Chapter Three

## Plot

Hawk and Teige have been traveling together for a while now, having now reached Jatay. At noon as Teige gets lunch, Hawk spots a pair of suspicious looking police officers. Teige, however, only sees one. Teige asks Hawk why he hasn’t shapeshifted away his wings so he looks fully human. Hawk admits that he can’t, and Teige extrapolates that he must be a half breed. Just then, the police officer interrupts them, and the two fly off the island.

Hawk makes it to the city of Safety without drowning this time, but does promptly collapse after reaching dry land. His dreams of cars and an owl for a moment, before he wakes up and falls off Teige’s back (as he is in horse form). Teige got food from a drive through, and the two talk a bit about Hawks brother and about birds as they eat.

The two travel some more. Hawk asks Teige about Earth. Teige describes it as very similar to Ardh, and that the only differences is that on Earth all the goblins are hiding, and on Ardh the old demon hunting days have come back. Later, Hawk expresses the opinion that hiding is better. Teige agrees, but only if you can hide, unlike half breeds like Hawk. Hawk gets offended. Teige clarifies that there’s nothing wrong with being mixed species, just that some people find interspecies relationships gross.

In Hawk’s dream, he again dreams of the rows of cars. This time the birds above him are saying something, but Hawk cannot understand them. He wakes up to a gunshot in the ally. Hawk and Teige observe police approaching two goblins, a dead serpent nearby.

Teige and Hawk cut across the countryside. It takes several days, and they drift into the highway before they reach Fort Summer. Despite Teige’s protests, they eat a roadkill deer. Teige requests Hawk turn the radio off, or turn it to a channel without anti-monster sentiment. This sparks an argument about the Order. Hawk believes they are responsible for Emry’s death and Liya’s disappearance based on his foggy memory. Teige tells Hawk that the only people the Order is supposed to target are slave traders. Teige explains the trade to Hawk, how Aetheri has had the worst of it and how people don’t tend to come out in one piece. Teige also mentions how his stepfather disappeared into it a year ago, and that he isn’t even expecting to find him. Hawk, humbled by the conversation, turns off the radio.

The next morning they follow the road and encounter the ghost of a little girl. Hawk is surprised Teige can see them, as he didnt see the ghost of a police officer in Jatay. Teige reminds Hawk of his bad eyesight. The ghost tells them to go away. She can only see Hawk, who talks gently to her, and tries to give her a feather from his wing, claiming it would protect her. Hawk accidentally exorcises her, which also causes him to partially shape change, gaining scaly skin and extra feathers. Teige momentarily forgets about Hawk, who is panicking a little, and starts critiquing the shapechange. Teige does manage to soothe Hawk’s shape-changing anxieties. He also tells Hawk that most non-humans can see ghosts, but he thought ghosts could only see other ghosts, not people. Hawk corrects him, saying that ghosts see a creature with many heads and wings when they look at him.

Hawk thinks of the memory of talking to Emry’s ghost after burying his body. Hawk admits that he’s probably never coming back. Em gives Hawk some final advice as he leaves his home. Hawk finishes peeling off his extra feathers in a hotel shower.

The two have to travel through a wildlife preservation, a small cluster of muddy islands. Teige learns how to turn into a bear. By the time they finish crossing through, the weather has begun to change.

They reach the city of Leigh two weeks later just in time for a riot in reaction to the island authorities selling non humans into the slave trade. Hawk spots the owl that appeared before Emry died. He starts flying away, but Teige chooses to drop down behind the police line and fuck shit up. Hawk lands soon after, disrupting an officer trying to throw a grenade. The two push up the overhead door on the back of one of the containment vans. Teige holds the door up as Hawk cuts the bindings of those imprisoned. As he is doing this, the rioters get closer and Teige gets shot.

In the moments after, Hawk sees the owl again, this time resting on the head of a dead half breed. This prompts him to pull Teige out of the streets, and out of Leigh completely. Hawk tries to keep Teige conscious by talking to him as they run away, remembering carrying Liya away from their violent neighbors after the hurricane. The death owl follows and swoops, but Hawk yells at it to get it to leave. As they are running, Hawk begins unconsciously doing some form of necromancy to keep Teige from dying.

Hawk sees Parker and Abi, and ask for their help. Hawk hauls Tiege into the RV and starts cutting his clothes so he can get to the wound on his shoulder as Abi grabs medical supplies. Hawk starts to patch Teige up as Minnie yells at Parker. He stands up to rebut her, but his unconscious use of magic has drained him so much he passes out.

Teige wakes up in the RV as everyone else dozes, pleasantly surprised to be alive.

## Characters

* Hawk Press
* Teige Carroll
* Emry Press
* Parker
* Minnie
* Abi