Songs of the Reamere: Shipbound

Published Apr 15, 2022, 3:36:37 AM UTC | Last updated May 13, 2022, 3:39:48 AM | Total Chapters 3

Story Summary

The Reamere is empty of fish, and Youji is among many Riders tasked with figuring out Why.

Choosing a new member of his flock, he takes to the seas to face whatever danger awaits him.

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Chapter 2: Shipbound

Dark waters had turned to dark skies. The waves were a choppy grey soup that snapped and bit at the port’s docks and levees. The air creaked, boats and ships groaning against each other. Knock thunk, knock thunk. Somewhere, far far far from shore, the ocean groaned. Natashi perched atop the pub, and leaned against the wind that clawed through feathers as beautiful as dreams. Did Youji really intend to have her fly in this weather? On such horrific waves?

Nat huffed and fluffed her feathers against the cold. Youji had vanished into the pub as the sun dipped past the mountains, and while she heard his voice from the woodwork below her there was no sign of what he planned or why she was laden down with the locking saddle cases filled with their elk. What could her beloved handler be thinking? A particularly hard gust slammed the waves against the levees, and Natasha stood. If he was going to take his time she wasn’t going to hang around where the gales could touch her feathers--


“Nat!” Her handler’s voice called up to her, burning over the gales, and her heart leaped into her throat. In a step she tumbled, sliding off the roof with a thud as her chest and wings struck the shingles, squawking her indignation until she found herself on the ground, standing in the alley on cobble ground. Youji peaked around the corner of the pub, round face pulled tight in a guilty wince. “Ah sorry Nat, I didn’t mean to startle you…” he stepped around the pub, a clawed hand outstretched towards her. For a brief moment, she wanted to bite it. But then it was buried in her feathers and he was making that soothing cooing noise, his ears soft and tail tucked, and she relaxed. He hadn’t known she was about to fly. That wasn’t his fault.

A chuckle drew her attention.

At the alley entrance stood a large man. His shoulders were broad, squared by the heavy grey coat he wore. His wide face looked like leather and was marked with sunspots and darkened skin, a thick black coat of beard that was streaked with silver clung to his jawline. A sword rested at his hip.

If Nat was honest with herself, he looked like Sazevel given human form.

His voice rumbled like stone, “I take it this is your stryx? Pretty thing, saw her on the way into the pub.”


Youji immediately spun to greet him, fluffy tail wagging hard like a dog’s, ears perked at either side of his face. “Captain Wayre, this is Natasha. Please, call her Nat--She’s a bit new to the flock, I think I mentioned? But she’s well behaved! And would appreciate not needing to fly the entire Reamere searching for the monster.”


‘Wayre’ nodded, storm grey eyes flicking over Nat. His scrutiny too brief for her to even turn to show off her gorgeous feathers. A quick glance, beak to colorful tail, and then another nod. Curt and short, and his hand dove into his pocket to retrieve a short stick with a heavy bauble on the end. Nat huffed. This human clearly did not appreciate her beauty, and that thought crawled under her feathers. Watching him try to light the bauble end of his stick on fire wasn’t even entertaining. “She’s mellow, yeah?” the stones of his voice rolled over each other.


Mellow? Natasha chirruped at the unfamiliar human word. Youji patted her leg, and threw himself down atop her foot to sit. “I wouldn’t have taken her for this mess if she wasn’t.” he answered. “Right, Nat? You behave really well, don’t you, nice and calm, yea?”

Oh, calm. She knew that one. Nat twisted, touched the tip of her beak to her handler’s shoulder, and closed her eyes. There wasn’t enough room in the alley to coil her tail around him, but this would work.


“Then my ship can take you.” Wayre nodded. Nat snapped her eyes back open to watch the human. The bauble end of his stick finally lit--only for him to blow it out again, and shove the skinny end into his mouth. “We leave in an hour. Get movin’.”

Ship? They weren’t going to fly?


Youji patted Nat’s beak. “The weather looked bad.” he explained, correctly predicting her thoughts as always. “So I decided to get us a ship. That way you don’t have to fly, especially with the weight of all our jerky.” He smiled up at her. “And Wayre’s agreed to feed us.”

Satisfied, Nat squawked. Wayre had turned and was striding across the docs, into the darkness of the night, towards the larger ships.

With a light hop, Youji extracted himself from atop Nat’s foot, and followed after the man.


==


Nat took a mast. She wasn’t the only one. There were microstryx and griffs everywhere, crying for food and attention. The wind snapped at the cloth beneath her, even before it unfurled, and Nat leaned into the gale.

