The sun was just starting to lower down over the horizon when Ryan started to stir to wakefulness. His vision was blurry, and his head hurt. When it cleared, the first thing he notird was Terra’s limp form nearby. It caused him to jerk away, but he soon became aware of the fact that his wrists were bound and tied to a tree with a frayed length of rope. To his right, he sensed movement and looked over.
Standing around a fire were several strange forms. Ryan couldn’t believe his eyes. He’d seen creatures like that before, but never thought he’d see one in real life.
Raptors. Not like the six-foot tall scaly raptors he’d seen in the Jurassic Park movies. These ones were smaller, and adorned in colourful feathers. Many of them were wearing… jewelry? Accessories?
Featherclaw. They had to be. None of them were paying attention to him. He tugged experimentally at the rope. He needed to get out of there. He needed to–
“Quiet,” came a voice from behind him. He craned his neck around to see Cale sitting silently next to Bayne. Bayne was still unconscious, as was Nalya who was bound to a tree by herself further away. “They don’t seem to like it when we make noise,” he said quietly.
The raptors were busy tending to the fire. The way they moved was very bird-like, but with conscious purpose. The were laying slabs of meat against a rock near the fire.
Cooking. They were cooking. Raptors didn’t cook. Or did they?
Suddenly, he felt a dark feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“Christ,” he muttered under his breath. “Are they going to eat us?”
“Bayne said they don’t eat humans,” Cale replied. “But they’ve got us tied up for some reason.”
“How long have you been awake for?”
“Ten minutes at most,” he replied. “Looks like we lost most of the evening.” He motioned into the distance. “They have our things, though.”
Ryan looked over to see the five quads sitting nearby. Their things had been ransacked, some of it strewn over the ground. “How did they get the quads here?”
Suddenly, one of the creatures barked in their direction. It approached them, looking at Ryan directly in the eye. Ryan could only stare back at it, uncertain of what to do.
The raptor, if that’s what it was, was only about four feet tall. It had four-fingered, grasping hands with claws at the end of each finger, and one three or four inch claw on each of its feet. Curiously, it looked like the claw had been sharpened and etched. There were patterns carved into the claw, and as the creature drew nearer he noted discolourations on its skin under the feathers.
He quickly realised they were tattoos. The raptor appeared to be covered in scars, particularly around its neck and head, and wore some sort of a sort of belt, or holster, where many objects had been fastened. Of particular note was the creature’s eyes. It looked at him carefully from its left eye, but briefly turned its head and barked into the distance. That’s when he noticed the creature’s right eye wasn’t an eye at all. It was a piece of metal. A prosthetic.
The raptor bent over and started sniffing Ryan, and his clothes.
“What the hell do you want, ugly?” Ryan sneered at the thing.
The raptor ignored him, continued to sniff, then turned and made some more squawking, barking noises. Other raptors came and crowded around him.
“Don't piss him off,” Cale warned. “We might be able to get out of here still.”
The raptor immediately turned his attention to Cale after he had spoken, and moved his attention to smelling him. The one with the scar let out another bark, and Ryan saw that the other raptors were studying Nalya, Bayne and Terra. Nalya began to stir just as she was being inspected, causing the raptor to bark back to the one with the metal eye.
Ryan watched as the strange cacophony echoed back and forth between the creatures. Whatever was happening, the raptors were excited about it.
The metal-eyed raptor sat back on its haunches in front of Ryan. It looked almost like a roosting chicken.
“You smell different,” it said.
Ryan's eyes shot open. “Christ, you can talk?”
“Silvereye can speak language of men,” it replied. Of course the thing's name was Silvereye. What else could it be?
“What do you want?” Ryan asked. “Why did you capture us?”
“Noisy things. Smelly,” Silvereye said. “Thundering through our valley, scaring our prey. Why come you here, man? To take our meat?”
“We're only passing through,” Ryan said. “We're going to Halen. My... my village. It's in trouble. We only go in search of help.”
