Solo Feathered Pests

[Dove Brown]

5 Spring 517

Dove jogged steadily down the path towards one of the farther fields, where she was to work today. Her worn boots rose and fell on the dirt and stone, each step felt as a light jolt through her body. It was warmer than it should be, and the plants were already sprouting in some of the fields that she passed. Her thin shirt grew damp with sweat, and her muscles began to ache with the effort she was putting in. She stopped at the gateway to the field she'd been assigned, and bent, bracing her hands on her knees as she caught her breath. She straightened after a moment, shook out her arms and legs, and stretched slowly and cautiously, trying to ease the aches and tension that had built up in her muscles.

This field had only recently been sown and harrowed. As Dove moved away from the gateway and further into the field, a handful of pigeons took off in a clatter of wings. She turned when she heard the sound and saw them settle back down in another part of the field, and start to peck around in the ground. Dove swore softly and at length. The birds had to be eating the newly sown seed! For a breath, she was back in her younger years, stumbling up and down a field with hunger a constant presence in her belly, trying to scare the birds away in the hope she'd have enough to eat when harvest came round. It had always been a faint hope, a never-fulfilled hope, but an always present one.

Then she had only had borrowed clappers and her voice and her body. She still had voice and body, but now - she reached for her sling where it was tucked through her belt - now she had something more than clappers. She twisted the end of one of the straps between and around her fingers, grasped the other strap, and slid a bullet into the pocket in the middle. She took a slow breath, then let it out, and began to swing the sling. It whirred quietly beside her as it built up speed, and she aimed for the biggest cluster of birds and fired. The bullet whipped throuh the air, but she wasn't trying to hit a particular bird - though if she managed to hit one she'd take that as a bonus - more to unsettle and scare them. The bullet thunked into the ground and a couple of birds lifted off for a moment, but no more than that. Dove snarled another curse, and reached for another bullet.

[Dove Brown]

She slapped the bullet into the sling with so much haste that it just shot out the other side onto the ground. Dove swore again, and took two long slow breaths, trying to calm herself down so that her hands would be steady. She bent, picked up the fallen bullet, and set it more gently in the sling so that it stayed there this time. She set herself carefully, swung her sling up to speed, and fired at a cluster of pigeons. One tumbled with a sqwark of fear, and the rest took off in a clatter of wings. Dove picked up her feet and ran towards them, stumbling on clods and bumps but just about keeping herself from falling over.

Her movement set off another clatter of wings, but she ignored that for a moment to chase the injured pigeon. It stayed just out of her reach, one wing trailing on the ground, and Dove was forced to stop and suck in a breath of air as hot and thick as a woollen blanket. She glared at the pigeon as it scuttled away, then remembered the way she had extended her hitting ability in the blindfight training. She slipped another bullet into the sling and tied it in place, then began to swing it from side to side in front of her, increasing her reach to hit something by the length of the sling. The pigeon didn't seem to realise, strutting away from the length of Dove's arms. The sling missed it twice, but on the third swing, the pigeon's luck ran out. It blundered up into the swinging bullet and fell back stunned for long enough to let Dove catch up and catch it. She wrung its neck to finish it off once and for all, then tied it to her belt with a savage grin. "Bonus achieved," she muttered under her breath and turned to survey the field to see where the flock had settled now. "Watch out pigeons. Here I come, ready or not."

[Dove Brown]

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Dove Brown

Skills

• Running 2
• Endurance 2
• Observation 1
• Logic 1
• Weapon: Sling 2
• Meditation 1
• Acrobatics 1
• Tactics 1
• Hunting 1
• Agriculture 2

Lores

• Sling: not as good at scaring, better for dinner
• Scaring birds off sown seed
• Tactics: extend your reach

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