CW: Injury, blood

Wire = a Wentolian communication device.

Wentol = the alien world on which this scene takes place.

Leichn = a Wentolian expletive

***

I rose from the ground, dusty and shaky.

Though I'd fallen, I'd kept a hold on my rifle. But the giant birds towering over us moved so fast, it was hard to keep my barrel pointed at them.

Jum was already getting up beside us. But it wouldn't do him or us much good to be ready to run if there was nowhere to run to.

We dodged the snapping beaks as best we could. I knew if they wanted to, the geitre could do worse than pecking around. They were playing with us.

Without warning, Carlyle grabbed at my ear. I thought he was trying to knock me out of the way of one of the birds' strikes, but instead he grabbed my Wire. It was in my wounded ear, so him yanking it up and off sent another bolt of pain.

I clutched my ear with both hands and screamed again, dropping my gun.

I heard him shout something back, but the tone sounded pitying and reassuring. Was he trying to apologize? Oh, there was no way I was forgiving him. And of all the times for him to reveal his true colors as a thief, why now? And why on Wentol would he want my Wire?

At some point the birds had started squabbling with each other. No doubt they were trying to fight for the biggest piece of us. It granted us a little time, though.

I grabbed my rifle and started to climb back onto Jum. I didn't bother to alert Carlyle, who was fiddling with my Wire. He looked up in time to see me mount and scrambled to get back on himself.

Before he could, though, the birds spotted us and hopped around us again, making chattering noises.

Carlyle held out the Wire to me, shaking it in my face. He was saying something while pointing to the various buttons. All the while he was glancing at the stalking birds.

He started screaming at me. I shook my head and started aiming at the birds again. They'd learned what my weapon did now, and wherever I pointed the barrel, they hopped out of the way. At least that scared them.

Carlyle gave up shouting at me and glared instead. He threw up his hands and muttered, starting to turn back to working on the Wire, but not before pointing at me.

"Leichn," He growled at me.

I almost started laughing. That wasn't how the word was usually used, but it amused me that he'd tried anyway. It was cute in a way, like a toddler trying to say something smart, but it came out silly.

While I kept the geitre at bay, Carlyle pulled something from his belt.

It was squarish, hand-sized, and had many buttons below a rounded screen. He pressed a few of the buttons and the screen lit up. I heard static from the device, and I gasped, but I kept my attention on the threat. Was that a human version of a Wire? He turned a little dial while holding my Wire up to his ear.

Finally his face lit up, and after tweaking a few more things, he ran towards one of the birds. I shouted for him to stop, but he stood there. He held the two devices above his head, with some unnecessary grandiose I thought, and brought them together.

What ensued was chaos.

As soon as the two coms came too close to each other, they let out a loud, high-pitched whistle. It was piercing. It made my ears feel like they were bleeding more than the one already was. And it was scaring the geitre.

The monstrous birds keened and wailed, flapping and backing off. Feathers flew, dust rose, and Jum bucked, throwing me off his back. I thumped to the ground and clapped my hands over the sides of my aching head.

I cringed as the sound blasted into my skull.

It didn't take long, though, for the geitres to give up and leave. They bumped into each other as they took off, rising into the sky while still shrieking.

When they were well out of sight, Carlyle pulled the devices away from each other and sank to his knees, shaking. I could only see his back from where I lay. His neck was still bleeding, red seeping into his overalls.

I got up and uncovered my still ringing ears. I scanned the area. In the distance I saw Jum, a pinprick against the horizon, but at least he wasn't running away anymore. I whistled for him, and he started back towards us, but with caution. He was probably still spooked.

I moved to stand behind Carlyle, who was still on his knees. I didn't know what to do with him. He'd just saved us.

"Carlyle?" I couldn't even hear my own voice.

He looked up slowly. So he could still hear, unlike me. I didn't know how resilient humans were, but I wondered if that sound had affected him at all. Maybe he didn't hear as high of frequencies?

My mouth moved for a few seconds before I could choose my words.

"Thank you." I said at last. That was so much harder to say than I thought it'd be. Why? I wondered.

Of course he didn't understand. He blinked.

I turned away just as Jum was arriving. I approached him, moving slowly so as not to spook him, and brushed a hand over his mane. Once the lorbahten had calmed down enough, I took off my heavy jacket and scarf and stuffed it away in a bag. It was getting warmer, and I was already hot and sticky from the recent action.

I went back to Carlyle, who had sat down on the ground, still shivering despite the heat. I sat down across from him again. We stared at each other for a long moment. We didn't say anything; there was no point. But I believe in that moment that we were both thinking about what we had just survived.

I felt bad that I had misjudged him. If I could have told him, I would have said I was grateful to have him along with me.

***

So that was a chapter I'd written for the project Journal Entry. I had to split it up into three parts so as to maintain a consistent posting schedule; I appreciate all of you bearing with that. Hope you liked it! Brings back good memories.

WIPs

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