Mercy: 9 At the Edge
#9 of Mercy
Motungo managed to convince the other three to camp just below the cliffs that marked the edge of the Covenant's boarders. Mercy had wanted to push forward, and even Gothard seemed willing to continue. Motungo though felt beat after a day's worth of flying back and forth. Finding just the right spot with a path for Gothard and Argh near one of the covenant's towers had proven to be a challenge.
The sound of early morning birds woke him up, but he kept his eyes closed for a while, even turned over in his sleep. Breaking into the covenant's land never entered his thoughts before Mercy had arrived and changed his whole life again. Before his Attunement that marked him as a follower of the Thief, Motungo always thought of himself as a historian. Now he was making history, it felt ironic.
He heard someone move, maybe stand up or turn over. He opened his eyes and lifted his head slowly, the bird had walked into the tiny open space between trees they had made as a makeshift camp. Gothard knelt over the embers of the campfire trying to roast something, maybe a rot or a branch with knobs on it. The bird's beak moved, but Motungo couldn't hear any sounds.
"Hmm?" Gothard turned to Motungo and smiled, "Oh, good morning. Argh says the same."
"Poqulis's greetings."
Gothard picked up a nearby stick and prodded the embers and managed to coax a small flame back to life as he held the root closer. Argh stood behind the man and watched over his shoulder. Motungo repeated the name Argh in his mind a few times. What a weird name. Argh.
"Gothard, why did you name your bird Argh?"
Gothard grinned as he sat back. "Well, I would love to let Argh tell you. He's better at telling stories than I am, but you don't have the ear for it. I guess you'll get my rusty version."
The bird gave a sort of whine and shook his head quickly.
Gothard tilted his head back, "Oh be quiet you." He returned his attention to the root over the fire. "Well, I was on a sort of quest, a religious mission really. I was told to find my companion for my travels for the rest of my life, to be my guide and ear to the world of the Shepherdess. The Herder of my order told me to go near the city of Firstfeather and begin my search there.
"Well, it took me a couple months before I managed to get there of course. Even when I got there I didn't know what to look for. I searched the surrounding countryside for nearly a year if I remember correctly. I worked a ring around the city getting further and further out. I ended up about where my hut is now and Argh found me. Found me about the same way he found you actually."
"How did that get his name?"
"Well, Argh was the first thing I said when I met him. I tried to come up with a better name, but after seeing how often he likes scaring things Argh just seemed to fit."
"I see."
"He likes it, so Argh it was."
Gothard started eating whatever he had found and sat back. Motungo looked over to the gray shape that lay at the other side of the camp. Mercy lay completely motionless. It seemed to Motungo that she looked almost like a statue, she didn't even breathe.
"She's not breathing."
"What? Oh Mercy does that when she takes a nap. She tends to forget all the little details to make herself look more like everyone else."
"So she only breathes just to fit in?"
"Correct. Breathing, walking, flying, even her shape is all so she doesn't seem so alien. She'd probably burn all my hair off for saying, but she actually misses dragon company now and then. So, in hopes that maybe someone will at least talk to her once, she'll put on as much of a show to look normal as she can. There's limits of course, being a boneweaver means you can't be a dragon."
Motungo shook his head, "I still just don't see why. She's an Avatar. Everything she's doing seems so out of line."
"Well, so is everything you're doing, right?"
When Motungo looked at Gothard, he was grinning back at him.
"I don't have much of a choice." Motungo said smartly, "Thrown out of my covenant, disowned by everyone I knew, and being thrown into a life you don't completely understand means you have to what you can to survive. Besides, she didn't really give me a choice."
"Motungo, I've known Mercy for a long time. Trust me, if you want to walk away from this, you can. She really is doing this for you, and I can tell she really has feelings about you. It's not easy for her either. She's a goddess among mortals, she feels pretty bad about the whole situation. Because of how much she cares about you, she's willing to use her power to set things as right as she can.
"She thinks this is the right thing to do for you. She's thought about this for a long time actually. I remember her telling me about what happened to you. Not all the details, but I do remember her mentioning it. I also know that if you don't think this is right for you, then she'll be happy to let you go your own path."
Motungo nodded as he picked himself up to a sitting position. He wondered if Mercy would let him fly with his own two wings, or if she would come back to steer him back to where she wanted to go. Despite all the things they were trying to tell him, he still thought that there might be some other plans they had for him. He couldn't see what it was, but he suspected it might be there.
Whatever they were planning hadn't changed what he was planning to do. The past few days had given him a chance to think about his situation. He would use them to slip into the covenant and find Cellista. Then he could tell her about the elaborate plan and help the covenant destroy the Avatar. With all the help that he would have done for them all, they would let him back into the covenant. There were a lot of things he wished he could figure out, but he couldn't see how without knowing more than he actually did.
"Argh,"Gothard pointed to Mercy, "wake her up. I think it's about time we start on this journey."
The bird stepped to Mercy's head and then pecked it once. He peered down at the now shifting eyes of the dragon. Her eyes opened. A high roar followed by a tumbling scramble toward the treeline filled the place where Mercy had been for a second. Then she stopped in mid twist and narrowed her eyes at the bird.
Gothard laughed and rocked back on patch of ground he was sitting on. Motungo stared in wide-eyed terror at Mercy, expecting her to lash out with impossible power. But she just glared, and the bird walked away, apparently pleased with her reaction. They are as mad as Kilian. I hope this plan works soon, otherwise they'll get me killed in some prank. Gods, I hate this.