The Harbinger
Predators Know Predators
[06:30:50] Crow (melchior.wardell) slowed as the sight ahead caught his attention. A tarn stood where it perhaps should not have been, restless and agitated, its wings shifting with sharp, defensive movements. Something lay beneath and around it forms that, from this distance, looked disturbingly like bodies. Crow did not immediately approach. He stopped first, studying the animal rather than the apparent scene around it. The tarn’s posture. The movement of its wings. Its breathing. Whether it was frightened, wounded, guarding something, or simply reacting to the presence of people. His eyes then moved briefly over what lay beneath it, searching for movement, blood, weapons, clothing anything that might tell him whether these were truly dead bodies or merely appeared so from where he stood. “Easy…” His voice remained low and even.
[06:34:28] Hosokawa Kinsei – Vesper™ 細川金星 (razius) moved down to a crouch and pulled out the tarsk jerky from his pockets on his belt and tossed it through the gates. He was quiet, deathly silent. He watched through the open visor on his helm and noted the way the tarn moved. Vesper was also a predator of sorts and one predator knew and understood how other predators moved in the wild, with respect.
[06:37:14] Tweet (voraciousbirb) had spotted a small sleen and tried to chase it, but that morsel was fast and managed to slip away from him. The jet black tarn decided to fly off and soar within the skies, his wary gaze maintained downwards towards the shipwreck that had occurred not too long ago and the sight as scent of the crimson evidence soaked into the ground brought him to land with a heavy thud.
Large wings spread to intimidate any beast that may still be around but quickly noted he had been alone and lowered his massive head to clamp his beak into one of the torn off limbs of the crew that laid scattered and obviously dead – even dismembered. He’d toss the snack up and caught it, gobbling it down until his yellow gaze shot over towards the two two-leggers. His large posture puffed up, feathers ruffled to seem even larger then he already was. This was his meal and he was not going to share it with anyone. A loud screech of warning was given by the free Tarn.
Despite another, even smaller snack, being tossed through the gates,
he was more interested in the bodies near his claws.
[06:40:22] Crow (melchior.wardell) slowly lowered his posture, making himself less threatening, keeping his movements deliberate. He made no sudden attempt to reach for the tarn or whatever it was guarding. “Easy…. I am not here to take anything from you.” He remained at a careful distance, allowing the animal to see him rather than cornering it. His gaze never stopped assessing. A frightened tarn was dangerous. An injured tarn was worse. And a tarn guarding bodies was a problem he had no intention of making larger by rushing into it. “Do you see anything that might give away who it is he devours ?” He was sure enough that the animal wouldn’t give its prize by simple argument. “We can’t safe these victims but we might be able to inform them as to what has happened.” He was not truly shocked or pained in what he witnessed. He was a murderer too. A cleaner one, but just as vicious.
[06:48:03] Hosokawa Kinsei – Vesper™ 細川金星 (razius) watched the movements of the great bird, his head tilting to the side slowly. There was a way that Vesper moved that showed understanding for the animal, as if there was something that flowed in his veins that was like a great beast itself slouching toward the gate. He slowly moved up to stand and, while he listened to the Caste Master, his awareness moved past him and to the bird and what it guarded. He did not speak, not for a long while as his movements were slow and precise. His arms were held to his side. He did not puff up his own body, nor did he cower it. He watched, everything, carefully. Only when thousands of data points coalesced into reasoning would he whisper, “The bodies are waterlogged, note the way they are slightly swollen….little in the way of clothes. Could they have been rowers on a ship? What has the weather been like of late..many of them together, clumped.” He looked at the tarn. Eyes locking and then he slowly started to blink. Eyes opening and closing in a way that showed no threat was meant.
[06:51:25] Tweet (voraciousbirb) ‘s gaze flicked rapidly from one to the other yet seeing or at least, believing his intimidation was working and one had made itself smaller, he’d seem to calm down, the feathers smoothening more but that didnt mean he was relaxed. The tarn remained as sharp and wary as ever and ready to attack if it was needed. He still wouldnt share. They may be lucky to have some left overs if he lost interest in the bodies, then some of the corpses had no bite marks or even torn off limbs, they must have died by the sheer impact the ship had gone through, sending part of the crew flying against the stone edge of the stair’s wall and snapping necks, breaking backs and ribs to the point lungs were pierced. A few bodies didnt have the typical torn evidence of a tarn ripping limbs off, there were claw marks, bite marks, even an open torso where ribs were showing yet the organs and intestines within bitten into and halfway ripped out. He was not the only predator on the lose right now. He seemed to have lost interest in the one that had made himself smaller, but that intense stare slipped over to the other, standing there the same way as he came, without puffing up. His head began to twitch sideways, snapping left and right as if trying to read how the smaller individual blinked at him. He’d let out a short call with faint clicking of his beak before turning back to eat again. Plucking another hand from the ground that had been torn off and tossing it up to catch it and gobble it down again.
