The Ruins of Crestfall by K. Vale Nagle

Author:K. Vale Nagle [Nagle, K. Vale]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781643920252
Publisher: STET Publishing, LLC

20

Stormtail

With their first errand out of the way, Erlock Fantail continued her search through the Emerald Jungle escorted by Wendl and Nighteyes.

When she’d first arrived here, the fantail gryphon had thought the jungle was all the same. Its emerald broadleaf trees covered the landscape from mountain to coast. The more time she spent here, the more she began to recognize the peculiarities of the different sections of the jungle.

The starlings used pride glyphs along their borders with outsiders but not within them. Instead, she’d learn to distinguish different plants that indicated she was entering a new pride’s territory. The Nightsky hunting grounds, for example, had parasitic vines that grew out of the broadleafs. When they bloomed, the dark canopy lit up with bright white flowers, resembling stars in the night sky.

The Jadebeak Pride controlled the center of the jungle. Anywhere that wasn’t clearly claimed by another pride was theirs. Their landscape rose and fell in predictable ways, and it wasn’t until she’d been permitted into one of their nests that she realized there were stone structures buried under the vegetation. Above-ground catacombs, once home to opinicus remains, now housed gryphon nests. She could even spot some of the spires and cities of a long-abandoned eyrie, now verdant with life and starlings, rising up from their core.

The Jadebeak and Nightsky Pride territories were impressive, but the Stormtail territory was the easiest to find.

Erlock looked out upon it now—an area of the jungle where the rapids met the ocean. The sky above the Stormtail nesting grounds was experiencing a thunderstorm—the exact same storm that had been there yesterday and the day before. In fact, the storm had started four months ago and still raged today.

Wendl said the thunderstorm faded only for the winter. It was something to do with air currents and river currents and ocean currents all hitting at just the right location. Something to do with the rainshadow effect and mountain air currents and weather terms Erlock was unfamiliar with. The Stormtail Pride seemed happy enough there, but she personally thought it was a good place to catch beak rot.

Unfortunately, it was also the last place anyone had seen Merin’s eldest son. Erlock and her escort flew low and braced for the cold rains. Lightning crackled nearby, striking one of several spires.

“The spires are relatively new,” Wendl chirped. “The other scholars and I constructed the lightning rods to stop the nesting grounds from getting hit. Careful not to get too close.”

When Nighteyes fell behind, Erlock asked Wendl if the other starlings knew who she really was.

“I mean, we told them,” the opinicus said. “They just don’t believe us. They think we were born when some opinici mated with some starlings, and then we came home after being born with starry plumage.”

“How does that work with the green wing altruism?” Erlock asked.

“They’re not really aware that they have it, exactly.” Wendl looked back to make sure Nighteyes couldn’t hear them. Her tone said to tread carefully. “It was hard to convince our friend back there to drink the elixir.

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