Stargazer

Chapter 14

As I blinked my eyes in an attempt to focus, two blurry figures stood in the sun. One had the dark hair of Prince Drudo and the other, I realized, was the colorful plumage of the baudlebird.

“See? Not dead!” The Prince pushed at the bird causing it to give him a snap of its beak. “And to think, you wanted to eat her! Dumber than a chicken you are!” The baudle bird sassed back at him as I sat up from the rocky, hard ground. I winced at the sharp, searing pain in my back and remembered the blade. As I carefully felt my back, I was surprised to feel nothing except a bandage tied tightly wrapped around my waist.

“Uh, yeah, sorry. I thought it best for the blade to go, as it seemed to be causing some bleeding issues for ya.” The Prince sarcastically raised his eyebrows at me and knelt down to my face. “Too bad you didn’t think telling me was a good idea...then again, I suppose we’ve got a lot of reasons to not completely trust each other right about now.” He threw a piece of bread on my lap. “Found that in your bag. Now eat up! You’ve got to get your strength up fast. We've got a ways to go yet and we're nearly out of water."

"Thank you, Prince Drudo," I replied taking a bite of the bread not knowing what else to say.

"Oh God, please don't call me that. Dru, it's Dru, okay?" He threw my canister of water at me and a small slosh at the bottom confirmed there wouldn't be enough to even quench my thirst, but I drank it greedily. "Besides, you won't be thanking me when you realize where I got your bandages from." He laughed and began to gear up the baudle bird. I stopped, looked at the bandage once again wrapped around my waist under my tunic and immediately realized it was the wrap that went around my chest! He would've had to pull it off my chest revealing myself for the world to see! My cheeks blushed in humility and anger.

"You had no right!" I began, but he just scoffed at me.

"Not anything I haven't seen before, so you can stop flattering yourself." I angrily shoved the remaining bread in my mouth to keep from saying anything more. He did help me, and it was an act of quick thinking, I even had to admit. But I wasn’t about to admit it out loud to him.

“The bird was rather interested in ya, though. I suppose the dumb creature would eat anything that moved” as if in validation, the baudle bird snatched at a giant centipede that crawled past it and threw it up in the air, opening it’s large jaw-like beak and catching it whole in it’s throat. It turned and blinked it’s orange slit eyes at me as if it were pleased with itself. The wonder crept through me if it truly was as dumb as Dru was assuming or if there was more I side its brain than we knew.

“What’s its name anyhow?” Dru asked me.

“Doesn’t have one,” I blinked, dumbfounded that he would care about a name for the creature.

“What? No name!? The beast is owned and forced to carry humans on its back, obeying where it goes but isn’t given the decency of a name?” I shrugged at him.

“Maybe they wouldn’t be smart enough to know it. Anyhow, I had not been part of that decision as I didn’t even know the things existed until yesterday.” He eyed me warily.

“I’m already learning a lot about Sordovians, what swell, caring people you all seem to be. Fine,” he turned to the baudle bird and gave it a pat. “I name you...uh, chicken. For now. Until you earn yourself a more regal name, then perhaps that’ll change, ya hear?” The baudle bird flapped its stubby chicken-like wings in response and gave Dru a squawk.

“And you!” he said forcefully to me as he helped me to my feet. “Don’t think you got out of explaining. Once I know we’re gonna live, you’ll be answering a lot of questions.”

“If I feel up to it,” I responded, pushing him aside to get to the bauble bird. I was in no mood treating Dru like a prince. My side was throbbing with every breath and my body burned heat from the inside out. I wondered if I was feverish or if it was the desert heat getting to me.

We both climbed back onto the bauble bird, Chicken, and it began running again as if it hadn’t been running all night and afternoon, already. The creature had amazing stamina.

I had no way to know which direction to go but just like that, Dru pulled out a shiny gold pocket watch which apparently also had a compass and steered us North, this time sitting behind me on the saddle. We rode and rode until the sun began to set and the bauble bird finally began to slow. Desert plants began to speckle the ground which gave me hope, but no water was found. The dark of night settled in and the stars came out but once again, the landscape became impossible to see in the night.

Finally the bauble bird stopped. He'd given up. I had no idea how long one could go without water, but I began to worry about the fate of our ride. Maybe we could rest for the night and he'd feel better by morning, I reasoned. But we were all beginning to feel desperately hungry and thirsty to the point of fear. We climbed off Chicken in a depressing silence at our failure. But then Chicken suddenly squawked and ran away! Where did our ride just go without us?

"Dru!," I shouted at him as he began to take a seat on the ground, not realizing. "The bird! We've just lost our ride!" He jumped up and we both ran in the direction I thought I'd heard him run. We crept through the dark trying to see our way but I was beginning to realize how dangerous it was as I bumped into a cactus collecting its spines on my hand and hissed in pain. I looked up to the sky wishing we had more than the stars to guide us and just at that moment Rora, our second moon, came out glowing her blue/green brilliance onto the land. It gave the desert an eerie glow but at least we could watch our feet and not step on plants or worse, an animal, likely poisonous. We stopped and listened. Thankfully, a scurrying came from over a hill and as I got to the other side I saw the giant bird form hanging by a pile of rocks.

No, not a pile of rocks, formed stones into bricks. It was a well!

Chicken had his face stuffed into a bucket supported by a rope and crank at the top and had cleared whatever contents it held. I turned the crank until I heard a splash and rejoiced at the sweet sound that would soon touch my lips. As I pulled it back up, I had to fight off the chicken brain to fill my canteen but managed to do so and drank and drank until my stomach sloshed with the cool water. I filled it again and brought it to Dru who drank greedily as well until it was gone.

Dru was cranking the bucket back up for another refill as a voice almost caused him to drop it and let it crash back down.

"Helping yourself to our water, I see," was a stern woman holding up some kind of sword.

"Oh! I'm sorry, but we've been traveling a long time without any provisions!" Dru held his hands up to show he was unarmed, and I did the same.

"That's what they all say," She replied grumpily. Her eyes shifted to the bauble bird and she let out an awkward screech. "What in the blazing hell is that thing?" She clambered closer in curiosity and tried to see in the Rora light.

"It's called a bauble bird," I said, then continued,"rare creatures, they're from the forest."

"Never seen the likes of such a creature in my life!" She gasped. "From the forest? Means you're one of them...them awful assassin's then, are ya?" Well, when she put it like that I realized I wasn't so sure anymore if I counted.

"Not anymore," I answered, honestly.

"Fortunately, I was never one of those terrible people," Dru laughed and clapped his hands together.

"Not anymore, eh? You’re on the run then, is it?" This lady sure knew how to poke at the sensitive subjects.

"Yes," I looked at Dru and realized it was true, "we're on the run. Do you know of a place around here where we could get food and rest?"

"Come along," the lady griped as she lowered her sword and hobbled up over a hill. "And bring the bird creature with ya!" She yelled back.