[06:54:28] Crow (melchior.wardell) remained still as Vesper joined him, his attention shifting briefly toward the other Assassin before returning to the tarn. He watched the slow blinking, the posture, the deliberate lack of threat. There was a familiarity in the way Vesper approached the creature that he recognized immediately. His eyes moved back toward the bodies. “That would make shipwreck more likely than a land killing. Especially if they came down together.” His gaze followed the scattered forms, studying their positions rather than the bodies themselves. He looked for anything that contradicted the first impression: ropes, remnants of a vessel, cargo, weapons, signs of impact. He glanced toward the great bird again. He had been a tarnsman before he was a man of the dreaded caste of Assassins. Once a warrior of Ar. “If she found them after they washed ashore, she may simply have claimed the place. But if she came with them…” He left the thought unfinished. He slowly lowered himself another fraction, keeping his hands visible and his movements measured. His voice became quieter. “Easy.” His eyes remained on the tarn’s. “We are only looking. No one is taking what is yours.” He allowed several heartbeats to pass before moving again, giving the animal the choice to accept his presence rather than forcing the matter. “You eat. We watch.” His eyes continued their methodical sweep of the area. “If there is another predator here, I would prefer to find its trail before it decides we are more interesting than the dead.”
[07:01:41] Hosokawa Kinsei – Vesper™ 細川金星 (razius) patterned his movements on the bird, slowly moving forward, stair by stair to stand alongside the elder Killer. He was thoughtful. His hand slowly moved out to point toward the bodies and his voice, a mere whisper, more of a resonance in his chest spoke to the Caste Master who he had followed for over 600 years, “Note the different markings on the bodies. This is not only the work of one hungry tarn. You and I both know what some of those marks mean, note the claw marks, bite marks, and the way the intestines have been eaten. Look around for the six paws in the ground. Do you see any footprints? If the prints are not here, then something else may have occurred to these bodies prior to their demise elsewhere. Question is, aboard the ship, or on land? We have a problem if what carried the bodies here is still alive.”
[07:09:03] Tweet (voraciousbirb) continued to feast, having picked up and gobbled down a few limbs before his massive foot pushed down one of the ripped torso’s and dug his claw into it, making sure it remained in place while his beak dug into the exposed huge wound to tear out a few damaged organs from whoever injured the man before. The men laying scattered were of the ship wreck, all seeming to have tried to flee the scene yet were brutally mowed down by something. About three swords were on the ground, guards clearly as their helmets were either still on their heads after colliding with the stone edge of the stair’s wall or just laying around. There was a heavily dented large cage halfway submerged next to the ship wreck, the cage big enough to hold a kaiila within. The ground to the stairs left several footprints behind, sizes varying from small to huge. The beasts were not just adults. Upon closer look, the former war Tarn had a few nicked feathers around his head, scars beneath, some were on his chest and a few on his belly. He was not unfamiliar with the harsh Gorean life as a war Tarn but he also couldnt speak his own story, yet it showed by his feather coat.
[07:14:23] Crow (melchior.wardell)’s attention followed Vesper’s pointing hand, and his expression hardened slightly as he studied the ground around the bodies.”Exactly.” His eyes moved across the scene again, but this time with considerably more interest. The swords. The helmets. The cage. The footprints. His gaze stopped at the cage. “A cage…” He stepped no closer, instead studying the heavy dents and its position half beneath the water. “Large enough for a kaiila. And apparently important enough to have been aboard.” His attention shifted to the footprints leading toward the stairs. Small ones. Large ones. Far too many variations to dismiss as a single creature. “Those are not the tracks of one beast. Young and mature.” He let the conclusion settle before looking toward the tarn again. The scars and damaged feathers did not escape his notice either. A former war tarn, by the look of him. The evidence of an old life written across its body. “That tarn has survived battles.” There was no pity in his voice. Something closer to recognition. He studied the nicked feathers around its head, then the scars beneath them, the chest, the belly. “And whatever happened here, he survived this too.” His attention returned to the tracks. “Now we have a different question.” He pointed subtly toward the cage. “What was inside it And more importantly…” His gaze followed the varying footprints toward the stairs. “…what got out?”
