What You're Runnin' From

Chapter 11 or No Strings Attached

song: The Beat - Save It For Later

A day or two later I woke up during the night from some noise on the roof of my house. It sounded like a scratching noise, some tapping... probably rakk. I groaned and turned around in my bed, but with the noise on my roof I just couldn't fall asleep again. I sighed in frustration and slowly rolled out of bed.

I really wasn't in the mood to get up in the middle of the night to shoot those rakk on my roof, but I knew I wouldn't be able to fall asleep again if I didn't. So I put on my robe and went over to my chest to get my shotgun. That bird would regret waking me up in the middle of the night.

With my shotgun over my shoulder I slowly climbed up the ladder to a hatch in the roof. I slowly and quietly opened it, trying not to get their attention before I was ready to shoot them. It sounded like it was only one, but rakk rarely went away from their group, so I figured there would be more of them around.

I carefully stuck my head outside, so my eyes could get used to the darkness. I hoisted myself onto the roof and looked around for whatever was making that noise, my shotgun ready. I heard a small caw, as I turned around and looked straight at...

"Bloodwing?"

I put down my shotgun quickly and climbed onto my roof. What was Bloodwing doing here on his own? I couldn't believe I almost shot him. And I don't think I could have lived with myself if I did.

"Hey, buddy. What are you doing here? Are you all on your own? Where is Mordecai?" I asked. Bloodwing cawed and hopped over to me, looking at me expectantly. I smiled at the bird, he was just too cute.

"Do you want a treat? I'll have to see, if I still have some skag meat..." I said to him. I repeated to myself over and over how I couldn't believe I almost shot him. That would have been really, really bad. Bloodwing just cawed and bit my hand. I flinched and quickly pulled it away. Bloodwing looked at me again.

"Do you want me to pet you?"

I heard an enthusiastic caw, so I slowly stretched out my hand and started gently scratching his neck. Bloodwing looked happy. But it made me somewhat uneasy that Mordecai hadn't turned up yet. I barely ever saw Bloodwing without him, so I started getting worried. Who knew whether he was still alive. People died under the strangest circumstances here and even someone like Mordecai, who had managed to stay alive for so long, wasn't safe by any means. I wondered if he'd just turn up from somewhere just to give me a fright or if there was something wrong and Bloodwing was trying to tell me about it.

"So what's a pretty lady doing all alone on a roof at this time of the night?" I suddenly heard a well-known voice behind me say. Speaking of the devil. Or rather thinking. Even though I had almost expected something like that to happen, I still got a bit of a fright and jumped a little. I slowly turned around.

There was Mordecai, a big fat grin on his face, standing on top of my roof. He looked a little beat up, surprisingly. I probably just stared at him for a full minute or something. For some reason I did expect him to just turn up, but I also somehow didn't. Then again, him turning up out of nowhere was a regular occurrence at this stage. Maybe I needed to get used to it.