Flock Avuckka was the third-largest settlement of passerine in the world, and the largest one that deigned to interact
frequently with other inhabitants of Low. As far as he knew, all the passerine Seph had ever met in Low -- both in the Bazaar and at Quartzal and at Fallish -- were all of Avuckka.
Khuh'a, one of Avuckka's roosts, was located at the southern Down of the Feathered Trenches. Its size in relation to Low was very small -- it was a two-block neighborhood tucked into a niche of the Down, where things were only briefly green and more gray, and where stone rose in intimidating jagged heights, towers and looms of fragmented shadow and occasional sparkle. Opalite wires were braided thick and nailed in loops to the stone, some of them powering brilliant, strong lanterns that fought the shadows. There were signs, but the pathway was coarse and pinched between high stone walls, uncertain and unstable or else overgrown with brush. It was increasingly obvious that those who reached Khuh'a didn't usually do so by walking.
Still, Seph was having a harder time than Boula, who kicked and picked her way with unexpected grace and balance through thorny shrub and loose rock like she was born for it. He would have thought at least that she'd be slipping with those hooves of hers.
Several times she looked back at him.
"Are you doing alright?"
"Yes," Seph said, already out of breath. "I just can't believe you're so good at this."
"Ungu weren't just fieldspeople," Boula told him, pausing slightly to stomp on a couple rocks before selecting a stable path. "Nomadic blood in general inhabit the Feathered Trenches. Even now it's not just the passerine that live here."
"What else lives here?" Seph asked, out of breath and gripping a bush to keep himself from falling. He winced immediately afterward and released it, and looked at his hand. There were pinpricks of blood where thorns had stuck his palm.
Boula didn't notice. "Well, I know Gia owns some land here. That's another ungu clan, but we're not likely to run into them. In terms of flora, perchgrass and slatebrambles" -- she kicked one out of the way, and it snapped in half -- "is probably the extent of it, though there are decennial blossoms and some perillions probably deeper down.
"Mostly in this area of the Downs I imagine there'd be just creatures. Lemmings and ondatra and hamsters, cliff raptors, varieties of slateperches, feral dentsa, otters, aphids, maybe a wolfen...things like that."
None of those things sounded very safe. Interpreting his silence correctly as nervousness, Boula looked back and said, in encouragement, "We probably wouldn't run into any of those things this close to the outlying Downs."
He didn't answer, deciding to conserve his breath. They were heading further and further down, and the ground was starting to level out into step-like structures, which were easier to navigate but led them down at a faster rate. Every time he began to feel nervous about their location, they saw another sign, indicating them to go just a little farther.
Khuh'a, one of Avuckka's roosts, was located at the southern Down of the Feathered Trenches. Its size in relation to Low was very small -- it was a two-block neighborhood tucked into a niche of the Down, where things were only briefly green and more gray, and where stone rose in intimidating jagged heights, towers and looms of fragmented shadow and occasional sparkle. Opalite wires were braided thick and nailed in loops to the stone, some of them powering brilliant, strong lanterns that fought the shadows. There were signs, but the pathway was coarse and pinched between high stone walls, uncertain and unstable or else overgrown with brush. It was increasingly obvious that those who reached Khuh'a didn't usually do so by walking.
Still, Seph was having a harder time than Boula, who kicked and picked her way with unexpected grace and balance through thorny shrub and loose rock like she was born for it. He would have thought at least that she'd be slipping with those hooves of hers.
Several times she looked back at him.
"Are you doing alright?"
"Yes," Seph said, already out of breath. "I just can't believe you're so good at this."
"Ungu weren't just fieldspeople," Boula told him, pausing slightly to stomp on a couple rocks before selecting a stable path. "Nomadic blood in general inhabit the Feathered Trenches. Even now it's not just the passerine that live here."
"What else lives here?" Seph asked, out of breath and gripping a bush to keep himself from falling. He winced immediately afterward and released it, and looked at his hand. There were pinpricks of blood where thorns had stuck his palm.
Boula didn't notice. "Well, I know Gia owns some land here. That's another ungu clan, but we're not likely to run into them. In terms of flora, perchgrass and slatebrambles" -- she kicked one out of the way, and it snapped in half -- "is probably the extent of it, though there are decennial blossoms and some perillions probably deeper down.
"Mostly in this area of the Downs I imagine there'd be just creatures. Lemmings and ondatra and hamsters, cliff raptors, varieties of slateperches, feral dentsa, otters, aphids, maybe a wolfen...things like that."
None of those things sounded very safe. Interpreting his silence correctly as nervousness, Boula looked back and said, in encouragement, "We probably wouldn't run into any of those things this close to the outlying Downs."
He didn't answer, deciding to conserve his breath. They were heading further and further down, and the ground was starting to level out into step-like structures, which were easier to navigate but led them down at a faster rate. Every time he began to feel nervous about their location, they saw another sign, indicating them to go just a little farther.
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