Book 6. Chapter 42: Legacy of the shrimp
Kres couldn’t give coordinates to the cave, he had no reference to do so, and we didn’t have any kind of map to share that wasn’t digital. So he’d need to guide us there himself up until ad-hoc guidance could work, and then he’d split up and fly to the greyroamers nearby. They’d come visit us at the cave where we’d make temporary shelter.
But we ran into two problems with Kres flying ahead. First is that birds fly faster than humans could run. Just not humans in Relic armor. And the second problem was more… odd.
Drakonis sat on a rock next to me, taking the moment to take a sip of water, his helmet off. I could see his eyes searching over the sky, looking for a little black dot that should be approaching. “He shouldn’t have tried to take that much back with him. Flight and weight do not go well together. And machines are made of metal.”
Kres, determined to take the scraps of Murdershrimp I’d cut into sections, had done exactly that. And it made flying both far and fast difficult.
I gave Drakonis a shrug, showing the heat plate I nicked from Murdershrimp in between two fingers. “I’m thinking of starting a collection myself. Can’t fault the bird for having the same idea.”
“Ah.” Drakonis gave me a sideyed look. “I suppose a machine corpse is exotic to your people still.”
“For the most part. Traveling underground is banned to surface clans unless you are a trader or a knight. Machines are mostly known as myth.” Though I suspect if I had been able to bring back machine parts to the surface, it’s likely Lord Atius would have sent them back down for safety reasons.
If the Undersider cities hadn’t found great use for the machine shells with such easy access to them, not much the surface could do that would be different.
“But now you work with them.” Drakonis pointed out, a hand casually waving the water flask. “You should have plenty of opportunities to satisfy your curiosity.”