“Help?” Silvereye asked. He cocked his head to one side and regarded Ryan with an intelligent eye. “Help yourselves! Bring your evil to the Quicktooth! With your smelly ironhorse, you take our meat!”
“No, we have no interest in your meat,” Ryan argued. “We just want to pass through. We mean no harm to the... Quicktooth.”
“Lies!” Silvereye exclaimed. “Men take. You take and take and take. But no meat for Quicktooth! No meat for the young!”
“No, we're not from this place. We haven't been taking your meat!” Ryan exclaimed. “Christ, we're not even from this damned world!”
With that, Silvereye retreated a few feet away. He regarded Ryan with a different look, then leaned over to sniff him again.
“You. You and him and she,” Silvereye said, motioning towards Cale and Terra. “Smell different. Like smoke and… flowers and mint leaves. Strange smells. Alien.” He backed up and turned to the other raptors, barked at them, then turned back. “Speak more, man! Tell Silvereye more!”
“Like what? What do you want to hear?”
Silvereye moved in close, examining Ryan's face. Ryan could only stare back.
“Tell Silvereye,” he said. “Where you from, man?”
“Ladysmith,” he said. “We're not from this place, we came from Earth. Another world.”
“Other world? The sky-ground? Azure Dream? Kalla’s Roost?” he motioned towards the planet now rising in the distance.
Ryan shook his head. “No,” he said. “We didn't come from there. We don't know how we got here, only that we came over in some kind of a blacklight. It pulled us across. Me, my friends and my entire town.”
Silvereye came in close, and seemed to be smelling Ryan's breath. It paused.
“You no lie,” it said. It barked at the others, who barked back. They seemed to be getting upset about something. A large raptor then walked over to Silvereye and barked at him at very close quarters. Silvereye merely barked back, an obvious act of defiance. Whoever this second raptor was, he was obviously in charge.
Silvereye turned back to Ryan and regarded him for a moment.
“Sharpscent no believe,” Silvereye said. “He no believe you halo-child.”
Halo-child? What the hell was that supposed to mean?
“You mean the blacklight, don't you? That's what you mean by the halo?” Ryan asked.
Silvereye nodded in a way that only a raptor could. It seemed like a clumsy movement, something he wasn't used to. “Yes,” he said. “Halo of light of darkness. You come here from halo, yes? From other place of men?”
Ryan nodded vigorously. “Yes. We came in the blacklight. We had no knowledge of this place before then.”
Silvereye again barked at Sharpscent, and the two sat barking at each other for a few moments. Ryan looked over to see Terra starting to wake up. He absently noticed her phone was sitting on the ground next to her.
“Sharpscent want proof,” Silvereye said. “He no believe until he sees proof.”
“What, the quads weren't enough for you?”
“What is kwads?” Silvereye asked.
“The noisy... things. What we were all riding on. You can't say you've ever seen anything like it.”
“No is kwads. Kwads is no proof! Legends say halo-child will speak without speaking,” Silvereye said. “Said they will see without seeing. This can you do?”
Ryan looked at Silvereye as though he was crazy. How could anyone do that? He looked over to see Terra looking around wildly, a desperate and pleading look on her face as she looked at the creatures surrounding her. That's when it occurred to him.
“Her phone,” he said. “It speaks without speaking. Over there, with Terra. The girl right there.” He gestured towards Terra with his chin. “Terra! Your phone, give it to them!”
“What?” Terra asked. “Why?”
Ryan looked at Silvereye. “The phone. There on the ground next to her,” he said. “It sings. Just let her show you.”
Silvereye looked over and spotted the phone on the ground. At first he lowered his snout to the ground and sniffed it. He picked it up and examined it.
“This black rectangle,” he said. “It no sing.”.
“She needs to unlock it,” Ryan explained. “Let her use it, she’ll show you.”
Sharpscent barked at Silvereye. Silvereye barked back. He then looked at Ryan. “Is trick?”
“No, not a trick. Just let her use it,” he said.
