The Whisper of the Nightingale

Chapter 29: News from the Capital

Raven and her mercenary uncles ate their dinner, and Hoatzin his nuts, with much merriment. It had been a while since they ate food not cooked by one of them - something none of them excelled in - which put them all in a good mood. Eventually the discussion turned towards the remaining leg of their journey, and Hog started by explaining the situation.

"We are now fairly close to Sky City now, only one last mountain range left and we will reach it. By foot it should take one to two months to cross it, depending on the weather."

"Isn't the spring entrance exams for Sky Academy on the last day of the fifth month of the year?" Dove asked, then added, "that is barely fifty days from now."

"Yes, so it might be a bit tight, if we're unlucky."

"Should we fly then?" asked Emu.

"Excellent idea!" Saltmarsh chipped in before Hog could reply, "the city is at its best from above and the brat still hasn't experienced travelling by Everest Hawks. He'll get teased for being a country bumpkin if we leave it at that."

"Don't involve me in your schemes, Uncle," said Raven in a flat voice, ignoring the offended look Saltmarsh faked with exaggeratedly poor acting, "and I won't get teased for anything."

"We could," Hog ignored them both and answered Emu instead, "but until we know for sure that Raven is given a scholarship, we should save as much money as possible."

"How could this little brat of ours not get a scholarship?" Saltmarsh had already forgotten that he had intended to act offended and happily swung an arm around Raven's shoulders, his free hand rubbing the top of her head wildly.

Barely a second later Hoatzin was in the air, bombarding the mercenary with sharp claws - calling them talons would be incorrect but they were nonetheless very effective.

"Sorry, Tzin." Saltmarsh let go of Raven right away.

The rest of the group was used to this scenario by now so Hog simply raised his voice slightly and continued.

"Since we want to spare the expenses, I suggest we rent a couple of Mountain Steeds and go the last stretch on horseback. What do you think?"

"Well.." Dove started answering the question but Raven zoned out from the conversation; it was important for her to reach Sky City in time for the exams but she didn't really care how she got there. She was confident the mercenaries would solve the details on their own.

Instead Raven focused her attention on the few other conversations being held in the building.

"Darling, why don't we book room with a deluxe bed tonight?" A greasy sounding man urged his companion.

"How bold!" His female answered but her giggles indicated that she was quite pleased with his suggestion.

'Boring.' thought Raven.

"Look at this!" a young voice bellowed out - the man wasn't in fact speaking very loudly, but to Raven, whom was currently focusing most of her attention on listening, the voice was nearly deafening. "I got it last night."

Judging by the movements of the presence belonging to the voice, the man seemed to be showing off something on his shoulder to the person next to him.

"Nice tattoo!" Laughed the latter, just as loudly is the first one, and smacked his friend on the shoulder, drawing out a grunt in pain for hiting the fresh tattoo.

'Insignificant.' This was yet an other conversation that Raven felt little interest in.

"Did you hear about the bandit massacres taking place in Woodland Valley, of Black Talon Prefecture?" said an elderly man on the floor above them. His voice sounded cracked and full of dust.