Post by Gavin Graves on Mar 30, 2021 13:00:51 GMT -8
CW: Gore
Historical: March 2020
It happened. Four of them, all changelings, set themselves up around me.
I was out in the bush running courier, part of an effort in trying to find my place in the mundane. In my skin. It was a bit of a walkabout experiment, to see if it felt right. Very few cared who I am. Plenty of others only saw what I am when they offered up the hard yakka, those that were eager anyway. On its face this job wouldn’t jump out at you as that kind of work: take this package from here to Los Angeles, but the pay said otherwise. I needed it too.
My bare feet under me, I felt the wild connection to the world around me, that primal charge. Unconsciously, my claws tensed up to test the surface of the Trod: hard packed gravel.
It was a short distance after a rope bridge crossed a chasm. Their smell had pooled in the area. A bit of wind and I might have known they were here before I saw them. They had been laying in wait. Was it for me or would just anyone do the trick?
They’d prepped the bush with some temporary adjustments that blocked the road and shut down my options. One posted up on the blockade had the scent of fresh spring flowers pissing out of him and the other three sealed the bottle from behind, knives out. The last held up the rear and prepared to cut the bridge.
“Give us the package and we’ll let you live. Come on now, hurry up!” their leader had demanded.
There it was. They are here for me. Someone somewhere let slip.
The package had been absorbed into me when I entered the chrysalis. What would they do if I did give them the package anyway? They were willing to kill for it, and they had already penned me in. They only said they’d let me live, not let me go.
Each of those was enough on their own. I won’t be contained. Never again. I just got this life back. Everyone always wants to meet the animal and forgets what it means to do so.
I let out a few deep bass rolling rumble sounds cassowaries would use to warn others off. It was the only warning I was going to give them. They paused a moment, glancing at their leader for a cue. In that moment, I scarfed the feathers I had prepared and invoked additional primal features of the Cassowary--the world’s most dangerous bird and only species that has survived still nearly unchanged from the cretaceous period.
At a gesture, the two Elemental drongos nearest continued moving up the distance behind me narrowing the ground I could use with their torrents of flame. It was starting to feel a little iffy.
I'd got dressed up. About time it starts going off.
“Awk! Awk!” I belted out and started off like a shot at the blockade and away from the flames’ heat. The leader was the ribbon tying this little band together.
Leaping clear over the blockade in a flash I greeted the Spring courtier feet first. Delving all the way back in his guts my momentum spun him as I flew well passed him. A trail of snag connecting he and I even after I landed. The horror of what had happened took a bit to register for him. It was already over. His arm had been carried with me and his knife rattled to rest nearby.
“Awk! Awk!” My feral form bellowed, sounding like a raptor. I had meant to say G’day.
After clumsily scooping the knife up with my beak, I took off. The intestines dragged behind me for half a click before I realized and kicked them off. He probably needed those. The others had either chose not to pursue or it wasn’t even a contest. The dressing on the road mighta had a say.
I wore the blood to the delivery. It was a message, and maybe they’d leave me be next time. Word would get around: ‘Don’t piss about with the bloody dinosaur.’
Historical: March 2020
It happened. Four of them, all changelings, set themselves up around me.
I was out in the bush running courier, part of an effort in trying to find my place in the mundane. In my skin. It was a bit of a walkabout experiment, to see if it felt right. Very few cared who I am. Plenty of others only saw what I am when they offered up the hard yakka, those that were eager anyway. On its face this job wouldn’t jump out at you as that kind of work: take this package from here to Los Angeles, but the pay said otherwise. I needed it too.
My bare feet under me, I felt the wild connection to the world around me, that primal charge. Unconsciously, my claws tensed up to test the surface of the Trod: hard packed gravel.
It was a short distance after a rope bridge crossed a chasm. Their smell had pooled in the area. A bit of wind and I might have known they were here before I saw them. They had been laying in wait. Was it for me or would just anyone do the trick?
They’d prepped the bush with some temporary adjustments that blocked the road and shut down my options. One posted up on the blockade had the scent of fresh spring flowers pissing out of him and the other three sealed the bottle from behind, knives out. The last held up the rear and prepared to cut the bridge.
“Give us the package and we’ll let you live. Come on now, hurry up!” their leader had demanded.
There it was. They are here for me. Someone somewhere let slip.
The package had been absorbed into me when I entered the chrysalis. What would they do if I did give them the package anyway? They were willing to kill for it, and they had already penned me in. They only said they’d let me live, not let me go.
Each of those was enough on their own. I won’t be contained. Never again. I just got this life back. Everyone always wants to meet the animal and forgets what it means to do so.
I let out a few deep bass rolling rumble sounds cassowaries would use to warn others off. It was the only warning I was going to give them. They paused a moment, glancing at their leader for a cue. In that moment, I scarfed the feathers I had prepared and invoked additional primal features of the Cassowary--the world’s most dangerous bird and only species that has survived still nearly unchanged from the cretaceous period.
At a gesture, the two Elemental drongos nearest continued moving up the distance behind me narrowing the ground I could use with their torrents of flame. It was starting to feel a little iffy.
I'd got dressed up. About time it starts going off.
“Awk! Awk!” I belted out and started off like a shot at the blockade and away from the flames’ heat. The leader was the ribbon tying this little band together.
Leaping clear over the blockade in a flash I greeted the Spring courtier feet first. Delving all the way back in his guts my momentum spun him as I flew well passed him. A trail of snag connecting he and I even after I landed. The horror of what had happened took a bit to register for him. It was already over. His arm had been carried with me and his knife rattled to rest nearby.
“Awk! Awk!” My feral form bellowed, sounding like a raptor. I had meant to say G’day.
After clumsily scooping the knife up with my beak, I took off. The intestines dragged behind me for half a click before I realized and kicked them off. He probably needed those. The others had either chose not to pursue or it wasn’t even a contest. The dressing on the road mighta had a say.
I wore the blood to the delivery. It was a message, and maybe they’d leave me be next time. Word would get around: ‘Don’t piss about with the bloody dinosaur.’