Fowlhunter [GL]

In truth, Jemi did not like this plan.

Everything below was dark under the night sky, lit only by the swaying strings of lanterns draping from one pavilion to another, and meagrely by the coloured paper lamps floating all across the lotus-filled lake. Though, the night was anything but tranquil; the sounds of people shouting and scrambling across the bridges were plenty loud, as if making up for the lack of sights.

In this chaos, no one bothered to look up at the cloaked figure curled up on the rooftop of the central pavilion. Jemi Garen, who lay in wait. The human woman who, in other times, was known as the Princess of Beasts… the Cockatrice.

It was too dim to see very far, and Jemi’s eyesight was no eagle’s. But she knew Ying and Lochlan were surely running along the far bank of the lake, closing in on the duck. Meanwhile, unseen below the water, Asha was swimming, awaiting her cue. And most prominently, highlighted by a blaze of light, was their target: the angel commander, Ennanis Zoleil.

Jemi’s gaze followed the angel. The light that accompanied the angel came in intermittent gold flashes, and from this distance she looked as though a bird on fire, zipping around the flailing black duck. Jemi knew all about the ring-spear of hers, Lienna: a magical, Soleki-storing ring that could transform into a spear, kept on the angel’s person at all times. The sporadic powering on and off of Lienna was no doubt a tactic on the Commander’s part to conserve Soleki. It was a tactic that Jemi was well used to facing during their night battles on Mount Casca.

Her fingers curled, stretched and curled at her sides, itching. Watching the fight made her restless; her body yearned for her to jump into the fray. She was the Cockatrice, after all, used to being on the frontlines, be it in physical battle or in espionage. To be sitting back here watching the three of her friends take on the fight was nothing short of excruciating.

“This is Ying’s fault,” Jemi muttered under her breath. Her responsible pixiu companion had been the one to convince her that her original plan—of going in by herself, taking down the duck, then introducing the angel to her friends—would be foolish hubris, for there was a chance the Commander would attack Jemi instead once she knew she was allied with Beasts. It wasn’t like it was an entirely implausible plan, at a glance; after all, Jemi knew the Commander inside-out when it came to fighting her.

But, as Ying had rightfully pointed out, Jemi would not be in Beast form. Yes, the plan was to let Ennanis know who she was working with from the get-go, so that she would grow to trust the Beasts. But convincing Ennanis to ally with Beasts for the sake of greater goals was one thing; having Ennanis work with the Cockatrice was a completely different story. Ask the Graveyard Commander to work with the Beast Princess, after the eight straight years they’d spent trying to kill each other? Yeah, she’d agree—agree to put the prongs of Lienna through Jemi’s skull.

And there would be no coming back from death, this time.

The woman pulled her scarf tighter around herself, shivering as a cold draft issued past her. She must’ve looked stupid, sulking like a child waiting her turn to play on the slides. But that didn’t stop her from being painfully aware of her uselessness. She was supposed to be their leader. It was she who had led them all along on this mission; the least she could do was be there directing them.

But Ying was right. In this state, she would never be able to hold her own in the fight unfolding up ahead. Moments ago, they had all seen how fast Ennanis had coerced that blue-haired angel into defeat, ruthless and precise. The Cockatrice might’ve stood a chance, but not Jemi. Without her Beastly abilities, without Lunaki, she was nothing.

But that was not all she could do, for now.

