“I know you will. Try the pot roast place.”
Teagan hung up, and even though he knew he needed to get on the road he took a moment to let his head drop against the steering wheel. Nine days on the road. He looked like hell, he felt like dog food, and the only thing that had gotten him through the last two days was the idea of maybe getting to sleep in a real bed.
Apparently, that was going to have to wait, and he shook his head, putting his truck into gear and pulling out of the parking lot.
*
It was almost sunset when he pulled up at the end of the long drive with the green mailbox. The air was clear and cool, the sky shading towards orange when he got out, and while there was a small Volvo parked close to the house, no one came out to meet him.
Hm. Not necessarily a bad thing. That means that I can get the lay of the land before I have to go act like a person.
Teagan took a quick look around before stepping between his truck and the tall wooden fence that separated the property from the road. No one in sight, and that was perfect. He took a deep breath, reaching inside, and he smiled when he felt more than heard an inquisitivecroo?
“Come on out, we’ve got work to do.”
He closed his eyes momentarily as his body changed, the world rising suddenly around him as the air got sharper and more vivid. One moment he was a big guy in jeans and flannel and heavy boots, and the next he was rising up off the ground with a hard flap of wide gray wings.
Kolman eagles weren’t around anymore. When he had done the reading as a teenager, he learned they disappeared about the same time that the mammoths appeared, in the long-ago time when humans had barely made it onto the continent and not one word was spoken between the shores of the two nameless oceans. They were enormous birds, almost half-again as large as the California condor, with a wingspan wide enough to down small deer with a single hard flap. There were illustrations in the science books of them doing just that, big enough to stun a fawn and actually carry it off, but Teagan thought it was probably an exaggeration. He could handle rabbits, groundhogs, maybe even a piglet or two, but actually making off with a fawn seemed unlikely.
His whole family had mostly reconciled themselves to being the weird shapeshifters on the mountain, and while it was probably easier being a bald eagle shifter or a condor shifter, right now, he was grateful for his size and weight. If he was dealing with an actual fire condor, he was going to need every advantage, especially if the old rumors were true.
He rose up on the thermals, getting high enough that the cabin and woods looked like toys beneath him, and then he started to spiral downwards, keeping his sharp eyes peeled for–
Ah. There
Half-hidden in the shadow of the house, he saw a smudge of gold, dim at the moment, but he knew that if the sun hit her just right, she would light up like a firefly. Sunning herself on top of the grill, she looked docile enough for the moment.
Did she escape from some asshole’s private zoo or something? Is she too calm, does that mean she’s hurt?
Teagan was just wondering about the advisability of gliding down for a closer look when the wind dropped and the choice was made for him. He uttered a pretty undignified squawk, losing a dozen feet of elevation, and he had just managed to catch himself when he saw that the fire condor had spotted him.
She rose up from her shelter by the cabin, and in her wake came another bird, and then another and another and – oh, hell.
He was momentarily stunned by their beauty, their elegant bodies stretched up to stream like molten gold up from the ground, their long, blade-like wings propelling them with seemingly no effort at all.
God, they’re gorgeous,he thought, and then the first one crashed into him with a furious cry.
They were smaller than he was, and far lighter, but that didn’t matter when he was out-numbered six to one. Every time he turned, there was another one there, slashing with beak and claws to spin him around.
His eagle shrieked offense at the attack and the pain, and he had to use all the willpower he had to pull it back. The eagle wanted to show these shiny feather dusters what he could do, how when it came to an aerial dogfight, there was nothing on the continent that was his match.
Endangered!Teagan shouted internally.Endangered, no, no, no!
It was a close thing, especially when one of the smaller birds actually managed to dive in and bite him on the foot. The sting was ferocious, he didn’t think he was bleeding, but abruptly, he decided that discretion was the better part of valor. He had learned that there was in fact a flock of fire condors in residence, and they sure seemed healthy from this distance. That was pretty good intel, and he was now happy to take it back to shelter and figure out his next move.
Teagan had no issue with turning tail and diving for the shelter of his truck, but then one of the fire condors, the largest one, he thought, crashed square into his back, between his wings. The solid weight of the other bird was like a punch, and for a moment, he lost control of his wings. He went from owning the airspace around him to swimming through tar, and he flailed, fighting to gain the altitude he needed to get away.
Fight!his eagle shouted.Fight-fight-fight or what are you good for?
He was dead set against harming endangered animals that were only defending themselves, but when the second bird hit him, he was really starting to rethink that position. They drove him down again and again, and with every blow, his eagle grew more and more furious, harder to control.
If I don’t do something, and fast, I’m going to start biting and clawing, and then--
The ground was rushing up towards him, and just before he hit the slats of the deck, he had to turn back into a human. His entire six-foot-three frame hit the wood with an almighty thump, but the fire condors didn’t let up. It didn’t matter that the intruder was bigger, heavier, and now a different species, they were going to give him what-for, and Teagan covered his head as he staggered to his feet. He was surrounded by a flurry of golden beaks and wings and claws, and he was just trying to figure out if he could dash under the deck for cover when the glass door to the deck slid open.
“Hey!” came a woman’s voice. “Hey! No! No! Bad birds!”
He started to tell whoever it was to get the hell back inside, that she could be seriously hurt if she came out to try to help him, but then she lifted her arms, spreading out a pale blue floral sheet that was knotted around her neck like a cape. She advanced on Teagan and the fire condor flock, flapping her fake wings like she was trying to start a hurricane.