“If trick,” Silvereye said. “Sharpscent cut her open.”
Terra’s eyes widened in shock. She clearly didn’t want to be cut open. Silvereye tugged at the rope binding her wrists and released them, and he handed her the phone.
Shakily, she unlocked the phone and loaded up her music app as if her life depended on it. It did. She pressed play on the first song she could find.
Suddenly, the opening notes of Everlong by the Foo Fighters started to fill the forest clearing. The reaction from the Featherclaw was swift. Some retreated in shock at the sound, while others, including Sharpscent and Silvereye only looked to each other, wide-eyed.
“Is singing,” Silvereye said. “Black rectangle is singing!” He barked at Sharpscent some more. He looked down to Terra. “Speak without speaking. Is you also see without seeing?”
“Take a picture!” Ryan said. “Show them.”
Terra nodded, then quickly snapped a photo of Silvereye, and showed it to him.
Silvereye looked down at the phone display and stood absolutely still. He slowly raised a clawed hand to the side of his face, stroking the area around his prosthetic.
“Is… me,” he said. Even despite the difference in species, Ryan could tell the image was shocking to Silvereye. Of course. The featherclaw’s eyes were on the sides of their heads. Even looking into a mirror, he would never be able to see the side of his face with the prosthetic. It was new to him, and quite obviously shocking.
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He remained silent for a few more moments, then beckoned Sharpscent over. The two barked at each other for a moment before Sharpscent grew silent.
He then bowed his head before Terra.
“Sharpscent believe you,” Silvereye said. “Believe you is truth-telling.” He walked over to Ryan and tugged at the rope binding him, releasing him while the other raptors did the same to the others. “You is halo-child.”
Sharpscent looked toward Ryan as well, and barked in his direction.
“He say halo-child welcome to Quicktooth. He say… sorry for harming. Sorry for capturing. We not know. Please no harm Quicktooth, halo-child.”
“Not that I'm complaining,” Ryan said. “But why do you trust us now?”
“You halo-child!” Silvereye said. “It said time of blood harvest comes with the halo-childs!” Silvereye bounced happily on his haunches.
“Blood harvest?” Terra asked. “Oh God, what's a blood harvest?”
“A time of much feeding for all featherclaw, mm hmm!” Silvereye bobbed his head up and down. “When all tribes come together! Quicktooth! Highcrest! Thunderclaw! When featherclaw join men for great hunt!”
“A great hunt?”
“Old tales,” Silvereye said. “From before the before. The halo-child shall come. Speaking without a mouth to speak. Seeing without eyes to see. The halo-child shall bring Featherclaw's union. Will bring all tribes together, and all tribes shall feast upon meat.”
“Whose meat?” Terra asked. “Not ours, I hope.”
“Halo-child not meat! Halo-child is friend to all featherclaw.” Silvereye suddenly looked over to Sharpscent, and barked.
“Where do these tales come from, Silvereye?” Nalya asked.
Silvereye looked back to Nalya and scratched the end of his chin. “Old tales. From snout to egg. Say that man with the eyes of the Green come. Help us. Tell us of times yet to come. The Green-Seer.”
“My word,” Nalya said. “Wendell Mair?”
Sharpscent barked back, and Silvereye seemed to smile, at least insofar as a raptor could. “You stay with Quicktooth tonight. You join us. We eat meat. Quicktooth give you honour-- you accept?”
Ryan quickly looked to Nalya, who gave a curt nod. “It's too late to go anywhere else. If they're going to be friendly, I see no reason why we shouldn't accept their hospitality.”
Ryan then nodded at Silvereye. “I accept,” he said. “I can't speak for everyone, but I accept.”
Silvereye bounced happily. “Good! Good-good-good,” he said. “We make ceremony. Halo-childs must have names. Names of honour!”
“We already have names,” Terra protested.
“Not honour names,” Silvereye replied, as if that explained everything. He turned. “Come, we eat meat now, then we honour halo-childs!” Silvereye gestured towards the fire.
