by T Hearts
Her mind raced with a dozen terrible outcomes. She didn’t know if he had intentionally set the Quetzal up to hunt the girls down in retaliation or if this was his attempt at an escape. What if Xavier had more men out in the hills? What if she had already missed them being attacked and they were grounded somewhere? All options were bad and she needed to stop him and stop the girls too before San flew off with IO and she was left to face an interrogation from the Major.
A silhouette against the sun caught her eye and she charged the horse up onto a high plateau. Much to her relief, the girls were high above, circling and likely talking. Shouting up to them to get their attention was pointless; they were far too high to hear her so she whistled piercingly instead. The sound was so loud that Pegasus ears flicked back and shook his head, rearing slightly at the sound.
The girls noticed her and flew in low, fluttering to a breezy landing. Griffin had barely gotten the horse under control when IO bounded up to her and hugged her about her waist. The horse was unhappy with the large wings surrounding its vision, to which it stamped its hooves, but IO ignored it.
“Good work girls.” Griffin praised them, “We all got out alive.”
She smiled gently, but her eyes were darting all around the landscape. There was still no sign of the Quetzal, and the girls didn’t appear to have noticed its escape.
IO beamed up at her, taking a step back to allow the horse some space. “Are all the critters safe now?”
“Yes. They’re safe now.”
“All of them?”
“Even the Raptors.”
“Good!” She leapt forward again and hugged Griffin even tighter. San however, hung back, her wings arched in a poise that signalled that she was ready to take off at a second’s notice.
“Why was Turtle talking to your lot?” She asked warily. Griffin swallowed. Of course the girl was suspicious, she had just seen ARCDA swarm the ranch and didn’t know for certain or not if they were going to turn around and go after her and her sister.
“Mykonos has to debrief them on what happened. It’s just protocol.”
“They’re not going to take him, away are they?”
“No. But we need get back to them.”
San’s eyes narrowed. Her fire-on-black wings beat anxiously, shot little flicks that stirred up the dust and shook the close by bushes. Behind her, Griffin thought she saw the rocks move, saw them blink.
San must have noticed her tension and the sudden panic in her eyes as she began to extend her wings out to take off.
“Stop!” Griffin barked with panic. Her voice echoed throughout the hills and San froze in place, wings held still as she stared incredulously at Griffin. Even IO looked shocked at the sharpness of her tone and began to shift from foot to foot anxiously.
“Please.” She said with a swallow, certain that the movement had been a trick of the mind. “No flying right now. It’s not safe.”
“Why not?” The obstinate and angry tone returned with a snapping of her teeth. Once again, she was the feral girl who attacked her on sight with blazing wings and bared fangs. “They’re not going to shoot us, down are they?”
“No-”
“Then why not?” Her red eyes went wide and she leapt backwards with a hiss. “This is a setup, isn’t it?”
“It’s not that its-”
San cut her off with a louder hiss that turned into a snarl and threw her wings forward into a shield to protect IO with.
“See Babybird, this is why you don’t go anywhere near ARCDA!” She snarled, taking IO by the hand and beginning to shepherd her away. With a quick flick of her tailfeathers, IO leapt away from her sister and stood beside Griffin, much to San’s disbelief.
“I was doing my job San. I didn’t go looking for them.”
“Your job isn’t to interfere with dangerous situations. We need to go right now. It’s not safe here anymore.”
“I’m not going anywhere!”
“You’re such a baby.”
“I am not!”
“Are too!”
Griffin’s head ached. It was like dealing with first year Quartzes all over again with the way they were arguing. Behind them, the rocks moved. It was the smallest movement, this time not caused by the buffeting of San’s wings.
Her heart hammered loudly. The movement continued as the girls argued, creating a strange ripple between the scrub and rocks as she tracked every little twitch until she saw the quick blink of an eye.
“ENOUGH!”
