Pictured is a wrinkly blob with irregular coils and tendrils. It has extruded four legs for jogging. [https://64.media.tumblr.com/a9259f362031a89d30a60585abe55a2c/132def747a28bd44-1d/s640x960/abbf0e72c19a8ce3274874621ebcd2bfeb0e7b80.pnj]
Picture by Timothy Morris
Ambassador Li rose, entirely steady, arms held out to their guest. "Welcome! Welcome, fellow — "
"Silence!" screeched General Graa. "Mr. Grumbles! About face!"
With a clank of armor and a swirl of cape, the steed spun on his heel. The actinic glare of General Graa's backlight swept like a scythe around the forest clearing. Neurospastics scuttled into the shadows and yanked their puppets into the forest canopy. A lone human's knees and elbows flexed as he found himself spotlighted, a black, winged shadow stamped across him.
"Forward march!"
Mr. Grumbles advanced, and the bird shadow shrank and darkened, focusing over Koen's chest. With a chiming tap from his rider on the cheek-guard of his helmet, Mr. Grumbles halted.
Graa drew himself up within his horizontal column of light. Chains and pendants dripped from his half-spread wings and titanium tines gleamed on his talons. The raven spread his enormous, rounded wings. "I have come," he cried, "to plunder you."
Koen closed his eyes to stop himself from looking at Laura and Mark. Also, they were starting to sting.
"Excuse me, Your Excellency," said Ambassador Li, "but would you please clarify that?"
General Graa raised his crest and slid his nictitating membranes slowly across his eyes. "No." He jangled his wings and raised his voice. The backlight slid through the air to cast its light upward, so huge shadows seemed to flutter about the canopy.
"Human Koen! Other humans! And all gathered sophonts, look! Look at me! Watch me as I overpower my enemies."
At the table, the leader of the Parturians fluttered his eyelashes in awe. "He's like a god!"
Koen took the opportunity while everyone's attention was off him. "Translator," he whispered. "Toggle on gestural translation for Pick."
"
"Proprietress," he whispered. "What is General Graa feeling?"
Something chimed in the branches over his head. "He doesn't look happy, Human Koen."
"Thanks."
By some subtle cue that Koen couldn't see, Graa caused his steed to wheel around and pace toward the diners at the tables. The Pick's neck, however, flexed and twisted to keep his beak pointed at Koen.
"Human Koen!" he screeched. "Why did you kidnap Mr. Grumbles?"
Koen felt all their eyes back on him. Human and nonhuman. Afraid, annoyed, or just confused. Why had General Graa asked a question instead of ordering Koen to reveal his secrets, the way he usually would?
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Maybe, despite all this aggressive grandstanding, Graa wanted to find a way to forgive Koen. There was no need to reconcile with Graa because Koen was going to D.C., but did that mean Koen shouldn't try to be kind? That was what he was doing. Being kind.
Koen put a hand to his heart, feeling as if he was lying.
"I stole Mr. Grumbles because," he said, "I thought he was suffering."
At the table, Mark did not relax. He became tenser.
"How?" demanded Graa, wheeling his steed back around.
"I could see it in his face."
Graa paced Mr. Grumbles through another tight circle. "When?"
"Well, for example, when he wanted to eat a potato chip, and you didn't let him."
"For example, the face you're making right now." Graa spun Grumbles to face Koen, beak pointing. "What do you want, Human Koen, and who is stopping you from having it? There is more truth to winkle out of your holes."
Koen paused for a moment, caught up in his disgust at that mental picture.
"This is going well (sarcasm)," Judgment said, reaching for another melon.
Mix Sty glared at him. "You're filming them, right?"
"Of course I am."
Little flying sharks swooped chittering around the clearing. Graa ignored them for the moment. "Well?" His beard bristled under his helmet of platinum and mother-of-pearl. "Submit to my probe!"
"I just liked him," said Koen. "I liked Mr. Grumbles and I felt bad for him."
"Clarify! You liked him for his fascinating conversational skills? His beautiful eyes? Select a deception that is less stupid."
Koen spread his hands, as if appealing to a higher power or inviting someone to come perch on him. "I mean I felt for him. Empathized with him. I felt his pain, and I wanted to end it, all right?"
Beak tilted up, Graa strutted back and forth across Mr. Grumbles's padded shoulder. "In summary, you claim to have emotionally misidentified my steed as your troupe-mate. Perhaps a little brother or cousin or son. Believable. But how did you do it?"
Koen took a deep breath. His fingertips were going numb. "I took him for a walk and — "
"Stop stating the obvious. How did you take care of him all that time?"
What had the cover story been? Koen still didn't glance at Mark or Laura. His teeth chattered. "I didn't. I left him in the woods — "
Graa screeched. "Tell me the truth, Koen! You did not leave him in the woods for ten days and nights. He has gained significant weight! Weight that cannot be borne by your fabrications." He grumbled, amused at his own pun. "Yes, I can see your stress, Human Koen. Now, wonder what more evidence I know but am keeping secret from you. Wonder it!"
Laura shivered. Koen was lying to protect her. He didn't deserve this.
Koen realized several things at once. One was that Graa was bluffing. He didn't have any more information, and he didn't know that Koen had kept Mr. Grumbles in the Embassy. The real danger was the other humans. They didn't know Graa, and they'd think he was giving Koen the chance to implicate them. If Koen hesitated, either Ambassador Li, Laura, or Mark would start speaking.
"I did it." Koen did not say alone. "I fed him. I came back to the woods and fed him whenever I wasn't out with you, keeping you away. I had to give him cookies, you know, in order to make him follow me around. And then I lost him. And I realized I was wrong about him and you. Because I spent so much time with you."
The Pick regarded Koen, first out of one eye, then the other. Several humans at the table held their breaths.
"What?" demanded Graa. "Is a cookie?"
"Mostly sugar and fat."
"I knew it." Graa stropped his armored beak across the metal edge of his perch, and all the mammals in the area winced.
Nelly was just recovering from the sound and wondering if she could go home when a claw brushed her shoulder. She flinched.
"Excuse me," said Ensign Barker the Adventurian. "But what's a Grumbles?"