Fowlhunter [GL]

Asha loved her job. From the very beginning, when she had joined the Beasts, she had already started as a scout. She was once a crocodile, after all, and it was the obvious choice for an animal highly specialised in stealth.

She had no complaints about it. Being a scout meant she spent copious amounts of time in her original natural habitat, swimming down rivers, diving down underwater channels, sinking below the waters of lakes and ponds and her favourite, baths. Heheh. (What? People’s reactions were priceless! There were few things that made Asha’s day more quickly than inching near an unsuspecting individual, and suddenly rising a trumpeting elephant trunk above the water. Exactly.)

Unfortunately, today there would be no baths. Nor much water, in general. A lot of the time, spying happened on dry land, simply because it was where humans and angels roamed—in places not always accessible by waterways. Such as now, when she, Ying, Lochlan and Jemi roamed Amethyst in search of information on the Kraken.

Currently the four of them were in the back of a cart, dragged along by a horse. The horse had an ordinary appearance—a fine charcoal-coated steed, cantering along obediently—except for the conical party-hat resting upon his head.

“It’s his birthday today,” Asha jovially told anyone who glanced their way. The passers-by would give an answering laugh. Some stopped and tried to give him headpats; Asha shooed them away.

“Be careful,” she waggled her finger at a child, who was teetering on his toes trying to reach the top of the horse’s mane. “You see these big, strong horse legs? If you pat him, he’ll kick you over the other side of the mountains! You’ll never see your momma or papa ever again!” The child’s eyes widened, and he scurried off in a flash.

The truth was that the steed was not capable of such a feat. But it was, in fact, a Beast. Below the partyhat was a jagged, silver horn that sparked errantly, but hidden below the hat they just looked like reflections of sunlight.

“I gotta say, this was a good idea.”

Asha turned to look at Jemi, who’d spoken, and beamed with pride. You see, Jemi had been a Beast the longest, and was also the most powerful Lunaki user of the three. She fell into her role of leader as easily as Asha fell into her place as a scout. It was she who had taught Asha the basics of scouting when she had first joined. Asha was glad to receive any praise from her.

“No biggie!” she chirped in reply. “We didn’t build so many safehouses all over the undercloud for nothing, y’know? Might as well use ‘em!” She played with the reins, peering down at the steed that steered them. “Though I wish you got to see Sophie. She’s much chattier than Coalhoof. The last time I took her riding, she told me a great story about a princess and a knight…”

Although they all drank from the same moon, Beasts came in different levels of sentience. On the highest level of sentience, you had people who had minds on the level of almost perfect human function: like Ying, Lochlan and herself. But some did not accept Lunaki nearly as readily, and retained more of their animalistic traits when transforming. On the lowest end of the spectrum you got Runts, Beasts who completely lost their sense of self after drinking from the moon and went berserk. Those were a headache to deal with. The duck they fought in Wataron was one example; wild and out of anyone’s control, yet also possessing the greatest volumes of power.

This unicorn was a nice middle-ground. He behaved pretty much just like a normal animal, with an added magical advantage. His horn, mostly ornamental, was useful maybe for providing some light at dark, but not much else. By most appearances he also looked like a normal horse.

“Coalhoof and Sophie aren’t the only ones… I keep loads of horses in the paddocks of our safehouses for whenever I need them! I have to make trips around the undercloud to feed all of them, but they’re very useful,” she grinned. “Not to mention adorable~”

“Well, I can’t argue with that,” Jemi laughed. Then she looked out at the rolling landscapes past them. “Where are you taking us now, though? I saw a big tavern roll by just now…”

Asha would’ve pinched Jemi’s cheek were she in range. “Enough, ya damn bottle-huffer. We’re going to a library.”

“Aw…” For someone whose cheeks had been spared a vicious pinching, Jemi didn’t sound very grateful. “But why a library?”

“She’s right,” Ying supplemented. “We’re going to find out more about the Kraken. From what we know, it’s a mythological creature. Asking the locals gets us the same results. We all think it’s a mythological creature.”

“Just like a ‘pixiu’, or a ‘Loch Ness’,” Asha nodded. “Honestly, if we didn’t know any better, it sounds just like another Beast. Are you sure it’s not just another Beast, Jemi?”

Jemi folded her arms. “I’ve seen it before. And anyone who’s fought on the mountain—like you, Ying—you’ve definitely felt it before. It’s nothing like a Beast. Theoretically, if it were, then it would be a Beast of a completely different calibre. And Queen Medusa said that it’s been around since before the creation of the moon, so I really doubt it.”

“Mmmm.” Asha made a noise. “If it’s from that long ago, then our best bet is the history books. That’s why I’m taking us to the library—” Just then, her eyes widened. “Shit!”

Up ahead, there was a sweep of white robes. Asha hissed between her teeth as she assumed a natural posture.

“What’s a Warden doing all the way out here?” Asha frowned. Wardens were those ‘elite angels’ usually only taking on the most important jobs, assigned by Emperor Prometheus. They were usually in palaces or prominent public spaces. They weren’t usually in places like here, the residential districts.

Yet, now there were two, three white-robed angels of the Royal Division making their way across the street, occasionally stopping a passers-by to talk to them in low voices.