Ryan could see no other option than to join Silvereye and the rest of the Quicktooth.
----------------------------------------
By the time Ryan and the others had their fill of the tough meat that Bayne had identified as wild myrnah, Silvereye and Sharpscent were already well on their way to getting things ready for the naming ceremony. Apparently the Featherclaw were a highly superstitious lot, and naming things was their way of offering protection from bad spirits. According to Silvereye, the act of naming among the Featherclaw was a great honour rarely, if ever, bestowed upon humans. Silvereye had told them that no human had been named by the Quicktooth in the time since Silvereye had been a member of the tribe.
The rest of the Quicktooth were very cordial and polite to the five humans, offering them more myrnah even though they were stuffed. Ryan had attracted the attention of a young female, who cooed softly when in his presence and rarely diverted her attention away.
“Looks like you've got a girlfriend,” Terra quipped. Ryan only bopped her lightly on the head.
“Smartass.”
The young female was never very far from the group. She seemed to be trying to anticipate Ryan's movements. When he got up to go fetch his guitar, the young raptor had foreseen what he was going for and beat him to the punch, offering the case to him as though she were a servant.
“Thank you,” Ryan said, smiling and nodding at the raptor. If dinosaurs could blush, she was doing it.
“Longfeather is still young,” Silvereye explained. “Only three months from the shell. She not understand yet. Not understand that man and Featherclaw different. Not understand that men not come from shell. She think you like us, just… looking different.”
Ryan looked down at Longfeather and patted her on the head. She bounced on her haunches happily. “Tell her I say thank you,” he said. Silvereye barked to Longfeather in translation, and she cooed warmly in reply.
Ryan then pulled the guitar out of the case and settled down while Terra rummaged through her pack. A moment later, she cried out in victory, pulling out a green Bic lighter and a small tube. She popped open the tube and pulled out joint.
“Seriously?” Cale asked.
“Oh relax, it’s no different than having a beer at the end of the night. Besides, it’s a party.”
Cale rolled his eyes, but said nothing.
She put the end of the joint in her mouth and lit it, inhaling deeply, then passed the joint over to Ryan.
“Is magic?” Silvereye asked, then sniffed the air. “You smoke sweetflower with fire magic?”
“It's a Bic,” Terra said, showing the plastic lighter to Silvereye. He smelled it first, and then took it from her. He turned it over in his hands until Terra showed him how to use it. Silvereye barked happily, and then clumsily managed to light it.
“You can have that one,” Terra said. “I've got more. But it will run out of fluid eventually, and it won't work after that.”
“This great gift,” Silvereye said. “Silvereye will treasure it. Will save floo-id for sacred fire.”
“Silvereye?” Nalya asked.
“Yes?” Silvereye replied.
“Where did you learn to speak with men? Where did you learn our language?”
Silvereye only turned the corners of his mouth upward, in a strange caricature of a smile. “Not tellin',” he said. He then looked at Ryan, who was tuning his guitar. “What this you do?” he asked.
“It's a guitar,” Ryan said. “An instrument. It plays music.”
“Music, yes. Singing and drums and pipes. But never seen this,” he said. “You can play?”
Ryan nodded, and then started plucking the strings, playing an old Smashing Pumpkins tune, Disarm. The Quicktooth gathered around him, with Longfeather resting her chin on Ryan's leg, looking up at him. Soon, some of the raptors started to pound on drums, going along with Ryan's melody, and then the dancing began.
Ryan found the Featherclaw's dancing to be very bird-like. It reminded him of the mating dances he’d seen on nature documentaries. The interesting thing, however, was that they all seemed to be dancing in unison. It was like a choreographed routine, each dancer complemented the others. It was all very uniform, but nonetheless beautiful in its own way. They flowed perfectly in tune with the melody and beat. Ryan spent some time switching from song to song, and the Featherclaw did their best to keep their drumming going with the melody he provided them. He dipped into his repertoire, playing a song by Our Lady Peace, Incubus, then topped it off with an acoustic arrangement of a Tool song. Before long, Ryan grew tired of playing and put his guitar to one side.