[07:17:48] Hosokawa Kinsei – Vesper™ 細川金星 (razius) eyes moved beyond the great bird and outward to where the wind was causing ripped sails to flap on great masts that were strewn around the rocks. The bird had his full attention to begin with, but now he was starting to piece together what may have happened. The helmets on some of the men meant one thing to him, “What men who had trained for war could not handle.” was his only response. He let that phrase sink down and land heavy, like the blood that was soaking into the ground itself. “Predators……know predators, Killer.”
[07:23:25] Tweet (voraciousbirb) lowered his head to wipe some of the guts off of his beak on the ground.
Whether the crew had a crucial incident on the ship itself and it crashed against the rocks at the shore or the navigator had done an error in reading the map was unclear. The only thing clear with the massacre at the Tarn’s feet, death came fast and ruthless. These beasts were hungry and they showed no mercy. Trained or not, would be just an unclear.
The gate they stood by was just as dented as the cage half submerged, a few tufts of fur stuck on the edge of the open gate. There was little blood smeared over the wall on the men’s left side, barely injured beasts leaving a trail up the stairs. They werent just near the shore, it was leading into the city. The tarn finally seemed to be sated for now, raising back to his imposing height again and stretched his wings before shaking his heavy form. That wary gaze snapped back towards the two men, watching momentarily before giving another call out, as if offering them the rest to
feast on. His attention snapped up the stairs with a tilt or two of his head, something must have caught his attention earlier before he came down here, then he had been hunting and lost his prey before.
[07:29:16] Crow (melchior.wardell) ‘s gaze followed Vesper’s toward the torn sails and scattered masts, his expression becoming still. The words required no explanation. “Predators know predators.” He repeated it quietly, almost testing the weight of it. His eyes returned to the tracks. Small. Large. Too many. Then to the cage, the dead guards, and finally the scarred tarn feeding as though none of it concerned him. “No trained warrior survives what he cannot recognize.” A pause. “And these men recognized something.” He crouched once more, examining the nearest footprints without touching them. “They ran.” His gaze followed the trail toward the wreckage. “That tells me more than the swords.” He rose slowly. “Whatever came out of that cage was not something they intended to fight or wanted to loose.” His eyes shifted toward the dark spaces beyond the wreck, scanning for movement. “And if there were young among them…” he turned to Vesper. “I think these beasts must have been tortured to become as vicious. Perhaps starved … and with the
dreadful currents a small error could be just enough for an opportunity.” A faint narrowing of his eyes. “I think we aren’t only looking at a wreck site.” He glanced toward Vesper. “We may be standing at the edge of an escape and what ever it is … “
[07:34:45] Hosokawa Kinsei – Vesper™ 細川金星 (razius): me watched the great black tarn settle after its feast, studying the scars beneath its nicked feathers and the way its behavior toward him had changed. Warning cries had become watching, clicking, and finally eating comfortably in his presence. His head tilted slightly, mirroring the bird. “I have been thinking that I need a tarn.” His eyes dropped to the severed hand disappearing down its throat. “There may be logistical complications. I am uncertain how many bodies I can reasonably provide each week.” A pause. “Failed lads might reduce expenses, but I doubt they constitute a nutritionally complete diet.” He moved another careful step closer. “You were a tarnsman once, Killer. I suspect the first lesson is convincing one not to remove your head.” The faintest amusement touched his expression before his attention shifted to the battered cage. “Although perhaps we would understand one another.” He glanced at Crow, holding his eyes knowingly. “You have seen me cornered.” Crow had. More than once. When every calculated escape vanished and someone finally believed Vesper trapped, something colder emerged. Everything became a weapon. Every weakness became an exit. Somehow, the corner always ended empty. Vesper looked from Crow to the broken cage, then toward the tracks disappearing into the city. “Perhaps we should assume whatever was inside that had much the same opinion of cages.”
