Ah, crap

[Stan]

The Story So Far…
The large carp Kedamono finds himself in a fix when he becomes trapped in the wetlands. It is there that he meets Kayee, a killdeer recently flown in from faraway lands, who strikes up a conversation. They are interrupted by the arrival of the bald eagle Allira and her still-struggling prey, the carp Meer. Meer manages to break free and falls into the water. The eagle soon leaves and conversation is struck once more, but the fish and Kayee are again interrupted by an avian -- this time, the perpetrator is a male killdeer named Flummox. Flummox does this quite magnificently, being smoke-blind from flying over the burning grassland, and crashes into the tree upon which Kayee perches, and furthermore falls into the swampy muck below. Despite his adventures, Flummox is unhurt. The arrivals of Khan the yellow-headed blackbird above the water and Tsho the snakehead below promise further furor in the swamp.
Original Thread

Last Two Posts:
"The giant fish are quite friendly, actually," Kayee said with calm dignity. It wasn't the most amiable things to say, but she wasn't going to let Flummox insult Kedamono when he didn't even know the carp. The fish had been perfectly pleasant to her during their little chat; much more pleasant than the eagle, maybe even more so than the other killdeer. Of course, Flummox probably had just been making an off-hand comment, not even thinking of the fish as a person, in which case Kayee was just being touchy. Again. All of the splashing about the fish was doing didn't seem particularly healthy, though, and she was getting worried that the carp would eschew all contact with birds after all of the times he had been startled. Not to mention his new friend, dropped by the eagle- it couldn't be doing too well. In fact, she would quite like to check on the duo, but for the fact that she wasn't going to make herself appear even more insane to Flummox by talking to fish.
:She would check on the carp later- for now, she would focus on her fellow killdeer. She cleared her throat, about to move on as if she hadn't said anything at all, when movement caught her eye. Her head twisted around, feathers slicking down, posture straightening, and wings half-opening as she prepared herself for flight, worried that it was the eagle come back for vengeance (but no, the eagle was circling some way off) or some other predator out for supper (there had been enough flopping and flapping to draw the whole swamp). Upon seeing that the other bird was only a blackbird, however, she settled down- although she couldn't tell if it was aggressive in its approach, she doubted she had to worry.
:Kayee was relieved to see the blackbird calmly alight upon a nearby cattail; deciding to meet civility with civility, she bobbed her head at the other bird and addressed him with: "Hello there."
:She never claimed to be a conversationalist. At least she hadn't started aggravating this new fellow yet. Of course, if she wanted to make friends, it would be most intelligent to do so with the only member of her species and of the opposite sex she had so far met...:

[Stan]

___Flummox raised a brow - or whatever equivalent a bird has to a brow - in a sort of mixed amusement and skepticism at Kayee’s comment regarding the carp. From what he could see, they were spending all of their time flopping around making themselves a perfectly good meal candidate. He couldn’t really conceive something so stupid being pleasant or friendly; like most dumb animals, such as wolves and horses, he saw these fish as lacking in personality and primarily aimless and purposeless in the broad scheme of things. ((avescentric, much?)) However, he wasn’t about to argue with the only female of his species in a god-only-knows-how-many-mile radius, so he elected to just remain silent on the issue. Of course, that didn’t help generate conversation matter… Hm.
___ Presently, Kayee looked ready to say something, or was perhaps looking for him to do such, and Flummox pondered what new way he could make a fool of himself in front of her. However, a flutter of movement nearly sent her into flight. Alarmed perhaps more by her apparent nervousness than the actual movement, for she struck him as calm and collected, the killdeer hopped free of the branch with a loud alarm call. However, he did not find his new companion at his side, and made a sharp turn in the air to double back, this time landing on the branch Kayee was actually on. This of course put him somewhat off kilter for a good landing, and he nearly overshot his mark, claws grappling the bark as forward momentum almost carried him right back off the branch.
___ Embarassed and sheepish from this, he regained proper balance and gave a sharp look around, wanting to find the source of the upset so he could give it a long, hateful glare. The low croak of a corvid preceeded Kayee’s calm greeting, and the male’s head swiveled in the direction of the call. A yellow-headed blackbird, presumably male, was staring at them uneasily, bobbing on the unstable perch of a swaying cattail. Flummox frowned. All things black-bird and relatives thereof tended to be very territorial. Granted such territoriality was mostly directed at their own species, but if this male was nesting, they’d probably be run out.
___"Hullo t'you too m'am!" The bird's voice was raspy and unpleasant. He paused, tilting his saffron pate from side to side and shifting his weight on the stalk. He looked almost uncomfortable, and finally said. "Ah... what nature of birds are yas?"