Silvereye announced that the ceremony was about to begin. Ryan took a hint from Terra and pulled out his own phone, ready to take some snapshots. The firelight would provide enough light, and he knew the photos would be a big hit whhen he got back to town. Eventually the ceremony began. Silvereye took a spot between Ryan and Terra, while Sharpscent stood before the fire and began a series of melodic barks and squawks.
“Sharpscent say we gather to give names of honour to halo-childs,” Silvereye translated.
As Sharpscent continued to speak, Ryan asked Silvereye, “How do you choose the names?”
“Sharpscent will beckon you,” he explained. “You stand. Receive names spoken by the tribe. Sharpscent chooses name from what tribe calls out.” Almost on cue, Sharpscent levelled his gaze at Ryan, and beckoned him forward with his claw. Ryan passed his phone to Cale on the way up and instructed him to take a few shots.
When Ryan stood before the fire and looked back on the group of humans and raptors, he felt a little uncomfortable. He was used to performing on stage, but now he was the centre of attention in some kind of cross-species ritual. The Featherclaw barked and squawked at him, chirping and cooing madly. He looked over to Cale, Bayne and Nalya, who were speaking quietly. Terra was watching the ritual with a keen eye. After a few moments, the Featherclaw chatter fell to silence and Sharpscent grabbed Ryan's hand. He dragged a claw across the back of Ryan's hand, causing him to jerk it back in shock and cradle it as the blood flowed out of it.
“Is he supposed to do that?” he asked Silvereye.
Silvereye nodded. “It mark of Featherclaw,” he explained. “We speak of your scent to the other tribes, speak of your name. Sharpscent will give you name now.”
Ryan cradled his bleeding hand and levelled his attention on Sharpscent. Sharpscent closed his eyes for a moment, then spread his arms wide and embraced Ryan in a close hug-- or at least, what Ryan thought was a hug. He released him, then barked to the crowd.
“Sharpscent say you name is Feralsong,” Silvereye said. “Longfeather suggest name. He say you honoured among Quicktooth this night, and soon all Featherclaw know the name of the man Feralsong!” Silvereye beckoned Ryan back. “Come, sit.”
“That’s… actually kind of a cool name,” Ryan remarked.
Sharpscent then looked upon Terra, and beckoned her up.
“He doesn't have to cut me, does he?” she asked.
“Is honour among Featherclaw,” Silvereye said, not really understanding her question. “Mark of honour on back of hand.”
Terra shrugged and stood up. If she could handle a tattoo or a tongue piercing, she could handle a little cut. The process was repeated, and Sharpscent embraced Terra in his strange raptor-hug, and barked once again to the crowd.
“He name you Bloodflower,” Silvereye exclaimed.
Terra smiled happily while she cradled her hand. The cut would definitely scar, but it wasn't deep, and the bleeding stopped before too long. When Terra sat down, Sharpscent beckoned Cale up, and before long, he received the name of Sharpsight.
It was then Nalya's turn, and when Sharpscent cut open her hand, the raptors seemed to work themselves into a bit of a frenzy. Most, if not all, were barking name suggestions to Sharpscent. After a few moments, she too received the raptor's embrace, and Silvereye told her she had been named Longblood.
Bayne was the last. He seemed apprehensive about being embraced by the small creature, but in the end, they had named him Proudmane. When the group were all named, and once again sat in front of the bonfire, Sharpscent again addressed the crowd. A couple of raptors in the back took off running towards a fairly large hut near the back, and emerged with a strange bundle of cloth.
“Sharpscent say the time is here,” Silvereye said. “Time to give to you gift of Quicktooth.”
“Gift?” Ryan asked. He waved his hands. “No, no. We don't need any gifts, we just--”
“Quicktooth honour-bound!” Silvereye exclaimed. “Quicktooth must give back what we given by Green-Seer! Give to you, we will. We must!”