Both flinched as Griffins voice echoed growlingly through the canyon. She pressed the horse forward and placed a hand on each of their wing arches, she squeezed, looking directly ahead at the rocks behind them.
“You can either apologise to each other right now and walk away slowly,” She said in a lower voice, eyes still fixed to the spot “or you can be torn to shreds.”
“Torn to shreds?” San growled.
A small nod and a gentle gulp. “Quetzal.” She breathed.
Sans eyes widened. The realisation dawned on her and she slowly turned.
At first, they couldn’t see where it was. Against the rugged terrain, it was too well camouflaged. Even with their accurate eyesight it was virtually invisible.
Then it moved.
The colour drained from their faces as a huge head pushed through the creosote bushes, bird-like with a hooked beak that was edged with sharp spikes, and flat yellow eyes fixed upon them both. In the sunlight its mix of feathers and scales were coloured with sandy browns, pale green-yellows, and whites; it camouflaged easily between the bushes and rocks just as a rattlesnake could and with a strikingly similar pattern, that extended even to its wings. And just like a rattle snake, slowly, it was coiling up ready to strike at them.
-BANG-
A rock exploded near them, startling them all into panicked escape.
The girls were fast, bolting in opposite directions with quick beats of their wings, Pegasus shying away as the Quetzal’s beak full of needled teeth gnashed down on the air where they would have been. Its half-slithered forward, twisting and snapping this way and that as the sisters beat their wings and scrambled to get out of the fast-moving creature’s way. Pushing off on two long forelegs that was powered by a thick muscular serpentine body as it beat huge wings to set off after the two Avios that were climbing high into the sky.
“Hey jackass! Over here!” Griffin yelled at the flying serpent, drawing her Fénix and shooting at its wings and diamond patterned side. It didn’t need to be killed, not that she could with a handgun; all she wanted to do was to keep it on the ground long enough that Nico or someone else caught up to help. If it got airborne then there would be no way to protect the girls.
She kept shooting at it, aiming for its joints and soft underbelly. It curled and flicked about, stumbling as it tried to amble along to build up speed to fly, recoiling away from Griffin’s bullets but with its sights still fixed on the two darting Avios. Reloading she ran Pegasus in close behind it.
A bullet caught the wrist of one of its forelimbs, a second pierced through the thin patagium of its left wing and it let out a terrible sound that sent a jolt down her spine as it tumbled forward into the dirt.
It drew its forelimb up against its body and shifted its weight to walk upon its wings. The two clawed digits gripped at the rocks and it ambled angrily around to bite at her. Pegasus shielded as its beaked head snapped at it, and rounded a thick cluster of prickly pears, doing well to avoid the spines. The Quetzal however made no such attempt and barrelled straight through the cacti.
Sharp spines tore into its underbelly and wings. The critter screamed, the sound so loud and piercing that Griffin’s vision went black for a moment and Pegasus reared in terror. Even above them, IO and San faltered in the air at the sound.
The Quetzal hissed viciously at them, thrashing wildly around to dislodge the cacti spines, and with a swift and angry wingbeat it swatted her off the horse.
She had been knocked down by wings before
, but never were they so huge. Nico’s wings were big, but these must have been near on twenty-foot-long each; bony and hard with a sharp spur that pierced her shoulder and then raked across her chest, tearing through the little armour she had. Pain blotted out all sound and sight as she flew through the air, landing on rocks several meters away, she felt her skull crack against a rock. More pain, sharper and fresher, shot up her back and her skin burned as she grazed the skin off along the sand.
There was no time to recover or make an escape as no sooner had she taken a breath, a heavy foreclaw came down upon her chest, pressing her hard into the ground. Her hand fumbled for her gun, but it lay several feet away from where she had been knocked down. As she tried to twist free, the talons drove sharply and deeply into her skin, inflaming the deep gouge already in her shoulder and piercing into her sternum. The shock of pain crushed a scream in her throat and blotted out her vision.