___"Well, go ahead then. Make some wiseass comment." Kedamono grumbled, peering out from beneath the lily pads facing away from Meer. Meer, however, was not saying anything. She was very still, staring off at something stirring in the murky water a few yards ahead. She recognized the unmistakable smell: snakehead, the bogeyman of her youth. This one still wasn't clearly visible as it advanced snake-like and predatory, but it was easily two feet long. Its big pale mouth, surely brimming with teeth, seemed nearly luminescent against the dark waters and its otherwise dark hide. Back pedalling a bit, the smaller and more brightly colored carp tried to vanish into the dense lily pads behind her.
___Kedamono, on the other hand, seemed oblivious to the danger - or at least not too concerned. He was large enough that the fish probably wouldn't tangle with him, and even if it did he had a good chance of making it out alive. Glancing at the carnivore with a calm, cool eye ((do fish have any other kind of eye?)), he remained motionless in front of retreating Meer, making it obvious to the snakehead that she was not on the menu.
___"I smell injury, carp. Would you deny me a meal that will otherwise be wasted?" Tsho had something dangerous in her glance, sizing up the larger carp and woeing the probable impossibility of making him a meal. The little nine incher behind him, however, was an excellent candidate, and it frustrated her that between the other fish and the dense plant cover, Meer was inaccessible.
___"There aren't any meals around here," Kedamono replied flatly. "Perhaps you should go."

[Kayee]

– Kayee slanted a glance at Flummox, caught between embarrassment that her overzealous alarm had caused his clumsiness or amusement that he’d -- once more -- utterly failed at being graceful. She preened the feathers on her shoulder back into order to hide an irrepressible smirk, and turned back to her fellow avians with her expression in order. The blackbird’s voice rasped what remained of the smirk off her face, replaced by a slight wince -- yet, still, he was polite enough, and curious. Kayee… spoke to fish, and couldn’t help but relate. “We’re killdeer,” she told him, mild, choosing not to judge him for his ignorance -- but distracted. Thinking of the carp, still, even with the birds to distract her.
– She glanced at the swamp, compared it to her mother’s whistling songs of the prairie and sandbars. Not optimal habitat, although it didn’t look too unappealing to her, an urban bird at heart and undiscerning in matters of the wilderness. “I suppose there wouldn’t be many of us around here.”
– More interesting than idle conversation or Flummox’s ungainliness, a sliding shadow beneath the murky water’s surface, a powerful snake’s movement. Kayee cocked her head, stared down with startled round eyes. If it were a snake, it would be more dangerous for her than giant Kedamono -- but that was a very large predator. Very thick for a snake. She hesitated, mantled, settled -- and, finally, launched off the branch to land closer to the water. She kept her grip light, ready to launch at the merest sign of attack. She drew breath to call out to the carp, remembered herself. She looked up at Flummox and the blackbird, not in the least sheepish, and called, “Just one moment, I need to see to something.”
– Not a completely accurate explanation for what she was doing or why, but passable. She turned back to the water, fluttered her wings to catch the attention of the fish -- and the predator, true, but that did not run so far counter to her instincts. She had confidence in her swiftness and her youth, and needed little more to do something foolish. “Kedamono?” she shouted. She followed the shout with a warning call, although she didn’t know if he’d know what she meant by it. “Something’s there!”
– She found the idea of losing her conversational partner when she’d just learned of his sentience -- displeasing. Unacceptable. What other fish would speak with her? Might they not think the same thing of birds as Flummox did of fish? She ruffled her feathers at the thought, and irrevocably set her sights on a real conversation with the fish -- not ‘who are you, why are you talking to me, oh sorry eagle must flee’, but conversation. Perhaps he’d have a different and interesting view of things, down below the water, that such as the blackbird and killdeer above could never tell her of.

