The Search- Wraiths Lament Ch2: Chapter 2

Leading the feral stryx into the pit trap was easier said than done. Especially while trying to keep hold of an egg. Laika had to navigate the dangerous skies above the charred landscape, avoiding the toxic clouds and abrupt updrafts while keeping just low enough to the ground that the feral stryx would not loose interest in her. It had been going mostly in her favor, up until she was suddenly caught in an updraft that pulled against her wings and sent her ascending into the thick canopy of smoke with frightening speed. She had heard Aster cry out in alarm from her back where he was perched, then holding onto her feathers for dear life. There was only one thing to do. She had fought against the strong winds to tuck her wing in tight, sending her plummeting back down to the fiery earth below, and the waiting jaws of the feral stryx.
The ground rushed up from the haze faster than she had anticipated, but she couldn’t fully open her wings yet, or the updraft would snatch her from the air again. Only at the last moment did she flare them open again, the strain of which had felt as though they might be torn from her shoulders. The corrupter runner had been waiting for her to come back down, but her speed had taken it by surprise. It ducked away as she narrowly avoided colliding with it, then hissed angrily and had resumed it’s chase after her.

A perilous flight later, and Laika could finally see the camp and waiting pit trap ahead of her. There had been workers still digging out the large whole in the ground, but it had seemed deep enough to hold the feral stryx. Laika let out a series of sharp cries in warning, and the workers had quickly scrambled out of her path, just in time for her to lead the corrupted runner right over the pit. The satisfaction of watching it blindly careen into the pit had almost been worth the trouble of leading it there.

Laika smiled at the memory of the stryx’s enraged expression, hopping around the pit like an angry one-legged grasshopper. Since then, she had been taking it easy at the camp. She’d gone around inquiring as to whether anyone there had lost an egg, but it seemed that no one had. Not that it would make much sense for any bird in their right mind to bring an egg to such a place to begin with. Aster had suggested that perhaps the egg belonged to the feral stryx, but that didn’t seem quite right either. Resigned to leave it a mystery, Laika had decided to watch over the egg until they returned to Sol, where she could leave it with a real caretaker.

After about a week however, she’d noticed that the egg was becoming active. She could here scratching and peeping from inside, and every so often the egg would wobble about.

“Is it hatching already?” She’d wondered

The little trochili had hopped around the egg, which was almost as big as he was, inspecting it carefull.

“I think so.” He said. “In a few days maybe?”

Laika frowned down at the egg’s shiny azure surface. She wasn’t good with chicks, and if this egg was going to hatch before they arrived back at Sol, she was going to need to find it a new mother, quickly.

“I’ll see if there’s anyone here who wants to adopt it tonight” She told the microstryx, yawning a little as the early day sun shone brightly…

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“Laika! Laika wake up!”
The tone of worry in Aster’s voice brought Laika into waking almost instantaneously. She lept to her feet, looking around for whatever the danger might be.

“What? What’s wrong” She asked, not seeing anything out of the ordinary.

“The egg! It must have hatched while we were sleeping! The chick is gone!”

Sure enough, when Laika looked over at where the egg had been, only the broken shell remained. Laika felt a surge of panic and she looked around the camp again for any sign of a newly hatched chick wandering around. Surely someone would have seen it.

“Let’s split up.” She said concernedly. “You go to the south side of the camp, I’ll scan the north side.”

Aster nodded, then took to the air with a hum of his little wings. Laika watched him go for a moment, before turning her attention back to the ground. She knew that a newly hatched stryx couldn’t fly, so it must be hiding somewhere on the ground, or in a tent.

“How far can a baby stryx go?” She though as she scanned the camp. Any time she passed another stryx, she would asked whether they’d seen a chick running around, to which the answer was always no.

“Surely it didn’t vanish into thin air.”

What felt like hours into her search, she bumped into a silken white gryph with red tipped wings and tail.

“Pardon me, but have you seen a young chick running around here? Newly hatched?”

The gryph looked down at her with an expression of mild disgust, then said haughtily,
“Do you mean that little brat who’s been wandering the camp unattended to? I have indeed, though I hardly think you’re fit to care for a child. What kind of mother brings a chick to such an awful place, and then doesn’t keep track of it.”

“Woah, watch the sass there Karen. It’s not my chick!” Laika shot back irritably. “I just found it as an egg in the wastelands out there. I didn’t think it would hatch so soon. Could you please just tell me where it went?”

“Oh, so you’re a kidnapper and an irresponsible parent. And my name isn’t Karen, it’s Governess. I aught to report this and have you disbanded from this expedition. Where is your rider? I want to speak with them.”

Laika stamped her food in frustration, her crest flaring up along with the urge to tackle this obnoxious stryx into the nearest lava pool. At least she now knew that the chick must have come this way. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a splotched casua walking almost dream-like past a couple of tents, and clutched in his wings was a small corva chick, hanging, which was gnawing hungrily at his wing. It’s lower half dangled limply like a resigned cat being held by a curious toddler, and the long fluffy tail at the end swished gently from side to side.

“Hey! Hey you! Casua!” Laika called out, making her way over to the strange runner with a few quick flaps of her wings. “Is that chick yours? Or did you find it just wandering around the camp?”
 

The casua blinked at her, then said in a somewhat slurred voice, “No cat’s ear.” before wandering off with a somewhat glazed look on his face.

“Woah, wait!” Laika shouted, stepping in front of him so as to cut him off. She wasn’t sure what was up with him. Perhaps he hit his head on something? It didn’t matter though. Clearly this was in fact the chick she was looking for, and this stryx had stumbled across her in whatever altered state he was in, and seemingly mistook her for a cat.

“That is a stryx chick.” She tried explaining to him. “She just hatched. If you could hand her over there won’t be any trouble.”

She reached out in an attempt to gently take the chick from delusional casua, but before she could reach it, the runner hissed, “Getch own cat!”, then made a mad dash for the edge of the camp.
Laika was surprised at how fast the runner was going considering how loopy was acting. Knowing she’d be able to catch up easier in flight, she took to the air, soaring above the multicolored tents as the silken casua darted through them with impressive agility, before breaking free into the open wasteland. For a moment Laika was worried he’d keeping running until he reached the lava fields, but eventually he slowed down, then shouted ‘‘I’m no’ afraid of you!’’ at seemingly nothing in particular. She thought for a moment there might have been movement from the direction that the casua was looking at, but it was hard to tell, and at that moment her main priority was getting the chick back.

Landing next to intoxicated stryx, she said “Okay bud, tempted as I am to leave that little runaway with you, you clearly are on something and are in no state to be handling chicks. Or cats for that matter. Just give her to me and I’ll be on my way.”

This time, as Laika went to grab the chick, which was now half asleep, the casua did not protest. It seemed as though he might fall asleep himself at any moment.

“Uh, stay right there. I’ll go find someone to make sure you’re all right and bring you back to camp. It’s probably not safe for you to just be hanging out here in the open.”

Taking to the air once more, Laika winged her way towards the nearest medical tent, chick in talon, with the hope that there would be no more trouble for the rest of the day...