story Chapter 2

[Butchern]

Livingston found the book she needed in about the first fifteen minutes of looking. It was a very simple collection of anatomical drawings of birds. Nothing special, but it would get the job done. As she searched the card catalog, however, and then went to the shelves, she noticed that many of the books on avian anatomy were missing from the library. More than a dozen of them were gone. Perhaps they had been checked out.

~~~

 

With Livingston's early success at hand, Coupard used the time instead to track down a few other leads that had been awaiting a trip to the library. As he perused some journal articles, he found an interesting reference to the Institute Of Geography which lead him to an article entitled “Further Observations Made During a Himalayan Expedition” in the 1816 Annual. The article was published in the back under "Miscellany," which usually held interesting notes, hypotheses, and other sundries that could not be verified by the journal but that would, no doubt, be of interest to the readers. The author of the article, James Bradbury-Finch, reported discovering "an animal of unusual biology" whose organs were "seemingly bound together by fungus." This creature was "avian in form."

In a search for any documentation of the pulsing mineral phenomena, Coupard found nothing useful beyond a reference in a text on geology and folklore. One legend, local to this area, recounted a meteorite with a similar pulsing phosphorescence. By cross-referencing with astronomical reports, Coupard was able to date the meteor shower to within a few months in the year 1798.

 

~~~

 

Malcolm decided to take a more esoteric approach to the problem at hand. He had little luck in turning up the reference works he wished to consult. This was, after all, primarily a scientific library. He did however find a few useful bits of esoterica in his search.

 

Malcolm found a book entitled Creatures of Hypothesis and Fact, which described cults forming around flocks of birds. It wasn't much but it was the best he could come up with in such a short search. There were, however, several such reported cults mentioned in Creatures, and one of them was recorded to have prospered in the swaps to the west of Charleston, SC in the late 1790s. The local newspaper reported that locals claimed that the cult sacrificed their daughters to the birds, who afterwards ate the offered corpse. Malcolm could find no other evidence that such a thing ever happened.

 

In Creatures the page for the Charleston cult was marked with a white slip of paper. On it was written "The Great Cycle" as a title, and for the text: "They travel to the pulse of the wheel and music that turns at the heart of space as they leave and return and leave and return to the beat of the wheel as it turns  as they travel."

 

An hour had passed when the investigators came back together and shared what they had found.

[matt_s]

Coupard returns to the group and quickly runs through the gist of his findings. He adds

 

We ought to be especially careful when we cut open that bird, I would not want any nasty fungal spores to sicken us. We could rustle up the masks we had to wear in that nasty spot of flu in '18 and '19. And given the apparent malevolence and bizarre nature of these creatures, I reckon that blasting away at them with a firearm would be doing ourselves a service in and of itself.

[Sir Lazeabout]

"To be sure, safety first," Malcolm agrees. "As for me, I managed to find some mentions of strange cult-like activity revolving around birds like these. I'm not sure if it's related, but... well, if I have learned anything in my years as a skeptic, it's that people will worship the strangest things. Oddly behaving birds with strange, unearthly properties? It would not strain the imagination to think that they might have given unwholesome ideas to people of simple minds."

 

He briefly explains his findings about South Carolina cults, and shows the others the cryptic note he found in a book.

[Caystodd]

"Livingston nodded in agreement. I have surgical masks, and we will make sure that the room is well ventilated. Even the most opportunistic of spores, however, should not be able to take root inside an otherwise healthy organism. Fascinating."

 

Livingston explained all that she found as well, especially the missing books.

 

"Someone else may have been on the same search as we. I wonder if it was Dr. Broder . . ."

[matt_s]

The missing books are indeed curious. Let us ask the librarian if they know or are willing to tell us anything about their borrower.

 

Coupard will then approach the desk librarian and state,

I and a few of my colleagues are doing some research on avian anatomy. We have acquired a new specimen from one of our associates and are reviewing the relevant literature to ensure we are proceeding with the proper grounding in the state of the art. One of our former colleagues was a Dr. Broder, who sadly passed away not too long ago. If he was the borrower, then perhaps we can inquire with his family regarding their return. He certainly was a man who had a deep reverence for places of knowledge and learning, and would be grateful for the return of the borrowed tomes. If it was someone else, could you perhaps give us a name or a reference? We would like to inquire as to the prospect of cooperation or even just to organize the sharing of the books each of us have borrowed.