[Birds n Fish]

___Khan watched as the male of the small, unfamiliar species made some very clumsy, humiliating attempts to compensate for the startle. It appeared both birds were quite high strung, and perhaps a bit unfamiliar in the present landscape. Made enough sense; he'd never seen their kind about before, nor herd their strange little calls, which seemed foreign and unlike any other creature he'd met locally - not like waterfowl, songbird, nor corvid, and they were quite clearly not raptors of any sort. Thus he was pleased when the more composed female answered his query, though he could detect a hint of agitation or perhaps indignation in her words. She redeemed herself with a comment about the rarity of her species in the area before he could remind her of that very detail.
___Chuckling, the blackbird flitted a bit closer, landing this time on a branch protruding from a fallen log that lay mired in mud, as though the dying tree had reached to the heavens for salvation in its dying moments. A sunning turtle sluggishly slid off of the log's damp surface and into the water, apathetically enough to show that he probably didn't feel legitimately endangered but was still somehow driven to exit just in case. Khan considered the turtle for a moment then redirected his attention to the pair of newcomers.
___"Ah, I guess not eh? First 'uns I've seen 'round this part, that's f'sure." He tilted the golden cap of his head towards, scratching furiously behind the hole of his ear with one scaly black foot. Lice, bleh. He'd have to make a trip inland to dust bathe in the fresh ash later; who said fire couldn't be beneficial to wildlife? He was about to inform the two about this valuable knowledge when the female suddenly took off, apparently very fickle when it came to conversation. Craning his neck to see what had caught her attention, he saw little else but the still surface of the shallow, murky water. One can imagine his surprise when, after a very professional glance to the other two birds, she suddenly addressed the swamp.
___"Oh darlin', I don't know what kinda place you-alls come from, but swamps don't talk 'round these parts."
___Flummox shot a pointed glance at the blackbird, who struck him as a bit invasive. He may have made an ample fool of himself since arriving at the swamp - and indeed, he was cleaning some of the muddy evidence of his failings from his chest as his gaze followed Kayee - but from his vantage point he could see that something below the surface had caught the bird's attention. He was hoping she was merely investigating, but ah - no. Back to that silly chatting with fish business, apparently.
___"She's not an idiot, mate; she's talking to a fish, not the swamp." Khan's feathers flared until he was a bumble-bee puff ball of a bird, and he let out a loud, rasping laugh.
___"An' talkin' to fish is supposed to be evidence of -?"
___"I know," a peculiar voice, preceded by the soft wet sound of something breaking water, cut the blackbird off mid sentence. "It's ah - a lot like what an eagle might mean to you, but underwater." He anticipated that "snakehead" would probably just confuse the bird, and why not? It was a stupid nomenclature, eliciting images of a large, detached serpent's head. Though, the fish was a more frightening harbringer of doom any day, in his opinion. Ducking his muzzle back under the surface, Kedamono glared at Tsho, who had rolled somewhat sideways to angle her eyes to the sky above. Rotating her large, glassy orbs back to the carp, she couldn't mask her surprise.
___"What on earth was that?" She asked, the thought of getting a meal suddenly a little less interesting. As a large, intelligent predatory fish, this odd bit of interspecies communication was most intriguing. She was glad she wasn't a smaller fish, for she may have spooked and missed the exchange altogether.

[Kayee]

– Kayee shoulders hunched at Khan’s mockery; the killdeer reminded herself that he proved himself ignorant with his doubt -- at least, he did if Kedamono replied, which was not exactly guaranteed. Flummox defended her, at least -- but doubtless not from compassion. She watched the water even more closely, with her dignity on the line -- and heaved a sigh of relief when the carp’s blunt muzzle emerged from the water. She consoled herself with the thought that she’d not hung all of her emotional investment for his appearance on the hook of her pride -- she was glad to see he wasn’t in enough danger to fear taking time to speak to her.
– Dignity momentarily lost its currency in light of the information he offered -- an underwater eagle? Those existed? An astonishing idea, for sure, although she supposed this creature -- distorted though its image -- looked large enough to qualify. More importantly, did Kedamono understand that the eagle had posed no real threat to her -- would not unless hungry? Did he indicate as such? Or did he simply mean the predator was large and dangerous? Not that Kayee could do anything if the carp faced off against some sort of eaglefish, but it would ease her mind to know for sure whether or not she’d lost her one-time conversation partner to the vagaries of Nature and Chance. Kayee well knew both of those elementary forces were cons and tricksters such as no cuckoo could mimic.
– Blast -- the fish submerged before she could ask a single question. The killdeer jigged on her perch, foot to foot, cross with Kedamono and worried for him. Finally, with a snort of exasperation for aquatic creatures and the worry she’d brought upon herself for taking interest in them, she turned her attention back to more conventional companions. She looked up at Khan and Flummox, gave the former a significant look. Careful to keep her attention clearly on Khan, not the male killdeer, with her voice dry and the sting of blackbird’s scorn still fresh, Kayee noted, “The fish can make quite good conversation, actually -- which is more than can be said for some birds I’ve met.”
– Not the wisest thing to say -- but Kayee didn’t even fancy herself wise. All the same, she hoped Flummox wouldn’t take offense; he’d been naught but an amusing companion -- despite her self-admitted eccentricity-- and he didn’t deserve her ire… at the moment. She settled her wings across her back and turned her attention back to the water, still aware of the predator which lurked beneath, and hopeful that Kedamono might return.

