Conflict Before War
Chapter 1
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Even the Steps were starting to call them monsters.
Kaye scowled and pulled a drawer off its hinges, digging frantically for their tools, but cringed when a breath came from behind them - sick, disembodied, like a death rattle. The breath alone was like a ghost story come to life. Kaye shuddered, waited for the feeling of dread to pass, and threw medical equipment on shoulder-hung saddlebags.
Most of the camp was gone, and the chief had gone off somewhere and not yet returned. Kaye figured if they could all leave, whether by their own choice or not, it was about time that Kaye leave too. Especially if the others in the camp didn't make a conscious choice to leave. The beaked Rixixi rocked forward, eyes lolling in adrenaline, as a lukewarm current caressed their back like a tongue. Kaye's spine went stiff, hot spittle collecting at their lip as the feeling slowly traveled across their entire wing, tip to tip, before finally heading downwind, another rattling breath echoing across the cave.
Kaye tried to swallow, but only dry air met their mouth. They tried to turn to leave, but their eyes stayed locked downwind.
There was a scream.
Kaye didn't hear the crash until the scream sounded in reaction, and even then, if one asked them later, they wouldn't recall which sounded first. A cub found a carcass that was being dried and tried to steal some only to be pinned under a falling wall of meat. The beaked Ixi raced to the cub, shouldering the weight off the young one, but the cub wouldn't move. Kaye's helping hand, reaching to see if the little one needed medical attention, froze as they heard a sob. Froze as they looked up.
The death rattle had a face - one cloaked in armor and barely wearing skin. The racha imriri, breath like dehydration and fumes, stepped closer, melting feet spreading across the ground, that face nodding lower. Kaye gently closed their paw over the cub's mouth.
"Close your eyes and count to ten," Kaye whispered.
Another voice - many voices - rose from the darkness as the cub's eyes drooped.
Afraid,
(Afraid)
To
(see) what Death looks like,
The cub was sedated, unaware already of what was happening next.
Kaye, awake, heard the voices of their camp in the beast's chest. The beast leaned in, mere inches from the anesthesiologist's beak.
Afraid?
Kaye shook their head and remained silent. A scowl broke the facade of a plague mask on the Rixixi's face as the massive racha's maw opened wide.
CLOSE
YOUR
EYES
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