Travels with a Yellow Bird Part 13: Truth and Consequences

>Last Time on Travels With a Yellow Bird

>You successfully infiltrate the harbor of the massive trade city of Squamus
>After finding a suitable hidey hole, you take precautions against the full moon and the spring tide
>As the moon rises, you send your party on their supply mission

Flit waits below.

Cool white moonlight beams in through the small window of the brig. It reminds me of the last full moon, only a month ago. How many things have changed since then? How much closer are we really to our goal?

The sounds of the city drift in over the calm waters. The harpy sulks in the cot of the small cell. Golden feathers glow as Flit absently pulls at her wild hair with a small bone comb. I remember making that for her in Auk a long time ago. I was just a dumb kid trying to show his gratitude to the girl who said she could save us all. Elsa’s warnings surface again in my thoughts and I try to shove them down. Flit has earned my trust. I know her. She wouldn’t have us out her for a hopeless lie.

Relief washes over the harpy’s face when she sees me. She doesn’t even try to hide her smile. “I thought you might try to jump ship to see the city at the last minute. I’m glad you have a little more sense in the shape you’re in. You’re growing up my scribe boy.“

“A bit small yourself to be calling me boy as always, my cocky yellow bird.” I retort with a grin of my own.

Flit hops up and over to the door, raptor claws practically skipping on the deck. “A fair hen of a harpy like myself, cocky? No.” She brushes her nose with her vestigial claw thumb. “A man would recognize it as confidence.” She clucks her tongue at me, then tilts her head up for a kiss. Her dainty lips pucker and her large bright eyes close as she waits expectantly.

I feel a reverberating coo work its way through her chest when I pull her close. I lick my lips and grant her unspoken request with practiced verve. Even now, she holds back, her sweet small tongue only working into my mouth once I begin to probe hers. Wings press at bars too small to fit through as her body tells me to hold it in my arms. Happiness and heat emanates from her small frame when I finally pull away.

Flit pauses, wanting more. I comb some hair back over a down-tufted ear. “You really are one-of-a-kind aren’t you?” I say. “Even the old Sea Witch said she hadn’t seen anyone like you in half a century.”

“Well, it’s not like I can’t make more.” The harpy crows with forced laughter and I see her look away. Her eyes cloud, and her excitement falls. The seconds tick by and she begins to fidget. Flit covers her face in feathery teepee of wings to hide her anxiety. “I hate being in this cage. It reminds me of terrible things. Please let me out.” The golden harpy punctuates the end with a peep. “Just hold me tonight. Forget the Lizarda. Forget the moon. I don’t want to be in here. Wrapping me in your arms would be enough. I don’t need more. I never have.”

I reach over Flit’s yellow wings and rub her soft cheek with my bad hand to calm her down. “I made a promise, and you did too.” I tell her. “I’ll stay here. I won’t leave you alone. But I can’t let you out, not until morning.” Warm wings fold over my arm and the harpy starts to settle down. I push the attack a little harder. “Why don’t we talk to pass the time?”

Flit nods and nuzzles into my hand. “Is this the game you played with the lizard? You are cruel, too cruel.”

“Now Flit, you know that to be false.” I tickle her chin with three fingers.


The yellow harpy nips at my digits and shoves my hand away. “I’m not in the mood to be patronized, scribe boy.” She looks at me hard with her bright intelligent eyes. “I’ve known you long enough. I know when you want something, when you are suspicious. I know she’s poisoned you against me.” I see Flit swallow an involuntary chirp. “I tried to ignore it. I know it’s not my place to say those things. Why does it hurt so much?” She gasps and covers her mouth with her wings .

I don’t think she meant to say the last part out loud. Flit sits down and draws her knees to her buxom chest, wrapping her magnificent wings around her like a blanket. “I’m sorry. It’s this moon, this cage. I didn’t mean that.”


