Vesper Nightwing's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Vesper Nightwing counted her swarm again, and the number was wrong. Forty pixie-bats hung from the dead branches last night. This morning she counted thirty-one. She crouched on a rotting log, wings folded tight, her bat-nose twitching at the smell of blood in the grove. These little creatures were hers to command. She would make them a swarm, then a legion, then crown herself their queen. But a queen needs subjects, and something was eating them. She found the first body under a curled fern. Its wings were torn. Its small chest was empty, hollowed clean. Vesper hissed and bared her teeth. Whatever hunted here worked in the dark and left nothing to fight. She circled the clearing three times, low to the ground, searching the mud for tracks. She found deep prints pressed near the water, and drag marks leading toward a fallen tree. Vesper knew she could not kill this thing alone. Her claws were small. Her swarm was scattered and afraid. She needed muscle. She flew fast through the dripping grove until she reached the towering maple, its purple and green leaves heavy with rain. Inside its hollow trunk lived the strongest creature she knew. Bollo filled the doorway before she landed. The gorilla stood taller than the entrance, his gray fists resting on the wooden steps. He wore a worn leather vest, and a rope belt circled his wide waist. He had helped her once, dragging a stump so her swarm could nest beneath it. Vesper did not trust easily. But she trusted his hands. "Something is killing them," she said. "I need you." Bollo looked at her for a long moment. Then he nodded once. "Show me." She led him back to the drag marks. They followed the trail past the dead tree into a glass atrium half-swallowed by vines. Butterflies drifted over still water. Lizards sunned on warm stones. And there, coiled beside the pool, lay the predator: a thick serpent, its belly swollen with swallowed prey. Its eyes opened as they entered. The serpent struck. Vesper darted up, wings snapping, and the fangs missed her by inches. "Bollo, now!" she screeched. The gorilla seized the snake behind its head with both hands. It thrashed, wrapping his arm, squeezing. Bollo grunted, planted his feet, and pulled. Muscle rippled under his fur. With one hard twist, he crushed the serpent's skull against a stone. The long body went limp in the water. Vesper landed on the dead snake and dug in her claws. Her swarm was safe. She had killed the thing that thinned her legion, and she had proven she could command a creature strong enough to break bone. Then she saw the eggs. Dozens of them, pale and soft, buried in the warm garden soil. The serpent had been a mother. Soon her clearing would crawl with hungry young, and one gorilla could not crush them all.