Jach

Bare feet are seen walking along a branch, and the branch is bending as they go further out. Feet reach the edge of the screen and stop.

VO: Sounds can make or break a game. Take a branch, for example. You can see it, touch it, know that it is a branch. But you do not know how strong it is until you step out into it. In silence, it is simply another part of the game that you have to traverse. Nothing really special. But, when you add in the creaks and groans of the timber struggling under your weight, you suddenly feel very vulnerable indeed as you edge out further. Is it going to break? Or hold? The creaking and cracking suggest not, until with a splintering--

The branch that was bending suddenly breaks and the person standing on it falls away, along with the branch.

VO: The branch breaks.

(Transitions into ->)

Jach's room

Jach has his head on his arms, staring at his laptop screen, watching a video for college. It's about sound design in games, something he's interested in but right now is kinda bored from it. One of the crows his mother looks after flew in and landed on his head, which startled him and he flapped it away.

Jach: Heck off.

He paused the video and caught the crow, then took it to the aviary room. He was greeted with a chorus of bird chatter. He put the crow back in a cage and made sure it was locked.

Jach: No escaping now, Sika.

He turned to the rest of the room.

Jach: I'll feed you all in a bit.

He exited and went to the kitchen to find himself food. When there, he grabbed a plate then spotted a note on the table. It was from his mother asking him to clean out Gecko's cage.

Aviary room

He was now cleaning out the cage, the frogmouth owl, Gecko, watching him from a pet carrier. His laptop was on a counter with his friends, Eisg and Terri, on call. They were discussing what was going to happen for tomorrow's DnD session.

Eisg: Sure I can't give mine wings?

Terri: He's a kobold, Eisg. I only allowed Jach's one wings because he can't fly using them and he's a dragonborn.

Eisg: Astrid's got wings and she's a barbarian.

Terri: Yeah well, I couldn't really stop her because she was DM then.

Jach dumped soiled paper into a bucket.

Jach: You are quite sure kobold's can't have wings?

 Terri: Fiiiine.

The boys high fived the screen with a grin. Jach went back to cleaning out the cage.

Terri: Who are you playing tomorrow, Jach?

Jach, from within the cage: Probably my dragonborn.

Terri: A barbarian could be useful cause, you know, we're facing a lot of enemies.

Jach shook his head.

Terri: Ishmael it is then. I promise not to yeet you through a doorway this time round.

Terri took notes in a battered notebook and Jach finished laying fresh paper in the cage and took Gecko from the carrier. The owl opened it's beak wide. He held it up to the laptop camera.

Jach: You'd better, or Gecko will swallow your Kenu whole.

Gecko shut his beak with a snap and Jach returned him to the cage.

Jach: See you tomorrow.

Jach's kitchen

In the morning, Jach went into the kitchen and found Val there, getting toast.

Jach: Morning.

Val waved a butter knife in greeting.

Val: Good morning. Gecko's already spilled water everywhere.

Jach groaned as he was pulling on his coat.

Jach: Sika?

Val: Out again earlier. I've put a padlock on his cage.

Jach: He got out last night too.

Val: He's being released soon, so no more trouble then. Also Jach!

Jach stopped as he was opening the front door.

Val: Meeting later. Be sure to be back arooounddd 6, please.

He gave a thumbs up and went outside. He collected his bike from the shed and cycled down to Eisg's house, where Eisg's dad let him in. 

Eisg's room

Surrounded by snacks and notes, laptops open in front of them. Eisg was sketching what his kobold character would look like with wings. Jach was making a slides doc for all the characters. He'd already added Ishmael and was now working on Astrid. Eisg showed him the sketch.

Eisg: Smoll wings? Or lorge wings?

He pointed with his pencil between the two sketches.

Jach: Mmm, smoll wings. Terri is less likely to complain.

Eisg: Aight.

Eisg laid the paper down an took a picture of the sketch.

Eisg: Hey, you sure you don't want to play Astrid? We could really use her smashing stuff up skills.

Jach hesitated before shaking his head. Eisg nodded.

Eisg: If you wanna talk then, I'm here if you need me.

Jach: Thanks, mate.

The Discord ringtone came up on Eisg's laptop.

Eisg: Let's get this started!

He hit the accept button. Terri waved on the screen.

>Fades down through floor with "Six hours later" written on it --

To Jach stretched out on the bed and Eisg sitting on the floor, most of the snacks gone, more notes everywhere and Eisg's laptop now in the corner on charge, still open and still on call. Jach's one was closed. There was quiet music coming from a phone. Terri looked half asleep, Jach was staring at the ceiling and Eisg was reading a comic. A knock on the door and Eisg's mum looked in.

EisgMother: You staying for dinner, Jach?

Jach: Umm, no. I should get back because I have a meeting sometime. Thank you though.

Eisg's mum smiled and closed the door.

Terri: I should go make dinner, actually. See you guys.

