After featherless Luke waved me off and gave permission, I flew into the air, meeting big feather Lulu. We greeted each other, from me, a caw, from her, a hoot.
As we glided through the huge metal nest, Lulu sped up too fast for me to keep up, only to slow down right after for me. Talon friend Lulu guided me out of the place, and we soared up into the skies. Lulu warned me with one of her hoots that an invisible birdcage surrounded the giant community birdhouses.
Confused, I rattled toward my new Talon friend, Lulu, a birdcage that was invisible? What was that useful for? She twisted her head toward me as we flew side by side. With hoots and whistles, she passed the featherly knowledge to me.
According to Lulu, this sky cage surrounded the entire community nest of people. From each end of the stacks of stone branches, this cage in the sky kept out any flying creatures like us if the high feathers within the nest didn’t approve. She whistled that if our masters were in the city, you could come inside without needing high feathers to give permission.
I would thank no-beak Luke later. I liked this community stone nest. The featherless girls giving me fruit made me one happy bird. Lulu told me she enjoyed bread more.
It seems there are different preferences between feathered ones.
With my new friend, Lulu, we came near to a big hole in the nest. I didn’t know why the no feathers here kept opening this hole to the nest, but it did allow no wing Luke to come in and out.
I shook my head in the air, and Lulu dove toward a green area in the mostly gray and brown oversized people birdhouse. Trees were everywhere, leaves constantly fell, and other small animals crawled or moved around. Tasty bugs were waiting for us in the trees. Lulu and I slowly came down from the skies, preparing to land close to a tall orange bark tree.
The ones who move with their long-legged talons and not fly with their wings soon surrounded talon friend Lulu and me as we landed.
The smaller smooth skins tried reaching out to me. I moved to peck at their hands, as I was shy, but Lulu hooted at me that they were friendly. Trusting Talon Friend Lulu this one time, the smaller no feathers caressed my feathers and tried to give me things that were not fruit.
I think roost member Luke spoiled me too much. I’m having a hard time eating anything else now. With her whistles, Lulu tried to convince me that other things could be as tasty, but my liking of particular food was firm. With the flap of Lulu’s wings coming against my body, I reluctantly try some seeds offered.
The taste surprised me, and I rattled in delight. This seed was quite delicious. Lulu and I explored the green square with trees to perch from. The beakless ones always gave Lulu and me curious glances as we watched them.
A young, very small, no feather girl with marks on their cheeks spoke to her roost members around her. I listened in, as we birds were being watched, we watched back.
“Mom, look! Those two birds are so pretty. What kind of birds are they?”
The girl’s nest mother whispered kindly to her, pointing at us, she said, “That first one with the bright, large yellow eyes is an owl, but not just any owl. Do you know who she belongs to?”
“Someone gets to have a pretty owl all to themselves? It’s not fair!” The small girl with cheek marks said, not focusing on her nest mother’s question.
Laughing at the girl’s words, the mother said, “Maybe when you grow up, Analisa, you’ll be able to have an owl yourself.”
“Wow, really? But what about the other bird? I’ve never seen one like that before!”
Talon friend Lulu groomed my feathers for a moment, and I stopped listening in. Lulu would try to teach me things as we flew through the skies and landed every few minutes. Her master, long-eared Iona, trained with her often. She said no-feather Luke would need to start doing the same with me.
Lulu said she felt sorry for me. The training was tough to get used to at first, but I'd have to do it if I wanted to be as useful as possible to no-beak Luke.
Lately, I’ve started feeling like Luke needs me less.
It makes me sad. Making Talon friends with Lulu has helped, but I wished he’d let me do more for him, like in the underground nest. Maybe it’s my fault for not growing as fast as him.
Did I do something wrong? I asked big feather Lulu about it. She patted me with her wings and explained with hoots and whispers. She said I was a companion and that companions needed their masters, and masters needed their companions. As long as I tried hard and no feather Luke started training with me, I’d always be his partner.
That made me happy again. Luke is my roost member. I don’t have any other ones. I'd have nowhere to go if he got upset with me, and we aren’t roost members anymore. I remember being abandoned by my first roost members when I was born in my egg nest.
Shaking myself, Lulu and I flew up and enjoyed the skies. We came down for treats, and later, we flew closer to the big hole to the stacked stone branches. Lulu showed me a place where many small no feathers of all types came together.
They lost their roost members, so they banded up. We played with the little smooth, fur-skinned ones. I would peck at their faces lightly, and they would chase after me. To play nice, I kept low to the ground. The new playmates would giggle and laugh, and I began to enjoy myself a lot more.
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After a while, I trusted them to scratch my nails and pick at my feathers. If one went too far, I would caw at them. Sometimes, Lulu would come over to help me if the small no feathers tried to play too rough.
As I lost myself in play, a bad break in my connection with Luke alerted me.
Roost member Luke was upset! He was very, very upset! Even more upset than when the big armored blue eyes struck me so hard I couldn’t fly off the ground anymore. I cawed in fright, and the little ones around me stepped back. They looked at each other, asking if I was okay.
I flew up to the sky, but Talon Friend Lulu stopped me. She hooted at me, saying I had to stay here. Talon Friend Lulu probably doesn’t have a connection to Luke like I do, so I tried to explain to her with clicks and coos.
Lulu flapped her wings forcibly above me. While she and I were friends, big-feather Lulu was far more powerful than me. When I tried going around her, she kept staying in my way. When I tried to do my vanishing trick, she always knew where I’d reappear. Thinking she didn’t understand why I had to leave to check on no feather Luke, I gave more caws.
