Ghost Monkey, стр. 38

The Teen Brothers paused, thinking over something. "We could make you watch! Yes, we will not kill you. Just cut all your sinew so you can't move." They lunged again.

Sugriva danced between the hungry heads. He thwacked them repeatedly, creating cracks in the skull and masks. They howled as they couldn't land any meaningful strikes. Then he thrust the staff into one of their mouths, down it's throat, and pinned it against the ground, putting all his weight on it until the staff broke through the muscle and pierced down to the ground.

The face gargled up blood, eyes rolling back, and then the head went still. The two heads wailed, "Brother!" They knocked Sugriva away, nudged their brother, and when they realized he was not coming back, they consumed him. Their teeth tore into the meat, blood and ichor spraying up, until their was nothing left but a ragged stump. "Now we are more powerful. You will die."

The staff was consumed in their feeding frenzy, leaving the monkey unarmed except for a small utility knife. He ran toward the Falls, toward Prisha. She stood, looking over the cliff. The drop went on for hundreds of feet, towering so high above the jungle below it looked as if there were two worlds separated by the earth itself. Sugriva yelled, "You have to fly. For both of us, you have to fly."

She froze. Then she said, "I can't. I don't fly right."

"You flew fine the other night." He took his gamble as he heard the goading of the Teen Brothers catching up to him. Arms wrapped around Prisha, and he jumped off the cliff. He took out his knife and undid the bindings on her wings. "Please, Prisha. Fly."

He shifted, no longer able to speak words of encouragement, only able to trust in her desire to survive, the innate desire Sugriva saw in most people.

Though they were at Sita Falls.

Sita was a woman who was about to be outcaste. She slept with a noble man who denied it, but she was pregnant and could not account for the father. Instead of facing the shame, Sita jumped. Prisha wanted to tell Sugriva something. Was she pregnant? Fear knotted in his stomach.

They were dead.

The ground came closer and closer. Trees were distinguishable instead of a vibrant green blur. Prisha shifted into a hawk, grabbed Sugriva in her talons, and swooped above the trees and river.

The howl of the Teen Brothers could be heard behind them, but Prisha kept flying. Sugriva would have to come back with a small squad to hunt it down. No doubt it would go to ground, and that would be difficult to track. Not to mention he now had to tell Jaya that demons were in their backyard. Meeting Ravasha deep in the jungle was far different than anathema a half day from the capital.

Prisha dropped Sugriva on a tree and landed on the branch. She shifted to her janaav form. "Thank you." Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. "I'm not afraid of flying. I need to go, though. You can get back, right?"

Sugriva's jaw dropped. He looked at the cliff. "That's the only way—" but it was too late. She took off toward Jaya.

"Are you kidding me?"

IT TOOK A DAY AND A half to get from the bottom of the cliff back to Jaya because of how far around he had to go. The entire time he muttered profanities of what Prisha did and wondered what it was that made her take off so quickly. Did she fly correctly in that moment of terror, and she wanted to show her parents? That's what he hoped. Was she going to fly away with their child? He didn't care. She left him out to dry in a dangerous environment, basically unarmed. Still, he would utter prayers time to time that she was safe.

When he finally arrived at Divyan's nest days later, it was abuzz with activity. People ran around with bolts of fabric, others with ornate saris. Women painted henna on each other, intricate designs of brown and red going up hands and arms, and across faces. He scrambled up the tree, as this was the sign of something festive, when Divyan should have been prepping for demons. If Prisha told her father what happened, the clash of arms and sound of horns would consume the entire empire.

Instead, laughter consumed the inside of the nest, and guests arrived with expensive gifts. Sugriva went around the back and tugged on a servant's shirt. The servant whirled about and scolded, "You are interrupting a marriage. Whatever you need better be of the utmost importance."

The servant recoiled at the sight of the rough man, clothes tattered, with a stench that could be noted from across the room. Each tear in the clothes was met with a scratch and, blood.

"I need to speak with General Divyan. Now. Need his approval to gather warriors."

"His daughter is getting married, and you want to break up his most celebratory day? It can wait until tomorrow." Even though a servant, he kept his head high. Didn't he recognize Sugriva? The servant was certainly diverging from his path to address a warrior in that manner.

A knot formed in Sugriva's guts and he nearly ripped the servant to shreds. Do it. It is within your duties to teach him his path. Killing him is not even a deviant act for you. The voice laughed, and Sugriva could feel it dancing as it sang.

But the servant wouldn't think anything of demons, and the mistress of the house said nothing good of Sugriva.

"I will gut you, servant. He sent me on a mission. I've completed my mission, and I need warriors now." The monkey snarled, nose twitching as he put his hand on his knife.

The servant's eyes went wide. The man stuttered, then hustled inside. It didn't take long before the general was out. "What is it, Sugriva? What