth alongside the critter. She wanted to fly, wanted to claw and slash and bite and fight.

  There were shrieks of panic across the ranch, and the more fearful of the men took up arms and began to shoot at both Griffin and the critter. Chaos erupted on the ranch as the Xiezhi Lin charged them with fury and a ground shaking roar. Griffin swiftly took cover between the Xiezhi and the line of vehicles beside the workers houses. She needed to get her signal out and sent so that ARCDA could get there on time to assist, but in the meantime, she was going to disarm and incapacitate as many as she could so that they could be arrested. Peeking out from behind her cover, Griffin saw no blood but recognised the cartridges as it rolled across the ground.

  The EMI bullets. They were shooting to stun rather than to kill but all they were doing was just pissing the Xiezhi Lin off. She smiled to herself. If they were going to keep up with the EMI bullets, then it would be a piece of cake to disarm them all.

  The commotion had drawn out almost every worker on the ranch, including the two managers, bossman Darryl and Harper, and their mercenaries, of which she counted thirteen in total. The mercenaries were her priority. They were the ones she needed disarmed immediately as they were the only ones who could shoot accurately, though one of the Gattan was already seeing to that, having climbed onto a roof and tackling three to the ground, and then choking one other with its tail before throwing them into a wall. Four down, nine to go.

  From her hiding place, she could see the second Gattan was already circling a cluster of men who were huddled inside one of the livestock transports. The long prehensile tail was trying to find a way to open it. It saw the Xiezhi Lin and gave a hiss before slinking round the vehicle out of sight, not that the huge critter seemed to notice it. It was far too busy pouncing and swiping at all of those who had kept it captive, its tail lashing about and knocking over all those who thought they could sneak around it. It shouldered the door of the livestock transporter and the gate fell open with a heavy clunk, sheep scattering from the back and out into the yard, knocking down all in their path and adding to the chaos.

  Griffin had lost count how many bones she had heard crunch and snap, both on the side of the critters and of the sheep.

  The Armor the mercenaries wore had protected them for the most part, so that when the tail swiped them in the chest, they took less of the impact than the ranch hands did. It was good work on the part of the Xiezhi, but they were still able to hold their weapons and fire. It was her turn to take a few down.

  Rolling under the huge critter as it launched past her, she kicked down two of the mercenaries who thought that they were being clever by keeping out of its line of sight. They stumbled immediately, falling backwards with barely a chance to register what was happening as Griffin grabbed their wrists and snapped their arms with a heavy kick. A third jumped out from behind his shelter of several crates, gun in hand, only to have the wild lashing Xiezhi tail slap him face first into the ground.

  Griffin rolled backwards out the way of the tail strike, giving the two still howling mercs on the floor a second kick and snapping the leg of one and the other’s remaining arm.

  Out the corner of her eye, Griffin saw that Xavier had reached the barn door and was staring at the sight of the the
huge Xiezhi Lin shredding the place. Infront of him, one his mercenaries began to draw his gun. Griffin went for hers, but she was far faster on the draw and shot first. The weapon exploded in his hands, and he screamed a scream that was cut short as Xavier lept up behind him and snapped his neck then snatched up a netgun from a terrified ranch hand who was close by. He snarled at the ranch hands, giving them hard kicks and whacks as they reached for their guns and cattle prods.

  “Don’t hurt them!” Griffin thought she heard him yell between her gunshots at the rest of the mercenaries as they shakily took aim.

  Ducking out the way she, took cover and surveyed the area.

  The ranch hands shoaled and scattered like fish as the critters drew close and rounded upon them, the sheep being no better with their panicked cantering. One mercenaries had escaped the Gattan and was sprinting towards the stables, whilst two of the others were scrambling back towards the barn to hide. Like him, many were trying to escape, bundling into the available vehicles, only to be stopped and knocked over by the Xiezhi or to be pulled from their seats by the two Gattan. She couldn’t see where the two managers had gone, or where Xavier was.

  A merc caught her off guard, having crept up behind her with a net gun in hand, two others flanking him and two lurking further in the stables. Griffin rolled out of the way just in time, ducking under and charging up a powerful kick when a blur of fire-on-black swept past her, taking all three down.

  San screeched and rolled ungracefully, as her wing clipped two in the gut and brought her onto the ground.

  “San get back up!” Griffin yelled, utilising the kick to break one of the downed men’s legs then stealing his net gun to take down second with the net before they could change their focus towards San. The second man flailed and fell, swearing loudly. It wouldn’t be enough to hold him for long, but it would slow him down.

  San scrambled into the air before they could recover, taking off in a flurry of feathers with IO racing low across the ground to defend her.