[07:38:51] Tweet (voraciousbirb) had been lucky to be an airborne beast, he at least wasnt stuffed into a cage but kept down by chains that dug into his feather coat. He was not a tarn of those who had lost their lives, but something that was to be transported elsewhere. The tarn rose a wing to groom himself between the feathers, picking at a few wood splinters that had embedded themselves into his dark coat. He shook himself again and a single ring of steel from the chain that held him down was flung towards the gate, through it and hit the wall next to Crow before dropping down with a clank. The voyage of the beasts was a tiring thing, leaving each irritated by the chatter of the crew, the laughter, the songs, the lack of attention for food for these animals. It wasnt just a ship filled with any beast of Gor, it didnt hold a giani, or a leem, nothing gentle emerged from it. Seeing the two didnt move for the food on the ground and merely chattered in their own language, he’d spread his wings and took flight, aiming to fly right up into the city as if he was looking for someone – or more, something.
[07:44:32] Crow (melchior.wardell)’s mouth twitched at Vesper’s assessment, though his eyes remained on the battered cage. “I remember.” His gaze moved briefly to Vesper. “And I remember that being cornered never made you less dangerous.” He looked back toward the tracks disappearing up the stairs. “Perhaps that is what we are looking at here.” He looked closer to the damaged gate. His eyes examined the fur caught against the metal, then the dents, measuring the direction of force. “As for convincing one not to remove your head…” He looked at Vesper again. “Best not to buy one from those that sold you Bertram.” His expression settled into something more thoughtful. “But this one has chosen not to attack us. He watched. He tested us. He decided we weren’t a threat to what remained.” But when it suddenly took a different motion he would step back, measuring the danger once again. “So. You weren’t the cargo.” His eyes followed the great bird as it spread its wings. “You were the prisoner.” The tarn launched itself upward, powerful wings
driving the air around them as it climbed toward the city. He watched its flight path carefully. “He’s looking for something.” His gaze remained fixed on the dark shape until it disappeared among the buildings. “Or someone.” He looked down at the discarded ring of steel. “Which means the cage may not have been intended for him at all.”
[07:47:18] Hosokawa Kinsei – Vesper™ 細川金星 (razius) looked to Crow, “It hunts. The tarn is the harbinger. It is the messenger just as much as if it wore the golden slash along its helm.” He paused a moment. “Do you have a contract with gold secured with the city? You know now that the tarn is the ticket to find what it may still wish to devour. It is the guide to what waits still in the city.” He watched the great beast soar higher in the sky. “Perhaps, after we have secured a place of refuge, that knowledge could come in very handy during contract negotiations?” His gaze followed the black shape between the buildings, measuring each turn of its wings rather than merely admiring its flight. “Whatever escaped that ship scattered into the city. The tarn was chained beside them. It knows their scent, their sounds, perhaps their habits. And unlike us, it does not need tracks in the mud to follow them.” His eyes briefly dropped to the steel ring lying near Crow’s feet. “Someone transported a collection of predators together, starved and restrained them, then lost control of all of them at once. Now one predator is showing us where the others went.” The faintest smile touched his mouth. “There are men who would pay considerably more for that information after they discover what happens when they do not have it.” He looked toward Crow again. “No need to frighten them with possibilities. Let the city discover the problem for itself.” His attention returned upward, following the tarn. “Then we can offer the solution.”
[07:51:21] Crow (melchior.wardell) watched the tarn disappear between the rooftops, his expression thoughtful as Vesper laid out the possibilities. “A harbinger.” His gaze dropped briefly to the steel ring near his feet before returning to the city. “Then we don’t need to chase what it hunts.” A faint, knowing smile appeared. “We only need to watch where it goes.” He considered Vesper’s question about the contract, then gave a slow shake of his head. “Not yet. I have been learning Avarra before offering anything. A contract made before understanding the hand you’re dealing with is simply gambling.” His eyes moved across the city below. “But this…” He gestured subtly toward the fading silhouette of the tarn. “…is useful information.” Hs attention sharpened.”If the city discovers several predators moving through its streets before anyone understands where they came from, there will be panic. Panic makes people talk. It makes officials act. And eventually, someone will want the problem solved.” He looked toward Vesper. “And then we don’t sell them fear. We sell them certainty.” His gaze followed the tarn’s last known direction. “First, we need to know what it is leading us toward. How many there are. What kind of predators escaped. Whether they remain together.” A faint smirk returned. “And whether our harbinger intends to lead us to the problem…Let Avarra discover the danger.” He started up the stairs. “We’ll discover the value.”
Crows Murder 
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