A Road Travelled, Anyway

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FOWL FENG IS DEAD! KILLED BY RARELY THERE! LONG LIVE FOWL FENG!

Fowl Feng found himself surrounded by moonlight that faded after a moment until he could barely see. He was walking on a path, but he couldn’t tell where. He stopped and looked behind him. This was not his city. The dirt scar of a road just cut through darkness until it disappeared in the distance. He decided to keep going.

After a short time or a long time, the darkness opened up and he came to a campfire surrounded by a startling collection of individuals. Nearest to him was a man with red skin. You been sitting too close to the fire, thought Fowl Feng. The man chuckled. On the other side of the fire was a big bird of some kind. Feng had seen them at the beach. Not a gull.

“A pelican,” said the bird, and Fowl Feng realized something else was going on.

A third figure, off to one side said in a deep voice, “Come Fowl Feng. We’ve been waiting for you.”

Fowl Feng cringed and his fur stood straight up. He tried to see who was speaking, but the firelight didn’t seem to reach that far. Feng could only get a whiff of something metallic overlaid with the scent of decaying leaves.

He was about to run when a small child sitting next to the red man said, “It’s okay, Feng. You can sit next to me.”

The child had black skin and looked just like any other child, except that from her back two large, green wings arched over her head. She patted the ground next to her and Fowl Feng walked to her and lay down.