Between the black spots dancing before her eyes, pulsing with every rapid heartbeat, she saw the huge beak open up with its tongue rising up. It nudged her face with the hooked tip, and with a deep rasping hiss, it scented her with deep breaths. Griffin’s blood ran cold.
She glanced around for a weapon, but there were was nothing.
With a click of its beak, turned its head sharply to one side to stare down at her. A thin membrane blinked across the flat yellow eye and it scented her again.
It could smell that she was an Avio, but her lack of wings confused it. She nearly laughed. ARCDA had given it comprehension skills, and now it was trying to comprehend what it was seeing.
-BANG-
There was a small explosion of rocks and dust close to them both which startled the huge critter with a shriek. The confusion was enough to distract the Quetzal as the stallion charged it and shouldered it hard in the side. The critter released her as it rolled over with a shriek, only to have San swoop at it with a hard kick to its head and then for the horse ram it again.
Furious, the Quetzal screeched and arched its diamond-patterned wings out before it in threat. Again its comprehension slowed it as Pegasus screamed at the wingbeats and reared up, thrashing his hooves wildly at the creature’s head as it darted towards him, flicking around quickly in a pirouette to buck and kick the creature in the head.
The Quetzal turned away quickly as a hoof caught it in the eye, the horse being too much of a challenge for it and began to stumble up into the air. San dove at it, a hard kick being brought down upon its back and skidding it into the dust. It screamed again with its piercing cry and in a fluffy of dust took to the sky to chase after the flame-marked Avio.
Wincing in pain, Griffin pushed herself up and looked for her gun.
-BANG-
Another bullet, this time shattering a rock close to Griffin’s knee as she painfully rolled over to stand up. Dizziness and agony overwhelmed her, and she collapsed back to the ground immediately. Her chest burned. The Quetzal’s spur had gouged deeper than she first thought. She wanted to throw up, but she needed to get her gun if she wanted an equal chance of fighting back and protecting the girls.
There was a rush of wings as IO swooped in low, skidding to a landing beside her. She attempted to lift Griffin off the ground but the pain was too much and Griffin yelped.
“Get going. Now.” She hissed to the girl, propping herself up against a rocky outcrop. IO looked terrified. There was blood all over Griffin, and the deep gash across her chest was horrific to see.
“But what about-”
“I’m an Amethyst, I can handle myself, now move!” She gave IO a heavy shove out the way as the Quetzal swooped in low, its beak open to try and snap at them. IO rolled and ran, wings beating hard to take to the skies once again with the Quetzal hot on her tailfeathers.
It moved fast. Faster than IO thought it should even be able to. Striking and snatching at them with growing fury and wingbeats that sounded like great sails cracking in the wind. What horrible people had designed this creature?
It had been asleep for who knew how long and now it was hungry for the Avios that tormented it.
She could sympathise. Three days in a box had made IO’s wings stiff, and with only an apple a day to eat she struggled to push herself into a sprint. She’d never had to fly so fast in her life. Chest burning and wings straining, there was nothing but panic that was keeping her flying.
Tailfeathers flipping quickly, both she and San spiralled and twisted out of the reach of its snapping beak. Its long body whipped past them. The long forelimbs snatched at the air, missing her tailfeathers by millimetres, its head snaking forward to catch up.
San whizzed past. With heavy kicks she struck at the Quetzal, beating it about the air, and slamming it closer and closer towards the ground. It was far heavier than they were, its wingspan larger, but they had the advantage of speed and agility over it.
“Don’t kill it San!” IO cried out over the wind. Her sister looked aghast at her as she rolled in the air.
“Seriously?”
“Yes!”
“It’s just hungry, it doesn’t mean anything by it!”
“Well get it a burger or something then!”
The Quetzal arced back up in a steep climb and set its sights on the bright red of IO’s wings. IO dropped, it followed with San behind it. Catching the wind, she shot back up, looping over the Quetzal as it raced past then as it began to turn was struck in the head by San’s feet.
