[Trade] Dead Ringers

Petrichor couldn't help but stop and stare at the deep green canopy overhead as she walked in Callahan's headstrong wake. Isla Kela had been a distant memory for the smooth raptor, not particularly unpleasant but far enough away that she was uncertain about any welcome home reception she would receive. Her feet trod the forest ground like clockwork, like she had done it a thousand times before, and she probably had done at some point. Callahan was still the one pushing ahead, not having nostalgia to slow her down since she was Pera born and bred. Kela was probably the only place she hadn't been over with a fine tooth and she had decided to rectify this with a trip to its hub, the Dead City. Petrichor had jumped at the chance, not out of any desire to revisit her home but more for the fact that Tar was being left with a trustworthy babysitter and she and Callahan would finally have some time alone.

Callahan had been hesitant to bring her search to Kela, the scope of combing an island as big as Pera when it had taken most of her life to explore even half of it was daunting. Petrichor though, beautiful, bright, brilliant Petrichor had come up with the ideal solution. According to her, an Isla Kela native, most news on the island would pass through the Dead City, the massive urban zone on the east coast. If anyone had been in contact with Dullahan then her best chance of finding them was to ask around the city. Petrichor even had an informant in mind, a busybody of a raptor who was amicable enough with most but constantly had his snout in others' business. He would be their first port of call when they reached the Dead City, apparently he never moved far from his nest in the centre and Petrichor was convinced they would find him there. Callahan tried to hold the flickering hope in her chest like it was a bird grasped in her claws, struggling to break free and sing to the skies about how Dullahan was within reach. With becoming an adoptive mother to Tar and finding love with Petrichor, some part of the fire that drove her to find her twin had seemed to ebb away, making room for the contentment of family life. Now, it had roared back to life with such fervour she was afraid to open her mouth lest flames bellow forth and scorch the world around her. It already had in way, she supposed, she had abandoned Tar to the care of another in favour of her search. If Petrichor had refused to accompany her, would she have left her behind too? She shook her head, shaking the unpleasant thoughts away and continuing along the well-worn path through the trees. 

At the edge of the forest, a verdant green plain stretched out into the distance before clashing directly into a solid mound of grey. Callahan could barely believe her eyes. She had seen centres of human habitats back on Pera, but this was something else entirely, rigid pillars of stone the size and breadth of the volcano back home eclipsed the skyline and threw the fields in front of it into shadow.

"It's impressive, isn't it?" Petrichor asked quietly.

"I've never seen anything like it in my life," Callahan admitted. They both stared for a moment, letting the enormity of the human structures loom overhead like monuments to their dead creators. Petrichor wondered briefly if the humans knew these would still be standing so long after they had died. "Which way are we going?" Callahan interrupted her thoughts abruptly.

"Oh, yes, we enter the city and just walk towards the middle of it for a while, I'll show you the right alleyways to use along the way," she paused, "At least, they were the right alleyways back when I was a child."

"We'll figure it out together," Callahan said without a shred of doubt in her voice, leaving Petrichor to stare in wonder at her back as she began to cross the plains.

When the pair entered the Dead City, Callahan was suddenly made aware of where the name had come from. The tall buildings around them seemed to muffle sound, barely even letting the breeze through the cracks in its maze-like structure. Birds fell silent and only overgrown shrubs rustled as they walked by, hardly able to stir in the stifled air. 

"Must be unbearable in the summer," Callahan noted out loud, but Petrichor already had her head on a swivel and was scanning each alley they passed by. Silence was common in the Dead City but it was always dangerous, the collective population of prey holding their breaths until whatever threat was lurking had moved on. Perhaps they were the threat, she tried to reason to herself to calm her nerves. They were a brand new presence on these streets and every creature within their line of sight was probably evaluating how dangerous they could be. She almost smiled to herself at the thought, wondering if she or her mate would be labelled the most lethal. She stopped suddenly, her nose wrinkling in disgust and alerting Callahan instantly. "What-"

"Do you smell that?" Petrichor asked in a hushed whisper. Callhan sniffed the air, it was faint but Petrichor had always had the better sense of smell between the two of them. A lingering scent of rot began to creep into her periphery and now she was aware of it she couldn't shake it from her nostrils. She was familiar with the foul rotting that occurred whenever the volcanoes on Isla Pera belched forth smoke, like someone had cracked a rotten egg right under your nose. This was different, this was lingering like it was soaked into the concrete, like the rot of death had been here since the city itself was built. It made Callahan's feathers stand on end, bristling against the stench of death as it brushed over her like a grim warning.

"Is this... normal?" she asked, also keeping her voice low. She had her eyes on the alleys too now, noting the small cracks leading to the interiors. Her small body could probably squeeze through to safety, but Petrichor would find it much harder and any escape route that couldn't suit her mate was no route at all.

"It is," the smooth raptor admitted, "I'd just forgotten how bad it was. We shouldn't stay here too long, the gardens are still a long walk away." Callahan was surprised, she hadn't expected their journey to continue for much longer after reaching the city itself but she supposed she hadn't expected it to be this enormous either. 

"Will we make it there before dark?" Petrichor instinctively looked to the sky but frowned as the buildings blocked the sun's position. 

"Probably not, we should find shelter soon," she said, knowing that was why Callahan was asking. Travelling the Dead City was already a dangerous affair, much less travelling through it at night when its more lethal inhabitants emerged from their slumber. She remembered hearing stories from her grandmother about a pitch black Acro with glowing red eyes that stalked the city streets at night, silently closing in on its prey before they even knew she was there. Logically, she knew a dinosaur that big would be impossible to miss, but it didn't stop her child self from having shivering nightmares about long white teeth and red eyes in the dark. Something about that memory spurred her on to find a building with the smallest entrance she could fit through. No harm in preventing a larger predator from sneaking in, not just supernaturally large and quiet Acros from fairytales. 

When she spotted a building with no glass front and a small hole in the corner, she knew they had found their bolthole for the night. She nudged Callahan through the gap first, not wanting her mate to watch her wriggling pathetically through the crack. She felt the harsh concrete scrape her skin and winced as she observed the damage, long and dragging scuff marks along her flanks.

"I'll take you to the beach after all this," Callahan assured her, gently bumping their snouts together. Petrichor huffed and looked back into the dark, searching each corner for any signs of habitation. When nothing revealed itself to her, she let her shoulders slump and felt the tension slowly begin to leak from her muscles. 

"This should be good, we'll find Kaiwi tomorrow. Or he'll find us," she said firmly. Callahan's nose wrinkled.

"Don't phrase it like that," she complained. Still, she followed Petrichor into the corner facing the entrance they had made and tucked herself closely next to her mate's featherless side. As the sun grew weaker, she felt the stone around them growing colder at a frightening rate, like it was incapable of holding onto warmth the way Callahan's favourite sunning rocks did. It only added to her sour perception of the Dead City, knowing that even the stone in this place was an unsatisfying mimicry of better things had her resolve to spend as little time as possible in its labyrinth. Despite the oppressive atmosphere, that fluttering bird of hope still beat its wings against her chest. It would be worth every second in this fetid place if she could find even a scrap of information on her brother. For the first time in a very long time, Dullahan felt within her grasp. She snuggled closer to Petrichor's side, silently thanking whatever fates had brought her mate into her life.