A fine blanket of cold settled over her shoulders. Asha looked back to see Lochlan, brows knit in concentration as he wove a cocoon of Lunaki misting around them, concealing them from attention. It wasn’t certain that it would work against angels as powerful as Wardens, but thankfully, be it by his skill or by good fortune, they weren’t noticed, and rolled out of sight safely.

That still left the question of why Wardens were here, though…

Before she could ponder it further, she felt the prick of something in the back of her mind. She recognised this feeling; one of those Soleki ‘communication charms’ that angels and sunbloods could use. She sat up.

“Ooh! I’m getting a call from Miss Angel!” She accepted it. “Yo-yo!”

“Any updates?” Ennanis’ voice rippled through the charm. It was still a weird sensation, like liquid sun-warmth slipping past her ears. Despite all the crazy things she had seen in her years of being a scout, working with an angel was a first for her. But well—when you lived more you saw more—and the more you saw, the more there was to learn.

“We’re doing good. Just on the way to a library right now to do some reading,” Asha replied.

“Any new information on the Kraken?”

Asha hummed and counted off her fingers. “We know that it’s a sea monster. Basically, it’s something like a massive octopus. Though, we haven’t found anything like where it’s from or how to dispel it. It’s not even supposed to be real; it’s a mythical creature, after all. It was debunked that sailors once saw a giant squid and thought it was a monster, naming it the Kraken. Besides, if it’s a sea monster, it begs the question of what it's doing in Kanch instead of, like, Archizoun. You know, where there's ocean.”

“There could be water inside the mountain,” Ying pointed out. “It’s not unheard of.”

“But the Kraken’s supposed to be huge. I’m talking the size and height of like, battleships.”

“It’s magical, yeah? Maybe it can shrink and expand as it needs?”

“Hey,” Jemi interjected. Asha looked to her; saw their gold-haired leader folding her arms. “All the angel’s been doing is asking us for information. Ask Ennanis if she’s had any updates. She’s worked in the mine for days now.”

Asha relayed the message. Listened in. Then she shook her head.

Jemi sucked in a breath, as if in frustration. Then she said, each word slow and deliberate, “You tell her to quit burying her thick head in the sand and actually talk to the people around her.”

“Um,” Asha said. Then, into the charm, “Jemi says to talk to people around you.”

“No. Repeat my exact words.”

“Uh, she says to quit burying your thick head in the sand. And talk to the people around you.”

“...Okay,” said the angel’s voice in her head, after a moment of hesitation. Then the charm fizzed and disconnected.

Jemi sat back in the cart. Asha watched her. Sometimes it still surprised her how well Jemi knew Ennanis, when the angel was but a stranger to the rest of them Beasts. The Cockatrice had fought against the Graveyard Commander for many years, yes… But was it really normal for a soldier to know an opponent on the other side of war so well?

But all she could do was wonder.

The cart approached the shimmering purple doorstep of Amethyst College.

“...The school?” Lochlan tilted his head. Shy and quiet in the back of the cart, this was the first time the boy had spoken. Asha had been so, too, once upon a time. She smiled as broad as she could at him.

“That’s right. Amethyst College isn’t just like any other school library,” Asha explained. “The library hosts an enormous collection of books and articles from all over the undercloud. On top of that, it stocks its own students’ research papers that you wouldn’t find in outside libraries. Because it’s very well-funded, the research quality is also top-notch, and also covers really niche areas too. It’s a great place to learn more about anything you could possibly need.”

“Why would a school library be so well-funded?” he asked.

“Well, well, well,” Asha said. “Because one of the students’ fathers donates to it! None other than Ahi Vesuvio himself!”

“Vesuvio… who owns the train company-” Ying realised.

“-And the mines we’re trying to get into,” Jemi added.

“It’s crazy how one human can own so much that affects so many other humans,” Ying shook her head as Asha rode Coalhoof up to the gates. “I don’t suppose the general public is allowed in this library?”

“It’s not, which is a Medusa-damn waste if you ask me,” Asha tossed her braid with a sniff. “Well, we’ll just have to sneak inside, wait until the library’s closed and locked up. We do our reading overnight. Then when dawn comes, we bounce.”

“Sneak inside, huh…” Ying’s voice trailed off.

All eyes had landed on a certain teal-headed boy.

“U-um!” Lochlan shook his head frantically. “I can’t possibly mist all of you… from the eyes of that many people.”

“Alright then. Any other ideas?”

Asha dismounted her horse, tying the reins around a tree a little way from the schoolgates. She jumped up onto the cart with the rest of them, eyes sparkling. “Disguising as students!”

Jemi squinted at her.

“Oh, don’t give me that look, Jem-jem. You may be way out of schooling age, but you have a nice, young face! You’ll fit in just fine.”

“The problem isn’t my nice, young face,” Jemi deadpanned. “Going in as students, we’d have to not just steal the uniform, but most likely the student identity card too, which is required to tap into the school. The identity card has a photograph of the student on it; it’s far too easy to get caught that way.” She waved her hand. “A scout like you should’ve thought of that already.”

Asha twiddled her fingers. “Weeell, I just wanted to know what it’s like to wear a school uniform, y’know… And going to school seems so exciting. Come on!” Then, she froze as she felt a hand ruffling her hair. “Huuh?”

“You really are still a kid sometimes,” Jemi sighed as she ruffled her hair. “But anyway, there’s a much easier way of going about it.”

Asha puffed out her cheeks. “Let’s hear it.”