Further Tales From The Machine, or, Here’s Your Damn Squirrel Story Now Piss Off

Having had just about enough, thank you very much, Sally calmly set down her cup of tea and went outside to determine just what the commotion was about.

Her normally unflappable demeanor was all but trampled as a blurred figure bustled past her, screaming at the top of it’s lungs.

She spotted a familiar face across the way, and checking left and right for any further furry explosions of motion, crossed the branch.

“Sammy,” Sally questioned with just the slightest hint of exasperation, “just what the fuck is going on?”

“Brogan is back! The watch alerted us, but until I’d seen him with my own eyes…..” His voice trailed off, replaced by a look of glazed admiration.

“Have the Dray summoned him yet?”

“He went in a few minutes ago.”

Sally instinctively knew where Brogan would go once the Dray had finished with him, and so she scampered higher up the Great Oak to wait for him in a small alcove that provided an unobscured view of the park. The sun had sunk just low enough for a chill to infiltrate the late afternoon air, when a shadow fell across her. It belonged to a scarred, but powerfully built figure, with eyes the colour of dark soil and the remnants of a tail twitching unashamedly behind.

Brogan seemed indifferent to her presence, but as he opened a small door in the rough bark, he turned to look at her.

“Coming?”

The question hung like a ripe acorn and made Sally’s fur bristle, but she nodded and followed Brogan into the dim light of his apartment. He indicated a chair, and she sat down, waiting patiently as he retrieved a small box from a chest of drawers. Brogan rolled with a quiet, confident ease, and soon the sweetly scented smell of smoke began to drift out a window. He offered the joint, and she took it, letting her guard down as the vapour filled her lungs and the tendrils of THC crept up the back of her head.

Sally spoke first. “Seven days.”

“Not equable enough to wait for the reports tomorrow? Yes, I suppose seven days is longer than even I expected. But I thought it would lend a little more…..gravitas….to my story.”

“And the Dray believed you without question?”

“Of course they did! It’s not just the kids who wonder if I’m immortal these days.”

Sally’s gaze once again fell on Brogan’s half-tail. They’d all seen the Talon take him years ago, and his reappearance five days later had firmly entrenched him within clan mythology.

“And they agreed? They are to go into hiding?”

“For their own safety, of course.” Brogan laughed, the tone sharp as a blade. “Tomorrow, everything changes my dearest Sally. Everything changes.”

************

You’re one microscopic cog
in his catastrophic plan
Designed and directed by
his Red Right Hand

~ by tenmiles on November 10, 2006.