Found Girl by Pauline Baird Jones

Author:Pauline Baird Jones [Jones, Pauline Baird]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pauline Baird Jones
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

18

The tension Arian felt reminded her of waiting for an Enforcer examination, but this was not Bosakli. An Enforcer was not coming through the opening. An alien was. Which, for now, still seemed preferable to an Enforcer.

There was a stir in the shadows, a sort of flutter of wings. Did she think this because they believed these aliens were birds, or because wings had fluttered in there? She heard a scrape of something against the floor, and the first alien entered the room.

She felt her jaw slacken, tried to close it, and could not. She had thought it a mental adjustment to meet the non-human Rhubreak but this…

The alien was broad across the chest, perhaps two of her widths and taller even than Coop, who was the tallest of their group. Its body was clearly avian, with an aerodynamic curve from front to back. It was hard to be sure of its exact shape because it wore protective coverings on its head, chest, and legs. Protection also seemed to extend along its back and sides, but that protection—if that is what it was—had a different appearance, somewhat translucent, she decided, since it exposed the pattern of feathers. But it could be an illusion.

The long legs bent backward as it walked toward them. She stared. The way it walked made the gait an unusual mix of ungainly and graceful. Its neck made a long, gentle curve from head to body.

The head was also…very avian in shape but disconcerting to one who had never seen a bird of that size. Where it connected to the neck, it almost seemed an extension of that neck, but then it flowed into a narrow beak that made a substantial curve downward on the end, like a hook. This beak was pink where it connected to the head, but had a slash of dark dead center. Its eyes were dark beads in a circle of white.

Its head rose high as the arch of the neck lessened, and it looked down on them with an imperiousness that reminded her of…something. It did not look anything like the birds on Bosakli—in so many ways, she lacked time to list them. One difference she could not help but notice, was it’s webbed feet splayed on the white stone floor.

Its feathers appeared to be white, but she could not be certain because of the protective elements. The chest and head protective gear glowed a faint green, but when the big bird moved, the color shifted to a pale gold. There was a seal affixed to the breastplate, that was too small to see, but she had a sense of knowing what it looked like—no, she could not go there. Not now. Focus.

The alien lifted its head even higher and studied each of them. If it blinked, she missed it.

“Fla…” Gessner coughed once and then tried again. “Flamingos?”

“I thought flamingoes were pink,” Coop objected.

“Their color is determined by their diet,” Gessner said, softly, but with much awe. He rolled forward on his feet as if he wanted to get a closer look.

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