Andy Montajes

This excerpt is a longer than any other I’ve written. It seems they are gradually getting more and more out of hand each time I sit to write one.

I’ve recently opened up a few avenues in my world that have let me explore new pathways and interesting ideas. Originally, I wanted a world filled only with humans. With lots of magic and creatures, but only humans as the primary source of civilisation.

When I changed my mind about this decision, I found that it was like the breaking of a dam. Ideas came flooding and I found myself loving the new world I’d wrought. It was a beautiful opening, utterly freeing.

This excerpt being the result.

Please remember that all original writing published here is protected under copyright by virtue of authorship.

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“I am meeting with the Av’i male, after receiving a correspondence inquiring about a particularly vintage Thylian Valley wine. His name is Treol, and he requested to see a sample of the product I had advertised through various northern inns and bars. I will keep Innkeeper Willem in the forefront of my mind for any future royalty due to this whole matter. 

I brought, admittedly, a lesser quality wine than requested, only because I supposed their primitive avian tongues would never taste such a difference. Nor do I think they can remember the taste of a wine from such a time as over a month ago. With their bird brains and such… But I digress. We were to meet on the northern most peninsula of Tyth, Merchant Juris had thankfully installed a manned road wide enough for a horse and carriage. Even for him, the toll charge was steep! I’d found some unlikely soldiers that still maintained some gleam to their eyes and hired them. For you see, my real goal was to fulfil the bounty of a Professor Folm, which was as follows:

As a collector of mystical specimen myself, I found this offer and the aligning correspondence with the Av’i so very intriguing. On the one hand, my investors are dying to stake a claim into the lands of the Floating Islands, to trade with the Av’i (it is a high honour to them). But! A grander part of me wanted to have framed specimen of my own. 500 gold pieces was enough to double my venture throughout Yorne, and maybe even enough to connect with a certain merchant from Limos. It would not stop there because I knew at least half a dozen men who would line out my door to buy a feathered limb of an Av’i, and one who might even try to eat it! As for the wings, I would simply keep them. If I ever got bored I could always wear them myself! So here I write my aspirations, at the very end of this journey to the north. 

My first wife always said I could never wait until after to spout my victories, I was the historian of the things still dreamt. And so I am. My carriage slows, I must dry my inks for this will certainly be messy work.”

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“I send to you, Father, the last written words of Merchant Pan are attached to my companion and younger brother Breol. If you are reading this correspondence first, I implore you to explore these words ahead of mine. 

To speak plainly, I was positioned to defend myself against five soldier men, dressed to appear stately, and against the merchant himself. I was immediately wary of the number of folk present for a simple sample of product. I was brought a full chalice, of a wine that smelled completely different than the one I’d requested. It was shallow and sour, and as soon it lapped my beak, I found the taste bitter and spat egregiously. This was most definitely what set the men off, but I was already hazy from the concoction they had presented me. My vision was doubling, tripling, dizzy. I could not breathe clearly. In my panic, I punctured the man on my right when I grasped at his neck. I was very soon covered in his blood. The other men drew blades and in my recovery I found myself back to back with Breol, fending off the attack. We scored two more through their leather armour, for we found their craftsmanship lacking. The remaining two were now fearful and wary, staying only to protect their merchant buyer. In a moment of weakness, I used my flight to gain purchase at their scalps, while Breol sustained an injury to the leg. This is the reason his flight was delayed. I flew into a rage and did not capture the merchant but murdered him.

I am sorry, Father. I know our customs, but this man did not even know our treatises. He was a greedy soul in the form of a primitive human and did not deserve even the air he used. I gouged his eyes out and castrated him there, as befits a betraying enemy. His final words a mix of pleas for mercy and demands that I ‘Let him go!’ or ‘Put me down!’

So, of course I dropped him down the peninsula and surveyed his broken vessel of bones with my own eyes. The man will never again attack the Av’i, or lead his fellow human into the temptations of greed. I still have work to attend to in Yorne, and now must find yet another merchant for the insipid Festival. Please send Breol back to me, once he is on the mend.”

— Letter from Prince Treol to King Aeol of the Av’i. Attached separately the last written words of the perpetrator within a journal titled ‘Biography of Lord Pan’

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This excerpt I took on a new challenge, with writing from opposing perspectives. I wanted an interesting introduction to this species called the Av’i. And how better to show their alienating bird features than from the eyes of someone who viewed them as nothing more than a fascination. As somehting that belonged framed on a wall or cased in a museum. Not a creature to trust and do business with. Or to even respect as intelligent.

I also have a fascination with horror, but not so much the horror genre. I enjoy when writings can get a little horrifying, but the constant state of fear and seriousness does tend to bore me from the genre. I like to use it to bring more gravity to a scene, and not just for its own sake.

P.S. I took some time to edit my website recently, the dark aesthetic felt a little claustrophobic after a while. The other thing I’ve done is change the formatting of my posts. The itallics in the quote function were getting sore on the eyes so I’ve switched it out for a more seemless distinction of separators. If you’re reading this through WordPress Reader then I doubt it will matter either way.