The next morning, Raucous pulls himself out of the tiny gap in the woodpile. He slept.. okay. It's not like he isn't soft and fluffy, and wood chips are very nice nest linings, but he's not a hole-sitting bird, not like Kestrels.
..It'd be nice to have some Kestrels around. They'd eat the baby giant mosquitos or whatever those were.
Can I mess with giant insects? I can do people, but I talk with them. I can do animals, but the ones around here are really bored and good at hiding, so they're mostly okay with doing whatever. Can I do insects I can't communicate with?
The thoughts go on a while with no clear conclusion. Raucous is confident something can be done, but more information is always needed.
The next leg of the flight is to hit this big forest city, find someone called "The Snail", and tell them that Sala wants them to pay up.
...
This job kinda sucks. But it should be interesting trying to intimidate someone a hundred times my size. I've done it, but it's always fun doing it anew.
Particularly since Sala just wants me to send a message, but not actually hurt the guy for not paying up.
The big forest city is a real city, with a stone citadel and three layers of large defensive wall, surrounded by thousands of fields and buildings outside the wall. It's the largest accumulation of humanity the bird has seen in this world yet.. at least four hundred thousand people, maybe six hundred thousand. Dozens of neighbourhoods, separated by forest streams, larger-than-average roads, or simple blocks of strange architecture.. there are houses, apartments, stone buildings, forges, manufactories. So much stuff, so many places. And there's many, many special structures in the city centre, six or more floor general stores, city mansions, tight structures full of exotic smells, fur, and fancy woods, squeezed into small blocks. And palaces. Eight great palaces full of brass and silver, wood engraved with complicated ideograms. Gardens full of teased plants, cut into fancy shapes and mixed blocks of flowers, cultivated so a few are open at all hours of each day. The inevitable fallout of some kind of intense arms race, one of art and fashion. Then there are the poorer regions, full of vitality and life, huge crowds, chaotic markets, hundreds of people going every which way, hand carts bumping into each other, sedan chairs, taverns, endless hue and cry from infinite conversations.
And there is, of course, an underclass. Poverty is present, with many seeming starving or poorly dressed. There are plenty of dark alleys, grime, and garbage. There is also a different kind of pride. Sheds, but carefully cleaned and maintained. Boarding houses full of one room apartments, each a world to itself, keeping what one person holds dear. Individuals on carts, going from nowhere to nowhere, but they might have quick hands or keen eyes. And others for whom the world has broken in one way or another.
..Although, despite all this humanity, all these details.. for the moment, all Raucous is concerned with is finding The Snail, supposedly an underworld figure who can be found in a particular business. In a city with this many buildings. And far too many people to avoid attention. Normally, dodging a few eyes is okay, but with thousands of people on the street, some of whom would look at the bird like a much-needed meal.. well, there needs to be some precautions taken, instead of shoving his head in every single window. Sooner or later that'll end badly, long before a tenth of the city has been searched.
The next morning, Raucous pulls himself out of the tiny gap in the woodpile. He slept.. okay. It's not like he isn't soft and fluffy, and wood chips are very nice nest linings, but he's not a hole-sitting bird, not like Kestrels.
..It'd be nice to have some Kestrels around. They'd eat the baby giant mosquitos or whatever those were.
Can I mess with giant insects? I can do people, but I talk with them. I can do animals, but the ones around here are really bored and good at hiding, so they're mostly okay with doing whatever. Can I do insects I can't communicate with?
The thoughts go on a while with no clear conclusion. Raucous is confident something can be done, but more information is always needed.
The next leg of the flight is to hit this big forest city, find someone called "The Snail", and tell them that Sala wants them to pay up.
...
This job kinda sucks. But it should be interesting trying to intimidate someone a hundred times my size. I've done it, but it's always fun doing it anew.
Particularly since Sala just wants me to send a message, but not actually hurt the guy for not paying up.
The big forest city is a real city, with a stone citadel and three layers of large defensive wall, surrounded by thousands of fields and buildings outside the wall. It's the largest accumulation of humanity the bird has seen in this world yet.. at least four hundred thousand people, maybe six hundred thousand. Dozens of neighbourhoods, separated by forest streams, larger-than-average roads, or simple blocks of strange architecture.. there are houses, apartments, stone buildings, forges, manufactories. So much stuff, so many places. And there's many, many special structures in the city centre, six or more floor general stores, city mansions, tight structures full of exotic smells, fur, and fancy woods, squeezed into small blocks. And palaces. Eight great palaces full of brass and silver, wood engraved with complicated ideograms. Gardens full of teased plants, cut into fancy shapes and mixed blocks of flowers, cultivated so a few are open at all hours of each day. The inevitable fallout of some kind of intense arms race, one of art and fashion. Then there are the poorer regions, full of vitality and life, huge crowds, chaotic markets, hundreds of people going every which way, hand carts bumping into each other, sedan chairs, taverns, endless hue and cry from infinite conversations.
And there is, of course, an underclass. Poverty is present, with many seeming starving or poorly dressed. There are plenty of dark alleys, grime, and garbage. There is also a different kind of pride. Sheds, but carefully cleaned and maintained. Boarding houses full of one room apartments, each a world to itself, keeping what one person holds dear. Individuals on carts, going from nowhere to nowhere, but they might have quick hands or keen eyes. And others for whom the world has broken in one way or another.
..Although, despite all this humanity, all these details.. for the moment, all Raucous is concerned with is finding The Snail, supposedly an underworld figure who can be found in a particular business. In a city with this many buildings. And far too many people to avoid attention. Normally, dodging a few eyes is okay, but with thousands of people on the street, some of whom would look at the bird like a much-needed meal.. well, there needs to be some precautions taken, instead of shoving his head in every single window. Sooner or later that'll end badly, long before a tenth of the city has been searched.
