Totem 19: Beep-Beep (Patreon)

It was a fine morning to travel to a destroyed village and fight the monster that did it.

Of course, Russell had to start the day off by being a complete shithead. It hadn't escaped his attention that Annika and I had gone off to run around and burn off some energy last night while he'd been fast asleep.

He confronted Annika just as we walked into the campsite.

"What were you doing with him?" he demanded as if he were her father and not her little brother. "You shouldn't be going off with a man alone like that!"

"I was training in preparation for my Totem," Annika said simply and brushed past him as if his opinion didn’t matter.

Good for her.

Russell turned and made a pissy face at me. "You know she doesn't have many prospects ahead of her, looking the way she does now. Are you trying to ruin her future?"

Walking past him, I clapped him on the shoulder. "Russell," I said. "Shut the fuck up before I shut you up."

Then I continued on toward the cookfire, and breakfast.

We cleaned up the camp more by routine borne of days camping than by need. Between what the corrupted Snapping Turtle had done to it, and what we had done with our fight with the Snapping Turtle... the place could hardly be more destroyed.

But cleaning up after ourselves was good manners.

Annika and Russel immediately got into another low key spat -- Russell insisting that Annika keep sitting in the cart, despite the fact she was visibly walking strong. And Annika ignored him.

"I will walk on my own two feet," she insisted.

"But it's not right. You might still be injured and not know about it!" Russell looked frustrated enough to tear out his hair. I stood back, torn between amusement and exasperation. I suspected his frustration was more because he couldn't be overbearing and less actual worry for his sister.

Suddenly, Russell stopped and looked around.

"Where is Ash, anyway?"

"Probably stalking us," I said, unconcerned. "On silent cat feet."

"I would like to do that." Annika sounded wistful. "Simply take off into the forest whenever I wanted in my Totem's form."

"You wouldn't say that if your Totem's a cute little bunny or another prey animal," I teased. But in all honestly? Half the reason I listened to Ash at all was because the thought of flying with my own two wings was intoxicating.

I had no illusions that this "Pure Path" would be an easy one. But being able to be a goose and take to the sky whenever I wanted? That was one hell of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Annika shifted her veiled head around toward me, and though I couldn't see the expression on her face, I had the feeling that we were exchanging grins.

"If I was a prey animal," Annika said, "Any predatory would still have to work hard to catch me, first."

She's no prey animal.

The whisper drifted in and out of my mind. It was like hearing my own voice in my head, only... just off center.

Startled, I glanced inward with my inner eye.

Sure enough, my gosling's eyes were open. I had the impression it -- he... me? -- had been watching.

Then its eyes slid shut again in slumber. It was, after all, still processing the ginormous amount of energy I'd fed it.

Well, enough stalling. Soon as we killed this next corrupted Spirit Beast, I'd be able to feed it more.

Ash's chicken scratch of a map led us away from the river and up a rocky, twisty-ass path. The plants around us thinned out from trees with moss hanging down to scrubby, thorny bushes.

Annika ended up sitting in the cart after all. Not because she couldn't handle the climb, but because we needed a steady hand to keep the ostriches on the track.

I didn't like dealing with the birds -- ironic, I know, but it wasn't like geese and ostriches had a lot in common -- and Russell insisted on leading the way.

Naturally, I snatched the map from the little shit and told him that he was the new point guy: As in, he could watch for oncoming danger from the back.

I walked ahead, trying to pick out the best footing on this narrow track.

I didn't miss a lot from my life back on Earth, but there were some days I'd give my left nut for a hover-car.

Anyway, the track went up and up until we were well above the sharply cut river valley. I turned once or twice to glance back down the way we'd come. The village with the Snapping Turtle looked... well, like a devastated mud pie.

It might be polite to say that it looked better from above, but that would have been a damn lie.

Anyway, by the end my calves were on fire, and I'd had to grab the harness between the two ostriches and help pull them, while Russell shoved the cart from the back and Annika kept the birds from pecking me. Turns out ostriches don't have a lot of torque and didn't appreciate being told to pull uphill. We finally crested the hill and came to our second village.

Or really, where the second village should have been.

The simple huts had been made of mud brick spiced up by the local vegetation, which was mostly the thorny-looking bushes. I had no idea what they farmed up here, or even if they did.

None of it mattered because something very large had broken open the mud-brick houses, pulled out all the stuff, torn up all the bushes for at least a quarter mile in every direction... and combined it all into one mound.

I had no doubt the beast was lurking inside there.

Too bad for it that it had surrounded itself with dry tinder. I was a goose with a strong connection to fire.

But first, I turned to Russell.

"This isn't your fight. Not yet. Take the ostriches back down that track a few hundred feet."

"What?" Russell scowled at me. "No way! If my sister fights, I will too."

Annika turned to him. "You're still a child, and Seth is in charge here. Do what he says."

"Why does he have to be in charge?"

Did geese eat their young?

I stepped forward, on the verge of grabbing the little twerp by the back of his shirt, tossing him on the cart, and yelling "Yaw!" to the ostriches, when a shadow fell over the sky.

My Totem screamed in warning, and I fell into a crouch, arms out as if to--I don't know what. Fly, maybe?

Two huge yellow scaled legs landed on either side of me.

I looked up to see the chest and undersized of a bird--one as tall as a tree.

A big bird.

Only this was sort of creme colored with brown-black racing stripes through its plumage. It was built thin--the legs were tall and featherless up the leg joint. One look and I knew this bird was meant for speed, not flight.

I also knew what it was, having seen them occasionally around the village.

Ah fuck. A roadrunner.

Funny little birds. They didn't beep-beep like in the ancient cartoons. But they were freakishly quick and fierce enough to eat snakes.

That quickness was born out when it cocked its dark crested head, then snapped down and snapped Russell up whole.

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