Fowlhunter [GL]

In the Present Day.

Skreeeee! Skreeeeeee! Squealing, a torrent of bats ripped their way out of a crevice in the mountain.

They joined an enormous cloud of flapping wings. Avians, as tightly-packed together and individually indistinguishable as rustling leaves on a sprawling tree canopy.

The onlookers gathered at the mine’s entrance stared. Residents of Kanch threw open their windows, shouting and pointing. If some cameras had been hastily set up to capture the volcanic eruption, now even more unfolded from balconies, shutters rattling in the wind that had suddenly picked up. Some who had packed up and been attempting to flee the province could not help but stop in their tracks and stare upwards.

They couldn’t see what was happening. Not really. A more discerning eye—by that, we mean an eye with vision on par with a hawk’s—would’ve detected something strange about some of these avians. Some of them were regular animals, yes. Not just bats, but birds too—local birds and birds from foreign plains both, plain-feathered and colourful, large and small. Finches and sparrows, crows and doves, storks and eagles, cavebats, gathered in a massive whirl.

But the others, our metaphorical hawk would’ve been more confused about spotting. A lion, for example, with wings. Flying horses. Or flying bulls. Some were constructed of even more parts, like an eagle’s head on top of the flying lion’s body, which would have sent our poor hawk falling out of the sky, flummoxed. Some of these creatures also had humanoid shapes riding upon them.

At least half of this tornado was made up of Beasts.

The avians, animals and Beasts both, continued to circle the army of storm-clouds ensnared within their spectacular vortex.

A while ago, when the storm had been positioned close enough to be on standby, Jemi Garen had left Aunt Lizaris in charge of the team so she could go down personally to make sure the angel commander was not doing anything stupid. She helped the dust install the explosives and send them on their way to evacuation with Ying, Asha and Lochlan. Then, after making sure everything was settled, Jemi climbed outside of the mountain and got picked up by Cassia again, who took her to the stratosphere to rejoin the rest of the group.

The wind screamed in her ears. It had been three days and three nights of this during the travel from Wataron, harsh cold that cut into her skin like knives. Rain escaped constantly from the cyclone, spraying her from head-to-toe, leaving her drenched and shivering as she clung to her mount. But today, a single steady glow in the back of her mind kept her tethered, leaching warmth into her body.

The Soleki communication link with the angel commander, active and blinking.

Jemi didn’t want to admit it, but time and time again she’d found herself unconsciously reaching for that warmth, wrapping it around herself like a scarf. Contrasted with her own ragged, quick breaths, Ennanis’ breathing was steady and unfaltering, in and out and in, like waves lapping gently upon a seashore. The more Jemi listened to it, the calmer she felt.

But now was no time to be calmed. Opening her mental mouth into the channel, she told her:

Commander, I’m all set.

Then, aloud, she gave the signal to her Beasts: a second rooster’s crow. Previously, Aunt Lizaris had rallied the Beasts together and brought the thunderstorm on standby. Now, they were to bring it right to the volcano’s maw.

Moments later, the volcano had erupted. Squinting through the rain, Jemi saw Ennanis Zoleil blasting her way out the peak of Amethyne Mountain, corkscrewing into the sky. Ash and dust belched into the air, drowning out the dawn in a blanket of darkness. Yet, the angel enveloped in golden glow seemed to render that fact insignificant. The light streaming from her figure was interminable, casting the clouds behind her in positively igneous hues.

Jemi had no hawk’s vision; from this distance, she couldn’t see what exactly Ennanis was doing. But soon, it became clear: the massive net of Soleki the woman was summoning, giant spears of flame fountaining the circumference of the volcano. Jemi finally understood what she was doing; an emergency measure on the angel’s part, to further delay the lava’s destruction.

“......”

Jemi could not take her eyes off it. In another time, she might’ve made a joke about how the both of them were control freaks, or wondered if Ennanis had always been this powerful. But right now, the only thought she had in her mind was:

…Beautiful.

Meanwhile, their storm drew ever closer. Jemi’s turn to take over.

