A Song of Stars

Nine

Hickory dickory dock,
The machine became a hawk.
Fiddlers were struck down,
All knew but one.
Hickory dickory dock.

"Hm, how one more right about here?" Adam asked himself while scribbling down music notes. He wanted it all to be precise. He put down his notebook and brought his keyboard to his lap. Soon, the room came to life with music and magic as the items in his room danced around in the air.

He laughed and sang a rhyme with joy while he worked his magic on the piano. The room and the atmosphere became lighter in its own sort of way, and for the first time in a while, Adam was happy. The war was over, construction on Nod was practically finished, he was no longer working on any intense rhymes for Boggen or Mother Goose, and the fate of the Magicians was finally bright and beautiful.

Adam firmly believed that all was right now. He was still slightly concerned for the rabbit, but Mother Goose and Boggen knew what they were doing. Right?

He breathed out as he played the final note and the song finished. Objects started floating back down peacefully and placing themselves in an organized fashion. He got up and carefully placed the keyboard under the bed so that it would be safe and out of sight. A Fiddler playing the piano was a ridiculous concept, especially a Magician.

Adam took a glance at the clock and decided to head out. He needed to check out the new home he was supposed to be moving into anyways. He made his way down the cobblestone path that winded through the towering buildings. Once and a while, he would wave at the friendly faces of other Magicians. At some point, he came across some other Magicians that he remembered meeting back at the Crooked House, but he couldn't exactly recall their names. All he knew about them is that one used to play the ukulele in their past life while the other used to play the drums and trumpet. What a duo they were.

He looked up at the orange sky overhead and the shining star of Nod. Even though it was a bit odd that the day sky was orange, he thought it was wonderful in its own way. Like if the sky could be orange, anything could be possible.

Suddenly there was a loud screech that pulled Adam away from his daydreaming. It sounded a lot like a bird, but it had a horrible metallic chime to it. He quickly swerved around to look at the source of the sound. No matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find it. Then the sound came again followed by high pitched screaming. He took off running to once again and try to find the source, only to be soon met with feathers and blood that were littering the ground by the body of a man.

He frantically looked around to possibly get a glance of whatever it was that had spilled this man's blood. As far as Adam knew, this was no accident. He felt a presence loom around and immediately placed his hand over his pouch. "Sh-show yourself!" Adam shakily yelled into nothing. No one was around but he didn't believe that for a second. He looked over at the man and then heard the screech once again that was once again followed by screaming.

Adam scanned every single one of his surroundings until he saw something at the top of his eye. Soaring up in the brilliant daylight was a bird of prey. He couldn't exactly tell what exact species it was, but he was able to see that it was an animachine. It's mechanical parts glistened beautifully in the Noddian sun. It was a quite a sight to be seen with all of its bells and whistles, but that wasn't what Adam was focused on. He was focused on its blood stained feathers and the crazed look in the bird's eyes.

He watched as the bird screeched and dove for something. Adam knew what that something was and immediately tore off running in the direction it went in. He ran past many people on the streets as they just stared at the blood and random bodies that were starting to cover their brand new cobblestone paths. They couldn't start to comprehend what was happening, and neither could Adam. All he knew is that he had to run and try to stop that bird.

All of that running turned out to be in vain as stopped to a screeching halt in front of a child and their mother. He quickly covered his mouth and backed off while shaking his head. He couldn't believe what was happening. Blood was being shed at the hand, or rather, talons, of animachines.

He started accidentally bumping into people that were crowding around as he backed off. He couldn't seem to get his mind to wrap around the fact that an animachine was the cause of this grief. An animachine! He thought, this, this was not their purpose! They, they promised that they were going to fix it.

A couple of Boggen's guards came to collect the bodies that were in front of the crowd and left like nothing had happened. Adam watched as they left in disgust. He wanted to chase them down and get mad at them for just coming and collecting the bodies like it was some everyday thing, but the sound of screeching overhead is what kept his feet glued to their spot.

The entire crowd watched as the bird started to dive for them. Some ran while others were too scared to move. Before everyone knew it, the bird was shot out of the air and quickly fell to the ground to meet its demise. Adam watched as the mechanics on the bird sparked and glitched. He slowly tried to approach but was soon pulled back by guards as other guards went to collect the lifeless thing. Havoc in Owl City had finally ended, but that didn't stop the grief that the Magicians felt that day.

Days passed and Adam had tried several times to get an explanation out of Boggen about what happened, but Boggen passed it off as if it was no big deal every time. Adam wasn't sure on what was happening, but he knew one thing for certain. Things were changing and he didn't want to be apart of it anymore.