[Fish and Chirps]

((Do I win for worst pun in "Name" box??))

___Kedamono could only be pleased when the birds caught Tsho's attention. He'd only had one other run-in with a snakehead before and that one had not been remotely communicative - it was essentially a large mass of ornately maked toothed death, devouring all of the yearling carp it could wrap its jaws around before becoming full. The fact that Tsho could be engaged otherwise gave him a glimmer of hope for both he and Meer escaping unscathed - though he wasn't entirely sure why exactly he concerned about the other carp when he could have taken off and hidden safely himself by now. Loneliness was a likely culprit; for all of the criticisms against carp, you would be very hard pressed to find a more social and loyal fish.
___"That was a bird - one that's clever enough to communicate with fish. You should have a look, I'd imagine she's a rarity." It was an overt attempt to direct the creature's activity elsewhere, and Tsho understood this, but the temptation to learn more was admittedly great.
___"What kind of bird is it?" she asked. Surely not a duck, she hoped; she'd taken out a few hatchlings in her day and imagined that such a bird would be utterly unwilling to interact with her in light of this. Kedamono, however, could not volunteer much information on the subject - he knew a few species that were pertinent to his kind - eagles, herons, and other predators - but that aside regarded birds as most fish did: fast moving, blurry shapes that moved across the sky or periodically stopped in the shallows to drink or bathe.
___"I doubt you'd recognize it even if I did know. What business with birds have you ever had outside of maybe picking off merganser hatchlings?" The carp's words had ample vengeance and a little truth: Close, though Tsho, about the hatchling comment. However, more than truth she found a challenge in his words, because they automatically implied a lack of life experience at best or stupidity at worst. Having been accused of the former in particular due to her stint in captivity, the snakehead wanted to prove the opposite - well, that, and she was very curious to learn more about these talking birds.
___"Don't be too certain - unlike you, bottom-dweller, my kind has traversed land." She swam in the direction of a submerged log - the same, incidentally, as the one Khan was presently perching. Sidling up its algae-slick sides, she inched her way up towards the surface, wide head and broad, terrible mouth emerging first. Peering directly upwards, she saw the underside of a large black bird with a stark yellow head. She did not know the name of the species, but Kedamono apparently' didn't either. Thus, resubmerging, she looked over in the carp's direction and gave a snort that sent a small stream of bubbles from her nostrils.
___"It's a yellow-headed black bird. Haven't you seen one before?" Humorously enough, she was right on the money with the species even though she was giving a description. Apparently, humans had been equally uncreative in naming the animal.

___If Kayee were aiming to insult Khan, she was going after the wrong animal; the bird was epically condescending and arrogant and wasn't bout to feel bruised by the off hand comment of some other species. Instead, he just gave a shark, rasping laugh, itched furiously again for lice, then replied,
___"That makes two of us, darlin'."
___While Flummox understood that the comment was being aimed at the blackbird, he still felt a little chastened. After all, though he'd defended her against Khan's remark, he had indeed severely doubted the talking fish story, yet sure enough - some behemoth of a fish had indeed spoken to the other killdeer. And as was apparent from the fact that she'd left a conversation with two birds, including one of her own species, to go speak with the fish, he apparently fit into the category of being a less formidable discussion partner. Hunkering down on the branch a little bit but otherwise attempting to look unphased, he caught the motion of a large, dark shadow moving in Khan's direction below the water. The fish that clumsily scaled the log, poking it's head from the water, was one of the most massive and hideous creatures he'd ever seen. Was this Kayee's fish? If so, he fancied himself to be at least more handsome, if not better in conversation.