When they were positioned directly over the volcano, rain slammed upon the blazing mouth of Agniparvata.

As the girl named Pelia had aptly pointed out, water would not extinguish a volcano, for it would turn immediately to steam. But this was not regular water. The rain had been funnelled through the power of pure Lunaki… a magic which had been born for the very purpose of countering things like heat and flames. Jemi had tested it herself before on a small quantity of lava, from a separate lava pool unconnected to the Agni’s chamber.

Everything had been accounted for. Everything was proceeding as planned. As Jemi craned her head over Cassia’s feathered shoulder to look below them, she could already see it: the Lunaki rain had pushed the erupting lava back down, silver streams coercing the dark orange back where it came from, like cornering prey. The lava along the sides of the volcano, under the onslaught of the storm, cooled rapidly and promptly solidified into glittering sheets of volcanic glass.

Jemi glanced up. High up above, the figure of the angel commander twirled. The beats of her wings looked slower. Slowly, gradually, the shimmering gold net she had summoned to keep the lava in place faded away.

Of course, that’s when everything went wrong.

It began with a single bolt of Lunaki.

PFEWWWWW!— It sailed through the air, singing silver right at Ennanis.

“What?” Jemi shouted indignantly. “Don’t attack her! Who fired that?”

“I dunno…” said the harpy flying next to them.

“Me neither.”

Below her, Cassia shrugged too. In all the chaos of the stormwinds and the hundreds of animals swarming the sky, no one knew who had fired it.

Seconds later, the air fizzed and tingled, and another bolt was fired.

Jemi gazed up. The angel up above dodged this bullet too, rose hair fluttering in her wake. But… she was slow. The bullet appeared to graze her side, and right after, the figure of the angel did a full-body cringe.

Wait… huh?

That shot had been amateurishly slow. It would never have scored on even an angel lieutenant. Why had the formidable Graveyard Commander gotten injured so easily?

Then, she saw it. So did everyone else.

Something was different about the angel Zoleil this time. Namely, the exposed line of her right wrist, no longer sheltered in its house of luminarial gold.

Up in the sky, Ennanis’ figure trembled. Her demeanour, poise—many among the Beasts recognised it. It was the same as that night, on the Battle of Fifth Peak.

A single beat.

And the air erupted in a silver blizzard.

“Stop!” Jemi yelled, but it was useless. No one could hear her over the noise of the storm and magic both; and no one would listen to her now, either.

You see, it had been easy for the Beasts to agree to not attack Ennanis at first. Because, if any logical person thought about it, it wasn’t like it would’ve amounted to anything. Firstly, it was now dawn, meaning an angel had the upper hand over a Beast in terms of magic. Even in the off-chance that they landed a hit on Ennanis hard enough to injure her, it would not kill her. The Graveyard Commander’s reputation also preceded her, the angel and her extraordinary ability to hold her kingdom’s mountain even outnumbered hundreds to one.

However.

This time was different.

The last time Ennanis Zoleil had been in this position: unbraced, struggling in the aftermath of her outburst of power—she had nearly died. After eight years of losing to her, the Beasts had nearly killed the Graveyard Commander.

No matter what they had previously agreed to, no matter their personal sense of honour or trust or gratitude whatever it was that had led them to keep by their Princess’ side this far, they simply could not pass up this opportunity. The opportunity for vengeance: to finally, once-and-for-all, do away with the Commander who had claimed the lives of so many of their loved ones.

Who could blame them?

But this was causing problems. With more and more of the Beasts concentrating on trying to murder the angel, they were starting to break formation. Below her, Cassia squawked; she wasn’t one of those attacking, but her wings were struggling to keep up her section of the tornado. Rain and lightning escaped the failing cyclone, catching the harpy and making her wail, further losing grip on the winds.

The lava hadn’t yet been completely bayed. As the storms broke up, and less Lunaki was funnelled into the rainwater, the lava once more bubbled out of the mountain’s mouth. Meanwhile, Ennanis up above dodged and whirled through the hailing frenzy of moon magic, too busy to deal with it at the moment. Ridiculously, true to her word, the angel had not retaliated against the Beasts a single time. In any case, she definitely was in no position to be taking care of the eruption anymore.