Ryan worked his jaw, obviously searching for something to say, but then he calmed down. When Sharpscent started barking again, Silvereye instructed Ryan to stand and receive.
“Sharpscent give to Feralsong gift of Quicktooth,” Silvereye explained. And then Sharpscent took the strange bundle from the other raptor, turned, sat on his haunches, bowed his head and offered it up to Ryan.
Ryan could do nothing else but take it. It was surprisingly heavy, and he could feel the hardness of whatever it was under the cloth. Slowly, he unwrapped it.
As the cloth started the shed itself from the object, Ryan's eyes went wider and wider. The first thing he saw was something black and reflective-- and sharp. After a moment, he realised what it was.
Obsidian. What was left of sand after it had been heated up by lava. The sharpest substance known to man. As the rest of the cloth shed itself off, he could hear Bayne gasp.
“I cannae believe it,” Bayne said, the awe showing through very clearly in his voice. “It couldn't be.”
“What? What couldn't be?” Ryan asked as he examined the sword. The hilt was made of a silver metal, and jewels were encrusted all throughout it, but the four-foot blade was perfectly shaped and exquisitely sharp.
Nalya stood up to take a closer look at the sword. “By the Green Sight, it is.”
“What? What is?” Ryan asked.
“Lad, I don't know how this came to be,” Bayne said. “But it's a bloody miracle. What ye be holding there can be none other. It's Twilight's Blade. The obsidian claw. The legends say it was lost to the ocean after the death of Rasshauer Flenn nearly a thousand years ago. I’ve only seen it in drawings, but…” He looked to Silvereye. “Ye say this as given to you by the Green Seer?”
“Yes! Green-Seer gift this to the Featherclaw. Kept by Quicktooth. Green-Seer told us to give to man of song when the Blood Harvest comes!”
“Wendell Mair went missing after the death of Flenn according to the stories,” Nalya said. “To think he’d have come here.” She looked to Terra, then back to Ryan. “He knew you would come.”
“What, a thousand years ago?”
“It cannot be coincidence,” she said. “That we have the second person to have the Green Sight in a millennium right here with us. And to tell them to give it to the man of the song?” She shook her head. “I’m convinced of it.”
“Yo,” Ryan said. “Are you telling me I’m part of some kind of prophecy?”
“Not one I’ve heard of,” Bayne added. He looked to Silvereye. “But perhaps that’s how Mair wanted it. The blade is legendary. It’s the sort of thing men would kill over.”
“Why?” Ryan asked. “Obsidian is brittle. I mean, sure it’s sharp. I hear there are few things sharper than obsidian, but something like this will break at the slightest bump. How it lasted this long I don’t even know.”
“Blade is strong,” Silvereye said. “No break. See?” He picked up a stone from the ground and bashed it against the shaft.
The sword vibrated, but didn’t break.
“What the hell?” Ryan ran his hand down the shaft, then took the stone from Silvereye are tried to gouge out a mark on it. Nothing. Not even a discolouration.
He then pulled the sword out of the cloth and raised it in the air, bringing it down on another nearby rock.
The sword didn’t break.
Not to mention that the rock he struck chipped off.
“Obsidian doesn’t behave like this,” Ryan said.
“It’s said that Becca Ayre made the blade for him,” Bayne said. “She was a Fire Mage, the most powerful Eiden had ever seen.”
“Even so, it’s not that simple. This is supposed to be as brittle as glass. For all intents and purposes, this should have shattered.”
“Yet it didn’t,” Bayne added.
“We should bring it with us,” Nalya said. “Perhaps my uncle knows something of this. But for whatever reason, the Featherclaw believe it was meant for you alone. If that’s the case, we should honour that.”
“I don’t even know how to use a sword, though,” Ryan said.
“Most people don’t know how to use a sword proper,” Bayne said. “Ye’ve got me to show you, lad.”
Ryan suddenly felt very, very uncomfortable.