[Kayee]

Kayee bristled with indignation as her remark was turned upon her, before a moment of time and a flicker of reason brought the thought that she’d only deserved it. Still, she remained frustrated that she’d not managed to zing Khan. Furthermore, she felt some measure of contrition when her comment seemed to affect Flummox more than the blackbird; but she had done her best to aim her comment to its intended target, and if it had still made the other killdeer react – well, his guilty conscience was his own business. All of it together meant she turned back to the water mute and in a temper, weary of her above-water company and the normalcy they represented. In the way of all dreamers presented with the unknown, she expected nothing less from it than the fantastic.

Hence, her considerable dissatisfaction when Kedamono did not deign to make his next appearance in a timely manner. She huffed and half-spread her wings in preparation for rejoining Flummox – who was perhaps acceptable company after all, in the absence of others – when she caught sight of his attention turned elsewhere, almost towards the blackbird, but… not. Kayee followed his line of sight and startled when she saw the strange head protruding from the water. After having gotten a look at its giant grimace of a mouth, Kayee didn’t doubt its predatory nature; after watching it awkwardly crawl off the log, however, she doubted its ability to hunt her.

In a flash of wings she made the short flight from her perch to Khan’s. She landed precariously close to the water, but estimated that she could escape before the eagle-fish could snatch her. Without the least idea that he might be aggressive, she ignored the blackbird in favor of eyeing the water and the shadows beneath it; although the predatory fish hadn’t spoken, she had hopes that it might reemerge and talk: but would Kedamono be offended by such? It seemed awkward to chat with predator and prey both, and Kayee had never before encountered such a situation. Then again, both fish seemed more interested in investigating the birds than eating or being eaten, which was the perfect situation in the killdeer’s estimate.

She didn’t have the patience to watch the water in silence for long, however; thus, she tossed a glance over her shoulder at Flummox and observed, “I might prefer birds after all, if the fish keep on ducking out of the conversation like this.”

[Carp and Birds]

((Again, done in a rush at school so forgive the typos))

___Tsho flailed and hunkered down into the mud instinctively as Kayee flew overhead, landing on the edge of the branch and peering into the water. Though logic dictated that this bird was much to small to cause her harm, and indeed would be a good size for potential prey were she water-bound, Tsho's most primitive workings could not differentiate between the wingbeats of an eagle, egret, or evening grosbeak. She did not like that her reactivity probably made her seem as flighty and pea-brained as newly hatched guppy fry, but Kedamono's reaction had been similar despite personally knowing the bird. Once they had both settled, their uncommon conversation proceeded as though nothing had happened, with neither taking jabs at the other's apparent nervousness.
___"I did not," said Kedamono a bit haughtily, "mean the black bird. I meant the one that just flew down." He paused, one wide, flat eye rolling skywards and jerking back and fourth for a moment. "At least I think. There's two of them and they all look about the same."
___"Everything that's not a fish all look about the same," Tsho sympathised, never understanding how things like swans in particular could tell one another apart; at least wood ducks seemed to come in more than one variety.
___"Are you two going to explain plesantries all day?" said Meer, her voice a ways off and obscured by the passage of sound through the thick and murky water densely planted with reeds. While the carp and snakehead had been conversing, she'd wiggled her way further back into the protection of the plants and shallows, though only the former really helped her case with a snakehead. It was not a comfortable place to be; she didn't think bear hunted in still water, and doubted an eagle could swoop with such a dense carpet of cattails and reeds all around, but resting in such shallow water made her deeply concerned. It tapped into some dormant instinct that quietly urged her to move to deeper waters before this spot dried up or froze solid, even though both were unlikely ((because The Swamp seems to be trapped in an alternate dimension where it's still warm enough out that this place isn't frozen over, win)).
___Tsho, reminded of her quarry, was disappointed to find that it had moved to an area difficult for her to traverse. She could always attack the larger carp, and at least wound it badly enough that it might die and she could snack on him at leisure, but she had a feeling it would result in a greater expendature of energy and potential for injury than she wished to invest. Resigned to the fate of needing to seek out new prey, she backpedaled slightly with a few slow motions of her fins.
___"I don't think I want to eat you after all; carp are such dirty animals. Brimming with disease and parasites. I'd probably die of whitespot before I finished swallowing." Of course, this was not her true rationale, but it allowed her to maintain face.

