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4 - Notes On The Way Down

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Suni

Dawn was still an hour away when a hoarse, rolling howl shook me awake. Guttural, grating, and so loud that it made the window next to my bed shake.

Rupert, right on time.

I was still pulling my eyes open when the other fourteen individuals who made up his group joined in. They ate from different trees day to day, but thus far they’d always stayed close enough to the college that their calls were impossible to ignore.

My first few mornings in Lekarsos I’d found the sounds haunting. To the uninformed it was easy to imagine the howls came from some massive, horrible predator. But knowledge had a way of cutting through superstition and baseless fears. Once I learned the sounds came from Rupert and his family group, my attitude toward them changed. The howls weren’t haunting, they were beautiful. And a consistent way to wake up at the same time every morning. When the college grew and there were more than just the professor, Kamil, and myself, I was sure the newcomers would appreciate the consistent alarm as well. Was there anything better than an early start to the day?

This was the last time I’d have the alarm for the next three weeks, I realized all at once. It was expedition day!

That sent a surge of adrenaline through my veins and any lingering lethargy was gone in a heartbeat. It was replaced with a shaking excitement. I could barely keep my hands steady enough not to spill everything on to the floor as I double-checked my backpack.

I’d packed the night before but looking now I was less certain in my decision to take only two extra journals. The last thing I wanted was to be out in the Far Wild and run out of pages to fill. I made a mental note to grab another journal from the study on my way to breakfast.

Along with packing my bag the previous night, I’d left out my hardiest clothes, which was to say, the college’s standard-issue uniform for naturalists operating in the field.

The light and flowing shirt had wide, long sleeves, a folded-over collar, and three buttons at the neck. It was the color of parchment and as comfortable and stylish as sailcloth. Comfort and style weren’t the goals, though. Hardiness and practicality were. The shirt’s loose fit helped keep me cool in the heat of Lekarsos and the full-length sleeves protected from sunburn.

A long, navy-blue coat went over the shirt, trimmed with gold thread on the edges and full of pockets within and without. Perfect for carrying my journal, quill, any instruments or tools I wanted to have easily to hand, and a snack or two. The lapel was emblazoned with the stitched crest of the Imperial College of the Sciences: a shield, surrounded by fanciful scrollwork and divided into four quadrants. They contained a quill, the stem of a fern, a constellation of stars, and a half-rolled map, each one representing one of the primary sciences the college had been created to study. Its range spanned far beyond those now, but the original four were commemorated forever in the crest.

The crest adorned the lapel, but the rest of the coat hung all the way to my knees. It mostly covered the standard-issue high-waisted black pants with a light striping of gold down the sides. They were just as comfortable as the shirt, so not at all, but their solid construction meant they stood up well to grasping branches and the like, while their length kept my legs safe from brushing against Toxicodendrons and other potentially harmful plants. Additional protection, mainly from snake bites, was afforded in the form of calf-length boots made of a thick and sturdy leather.

I completed the outfit with a wide leather belt, an addition of my own. I stopped a moment as I held it in hand. It’d been a gift from my parents in honor of my apprenticeship. The buckle was a frivolous thing. Intricate brass beaten into the stylized shape of a flowering Tillandsia stricta, the air plants that were so abundant in Lekarsos. Extraneous though the belt was, I had to admit, the buckle was beautiful. And it was the perfect thing to keep me grounded out here. To make sure I didn’t get too consumed in my work and forget about home.

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Professor Symeos was already up, because of course he was. Even after six months at the college I couldn’t recall seeing him sleep for more than a few hours at a time. He loved his work too much.

“Ah, big day today, eh, Suni?” he said as I passed the door to his office. He was at his desk, a cast of some sort of mammalian footprint trackway taking up its entire surface. “Breakfast is set out downstairs. I think I heard Kamil getting ready a bit ago. Might be you can catch him and make the walk together, yeah?”