She gazed out at the fight; at the big black duck. Taking a deep breath, she began to whisper something, in a voice soft as trickling sand.

~~~

The duck screamed, splitting Ennanis’ ears.

Lienna had connected with the mallard, sending a fountain of dark blood spurting out of the broken vessel. Ennanis grimaced as it splattered over her, drenching her cheongsam. But she didn’t have long to feel disgusted, for below her—the ground suddenly upheaved, sending her stumbling.

The ‘ground’ being the duck’s body, of course, as it reacted to its injury with incredible magnitude. Thinking fast, instead of pulling the point of her spear free, Ennanis held onto Lienna’s shaft with a vice grip. Seconds later, the duck swung its gigantic neck around in a vicious arc, and Ennanis’ body lurched airborne, her only anchor being the spear lodged like a javelin in the duck’s neck. She felt as though a marshmallow on a stick. However, even that didn’t last long. With a few more frenzied swings, Lienna dislodged from the surface of the duck, and Ennanis was flung clean off from its body.

Ennanis somersaulted in the air, restabilising. Lienna had gone flying from her grasp, and she yelled to summon it back to her. It boomeranged back, and she caught it just in time to block the gaping maw that lunged for her, whacking the spearshaft across its upper beak to repel it. The duck recoiled, but so did Ennanis, who was sent reeling from the impact.

Ennanis spat blood, wiping her face clean. Her spear was dark and heavy in her hand. The need to conserve Soleki was a constant and pressing burden on her mind. She would have to end this fight much sooner than it was currently taking her. Especially when this many angels were present in the vicinity, busy flying around and evacuating civilians just across the lake—angels who would passively absorb and use up Lienna’s Soleki too.

She fired up Lienna in momentary bursts, just enough to enhance the strength of the weapon each time she brought it up to block those of the duck's beakthrusts that she couldn't twirl out of the way of. Despite the blood loss from its neck, it didn’t seem impeded in the slightest. In fact, it seemed to be moving even quicker than before, its blows coming down harder, more precise.

Something felt wrong about it. Where the duck had just been flailing about before, its demeanour seemed to have changed. Now, it seemed to actually move with… intent. Murderous intent. Perhaps her spear to the neck had agitated it?

Ennanis needed another plan to bring it down, and fast. But she’d never taken on a Beast of such incredible size before, and with it also being immune to Soleki. Something was wrong, and honestly, she had no Medusa-damned clue what to do. All she knew was that she couldn't keep this up for long.

It was just at that moment that the duck froze in place. Ennanis took the opportunity to double back in the air, catching her breath. Then, she watched in confusion as the duck suddenly jerked its head backward, and began to wail.

What the hell was going on?

And then she saw it.

It was—it looked to be an elephant’s head, though Ennanis didn’t really understand how it could be—had poked out from the water. Its trunk was wrapped around the duck’s webbed foot. It had no tusks, but it did have jaws full of very sharp teeth. Distantly, Ennanis could hear the strangled screams from the bridge. First a duck, and now an elephant?? Are we in the Royal Palace lake or the river zoo???

Then, a voice yelled from the direction of the grassy bank. “Hey! Need a hand?”

Ennanis summoned light to be able to see the source of the voice. Two people stood on the lake bank. One was a sturdy woman wearing a headscarf. The other was shorter and scrawnier, their face hooded from view.

“Who are you?”

“Here to help,” responded the shawled woman. She was the same one who had yelled just now.

Ennanis’ eyes narrowed as she appraised them. “You’d better stay away from the danger.”

“Okay, well,” said the woman. “Promise not to freak out.” Then she reached up and pulled the headscarf down. Ennanis’ pupils shrank when she saw what lay below the cloth: between her dark hair, a pair of fuzzy ears twitched. A lion’s ears… and two horns centered on her skull.

“You’re a Beast.”

Tentatively, the person standing beside her also lifted their hood, allowing the angel a momentary glimpse of muddy-teal hair and a delicate face. It was him—the clumsy Beast boy she had tried and failed to apprehend a week ago. “We both are, actually.”

“Before you do anything,” the woman said quickly as Ennanis began to raise her spear, “You can’t take down that thing by yourself. How about we work together to take it down?”

Ennanis paused. “Why would you Beasts attack another one of your kind?”

“That’s not a Beast. That’s a Runt,” the teal-haired boy spoke up. “Animals that fail to transform successfully into Beasts, or don’t get enough moon refuels, can turn into Runts. They’re not under our control.”

“And why would you two help me?”

“Our business is with Mount Casca,” the lion-eared woman said. “Contrary to popular belief, some of us don’t enjoy seeing human civilians getting senselessly wrecked. So, what will it be? Accept the help, or deal with it on your own?”

Ennanis inhaled… and exhaled.

“Okay.”

Both the woman and the boy blinked, as if in surprise. The woman’s lips were still parted, the sounds of a much lengthier pitch dying in her throat.

Ennanis gave them a flat stare. “Trust me, I’ll ask more questions once this is over. But for the moment,” she glanced at the duck in the lake, “there are more pressing issues at hand.”

They looked at each other, then nodded in unison.

At the woman’s signal, the boy dove off the bank and into the water. Ennanis’ gaze darted across the lake, where the elephant-crocodile was still chomping on the duck’s leg.

…….

…Interesting, she thought.