55 Foresight, Bird Pligh (1/2)
Getting hold of the first basilisk wasn't too hard.It was cackling up a storm, and Nelda closed in on it by sound alone.It took giving herself a very strong talking to, to grab it, hold it down, and stab the warm, feather body with the dagger.What she assumed was blood seeped up between her fingers.Then it was still.
After that, it became that old metaphor for futility: a blind man in a dark room searching for a black cat that isn't there.
[But the basilisks are here.Somewhere.]
”Guys?”
No reply.
”Are you all made of stone?”
No reply.
[I really, really, really, want to look.But logic suggests that because I saw the snake-birds getting dropped on us.I'm the only one who thought to close my eyes.And the evidence is that no one else out there is making a sound.So that means I need to keep going with a not-currently-losing strategy and hope the centaurs take their time coming down her to stomp me.]
She stayed down on her hands and knees, moving slowly towards where she had last seen Jen.
[There were four of the creatures.I think.]
Nelda had done an undergraduate internship in a lab that was studying the visual abilities of chickens.Which was pretty good, chicken eyesight, that is. So no Jurassic Park tricks were going to work here.
She stopped and listened.There was a rustling sound to her right.
Trying to lure the creature closer Nelda made a sound like a hen. ”Buck, buck, buck.Buck, buck, buck?”
”You do a terrible chicken impression,” HoneyBeard replied.
”HoneyBeard! Do you have your eyes closed?”
”Of course I do.I may associate with idiots, but I am not yet one of their number.Do you have any idea what happened to BugleHead?”
”All I say was Jen going all granite.There should still be three of the little feathery fucks around here somewhere.I got one of them.”
”Maybe the le… ah! Ah! Ah! It's pecking me.”
”Grab it! Grab it!” Nelda shouted.
The air was filled with puffing and clucking and thrashing.
Nelda crawled cautiously towards HoneyBeard.
”I've got the stabby little bastard,” the satyr said.”But they are impossible to k… oh, the dagger.It works then?”
”One hundred percent success rate so far.Where is it?”
”Keep the pointy end well away from me.I'll hand the basilisk to you first. You can take it from there.”
Nelda's flailing hand fell on HoneyBeard's wiry hair.”There you are.”
”You know,” Honeybeard said.”Now I will be able to honestly tell BugleHead that I gave you cock.”