The Messengers of Sanctuary

57 - River

River couldn't say he expected there to be flying zombies, he was still reeling at that fact. But ever since realizing that there were several strains running around, he couldn't say he was overly surprised that one was half-bird somehow.

Matthew wasn't very helpful about it, he claimed that the 'hybrid zombies' were pretty rare, so no one knew for sure where they originated from. That fact combined with them being scavengers instead of hunters made most places ignore the odd hybrid.

That being said, River still had to play basketball, he'd been expertly maneuvered into it and backing down now would not only make Jace mad at him, but Silver would also attempt to tan his hide.

So River found himself holding a ball, entirely unsure of the rules, but also not actually caring. Jace seemed to suspect a lack of knowledge on his part, because the kid started to tell him all the rules, what the lines on the floor meant, what hoop he was supposed to throw it into, etcetera.

When they finally played, River was immediately creamed by Matthew, who was far far too fast to be lower in the ranks than a nightstalker. He was relatively weak though, everywhere besides his wings and flight muscles. Which combined probably gave him the ability to lift several adult humans off the ground.

Plus Matthew knew how to play. He used his superior speed to his advantage, grabbing the ball before River could even blink and slamming it into the hoop with a powerful leap.

It was somewhat awkward to watch him dribble, the wing-arm-thing was built very differently from a human hand. But the guy was clearly well versed in the action.

Only a few rounds in, as River was getting the hang of it, Silver appeared, surrounded by what had to be at least six of her children, including a rather confused looking Gloria. Silver was speaking Spanish to them cheerily, pointing at River and explaining something that he didn't quite catch.

At the end of the round, Matthew did some sort of victory dance in the air, landing next to River to examine Silver, "So that's grandma, eh?" He wrinkled his brow, "I didn't realize humans could get that old. But well...She's not very human is she?"

River decided that Matthew's nose was kind of bad. "She's probably the most powerful zombie any of us will ever meet."

Matthew looked intrigued at that, "It's been so long since I've met a new zombie that's not just a regular one, and now there's two new ones!"

River shrugged. He still wanted to know how they had so many sane regular zombies, but he wasn't sure if that was just a branch of the strain in this area. He would ask eventually, probably.

Silver seemed intrigued at the fifteen sane zombies watching the basketball court. She greeted a few by name, grinning at them and giving out free hugs. She skipped over River in that regard, wise since he was kind of miffed at Matthew for being better at basketball than him and probably would have growled at her.

Although Silver was most likely just waiting for him to fail at his deal.

The old woman cheerfully examined Matthew's wings, not heeding the confused look he gave her at her absolutely fearless approach.

"Ah! Wings! Such a useful ability! You can fly, yes?"

Matthew nodded, "Of course, I'm not a penguin."

"And what do you do all day, Matthew?"

He shrugged, glancing at the basketball, "Mostly just sports. People tend to ignore me."

Silver grinned, glancing back at her children who were watching the proceedings anxiously. They probably had no idea what she would do. Not because of unfamiliarity, but because Silver tended to be unpredictable at best.

"Alright kids, I'm taking over, you clearly need the guidance of your grandmother! Honestly, squandering a kid who can fly? Why aren't you using him as a scout?"

The aunts and uncles stood up straighter, "Yes mother! We'll get right on that!" One uncle said loudly. River should really learn their names...

---

The days passed by quickly, leaving River exhausted as task after task came up. Silver decided that those pyros would do best to just join the Viviendo at Wakefield stronghold, and she'd already decided that they would be making a long term alliance with Sanctuary and Ironwind. "Those folks are polite ones! Makes me wish Canada was real!"

To which River had no reply, because Canada was real. Silver was like that sometimes though, when he was fifteen she'd gone an entire month believing him to have been a hallucination the entire time. Nothing really bad, and apparently her mental funky had been worse before being infected, but it never really surprised him after that when she claimed real things were clearly fake or fake things were clearly real. It was just part of Silver's charm.

Most folks gave her odd looks at that part though.

River had to awkwardly explain to the pyros that apparently the Viviendo were his cousins, and his grandmother - a sane zombie who had knocked out a tunneler in one hit - had taken them over, thereby granting the remains of the Horde asylum.

They didn't really believe him about half of it, but they reluctantly packed up their camp and moved into Wakefield, still rather dubious about the entire idea. They weren't attacked though, and everyone seemed to like this solution better anyway.

A few days after that fiasco, the messengers finally arrived, cheerfully (but forcefully) requesting Spanish lessons. River himself had long since secured the plan of self study, deciding that he'd reached his limit for what he could learn via osmosis. Chicory would probably know everyone's names, favorite colors, and hobbies by now, but River could barely recall the faces of everyone who was supposed to be where, and occasionally he had a name to go with it.

The messengers were a lively bunch, their heartfire energy allowing them to help out in all sorts of ways. They wanted to start setting up routes already, but every one of them agreed to wait until Chicory got back first. It would also help them improve their grasp of the languages.

And just like that. Time continued to pass.

------

Vote to Give River some nice words, cause I mean really, he needs more than just 'alright' and 'I will tolerate your presence for the foreseeable future.'