Plump Chickens

The horns Ria had touched were smooth, unlike the jaggedness of the ogre's she'd killed. They curved gently upward, barely longer than Ria's thumb. Her fingers traced their shape before she realized what she was doing and jerked her hand back.

She tried to make out the demon child's outline next. He was small - maybe around her age if demons aged the same way humans did, but more likely younger given how compact his frame is. The shoulders were narrow, the limbs thin enough that the water in the air barely registered his presence in the air.

Tyrant squirmed in her other arm. Ria shifted him in her grip, trying her best to prevent the bird from launching himself at the demon child's face.

She was supposed to slay demons like him, according to Nao's grand theory about T'ien-ts'ai's destiny. But this was a child, defenseless in front of her. The ogre was trying to crush Tyrant and charged at Nao with clear intent to kill, so killing that demon felt justified in a sense. But standing here, staring down at this child with horns…

Maybe Nao had it wrong? Maybe the whole destiny thing was complete and utter nonsense, some story people told others to justify the existance of rare magic users. Or maybe Ria wasn't the right kind of T'ien-ts'ai, and maybe she'd gotten someone else's destiny by mistake.

She should ask Nao about this later. Her friend seemed to know things about how the world worked outside the forest, so surely there was some explanation.

"There's the brat!"

A sudden voice boomed from the end of the alley. Ria's head snapped up to the sound, moisture in the air revealing three bulky, tall, and likely male outlines approaching fast. 

The men reached them, breathing hard. The tallest one straightened and gave Ria a nod.

"Appreciate you stopping him, miss. Slippery little bastard nearly got away."

"Did he do something wrong?"

The third man scoffed. A sound scraped out of his throat, all harsh and ugly-sounding.

"Wrong? He's breathing, isn't he?"

"Doesn't everyone breathe...?"

"But he's a breathing demon. His kind has been slaughtering thousands of us! Or you too young to know about the war or something?"

Ria's fingers tightened around Tyrant. The bird made a strangled squawk and pecked at her thumb, but she barely noticed.

"But he's-"

"A demon, and that's all that matters." 

The tallest man reached down and grabbed the child by the arm, hauling him upright. The kid didn't seem to resist at the slightest as the third man shoved him forward. The shove wasn't hard enough to knock him over, but enough to make him stumble.

"Come on. Move it."

The child's feet practically scraped against the ground as he walked. His head stayed down, horns tipped toward the dirt ground beneath him. The men flanked him, herding him back toward the main street.

Ria stood frozen, watching their shapes fade into the crowd. She had to find Nao, now. The shop couldn't be far. Nao would explain this. Nao knew how cities worked, how people worked, why men would drag a child through the streets for having horns.

Ria took three steps toward the main street before her shoulders felt wrong. Her hand shot up, patting the empty space where Tyrant should've been. She swept her arm through the air around her head, fingers grabbing at moisture that failed to contain moss-covered bird shapes.

"Tyrant?"

She spun, trying to pick out his distinct round outline from the city full of moving bodies. He couldn't have gone far. He never went too far without complaining about it first, but the moisture only seemed to reveal human shapes, blocks, and larger blocks instead of small tyrannical birds covered in vegetation.

Ria groaned and pressed her fingers against her forehead. Of course. Of course he'd vanished the moment she got distracted. This was exactly the kind of thing Tyrant did when he wanted to punish her for slightest perceived inconvenience, like not immediately finding him a warm rock to nap on.

She pushed back through the crowd, following the path she'd taken to get to this alley. Maybe he'd flown back toward the shop, or he had already found his warm rock. Whatever the case, he shouldn't be too far, right...?

Then she sensed them. Multiple Tyrant-sized shapes grouped together in what felt like a more open space than the alleyway ahead. The water in the air revealed wooden structures, fencing, and about a dozen round bird-shaped forms.

Wait, a dozen?

Ria hurried forward, her hands finding the wooden fence. The shapes inside were definitely bird-sized and plump, but something felt off. Their outlines weren't quite exactly Tyrant-shaped and a little too uniform, too.

Suddenly, clucking erupted from inside the fence. 

Ria stepped closer to the fence, trying to make sense of the mess of sounds. That's when one shape shifted, and she caught a thin stem protruding from the top of its head - a dandelion bud.

"Found you!"

Ria extended the bamboo perch over the fence, angling it toward Tyrant. The bird didn't move, too busy pecking at something on the ground to notice her rescue attempt. Ria tried lowering the perch further, nudging Tyrant's side, when a hand suddenly swatted the perch away.

"Hands off my merchandise!"

Ria straightened, turning toward the voice. A short man with messy hair stood beside her, arms crossed.

"That one's mine," Ria said, pointing at what she could only hope was Tyrant.

The man snorted. "Nice try. All these birds are mine."

"No, that one, the one with the dandelion." 

"Don't see any dandelion, just quality poultry girly. If you want it though, it'll cost ya five silver."

Ria's hand flew to her side, patting the empty space where the money pouch should've been. Then she remembered all forty pieces of silver were still with Nao back at the shop.

"Well? Five silver or scram."

