New To Beven

Chapter 14

There was more than one dead body when I arrived and rode the air above the scene, but all of them were beasts, black smudges like oil spills on the golden rocks. More than one!

Stunned nonetheless, I dipped one wing and veered back around, holding altitude and surveying, as requested by Ric. Tan forms, seen by the shadows they cast, circled the black forms. As my raptor eyes adjusted, lenses twisting, vivid red became clear, smattered on surrounding rocks. Gore. It was awful. Further wreckage, metal and plastic from the drones, littered the terrain.

I pumped my wings harder then, climbing higher out of fear of them spotting me.

Ruby shifted back to human, and approached one mangled heap of machine, not far from a beast's body. She tapped at her armband. Maybe she finally got the opportunity to connect with the monitoring team back at the settlement. Then a drone shot out of the tree line. That was right. She could control them with her armband.

It shattered against rock. Fuinneamh. Our head Guard had tracked it, her gaze focused and unfazed all the way, on its course to the cliff face. What the Sorter was going on?

I had considered landing, until that moment. Nothing felt right about this. Reason argued against seeing. She couldn't have ordered that drone to self destruct. There was no call for it.

And yet the reality of the situation was all too clear. Ruby had declared war on beasts, and machines! Outrage boiled up like bile.

Something whistled through the air, slicing wind currents, shooting straight. Awareness hit before the bolt could. I banked. A taezart had been fired, at me! Breathing came fast, heart rate even faster. I dove, wings tucked tight, my hawk gaze darting. Did they know it was me, and not some bird? Either way, why shoot? I was no land beast.

I had to get out of there. Ric could decide the rest from here.

"Hold your fire!" Ruby projected her voice. It pierced the rushing in my ears.

Honestly, I reasoned, the dart would have only stunned and they would have caught my body, maybe. I shook my head, focusing hard on my flight back, to safety.

Near halfway there, I climbed higher, arm muscles bunching and straining, until I finally hit the right draft. Floating along it, my breaths elongated and body steadied. Visually sharp, my raven eyes roamed the landscape, and soon landed on a fiery gaze, beyond a blunt muzzle and atop a tan hide, seated on the shelf of a cliff. Fear struck anew, survival instincts shifting into gear. Then the heated amber in his eyes dawned, like a warm sunrise. I knew this puma. Though he'd once pounced on the feathers I now wore, he'd never do it again. Of this I was certain, and felt safe.

Having caught my attention, he padded down from his perch, landing softly.

Behind his shoulders, ribs rose and fell fast. Dan shouldn't be exerting himself like this. Long sharp teeth framed a wide pink tongue as he panted. I called out, my bird cry resonant. One thick paw scraped at the air.

Right, language barriers. His head jerked back toward the settlement. I was in whole agreement. His presence strengthened my resolve. I straightened my back, heartened to have a partner on this mission.

I banked away from him, and he took up a pace along the rocky hills, keeping in view as much as possible. Soon we moved along parallel, him loping, and myself gliding, with conservative pumps of my wings.

He leapt off the last boulder, at the forward edge of the settlement, before reaching the sentries. He began stretching, the paws extending forward as his back curved. The cloak peeled and flapped in a breeze. Good. I hadn't wanted to land in the middle of everyone anyway. Maybe here I could better align my thoughts about what I'd seen and narrowly escaped. My heart constricted briefly.