Taylor looked down at the maggarts and gasped. Her raised voice had alerted the creatures to her hiding place and they were now staring up at her, their black eyes dark and menacing. One of the birds opened its sharp beak and screeched. With a quick flick of their white tail feathers, the maggarts dispersed and disappeared back to wherever they had come from, leaving no trace save for their jumbled footprints in the soft sand. Taylor stood for several minutes, keenly watching the bushes and rocks, but no birds reappeared.
She climbed down from the bluff and strode off towards the west, past the stream and past the confusion of bird prints in the sand. She had not walked far when she heard a rustle and a squeak in the bushes that crowded the path beside her. She peered dubiously through th
