The Moxy Byrd

Chapter 8

June 25th 2040 17:45

Justin pulled Amia away from the crowd. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you need to find that Simon Greggory fellow and sell him the crier's teeth." His face was no longer shocked but grave and determined. He led the way to the tool shed. All of the farming equipment was in here, including saws, shovels, and pliers. They worked almost silently, gathering all the things they guessed they might need and then slunk toward the crier graveyard.

They were accosted by the sharp, moldy smell of decaying flesh long before they reached the graves. Amia took a deep breath and held it as they walked. When she had no choice, she exhaled and inhaled as quickly as she could. The stench was overwhelming.

They approached the mound of fresh dirt in the center of the graveyard. In theory, it would have certainly been easier to get the teeth out of a crier that had already fully rotted away, but there was no way to be certain exactly where the bodies lay and dirt that had already settled would be harder to dig up, so they had to take on the unpleasant task of pulling the teeth out of the newly dead corpses.

The teeth filled Amia with dread. Armarians, like most other clans people, had a slightly superstitious fear of them. The scientifically grounded part of her knew that the infection from crier bites was probably due to bacteria, but part of her wondered if there wasn't something so toxic and vile inside the monsters that even touching a tooth might be dangerous. At any rate, she and Justin weren't taking any chances. They both wore heavy work gloves and had pliers and burlap sacks.

They began digging as soon as they reached the mound. The macabre nature of their work and the intense stench kept their lips tightly sealed. In the distance, they could still hear shouting and crying from Town Square. A sharp twinge of fear was jabbing at Amia's stomach. Just then her shovel struck something slippery and soft and then something hard.

The strange feeling of her shovel cutting through flesh and the explosion of noxious odor from the grave were too much. She was knocked to her knees and hunched over by a round of vomiting. She stayed that way for a few moments, waiting for the heaving to stop. Finally, she recovered and used the shovel handle to drag herself back into a standing position. She braced herself and began to scoop away the topsoil. A bloated, ghoulish face peered out of the dirt at her.

Amia cleared as much dirt as possible off of the face with the shovel. As she dug in the bag for the pliers, Justin found the second and third head. Luckily, they'd been dropped in on top of their bodies. She gave her work gloves a once-over to make sure there were no holes then took the head in one hand and used the other to pry the mouth open. After a moment of wiggling it fell open with a disgusting 'pop.'

Positioning the head on the ground, she held it down with one foot and used the pliers to grab one of the teeth. After a bit of yanking and wrestling, the tooth popped out with relative ease. Pleasantly surprised, she held it up and showed it to Justin, who extended the burlap sack. They quickly yanked one tooth after the next. Less than an hour later, they had completed their task and began the process of putting the heads back in the grave and covering them back up.

Having replaced everything as satisfactorily as possible given their time restraints, they headed to the stables. Justin was carefully explaining the way to Athens to Amia as they saddled up Sampson.

"I found a bag of some hard tack and a couple of canteens of water. It will be enough if you eat sparingly. If you get enough money from the teeth, there's plenty of food in Athens. Just remember, it's a day and a half ride out there and a day and a half back. You'll need to conserve the water; it won't go very far. Sampson is good at finding water if you give him a little freedom out in the open fields."