Fandom: Temeraire
Rating: G
Word Count:: 589
Notes: zOMG, I wrote Temeraire-verse. Warnings for OC's, lack of canon characters, questionable Quechua. Temeraire-verse is not mine, it belongs to naominovik.


Pilpintu paced fron one end of the landing field to the other. Her elders insisted that she conserve her energy for making her rounds, but she didn't feel as nervous this way. She muttered the little tricks she'd learned to help remember things. She'd pause her reciting and pacing to scan the sky. She found nothing, so she went back to reciting and pacing. After a while, she'd stop again and look up, then find nothing and go back to reciting and pacing again.

She didn't care to count how many times this went on until she saw a dark speck in the sky, circling once and then growing larger. The sound of conch shells confirmed it: there would be a relay stop here. Pilpintu waited to see which of her fellow couriers was arriving. Wings dotted with green and yellow, like a leaf starting to wilt: Phawaq.

Pilpintu moved to the side of the field farthest from where Phawaq had landed, taking care with the herders that had appeared with fresh-shorn llama. It'd be easy enough to take a llama for herself, but they were for the arriving courier's refreshment. If Phawaq was in a good mood, perhaps he'd share.

Phawaq munched on llama while the herders removed the quipu from his foreleg. The quipu didn't look very complex, so the message would be easy enough to remember. Pilpintu made her way towards Phawaq, still eating, and the herders, who were arranging the quipu so it could be read properly.

Phawaq finished the llama he was working on and turned to Pilpintu. "You look worried," he said. "I don't think you should be. If you like, I could just continue on with the message until the next station, and--"

"No, you don't need to do that." Pilpintu wanted to snatch the quipu and fly, but she knew it'd be foolish without hearing the message first. "Tell me what I need to recite."

Phawaq put a talon on the quipu and moved towards the first knot, working his way down each strand and reading. "This is a tally of the births from Chinchasuyu over the last year. Nine from the house in..." He paused in between each house's tally, making sure Pilpintu had a good look at its proper strand on the quipu. Pilpintu muttered the numbers to herself while Phawaq went on, until she found herself the only one speaking. He was done. "Did you get all that?"

Pilpintu took a breath. She placed her talon on the first cord. "A tally of the births from Chinchasuyu over the last year. Nine from..." She tried not to stumble or pause in her recitation. Phawaq kept quiet until she had finished.

"Perhaps if you said it faster, next time," he said. He didn't complete the thought.

"I'll have the time to learn it while I'm going to the next station." Pilpintu kept her wings from snapping open and from having her talons grind into the ground. "And there are readers who are expecting this tally and will help me if there are any errors." She placed her foreleg on the quipu and spread her wings. At the signal, the herders appeared again. They tied the quipu to her leg. She stamped a few times to make sure the quipu stayed tied.

Pilpintu turned from the herders and Phawaq and took a running start. A few wingbeats and she was aloft, the station and fading sounds of conch shells behind her, the station at the Old Peak ahead of her.