Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 73
what’s going to hatch out of it, but... looks like several things.
Badgers maybe, or skunks? Whatever the morph thought there
was a lack of in this part of the woods."
Of course. She’d been briefed on morphs, she knew
what they were capable of. It was a very different thing to
witness the result.
"They’ll come out full-grown," said Jordan as he backed
away from the clearing.
Thunder crashed directly overhead. Calandria looked out
over the escarpment in time to see a solid-looking wall of rain
coming at them.
"Come on!" she shouted. "It's only a little farther."
Jordan looked at the rain and laughed. "Why hurry?" he
asked. "We’ll be wet in two seconds."
He was right--in moments, her hair was plastered down
on her head, and cold trickles ran down her back. Still,
Calandria hurried them away from the disturbing thing that had
once been a bear. They continued to skirt the top of the
escarpment for a hundred meters, then came out near what
might normally have been a good deer-path down the slope; it
was a torrent of muddy water.
"What’s that?" Jordan pointed. Perhaps two kilometers
away, warm lights shone through the shifting grey of the rain.
"Our destination. Come," she said, and stepped onto the
downward path. Her feet went out from under her, and
Calandria found herself plummeting down the hillside in a
flood.
Jordan watched Calandria May get to her feet at the
bottom of the hill. "I’m soaked!" she shrieked, laughing. It
was the first time he’d heard her laugh in any genuine way.
She was a hundred meters below him, with no obvious