Book 5: Chapter 5 (2/2)
“In a sense, but not really,” Prika said. She scratched her head, her claw nearly bumping into Vur. “The locals of where we’re going call the place the Recordkeeper’s Palace. You know what ravens are, right? The black little birds that always seem to show up when something bad is going to happen?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, roughly a quarter of the ravens in the world aren’t actually ravens,” Prika said. “They’re the Recordkeeper’s eyes and ears. They’re like little homunculi she created to monitor the events happening in the world.”
“Wait? Really?” Stella asked, her eyes widening. “How come I’ve never heard about this before?”
“Because you’re just a fairy,” Prika said and rolled her eyes. “In the grand scheme of things, fairies are completely insignificant. Why would the Recordkeeper ever interact with you?”
Stella pursed her lips. “And dragons are important enough?”
“Duh.” Prika said and snorted. “This world practically belongs to dragons. Have you not noticed?”
***
Tafel raised an eyebrow. Beneath her pillar of ice, on the surface of the ocean, there seemed to be a chain of islands; either that, or her eyes were playing tricks on her. According to the traces left behind by Susan and Emile, the two phoenixes had gone down to the island chain. Was this where they were hiding? The islands weren’t located on any map that she knew of, so it was a high possibility.
Tafel’s horns glowed silver, and after a minute of calculating, she opened a portal and stepped through. Her foot made contact with a sandy beach, and the first thing she did was raise Minerva’s feather. The golden glow illuminated a small region around her, showing red traces leading in and out of the water. Evidently, Susan and Emile had gone fishing. A furrow appeared on Tafel’s brow, and she waved her hand. The pillar of ice, which was now in the distance, crumbled.
The nearest trace led into the water, but it didn’t seem to go very far. From where she was standing, Tafel could see dozens of shells lining the shore. They were massive, each one nearly the size of her head. A splash of water caught Tafel’s attention, and a strange creature burst out of the water. It looked like a cat, but it had a pair of wings growing out of its back, and its head was that of an owl’s. Its four paws were holding a large clam, and the strange creature flew high up into the air before dropping the clam. The clam hit a nearby rock and shattered, splitting into two halves, one of which had am exposed fleshy blob clinging to it. The creature swooped down from the sky and landed by its handiwork. It gave Tafel a glance before pecking at the poor clam.
Tafel tilted her head. Was the creature an owl? A cat? Either way, it didn’t really matter. As long as they didn’t eat Susan and Emile, then she honestly didn’t care about them. It didn’t look like they were tough at all. Unlike the monsters in Fuselage, the ones she could kill and harvest for materials, this creature seemed to have no value at all.
Shortly after Tafel left, following the traces revealed by Minerva’s feather, a second owlcat flew down from the trees and approached the first. “What kind of creature was that?” the second owlcat asked.
“I’m not sure, but it looked pretty miserable, didn’t it? It must’ve lost its wings somewhere.”
“It probably went to look for them.” The second owlcat’s eyes lit up. “You know what? I think that’d make a great story. I’m going to write a book about an owlcat that lost its wings and had to go on a journey to find them. I think I’ll call it … Cat.”
“Ooh, you should add some romance to it. I bet that big red owlcat will love it.”