Unicorn Western by Sean Platt & Sean Platt

Author:Sean Platt & Sean Platt [Truant, Johnny B. & Platt, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sean Platt
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN:

THE BIRDEMIC

The sun had set. The barn was black. Clint hadn’t thought to bring a lantern. He’d left his matches in his bag, and his bag was up in the room because at first he’d been planning to bunk there. The gunslinger had his guns as always, but what good would they do when he couldn’t see?

“Birds,” said Clint, groping around the barn for Edward or Pompi, unable to find either of them.

“I hear them,” came Edward’s groggy voice. Clint couldn’t see the unicorn, huge and white as he was.

“Make light. Give me a ball of light.”

“Nar. Light will give us away. Nobody knows we’re here. They’ll be focused on the Otel.”

“The Otel!” Clint blurted. “They’ll get Mai!” He scrambled to his feet, suddenly desperate. But before he could get proper footing, a hoof struck him square in the chest. The blow was precise, as if Edward could see exactly where the gunslinger was.

“Sit down, you fool. Think. If you run out there screaming, they’ll be all over you. Same if we make light. These are birds, not bandits. They won’t be afraid, and there will be many of them. I can’t protect you from all of them if they’re the Darkness. Remember how they overwhelmed us under the Rancho in Precipice, back when they were rats? You’ll have to reach the others and rally their help, but you must do so quietly. Like a big, ugly mouse.”

There was a stirring to Clint’s right. He heard a voice. The voice was muffled, and he remembered why he hadn’t been able to grope to find the giant. Pompi was in the next stall, a wall of rough-cut boards away.

“Pompi help,” said the voice.

Clint reached out, still seeing nothing. The dark was a black velvet curtain. His hands felt along boards toward the voice. He set his face to the planks, and whispered through a crack.

“Not yet, Pompi. I need to tell the others. We have three more guns up there, and one is a canon. The birds will go for the others first, and they will require help. I need to bring them down here, or at least make them ready. Lee might not know where they are, and probably thinks he’ll find me or you up there with them. I don’t know if the birds are capable of knowing anything.”

“Mai,” said Edward’s voice from the blackness.

“What about her?”

“You can’t carry her down without killing her. And I can’t float her all the way down from here. Even if I could reach that far, I’d rack her into every wall on the way down. I can float something, and I can steer blind. But I can’t do both at once.”

“You’ll have to go up there and get her, then,” said Clint.

In the dark, Edward actually snickered. “You’re funny.”

“I’m not losing her again!”

“Don’t worry, hero,” said the deep, disembodied voice. “I can project a small bubble from here. Enough to keep the birds away from her, but not enough to stop bullets.

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