This time, Lulu looked to struggle but didn’t change her mind. She whispered and hooted like usual, saying her master required that we both stay in the big birdhouse, and I could not leave. After arguing for too long, I became angry.
My roost member was in trouble and unhappy. If I wasn’t there with him, could I call myself his roost member? I rattled at Lulu. She had to let me go if she wanted to stay my Talon Friend.
This time, Lulu became very sad, and water started to form at the ends of her eyes. But I was firm. She hooted at me, saying she didn’t have a choice. This was what her master told her to do today, and under no circumstance would she let me leave.
Cawing angrily, I flew away in the opposite direction, and Lulu let me go. Looking behind me, I saw that she landed above the big moving hole that the no feathers would open up sometimes.
With no other option, I went to the other moving hole on the opposite side. When I thought I was free to leave and circle around to go help Luke, a strange man with marks on his cheeks stopped me.
“Iona was right. Lulu wouldn’t be able to bring herself to use force to stop you. And here I thought my birdwatching days were over. I’m Tanniv. Iona tells me you’re Sooty. Watch me put the mysteries of mana to use.”
This man tapped the air, and I tried to fly past him. But the air became solid, and I couldn’t move. Frustrated, I soared away. No matter where I tried to leave, an invisible force would stop me.
Eventually, I flew to the west part of this nest. Sad that I was stuck in a cage with no way out, I flew down to a roof. There, I perched and shook in place. With nothing else to do, I started tapping my claws and flapping my wings.
Today, I learned that plenty of things could make me trapped.
I was in no mood to play or eat anymore, and the connection between Luke and me became worse. His anger made me angry, too. Finally, unsure of what to do, I settled down. Opening my eyes, I noticed a few strangers looking up at me curiously and talking to one another, but none of them came to bother me.
Distressed, I closed my eyes and went to sleep.
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Valdemar and his gang had a rough time lately. The hammer from the city government had come down, and leaders of small gangs, like the Green Viper group he formed, were suffering. The big three had gotten into a fight with an untouchable target, Musai, The High Defier.
The fallout from that put the City Lord, Ophelia Cyrn, on edge. More guard patrols were sent throughout Sylen, and the checks in and out of the city became more vigilant. The higher-tier guards in the city were forced to move, making the tightrope of criminal life start to form into a noose.
With these restrictions, his gang was under pressure. At that time, a letter came to him from a broker. This broker had a client who wanted a bird companion spotted from a new Spell Sword in the city. The offer from the client was an astounding one hundred gold. The broker ‘let slip’ that other small and medium sized groups had also taken the job.
When Valdemar found out this spell sword was, at best, a level twenty-something who hadn’t even ascended, he took the offer in an instant. His group needed the work, and this seemed like easy pickings. Not including himself, nearly all his men were at the first tier, with him reaching level thirty-five, the highest in the group.
That was why they bothered to listen to him in the first place. Valdemar knew as well as they did that if any of them became stronger, he’d be demoted at best and killed at worst. But for now, none of that mattered. This was his gang, and Valdemar wanted the easy gold.
Cracking his index finger, he got to work, planning with his group. All over the city, they searched for any signs of this bird. They caught wind the Spell Sword had been spotted at the Beast Divide, but Valdemar got the tip far too late. Adapting to the shortfall, he instructed them to scour the city, and if the spell sword returned, observe and try to take his companion.
One of his own spotted the spell sword later that night, but the bastard came back mumbling about ‘ice wall’ over and over again. He swore he’d quit on the spot if Valdemar forced him to keep tracking the spell sword.
Valdemar killed the cowardly Green Viper member after hearing that dreadful sob story. He regretted it though, as he lost any possible lead on the spell sword and his companion. Drinking booze and lowering his mood, he walked around the western quadrant of the city.
Usually, he kept to the south, where almost all the people in his line of work were based. The smallest part of him hoped to bump into the spell sword here. While everyone in this area avoided him, he preferred it that way.
Those lazy, stuck-up, well-to-do people were too insufferable. As he was about to return to the southern quadrant after hearing puffed-up rich people complain about him for the hundredth time, he glanced at a nearby building. His jaw dropped.
Not believing his luck, he took the contract sketch out of his pocket. It was an exact match.
“The bird companion. Haha! The world spirit must be looking out for me today.” He pulled out the sigil stone from another pocket. He contacted his right-hand man, Peondri. “Hey you lazy bastard, gather the boys. I found the contract mark.”
“You serious, boss? We’ve been looking all over, except for that one lout. None of us have caught the slightest whiff of the bastard.”
Dancing a little in place, Valdemar said, “It’s sure as shit, Peondri. Get everyone here, pronto. Bring the bird cage, and don’t cheap out. Use the highest quality one the broker lended to us for this job, you hear?”
“Got it boss. Where are we meeting?” Peondri responded through the sigil stone.
Valdemar inspected the signs nearby. He was near the boundary of the west quadrant on a street called Drel.
“Come to Drel, near the end of the road. There’s an alleyway on the west side. You’ll see me there. Don’t fuck this up, Peondri.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, boss.”
“Good, the gang could get ahead with this.” Valdemar cut the connection.
The crime leader kept his eyes on the black feathered bird companion, “What sort of shitty bird is that? Looks like dark crap stuck to its feathers, absolutely disgusting. Whatever, gold is gold.” Valdemar laughed, “Hope you enjoy cages, little birdie. I’ve got one coming for you.”