>Tell Flit what you heard and give her a chance to explain
>Drop it for now, apologize and just comfort her
>Let her out and lock her up in the Captain’s quarters
>Join her in the Captain’s quarters
>Other

I apologize to the harpy for my suspicions and lay my cards on the table. I need to know about our ultimate destination. I need to know what could possible save my people.

The harpy almost looks relieved. She furtively checks the hall for eavesdroppers then motions me to sit down at her level. Flit swears me to secrecy then begins in a hushed voice. "Yes, Jiro is gone. But what we want is still hidden, buried under the old palace workshops. Mother saw to that when the scales came."

Flit shakes her head. "You don't understand. There's a reason your father kept it from you. This quest is just as much to earn the right to wield something so terrible as to attain it. If you don't see how the Dragoon live out here, you can't make the decision to use this weapon. You have to know the face of your enemy. You need to comprehend the severity of what you will unleash."

"We have a Dragoon on board. How much better do you want me to know them?" I declare.

Flit makes a face. "Would you kill her if it meant saving your people? You have to ponder that longer now than at the start."

>Press her further
>Trust in her advice
>Other

Flit quails under my gaze. I'm so close to the truth I can taste it, and her mind is too scattered to mount a proper defense when I grasp her shoulders and squeeze.

The harpy chitters and I increase my grip.

I see her resistance give out as she starts again. "It's the dragons you see. All kinds breed slowly, the wyvern, the wurm, the ryu. They require the right kind of man, and call them 'strong men'. Though it has nothing to do with physical strength." Flit shoves my arms away with strength belied by her small body. "Before the war, Jiro was helping research the cause to help their fertility rates. They aren't that different biologically from regular scales who often have families of a dozen or more. The queen felt it could be powerful negotiating tool against the encroaching empire, and there were many willing subjects. If Jiro became a place where dragons had to go to have children, it would be unconscionable to attempt destroying that infrastructure."

Memories of Milat Ironscale cross my mind. She had hinted at that problem, and she talked a lot about fight and fire.

"The doctors discovered that it was a natural mechanism ingrained in the dragons to weed out weak offspring. Like a curse but alive and natural. Mother said it was a lot of little things too small to see, living in the place where eggs come from."

Flit shrugs helplessly. I've never really seen the bird at such a loss on how to describe something. It didn't make much sense to me either.

"I don't really understand but that is what makes the offspring powerful and what keeps their birthrates down. The dragons bodies are at constant war with the curse, fighting against it in a balance where only the 'strongest' men can give them a child."

Flit yanks a bloody feather from her arm nervously before she continues. I try to touch her and calm her. The girl gives me a look I've seen several times over the last year giving lessons, the one to back off and let her finish.

"During the war, focus was shifted to isolating the curse, to weaponizing it through magic. Now imagine, what would happen if this spread to regular scales without magic and incredibly robust bodies? They drink it in the water, they breath it in the air."

The horror of it begins to dawn on me. "No more children."

Flit nods somberly. "Mother said the weak and young prisoners died from internal hemorrhaging. The strong were all rendered infertile." She yanks another feather, my gut twists at the little bit of flesh stuck to the end.

"You spread that in their homeland, and you break the back of the army. The panic, the rebellion, no one could persecute a war against you. And it's still out there, kept alive with magic and mermaid's blood."

Flit looks up at me. "You wonder why it was never used. If we were at death's door, why would we not set this curse upon our enemies?" The harpy licks at the dribble of ichor staining her down, trying to stem the flow. "I've asked myself that many times. You know what it's like to be raised knowing you would one day probably be the very last of your kind?"

She spits the blood out in disgust. "At the time, the Dragoon had larger numbers of dragons. Most of the continent was free scales. This is so contagious; it could have infected them all." The girl is shaking now, and I see a vile glint in her eye. "That's no longer a problem."

"So think carefully my prince. Now please please let me out. I've spent far too much of my life in a cage. I can't take it tonight."

>Let her out
>Go in the cell with her
>Get some air
>Despair
>Other