Brakkin

“Get up.”


Blast. Maybe if he didn’t move, he’d both become invisible and turn back time so she wouldn’t have seen him.

“I said get UP. Do you have ANY idea how dangerous it is, being this close to them?”


The hiss in her voice spoke as much of her teeth as it did of her mood. He could almost see them, despite keeping his eyes stubbornly closed. Why had he ever agreed to join her on this mission? Why had he ever agreed to leave the lair?

Well, he knew why. The light, jaunty tune floating across the water, though interrupted by his traveling partner’s voice, was still audible, making his feathers vibrate with every skip of fingers across strings.

“Hush,” he told Rywinnel, quietly. “I’m trying to listen.”


“You’re telling ME to hush-“


He turned his head away, his feathers lying flat as if they could deflect the words. He knew this mission was secret, knew that being seen would mean the end of several weeks work of preparation and planning, but he could hardly care. The beast clans might be savages, but their bards…he didn’t understand how creatures with so many limbs could be both so savage and yet so gifted. Sometimes he wished-


“If you don’t get up NOW, I’m going to attack those furred freaks and tear them to shreds, right before your eyes!”


He did open his eyes then, giving his wildclaw companion a reproachful look. “How would that spoil the mission any less than me having a few moments of quiet to myself?”

“They’re our enemies!” She snarled, her disgusting meat-breath an offense to his nose, and all noses worldwide. “They’re FOR destroying! Not for…for…”


“Not for appreciating. Despite their talents, their creativity, their-”


“You know what, I changed my mind,” the wildclaw sneered, stepping close to him with an ominous clank of claws on stone. Her starred hide glittered as she loomed over him, and he had to crane his neck to keep her in view. “Maybe I won’t tear them apart. Maybe I’ll tear YOU apart for your disobedience.”

He considered this a moment. “Would you really?”

“I would,” she assured him, her grin wide and feral. Saliva pooled at the corners of her mouth as she prepared to strike.

Well, that settled things, then.


With a relieved sigh, he shifted his haunches over the edge of the great flat stone he’d been sitting on.

“Hey, what—HEY”


He fell backwards off the stone, landing in the water with a great splash that drenched his irritable companion.


Even as he sank, he could see her furious expression. She wouldn’t dare follow after him, she couldn’t swim any more than she could sing. He smirked, blowing bubbles in farewell as she turned tail and ran back into the forest. She wouldn’t risk being seen by the bards, despite her boast.


He hit the bottom of the lake, his tail squishing into the cool mud. With a practiced twist, he flipped himself over, squirming along the soft ground like a watersnake until he was on the other side. Carefully, so carefully, he allowed himself to drift to the surface, slow strokes from his wings keeping his ascent measured.

As his eyes broke the surface he glanced over at the little herd of bards. They had paused in their play, looking curiously back at the rock he had been on not moments before, but with a few shrugs and whinnies of laughter, they resumed their music, strumming and striding in time to the tune so their hooves made a percussion accompaniment to their jaunty song.

Brakkin settled his head amongst the reeds, watching them through half closed eyes and smiling. He didn’t care that he would probably be reported when they got back to the lair. He didn’t care that the sun was setting, the fireflies were coming out and the water was growing colder. If he could have this small thing, this moment to appreciate the music… well.

That was worth all the wet in the world.