San continued to loop around its head, distracting it and forcing it into an unsteady hover as IO caught her breath in the rising heat of a thermal.
It was struggling to gain lift as the wind picked up, wobbling and coiling in the air. San darted past again, an arrow of feathers that danced around it, jabbing at it with heavy kicks and ripping as many feathers as she could out. A horrible screech filled the air as she managed to rip out a larger feather from its mantle, blood now streaking its diamond-patterned back, and it dropped into a lower bluster of wind.
The change of wind gradient threw the Quetzal sideways and it twisted, the huge wings drawing in fast and snapping out to back-beat so that it could flick around in the air. It had no tailfeathers, but its long body acted in the same way as the tail of a kite keeping it balanced IO realised.
It may have been larger, its wings more powerful but its ungainly long body acting against it when it wasn’t flying in straight lines.
“San! Keep making it turn!” IO yelled, shaking her tailfeathers, ready to fly sharp and fast.
San nodded, keeping her turns tight and spiralling.
The Quetzal was tiring, they both could see it. Every wingbeat grew more forceful and aggressive, but also more sloppy. Every twist and turn of its body becoming sluggish. It couldn’t outfly them and it wouldn’t be long before it was too exhausted to keep chasing them and then land. IO breathed in relief. She didn’t want to hurt it as much as she didn’t want it to hurt her or her sister.
IO dove. If they could bring it closer to the ground then maybe it wouldn’t hurt itself in landing. She was hopeful, but she underestimated San.
Every strike that San took to the critter was a strike to harm. Aggravating it and injuring it. She didn’t care if it got hurt or not.
As it faltered in the air, she smirked and dove in towards it. Cockily she grabbed at its feathers and pulled back on its primaries, but it was far larger and had far more power in its wings than she anticipated, whipping her forward with a vicious beat. Much to IO’s shock and horror, the Quetzal looped around in the air, forming a near perfect circle and then with a heavy crack of its tail, it slammed her sister down into the sand below.
“San!” Her voice broke into a terrified screech.
The dust cleared quickly as the Quetzal lowered itself towards the ground and revealed San laying unmoving below.
Chapter 24
Griffin staggered behind her cover, looking about for the horse. Another shot was fired, close to Pegasus’ feet shortly after it had charged the Quetzal one final time. This time i
t panicked with a shrieking sound, clattering and bolting off away from the gunfire.
“Damn pony.” Griffin hissed. She held her shoulder tight and tried to keep calm as another bullet bounced off the edge of the rock she hid behind.
Both the talons and the Quetzal’s wing-spur had gone deep, though she didn’t dare look down at the gash across her chest. If she looked, she knew that she would start to panic. Taking deep slow breaths, she leant her head back against the rock. Another sharp burst of pain set her off trembling and breathing fast again. The back of her neck and head was sticky with blood, some of the feathers and hair came away against her hand when she touched it.
No, she couldn’t think about that right now. She couldn’t look at the blood. She needed to focus.
Painfully, she reached for her phone from the forepocket on her jacket. It had avoided being smashed by the Quetzal and was still live streaming. A pained smile crept across her face; maybe someone was still watching and could see the trouble she was in. She needed a medical evacuation, she knew this, but she also needed someone to help protect the girls. In the meantime she would have to perform her own first aid.
Groaning she pulled out the emergency meds pack from her side pocket. There were no more adhesive skins left, only the patches of EPI+, Nitro, a morphine patch, and a small Booster. She hated all of them except the morphine, but she didn’t need to be high, she needed to be alert without her concussion worsening from the EPI+ or booster, which although it would stop bleeding, could clot in her brain and kill her outright. This was beyond what she could do for herself.
Fingers stumbling across the screen, she dialled it in then lay back. She shut her eyes. A tired and nauseating ache setting in deep into her bones. She wanted to sleep but the screeching and screams of the Quetzal above kept her in the moment.
The girls were unarmed, she needed to protect them.