Tag: bird

Flying Janesse

Glad you could join us for the next entrancing episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

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Photo credit: Congok

Spending his last few minutes in Bog reviewing the responsibilities his deputy would shoulder, Elliot was confident nothing would suffer under Randall’s watchful eye.

“Do you have someone in mind to send with the shipment, sir?” the frog asked.

“No, I’ll leave that to you.”

Their faces a matched set of solemnity, Darwin and Teddy marched in step up the path.

“Halt!” Teddy cried. “Knight Trevor reporting with news, sir.”

“Hey,” Darwin objected, “you were Trevor last time. It’s my turn!”

“All right, but he’s my daddy, so I still get to say the news.”

“Okay,” Darwin agreed leaping with all eight legs splayed, over a knee-high rock in his best imitation of an airborne frog.

“What’s your news, Master Knight?” Randall asked.

Brow furrowed in concentration, Teddy saluted. “The Prince’s Flyer is here, sir!”

Continue reading “Flying Janesse”

When the Smoke Cleared

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Photo/Image credit: 4ever.eu/S.T. Ranscht

The baked ground gave up its heat to The Arids’ twilight. Lucy, stretching her wings and easing the kinks from her neck with a slow head roll, righted herself atop the termite mound, and prepared to take off on the last leg of her journey.

“I’ll grab breakfast on the way,” she promised herself checking the sky for likely targets.

Continue reading “When the Smoke Cleared”

Edith

Glad you could join us for the next feathery episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

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Photo credit: Amy Marques

“Huh,” Randall grunted. He watched Gridliz’s rapid transit long after there was anything to see, then turned and picked his way across a scorching maze of cracked crust sloping upward toward a scraggly, leafless tree.

Halfway there, a gliding shadow stroked its cool fingers across his back, daring him to look skyward.

The gigantic bird flapping low and slow overhead should have turned his blood to ice. He should have frozen in mid-step and dashed for cover the moment it looked away. Instead, as it landed in the lone tree, he felt hope.

Continue reading “Edith”

Sheela

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Photo credit: Brinda Suresh

Sunrise tinted The Arids with gold. Night’s deep purple shadows slunk back under the rocks and mounds and snarly growths from which they’d spread.

Only Lady Lucy’s shadow crept across the sparkling sand as she sailed overhead looking for shelter from the rising heat. The General expected her to return to his main base, but sleeping there, vulnerable and undercover, would be worse than foolish.

Continue reading “Sheela”

Tribunal

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Photo credit: Thomas Quine

The Aero Squadron Captains set down on either side of the Queen.

Watching the prisoner’s face, she said, “This would-be murderer has hinted that the lookouts might have been attacked. Start on the east side, please, and scan the perimeter.”

As they flew off to investigate, she continued the interrogation.

“Who is the General?”

No reply.

“Who is the Assassin?”

Continue reading “Tribunal”

Home Again

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Photo credit: Katia Dickenson

Joseph landed in the field where Fen’s troops had assembled what seemed to Elliot like an age ago. Queen Lilian waited for them.

“Welcome home,” she smiled. “I trust your flight was uneventful, Joseph?” Continue reading “Home Again”

Sliding On the Sky

Glad you could join us for the next avian episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

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Photo credit: halex

“Thank you,” Elliot’s pride battled with the enormity of what he’d just heard, and wisely surrendered to humility. “I will do my best — faithfully — to deserve this Name.”

First Combat Master Vladimir the Just bowed his head to Elliot the Faithful. “May your Name inspire all who meet you to trust that you will serve them well.”

The celebration of a new Naming was a raucous, thirsty affair. Elliot was certain every creature in attendance must have congratulated him in person — some many times — with a toast for success and a shot of aged nectar.

Continue reading “Sliding On the Sky”

Janesse

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Photo credit: Neil Wade

Elliot’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know my name?”

“Good news still travels to the heart of the Ancient Forest.”

“Good news?”

“Yes. We’ve been expecting you,” the High Priestess confided as she limped down the steps to hunch before him.

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The High Priestess

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Photo credit: Igor Siwanowicz

Well, he might have just killed me. Elliot caught and released a deep, calming breath. “Thank you for asking,” he said. “My name is Elliot, and my guide left me outside with instructions to go inside.”

“For what purpose?”

“I have no idea.”

“Who was your guide?”

“I don’t know her name.”

“You didn’t ask?”

“No.” This wasn’t going well.

Continue reading “The High Priestess”

Delivered

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Photo credit: Chronophontes

Elliot had followed her willingly, enchanted by her flowing stride and silent confidence. Her feathers shimmered with iridescent sparkles that bound him to her just as surely as ropes and chains. The little warning voice he’d learned to heed whispered — nothing.

Without reason, without thought, without common sense, he’d trusted her, and now, facing a massive structure of stone and wood built against a hillside of the oldest trees he’d ever seen, he had no idea where he was.

“I thought you were taking me back to the bower. Where are we? And don’t say, ‘here’!”

Her answer was to throw back her head and release a trilling note that filled the woods like wind. From the treetops all around, a whistled melody replied.

She cocked her head. “We’re in the heart of the Ancient Forest,” she said as if that explained everything.

“But what is this place? Why did you bring me here?”

Her warm laugh rippled through him. “So many questions. I’m sorry, Elliot, but I’m not the one to answer them. In fact, I have to leave you now.” He started to object, and she placed the tip of a single feather on his lips. “Go inside. You’ll be in good hands, my friend, and we may yet meet again.”

It was only as she flew beyond the tangled canopy that he realized he hadn’t even asked her name.

Shaking regret out of his head, he began his search for the entrance.

To be continued. . .

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