“It meansthat?”
A distinct snort resonates through my mind as the crow takes off toward a palm tree, latches onto something. Something that whooshes through the air and thuds against a boulder with a loud crack. Milky water spills out from the broken husk and bleeds down the gray stone as the two sides of the split coconut seesaw precariously.
After recovering from my surprise, I swim toward the rock dripping with juice, poach one of the hairy brown shells, and tip it to my lips. The nectar coats my throat and tongue, and although I try not to waste a drop, I’m drinking with such unbridled thirst, the coconut water dribbles off my chin, scoots across my collarbone, and beads between my breasts.
Another coconut cracks against a rock and then another.
Morrgot is gifting me a veritable feast. Probably to shut me up, but I’m too ravenous to care.
Using my nails, I claw at the creamy flesh lining the shell but get nothing because my nails are so blunt. I use my teeth next but almost crack a molar on the outer shell. I’m about to ask Morrgot if he can spot some nifty tool I can use to spoon out the meat, when I find him perched in front of me, a chunk of white hanging from his beak.
I expect he’s going to wolf it down, but instead he lengthens his neck to offer it to me. I take it from him with a slow, “Thank you.”
As I chew it, he says,Cúoco.That’s how we say coconut in Crow.
I swallow, then try out the word, “Coowocko.”
He peels out another chunk, which I pluck carefully from his beak, careful not to graze the razor-sharp iron.
“And those delicious pink berries you brought me earlier?”
Beinnfrhal.
“Benfrol.”
Literally, mountain berry.
“AndBeyockeen? What does that mean? Annoying one?”
His beak can’t twist into a smile, and yet, it feels like he’s smiling when he asks,However did you guess?
I fake-glower at him. I’m certain it means something not great, but I really doubt I guessed correctly. “You’re such an ass.” The chuckle that resounds between my temples widens my eyes. “Did you just . . .laugh, Morrgot?”
A charmless ass like myself laugh? You must be hearing things.
I stare at him for a full minute. Not only did he most definitely laugh, but now he’s teasing me. I dip my hand into the pool and, quick as a hummingbird’s wingbeat, flick a handful of water onto Morrgot.
I note, with much glee, that water rolls down his feathers and drips down his metal beak because, I, Fallon Rossi, halfling not-very-extraordinaire, managed to catch a lethal, magical crow unawares. “Not so gloatful now, huh?”
He spreads his wings and shakes them out until they’re as dry as the trench before he opened the floodgates.Gloatful? Is that some new word added to your language in my absence?
“No. But it should be added.” I lay back on the water and float, starfish-like. “It’s a really great word. Phoebus would love it. Sybille, too, although she’d surely give me grief about it.” Gods, I miss those two. I close my eyes and dream up their faces, so that they’re a little bit with me. “Back toBeyockeen. What does it mean?” I’ll admit, I’m slightly one-track minded.
When, after a full minute, I don’t hear an answer, I crack open a lid. Morrgot’s no longer on the rock. A quick look around my oasis doesn’t bring me any closer to figuring out where he went.
He’s gone. Or hiding.
Though, Morrgot doesn’t strike me as the hiding type, so I imagine he went to do a crow-thing. Maybe hunt down some poor jungle rodent to snack on. Furia is still around, though. The sight of my stallion is strangely reassuring as though Morrgot didn’t up and abandon me to the wilds of Monteluce without an escort.
I pull myself out of the water and sprawl out on a rock.
Forgetclose to divine. This placeisdivine.
If the overworld exists, then I pray it’s like this, a series of private oases with sweet water, vibrant skies, and warm rocks.
Although . . . will I be granted entry inside the realm reserved for good Fae or will my crow-aiding send me straight to the underworld?
Deciding it’s thoroughly useless to worry about my fate at the present moment, I shut my eyes and let myself drift off.