“Perfect. Thank you, professor,” I said, trying to make my voice sound calm and relaxed. Don’t overreact. It’s just an expedition. Your first expedition. And into the Far Wild. Oh, jeez. The Far Wild.

“Oh, and Suni?” The professor halted me with a gesture, then let a mischievous smile creep on to his face. “Try not to get eaten out there, yeah?”

I couldn’t help the smile that broke through my mask of calm. Nor the chuckle that came after.

“If I do, I’ll be sure to take notes on the way down.”

He laughed at that. “Studious, as ever.” His expression turned serious for a moment. “I know Kamil will take good care of you, but do be careful.”

I nodded solemnly and just like that he was back to smiling.

“Now get out of here! Go on! Enjoy your first expedition.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. The halls of the third floor were dark, only the faintest early morning light trickling in through the windows, but I didn’t need it anyway. My feet were all too familiar with the path down the stairs. Two flights down to the ground floor where breakfast was waiting, then on to the skyship fields with Kamil. The expedition wasn’t set to leave until after dawn so there was some time yet. Enough to pop into the study and grab those extra journals. I broke from the stairs and followed the second-floor hall around a corner and into the high-ceilinged study.

The windows were closed as they always were at night and I eased around the couch and an arm chair as I took the shortest path toward my desk. There were several blank journals in the bottom drawer.

Something moved in the corner of my vision. A curtain? One of the windows was open. Huh. Must not have been locked tight. A breeze probably blew it open during the night. Thank goodness it’d been a dry night. The last thing we needed was a classic Lekarsian thunderstorm to soak the carpets and furniture. Or worse, the books.

I grabbed the journals from my desk, then turned to close the window at the far side of the room. Probably a waste of time, really. Professor Symeos would no doubt be down as soon as the sun was up, to open the windows and set up his workspace for the day. But, just on the off chance he had other plans, it was best to lock the window.

Rupert and his friends were still howling outside as I approached the window. Except... something was different. It wasn’t their usual howl. No, this was more panicked. Frantic, even. It was a call of alarm. Something was agitating them.

“Rupert?” I asked, squinting in the dark as I walked up to the window. I was four paces away when something slammed into my side.

The world spun and then the wind burst from my lungs as I caught a desk with my ribs and toppled over it. The floorboards caught me with little compassion and my head rang from where it bounced off of them.

Something was in the room with me.

I let out an embarrassing squeak, then scrambled backwards, kicking at the floor and pushing away from the window. And then the thing moved again. It was a shadow, a shape, a... person? They were silhouetted by the window as they stood. Some sort of cloth was wrapped across their face, leaving only their eyes visible and, in the pre-dawn dark, even those were near impossible to make out.

“What do you want?” I shouted, but the figure had already turned. Clutching something tightly to their chest, they awkwardly climbed onto the open windowsill, then leapt out.

It was only then I noticed Professor Symeos’ desk had been pried open. Papers were scattered on the floor around it.

They stole something! I jumped to my feet, throbbing ribs forgotten as I rushed to the window.

The figure outside was making their way across the college’s outer wall, wobbling with one arm outstretched as they balanced their way across. It was brighter outside, and I could just make out a bundle of papers pressed to their chest. But not just any bundle. It was an official report. Stolen from the professor’s desk!

That set off something inside me. Anger, or bravery? Or reckless foolishness, more like, that I hadn’t known was there. Without conscious thought I pulled my backpack tight and clambered on to the windowsill. One foot slipped out from beneath me and I near toppled right out of the second-story window.

A fall from this height would surely break something, if not worse. But the thief was getting away. They’d crossed the majority of the college’s outer wall now and, even as I looked, they sprang from the wall and on to the roof of a nearby house.

“Thief!” I shouted at them, then sucked in a lungful of air and took a fateful step forward. My boots dug into the bark of Rupert’s favorite branch, then held fast. Another step and I was fully out of the window. Two more, both nearly toppling me from the tree, and I was down near the wall. I breathed a sigh of relief as I reached it, then jogged along its length.

“Thief!” I shouted again. “Get back here!”