Dae Avari's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Dae stepped from Greta's door into the wet morning, journal tucked tight under his clockwork arm. He had not gone twenty paces before he felt it — a quiet weight behind him in the reeds. Someone was watching. If he walked straight ahead, they would walk straight behind him, all the way to whatever god he found first. He circled wide instead. He moved low through the green tangle, talons silent in the muck. Soon he found their sign: a bent screen of leafy bushes built into a blind, and beyond it a small tent with a fire burned down to coals. The fire pit was deep. Whoever camped here had waited many nights. Inside the blind he found a small pile of his own shed feathers, tied with twine. Someone had been gathering them. Proof of patience. Proof of purpose. Dae set the bundle down and turned — and a red shape dropped from a branch behind him. The monkey landed in a crouch, knuckles spiked, a curved blade hanging from its tail. It bared its teeth and circled. Dae lifted his clockwork arm. The blade-tail whipped once and sparked off the metal. He stepped back into the blind, cornered against the leafy wall. "Off," a voice barked. A short, green-skinned man pushed through the bushes, waving a torch from his own fire. The monkey hissed, snatched a strip of dried meat from the camp, and bolted into the trees. The man watched it go, then turned to Dae with a tired grin. "Du'yun," he said. "That's my camp. You're standing in it." Dae kept his talons set. "You've been watching the hut." "For weeks." Du'yun dropped onto a log by the coals. "Heard a bird-man was hunting a god. Wanted to see if it was true." "And?" "And I'm coming with you." Dae studied him. "Why?" Du'yun shrugged. "No bigger fight than a god. Anything less is a waste of my time." Dae was quiet a long moment. Then he sat. One stalker gone, one partner gained. The road forward had two sets of feet now.