___Khan's feathers ruffled until he looked like an angry bumblebee when Kayee very abruptly jumped onto his perch. Yellow headed blackbirds were territorial by nature, and the sudden intrusion was so far beyond the normal behavior of his own species that he wasn't even sure how to react. A surprised squawk, flutter of wings, and a few hops backwards nearly put his tailfeathers in the water as he lost his higher location on the log. His immediate instinct was to peck the female, drive her off. But he suspected her male companion - or at least who she assumed to be her companion - might come to her defense. Pride did not wish to admit that two against one, even when facing a weaker species, were not good odds. But, such was the reality. He stayed where he was, brooding.
___Flummox was momentarily concerned that Khan might attack Kayee, and while she was very tough in speech, he did not doubt the power of the blackbird's sharp beak. Thankfully, the male was taken so off-guard by the intrusion that he merely flailed in a flustered manner down the length of the branch, stopping just short of falling into the water. He looked positively incensed, but did not speak nor act out. The killdeer let out a sigh of relief psychologically and cocked his head towards the water, where ripples on the surface suggested something had just vanished below the surface - large for a frog, but perhaps a turtle. The prospect of land-mobile fish had not occurred to him. Kayee's interest in whatever had ducked below the surface was keen, and he wondered if her curiosity for aquatic life was universal, or focused just on talking fish.
___"That was a fish?" he asked, perplexed by her words. "It was on the log?" He wanted to challenge what seemed like an impossibility, but then, Kayee had just proven himself and Khan incorrect on the matter of fish speech. So, speaking, climbing - what else could they do? Hunt airborne prey? Change genders? Oh, if only he knew.
___At this point Tsho, probably trying to avoid scrutiny from the carp who may or may not have seen through her motives for disinterest, once again poked her blunt, toothy maw from the water. She wanted to see this talking bird Kedamono had indicated, for real. She had to push her face further from the water than she would have liked considering the potential presence of predators, but ultimately decided that the birds were apt to scatter at the sign of danger, giving her ample warning. Flat, round, orbs vacillated to and fro between Kayee and Flummox, and finally the fish demanded,
___"Which one of you is the talking bird?"

[Kayee]

Kayee went still, uncertain how to deal with Khan’s aggression; but when the blackbird failed to attack, she could not suppress the urge to preen in a very self-satisfied manner. That her physical presence could catalyze more of a reaction than verbal mockery struck her as silly, but so long as the abrasive bird was discomfited she couldn’t be bothered about the means. Any worry she might have felt over the bird’s sharp beak disappeared in the smugness wrought of having raised a reaction from him; indeed, Flummox’s concerned expression seemed nonsensical in the light of her own haughtiness and Khan’s failure to act.

The chance to mock Khan more thoroughly for his reaction passed her by, however, when Flummox asked a question. The female turned a somewhat exasperated eye on her compatriot; she’d picked up the perplexity in his tone and didn’t appreciate being questioned again. Flummox refrained from voicing his doubts and thus dodged any real ire from Kayee’s direction; to be fair, she had to admit that she would have ridiculed any bird who told such stories as talking walking fish. In light of that thought, Flummox showed considerable restraint. However, any need Kayee felt to reply and soften the impression left by her glare vanished as the fish made its reappearance and she found herself slightly closer to its tooth-filled maw than she felt comfortable.

Kayee sidled up the log, wiped her beak on one wing in an attempt to make the movement look casual, and meanwhile didn’t pay heed to the fact that she had moved closer to the already-antagonized Khan. If she’d taken the time to think about it, she would have chosen to face Khan in a fight rather than Kedamono’s eagle-fish anyway; the latter seemed capable of swallowing her in one bite. Once a safe distance away, however, curiosity once more overtook wariness, and the killdeer stood with her attention on Tsho and her breath bated in anticipation of the fish’s words.

Alas, those words left something to be desired. Perhaps a less interesting individual would have found themselves shunned for their presumptuous tone. As it was, Kayee merely straightened up with an offended huff. Tone aside, she didn’t like the fish’s assumption that only a single bird could talk. Although she didn’t care much if Khan’s reputation was slandered among the fishes, some vague sense of camaraderie towards Flummox drove her to fluff with indignation, her head cocked and one dark eye trained on the fish in a distinctly unhappy manner. “All birds can speak,” she said, tone stiff. “But it’s me who had a conversation with Kedamono.”