 

 

[Butchern]

The Chief Desk Librarian was an elderly woman with a stern face, a tightly buttoned collar, and an even tighter bun at the back of her head. Everyone at the university was familiar with Mrs. Picklesimer. Professors loved her. Students feared her. Everyone respected her.

  

On 10/30/2022 at 2:36 PM, matt_s said:

. . . One of our former colleagues was a Dr. Broder, who sadly passed away not too long ago. If he was the borrower, then perhaps we can inquire with his family regarding their return . . .

"I heard about Dr. Broder . . . may he rest in peace. So sad. He was a gentlemen and a scholar. Regarding the books. I cannot disclose who checked the books out. It is against library policy. But, these are unusual circumstances . . . give me one second, please."

 

Mrs. Picklesimer disappeared into the back office but left the door open. The investigators could see her going through the file box of cards of check-out book. It took her several minutes to make a thorough search before she returned to the desk.

 

"I wish I could be more help, Professor, but rules are rules." She paused dramatically and lowered her voice as she spoke to Coupard. "The books were, indeed, checked out, and they were not checked out by Dr. Broder. That's all I can say."

[matt_s]

I thank you kindly. I understand the importance of the library rules. Academic freedom is more than a slogan after all. I wish you all the best, and I will pass on your best wishes to Broder's family should I see them.

 

and with that, Coupard will rejoin the others. He was not exactly happy that the librarian would not break confidence, but it was a decision he could understand and ultimately respect.

[Caystodd]

Livingston nodded.

 

"That is unfortunate. For two reasons. First, because we have a question without an easy way to get at an answer, and second, because that means there may very well be another investigator at work. Someone else may be on the same track we are. Even if it was a professor who checked out those books, we are only talking weeks, maybe months. This is recent. Someone else is ahead of us on this road."

 

Livingston let her words hang in the air for a minute. "We need to get caught up. Let's go have a look at that bird."

[Butchern]

The investigators retreated from the library and gathered in the small training suite at the back of the biology building where they had stashed the bird corpse. The room was a bit dusty and smelly, but it was well-lit and had everything they needed to perform a basic examination of the bird in relative privacy.

[Sir Lazeabout]

Malcolm stands back to observe the operation with great interest, while trying not to hover so close that he gets in Livingstone's way.

[Caystodd]

Before she began, Livingston handed out surgical masks. Their research had turned up some reference to fungus. The kinds of fungi that grew opportunistically in dead or dying organisms would not be harmful to otherwise healthy adults in a well-ventilated room, but caution was entirely warranted.

 

Livingston stretched the bird's wings out on the metal table and held them down with clamps before she began spreading the feathers with her fingers to make the incision in its torso with her scalpel.

[matt_s]

Coupard watches a brief distance across the room while perched over the books on avian anatomy. He knew Livingston had the dissection well in hand, but Coupard did want to be at the ready in case a diagram needed looking up or there was some other task that needed assistance. Before Coupard is his notebook, and he jots done any interesting observations of his own or comments from his fellow investigators as the necropsy proceeds.

[Butchern]

As Livingston began her examination of the bird, she looked over each of its features and compared them to the anatomy diagrams in the book.

 

From a distance, the creature could easily have been mistaken for a bird. It was big, black, covered in feathers, and had a beak. But upon a closer inspection, it was entirely unclear what this was.

 

None of the feathers looked quite right. They were all different sizes, and under a surgical light, it was clear that the feathers were not of uniform color. Also, the wings did not bend in the places there were supposed to bend, and they were not the shape they were supposed to be. The top half of the beak did not look as though it matched the bottom half, and the eyes did not look like birds' eyes. Livingston was no expert in animal physiology, but the eyes looked much more like a mammal's eyes than the eyes of a bird.

 

As soon as the scalpel pierced the skin of the bird, black goo oozed our around the incision.

[matt_s]

Coupard knew little about avian physiology, but some vestige of academic knowledge and an older, perhaps primal, instinct told him that something here was not right. His vision briefly blurred as he felt faint at the sight of the strangeness before him, and the bitter burning taste of vomit singed his throat as he worked to hold onto his last meal. But Coupard stuck his courage to the sticking point, and he remained focused, taking notes on the dissection.

[Sir Lazeabout]

Malcolm takes a step back, his face turning a shade of green. He tries to speak, but finds that he can't - the shock of that loathsome ichor pouring forth from the corvid's skin has silenced his glib tongue as surely as if it had been sliced clean off.