Cliffguard's Clan

If one had to scavenge, at least it could be done in a realm far from one's own, where no one could see you picking through dirt and the trash others had left behind. It was cold comfort, but Ume took what she could. She wasn't proud of having to do this sort of thing.

Still, the Windswept Plains were a nice place to root about in broken crockery. Mild weather, shifting shadows from the dancing clouds high above, the pleasant scent of bamboo and sea breeze . . . Not as welcoming as the deep shadows of the Tangled Woods, but an excellent place to visit.

She shifted her pearl into the coil of her tail so she could better use her foreclaws to push through the bamboo. This, at least, was a proper usage of her skills. She'd had to do a lot of forestry in the Foxfire Brambles, helping her clan weave the thick ropes of thorns into a safe passage to their home.

Too bad they didn't seem to remember those efforts.

You won't have to live on the outskirts for long! We'll dig out a new cave for you as soon as things have stabilized! You're at the top of our list for upgrades!

Ume sneered and tossed away the branches she'd been examining. Oh yes, at the top of their list. You could say that. Just as you could say that the newcomers didn't even get on the list in the first place - they were ushered into the safety of the clan's deep lairs as soon as they showed up with their winning smiles and heavy chests of gold.

Was she naive for thinking they'd reward her? Stupid for holding out so long? Should she cut her losses, move on and try again?

The breeze tossed the bamboo around her. Far above, the clouds swirled into long streaks of white cotton, thin and graceful as the lord of this Realm.

"I don't suppose you have any advice, Windsinger?" Ume snarked up at them.

The air stirred around her more strongly, going from a pleasant breeze to a gust to a veritable wind, and Ume shrank in on herself, wings clamping tight, foreclaws clutching her precious pearl to her chest.

Maybe she was still on the outskirts of her clan's territory because she couldn't keep her big mouth shut.

But the Windsinger, if it truly was him, didn't seem interested in punishing her lousy attitude. Instead, the endless forest of bamboo swayed and tossed like a green ocean, slender trunks bending aside to form a path before Ume. Hesitantly, she stepped forward. The wind pushed at her, urging her on.

Encouraged, she grabbed her pearl with her tail again, and then set off at a slow jog on all fours, birdskull necklace clacking cheerfully around her throat.

~

The path through the bamboo led her to a seaside cliff. The view was magnificent - an uninterrupted vista of tossing ocean waves and the great white swirl of the Twisting Crescendo.

Bamboo leaves drifted past, carried on the wind. They drew her gaze left, to a low hill by the cliffside edge. There, someone had dug out a hollow. Freshly turned earth and rather tatted bamboo showed efforts at planting a privacy screen. Rocks had been pressed into the dirt to try and make a walkway. And in the shadows of the hollow's opening, Ume saw the tiny triangular face of a Spiral hatchling.

Its pale eyes grew wide as soon as it realized she had seen it, and it darted back into the safety of the hollow. Moments later there was a tremor in the earth, and something the same iridescent crimson as a ruby webwing came out of the make-shift den.

And out.

And out.

An enormous female Imperial, beautiful and proud, scales and copper bracelets glinting in the afternoon sunshine, the little Spiral hatchling curled about her horns like an emerald circlet. She towered above Ume with scarlet eyes glinting, and her face was far too familiar.

"Hag-bana!" the childhood nickname blurted out of Ume's mouth before she could stop it.

"Ume-boshi?!" Higanbana said in exactly the same tone of disbelief. "What- how- ah, I mean." She twitched herself back into a semblance of dignity. Tossed her head and sneered, baring impressively long teeth. "How dare you trespass?"

She sounded so exactly like the snotty hatchling from long ago that Ume almost missed the scuff marks on those pretty scales. The show of bones, a body too lean and ropey from poor eating. The tattered ends of wings.

No matter what front she might put on, Higanbana was far from the pampered darling she had been as a youngster.

"Where did you get the hatchling?" asked Ume, trying to get a feel for this odd situation. Had the Windsinger truly led her here?

Higanbana jerked as if struck. "He's mine!"

Ume snorted. "Not with those eyes. Is he why you nested here, in the Wind lands?"

". . . I found him." This said almost defiantly, and Higanbana unable to meet Ume's eyes. Again Ume was struck by the signs of change. The tired droop of Higanbana's shoulders. The defensive curl of her tail tight around her legs. The tatty efforts at making this place a home.

A tiny hatchling curled around her horns, and no mate here with her to raise it.

No one else at all.

"Hmmmm." Ume sighed dramatically. "Well, it seems you're still too big and clumsy to do anything yourself, Hag-bana. I will just have to try and fix all the mistakes you made."

Higanbana spluttered (a ridiculous sight on a creature so ungracefully large, Ume noted smugly) and finally managed an angry, "Nobody asked you for help, Pickle-face!"

"The best things in life are free," Ume snapped back. Then, softer, "Besides. How stupid do you think I am? Of course you need help. You're living here, aren't you, and not in the Scarred Wasteland. You love that stinkpot of a realm. You wouldn't leave it unless something went horribly wrong." And before Higanbana could recover enough to throw her out, Ume marched past her and into the hollow. "Anyway, I've nothing better to do, and no where else to go, really. The old clan isn't worth spit."

"You can't just move in!" Higanbana protested, trailing after her.

"Of course I can."

And should. Hadn't the Windsinger led her here? Not her chosen lord, perhaps, but someone offering a fresh start. A new home.

Two more sets of eyes blinked up at her from the depths of lair.

"Wait . . . How many of these hatchlings do you have, Hag-face?!"

- end


[ I have great difficulty parsing numbers. If I screw up writing them in a buy/sell/trade, please let me know ]