She stretched and her chair rolled back. The call ended and Eisg got up to close the laptop. Jach rolled off the bed and put his own laptop into his bag.

Jach: See you tomorrow, I guess?

Eisg: Yeee. Maths?

Jach: Yup.

Eisg: Greaaaat.

Eisg turned the music off.

Eisg: Oh wait, Jach.

Jach backtracked and looked back in the room. Eisg hurried over and handed him a necklace. It was Jach's fenix one.

Jach: Agh, thanks. I must have not clipped it on properly.

He tried to put it on. Eisg wordlessly turned Jach around and fixed it for him.

Jach: Thanks.

He gave Eisg a fistbump then hurried down the stairs, saying goodbye the parents as he left. 

He cycled back, put his bike back and went inside. Dumping his bag in his room and putting the laptop on charge, he then went to find his mother. He found her gently trying to give eyedrops to an owl.

Val: How'd it go?

Jach: My character got thrown into a pit of demons again, but otherwise okay.

Val: Would it be possible if you could make food, Jach?

She tried to put drops in the owl's eye but it moved around too much. She lowered the dropper and she and the owl stared at each other.

Jach: Yeah, sure.

He grabbed a couple of mugs from the shelves and put the kettle on first.

Jach: Sooo, what's this meeting about later?

Val: Oh, an online Emrysian offeren. New one. Hold still would you?

Jach: Please don't say it's got singing.

Jach sat down at the table and held the owl still.

Val: No singing... I hope. There. Thank you.

Val managed to give the owl the eye drops. Jach went and got the tea.

Later. Kitchen

Jach went into the kitchen, laptop in hand, and asked Val which site it was. She pointed to one, dripping washing up water on the keyboard. Jach went to the table, wiping the water off.

Val: You still have Seamus as your tutor?

Jach: Yup. Still trying to convert all the students to Christianity.

Val: How's that going?

Jach: Badly for him.

Jach stared at the loading screen.

Jach: Do you think there could be some truth in it?

Val: In what?

Jach: Christianity. Bible. All that. I mean, the stories had to have started somewhere.

Val sat down at the table with him.

Val: In every story there's a grain of truth. Somewhere, usually hidden very deep down. We'll never know how much of the story is true and how much has been changed and made up over the years. Same with ours. We don't know if Emrys or the fenix is actually real, because all we have to go off are stories from the Middle Ages and the occasional fenix sighting. And the fact that there truly are people who have become dragons, just like what Emrys promises to those who are blessed.

Jach nodded and clicked something on screen. A zoom meeting screen popped up.

Jach: You sure there's no singing?

She gave him a look as the meeting started. 

Later

Jach had gained a mug of hot chocolate by now and was sitting crossed legged on the kitchen chair. Val was tiredly playing with a pen. Everyone in the meeting was chuckling about the last story someone had told.

Maria: So then you can imagine his reaction. Outrage it was. Absolute outrage. But could he do anything? Noooo. I just walked away from there while he was seething. Gods, that made my day.

There were comments of "I bet" and "You go girl" as she finished her story.

Host: Anyone else have anything to add before we end? I see Val and Henry are both slowly passing out.

Val blinked herself awake and sat up. One of the people on screen did the same.

Franky: Well, I saw a fenix a couple of days ago.

There were murmurings of surprise and Jach peered at her over the top of his mug.

Franky: Yeah. It was small. Kinda looked like a dog, but it had a lion mane and feathered wings, I think. I only saw it for a second before it poofed into sparks.

Jach: Where did you see it?

Franky: Poppit Sands. You know the beach opposite Mwnt? Really nice cafe there. Saw it on the rocks as I was walking Tether.

Host: That is incredible. Maybe, if you are blessed, something will come of it.

There was a pause and the host clapped.

Host: As we gather here tonight, we ask you Emrys, to bless us, our families, our friends... And those we have lost. Let us mention their names and hold them in our hearts in this moment, for you, oh once and forever king, to let them know we are still thinking of them. To let them be at peace in whatever form they have taken.

People murmured names. "Mike, Kelly."

Val:  Syver

Jach: Ashley

There was a silence, then the host thanked everyone and the meet ended. Jach stared at the screen as Val got up, then finished his hot chocolate and also got up.

Jach's room

That night, he lay awake for hours. Not quite awake, but enough to not sleep. He thought he saw a fire at the window and went to look. He saw another flare out over the sea and guessed it was the MOD doing something. He quietly left the house and went up to the willow tree, where the best view was. It wasn't often MOD stuff happened here. He settled on a branch and watched as another flare lit up the bay then fizzled out. He thought he could see someone out in the bay. He edged further out, holding onto a branch above him. Def someone down there in a small boat. Were they in trouble? Another flare, this one going high. The person seemed to be waving from the boat. Then there was a crack and the branch he was holding onto snapped away, leaving him suspended in the air for a moment, then he fell. He didn't even have time to scream.