#mcgard

“Awwww, did an arrow get into your wing?  We can’t have that!”

Polka makes an awkward squawk as Mcgard carefully dismounts, trying not to jostle the cockatigle’s wing.  Then he sets down his spear and examines it.

“Tsk, tsk, it’s pierced all the way through your wing.”

Polka croaks in the back of its throat.  Mcgard bops it on the nose.

“Now, now, stop being overdramatic!  Here.  This’ll only take a moment-”

Crack, yank.  The arrow shaft is out of Polka’s wing before the cockatigle can draw breath to screech.  And then, with the application of a healing potion, there’s nothing but a featherless spot where the wound used to be.

“Better?” asks Mcgard cheerfully.  Polka shuffles its feet and makes a disgruntled croak.  Mcgard laughs.

It was rather rare to see a cockatrigle in the demon world, even in these twilight areas where Elrios and the demon realm sort of collided.  Mcgard paused on his patrol to watch the little creature squawk and stumble about.

Poor thing.  It looked like it had been abandoned, or maybe gotten too adventurous and wandered off.  And now it was going to die.  That seemed awfully pathetic.

Mcgard knelt down and held his hand out to the cockatrigle.  It pecked him harshly, then jumped away with a frightened peep.  He found himself laughing.  Fighting spirit, eh?  He could get behind that.  This little thing didn’t deserve to die alone here.

He scooped it up despite its struggles and tucked it inside his jacket.  The little baby peeped, then snuggled comfortably into him.  Mcgard noticed it had a little almost-perfectly-round dot of white on the back of its neck.

He smiled.

“Alright, you all remember the plan?” Elsword whispers, glancing around his team.  Aisha’s grip on her staff is white-knuckled.  Rena looks relaxed with her bow, an arrow already nocked.  Raven gives a grim nod, Eve checks a screen, and Elesis grins.

“Go get ‘em, lil bro,” she whispers.  Elsword nods and turns back to the demon campsite, preparing his sword, tensing to jump down-

“YOU ABSOLUTE FUCKWAD OF POTIONS AND EXPERIMENTS, I’LL KILL YE, Y’HEAR?”

A loud screech startles Elsword into almost falling.  Raven catches him before he can.

The entire Elgang stares at the scene below, where a freaked-out Glitter is being chased by another armored Glitter and… a cockatigle?  An angry cockatigle, an angry armored Glitter, chasing one of their own.

“What is this?” Rena whispers.  Chloe laughs.

Everyone spins around to face her. Moby flashes forward to attack. Chloe bats the drone away.

“Joaquin!” Mcgard screeches, throwing his lab doors open with a bang. He looks around the lab wildly. “Have you seen Polka anywhere?”

The Greater Glitter Alchemist’s cackle was heard deep within the lab and Mcgard runs in, finding out that his beloved friend is strapped onto a examination table, struggling to be free. “Polka!” He immediately undoes the straps and when he finishes, he turns around and glares at Joaquin. “What is the meaning of this farce?”

Joaquin returns the same glare back at Mcgard and spits at him. “I was going to use your dear Cockatrigle for one of my experiments! It would have worked well if you haven’t barged in here uninvited!”

“Oh shut up! I never gave consent for you to use Polka in the first place!” Mcgard strokes Polka’s ruffled feathers until they are smoothed down. “Even Polka disagrees with your actions!”

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