Ria's throat tightened. She could run back to the shop, grab Nao, explain everything. Except then Nao would know she'd broken her promise, and Nao had been nothing but nice to her. Nao had already helped her so much: taken her to town, explained things, agreed to travel together. What if this was too much? What if Nao decided Ria was more trouble than she was worth and just left her here?

The thought made Ria's chest hurt in a way she couldn't quite name.

She shook the thought out of her head hard enough that her ponytail whipped against her shoulders. No, she can figure this out herself and prove she could handle things without dragging Nao into every problem.

The Hall back in Gyokurin had those bamboo tablets with quests. Kill an ogre, rake in the money, profit. Cities had to work the same way, right? Bigger city meant more demons, which meant more quests, which meant she could earn five silver before Nao even finished at the shop.

"Is there a Hall nearby where I can complete quests?"

The man's face went blank for a moment. Then he threw his head back and laughed so hard he had to squeeze his knees.

Ria waited for him to finish. When he didn't, she tried again. "I don't understand."

The laughter cut off. The man straightened, wiping his eyes.

"Oh, you're actually being serious girly?"

"Yes?"

"Girly, this is a lawless town. We don't have Halls or tidy little bounties posted on them walls. You want to kill something? Go ahead. You want to get paid for it? Find someone stupid enough to hire you yourself. The merchant houses like it that way Now, five silver or scram."

Ria's mind raced. Couldn't she technically just reach over and grab Tyrant right now? The man was short, shorter than her, and didn't look particularly strong, so Ria could might actually be able to pull it off. Plus, it wasn't stealing if Tyrant wasn't his to begin with right? The bird had followed Jin home years ago and never left. That made Tyrant hers. Or Jin's. Or at least not this man's.

Despite those thoughts, Ria's feet stayed planted.

"Kid, for the last time, scram already! You're scaring off the chickens with your stick!"

Ria looked down at the bamboo perch in her hand, then back toward the fence where Tyrant was still pecking at feed like he'd never been anything other than a common chicken his whole life. For a moment, she considered arguing, but the words didn't make it out of her throat.

She turned and walked instead. The noise of the market swallowed her whole again, and this time, Ria gives into the bodies pressing in from all sides. As long as they took her away from the man, she let her feet carry her. 

How was she supposed to be a T'ien-ts'ai if she couldn't even handle something this simple, though? The ogre was easy enough. Point water at thing trying to kill people, slice thing apart. Done.

But this? Standing there like an idiot while some merchant laughed at her, then walking away because she didn't know how to argue?

She'd never find Otou-san at this rate.

Maybe Jin had been right. Maybe she should've stayed in the forest where things made sense, where the worst problem was Tyrant stealing her breakfast or trampling on her herb gardens. She could've waited there like he'd told her to.

Except Jin had been gone for three months, and waiting hadn't brought him back. So she'd left to find him, thinking maybe she could actually do something useful for once. Instead, she'd lost Tyrant and couldn't even get him back.

Ria adjusted her grip on the perch, preparing to continue her efforts of retracing her steps back to the shop, when she sensed someone sprinting toward her through the crowd. The shape moved fast, easily weaving between people.

"Ria!"

Ria's head snapped toward her name. Nao's outline materialized through the crowd, skidding to a stop and grabbed Ria's shoulders, chest heaving.

"Oh good, it looks like you're ok."

"I'm sorry!" The words burst out before Ria could stop them, "I broke my promise. You told me to stay put and I didn't and-"

"Whoa, whoa." Nao held up a hand to Ria's face, still catching her breath. "Yeah, I'm a little angry about that. But it's no big deal. Why are you out here anyway?"

"Tyrant woke up. He ran off and now he's in that fence area over there, but I don't have the silver to buy him back."

"You're a T'ien-ts'ai. Why do you even need to buy him back?"

T'ien-ts'ai. She was starting to hate that word.

“Just- nevermind, take me to him.” 

At Nao's insistence, Ria led Nao back through the market to the short man. He spotted Ria first, causing his face to twist into something that felt like annoyance.

"You again? I told you to scram."

Nao stepped forward, positioned herself between Ria and the man.

"My companion says you have her bird."

The man's expression shifted instantly. His eyes tracked to her money pouch, then back up to her face before splitting his face with a smile.

"Ah! A gentleman with coin, finally." He gestured toward the fence. "Premium stock, every one of them. Plump, healthy, perfect for roasting. Three silver each, but for you? Two and a half."

"Hand over the one with the dandelion on its head."

"Dandelion? Oh right, that weird one. Yeah, funny story actually. Some bloke came by right after stick lady here wandered off. Paid a whole ten silver for it. Can you believe that? Ten! For a bird!"

"Where did they take him?" 

The man shrugged. "How should I know? Probably somewhere to cook it up nice. Guy was a cook, after all."

"A cook...?"

"Sure, sure. Well-known in this area, apparently. Does all the food for those benefactor types at the Ring."

Nao glanced at Ria. "The Ring?"

The man waved his hand dismissively. "Big arena under the city, though you two don't look like you're from around here so I supposed you haven't heard about it"

But Ria could barely heard him. Her mind had latched onto one word and couldn't let go.

Cook.

Tyrant wasn't just gone - he was going to be someone's dinner?!