As Youji promised, she’d been free of the saddle cases, free of their weight and discomfort. And better, the people on the ship stared at her, eyes bright and openly admiring! Perched atop the front mast, Nat preened the brilliant purple feathers of her wings and tail. Warmth swelled in her chest every time she caught one of the sailors watching.

Pity they’re too busy running around and shouting to admire her properly.

Especially once the ship was pushed from the dock.


Youj whistled. Two short blasts of sound, and Nat leaps from the mast to Dive to him on the deck. A quick sprint and he leaped from the railing. A twist from them both, and Nat surged into the sky with a screech. Youji echoed, leg on either side of her neck, arms thrown up over his head, and they raced ahead of the prow. The sails snapped open behind them and the wind whistled around their ears. Freedom. Freedom, a perch, food, and a task.

Nat screeched her delight.

Her handler shifted, clicked his tongue, and a moment later heat blossomed over Nat’s back, fire bit and snapped at the air just before they plunged into the fog. It rolled away from the flames like dead grass.

Somewhere behind them, Nat heard Wayre laugh, and several crew members curse.

Wind in her wings, Youji’s fire burning bright and warm against the darkness of the night and fog, Natasha cooed and settled into a glide.

They could lead the Nullarbor through the fog.


==


The fog broke like a wall.

Natasha shrieked at the sudden glare of Fire off the dark water. Youji made a Sound not unlike a broken garbage disposal, his feet suddenly on Nat’s neck so he could peer over the waves.

Past the fog, the Reamere was as still as glass. Still and silent and tingling and--

There was no prey.

The sea was far from clear, especially under Nat’s shadow, but she could usually see Something despite that. Shadows under the surface. Flickers of light deep below. Bubbles where something had surfaced.

Her spine crawled, and she slowed her glide despite Youji’s comforting hand on her cheek. His flames pressed closer, dimmed as the prow of the Nullarbor emerged from the wall of grey behind them. A prow which Nat lowered herself to, digging her claws into the wood as she perched. Hissed. The water was still. Silent. Dead.


She’d thought Youji to be exaggerating. No sea could be empty. There was no scent, not even a flicker of life.

A quick glance behind her once Youji’s fire dimmed entirely and cast the world only in moonlight, caused the world to turn Cold around her.

The griffs and little stryx had vanished.

Their calls no longer split the air. No feather, no fur. Nothing.

No fish. No gulls. Silence. Just the wind and the steady lapping of water against the ship.

“Well.” Youji spoke, twisted on her back to look at Captain Wayre. “That’s fucking eerie.”

The captain did not respond, and the Nullarbor pulled itself from the fog entirely, as if entering an entirely new world.

Nat shivered.


Maybe… maybe she should sleep. It was late. And when she woke this would all be a bad dream. A nightmare.

She could sleep, not face the terrible reality that she’d refused to believe.

She--


A Sound filled the air. The water. Nat’s entire being. Low and resonant and emerging from the sea. A deep rumble somewhere between the roar of a lion and the drone of a foghorn. Atop her neck, Youji went rigid and clamped his hands over his ears, his breath hitched. Movement behind them ceased, the tang of fear filled the air.

“There it is.” Wayre said.

Youji trembled, his breath rattled in his chest and he sank one hand into Nat’s feathers, gripping as hard as he could.

He was… afraid?

Instantly Nat stood taller and spread her wings. Something was there. Something was Threatening them. She Shrieked, challenged the invisible foe.

And for a moment all was silent.


Until they saw the bubbles. Tiny first. Then larger.

Fish. Tiny, a frantic swarm of mackerel fry darted and weaved to catch the moonlight, to disorient.

Somewhere behind Nat, Wayre shouted orders and movement exploded. Sails snapped, rigging creaked. None of it mattered, Youji gripped Nat’s feathers, settled in on her neck once more. Breathed.


A shadow under the waters. Dark as pitch, the moonlight doing nothing to illuminate the gargantuan shape that overtook the sea. That Sound, earsplitting now. The shape raced after the fish and the ocean Churned, pulled towards the shadow, the wall of void in the water. Rushed Away from the shadow at either side. The ship Rocked, thrown by a swell on the previously glass-still water.

The creature of the Reamere.

“It’s real.” Youji’s voice thin as a reed next to Nat’s ear, tight with hysteria. “We’re gonna die. We’re so going to die.”


This Thing was scaring her handler.

This THING was stealing her flock’s food.

Cold stillness morphed into a burning itch and Nat screeched once more, challenging the beast as it rocketed towards the Nullarbor, and Leaped.

Youji cursed, scrambled, and the beautiful staff she’d found for him was in his hand, over her wing. The gem at the tip gleamed.

And fire surged down in a plume into the focal point of where the water was Pulled.

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