Gripping onto Cassia’s quivering scruff, cold rain slicing across her skin, Jemi felt like she was drowning. In front of her eyes, fiery lava streamed down the sides of the volcano. The pyroclastic flow made contact with the first row of houses, setting them ablaze in a wall of fire.

She had to do something. But she couldn’t use Lunaki; she had spent it all giving it to the Beasts for this mission. Her animal whispering allowed her to speak to animals, but that wouldn’t do anything right now. She couldn’t even fly. What could she do?

What had she ever been able to do?

She felt like a little girl again. She was no longer the Cockatrice, bane of angels, and neither was she Jemi Garen, woman of a hundred faces, jack of all trades. She was just…

A girl, lying face-down in a cot, her torso twisted upon itself in a fibrinous knot of pain, her limbs like wood more than flesh. The breeze that blew through an empty house seemed to mock her, that even air was more animate than she was. A mind that rammed itself against the bars of an unyielding body. One that knew that, no matter what how she prayed, no matter how much she fought, no matter who or what she changed herself into—she would never have the power to change anything.

But you do.

A velvet voice in her head reminded her, calm as the moon.

I told you. You have the power to stop the volcano.

Jemi paused. Then, she realised it.

And she gnashed her teeth so hard they could’ve chipped. Her eyes were full of rain, but still they watered.

“No,” she whispered into the howling winds. “No, no, no.”

“Jemi?” Cassia looked back at her. “What’s wrong?”

The Cockatrice’s fist had become tight on the harpy’s feathers. She was still clinging to her, gauzy ballgown and red-green bustle whipping in the fierce gale, but her face was unreadable under the dark mask. The Princess shook her head, but she did not reply.

Precious seconds trickled by. The air only grew hotter and hotter, lava searing through the next line of buildings and fields.

Then, finally, high up above, Ennanis’ skull rang.

Ennanis. Close your eyes. Now.

After which, summoning all the breath she could muster, the Cockatrice let out a rooster’s cry. This third cry pierced the air, and by well-trained instinct, all eyes of her division turned toward their Princess.

Only that, instead of a command, there was a crackling louder than even the thunder of a dozen storms.

And then there was silence.

For everyone up in the sky had turned to white stone.

The frozen faces of her companions stared back at her. Aunt Liz, Jordan the pegasus. Cassia the harpy, who had turned her head back toward her in concern. Countless other familiar visages, Beasts who’d she’d talked to, who’d comforted her and cheered her on. She saw the minotaur, who she’d once sacrificed so much blood to save.

Jemi could do nothing else. She screamed.

Meanwhile, the petrified bodies plummeted. They rained down upon the peak of Amethyne Mountain in a grand cascade, an avalanche falling from the sky. The first of them incinerated instantly to ash on contact with the flames. But, as sediment crashed into sediment, the sheer amount of rock began to bury the mouth of the volcano. The embers glowed, then slowly, slowly, quelled… dying out under the crashing rock. The remainder of the rock slid down the sides of the mountain, causing an avalanche. The remaining lava was vanquished in a wave of rubble, halting the spreading destruction in its tracks.

With her harpy mount gone, the Cockatrice, too, fell from the sky.

Her head was clutched in her hands, her eyes flickering out between violet and silver and violet again through the mask she’d only just managed to slide back on. The human was much lighter than the average Beast, and certainly much lighter than solid stone, so she fell slower than they. The carried-on momentum of the winds, slowly whipping to a halt, further delayed her descent. At this stage, she could’ve called an eagle or other to come save her.

But she did nothing of the sort. Thus the woman continued to plunge like a ragdoll.

Until, before she could smash into the volcanic peak, someone caught her.

It was Ennanis, gentle eye of the storm. She cradled the Cockatrice’s feather-light body like it was the most precious thing in the world.

“You can rest now,” the angel murmured. “Jemi.”

Jemi was too tired to object. So, for once in her life, she listened. She shut her eyes…

…and her world succumbed to oblivion.

~~~

END OF ACT TWO