Balor

By J. L. Young

A bird swooped down and landed next to a yellow-haired Labrador Retriever sitting in the sunlight and tucked his wings to his sides. “Hello, Nacho.”

“Balor. How goes the campaign?”

“I’m advocating in the best interest of the murder and they don’t care. They turn their back feathers to me.”

“So, Oberon is ahead?”

“Like he was last year. They don’t seem to care about accessible food, clean water, or security. They love his personality. If he wins another election, the birds of prey will eat the murder.”

“What is it they want?”

“Calix, she’s always looking for the shiny.”

“That is how you bribe humans, isn’t it?”

“Well, yeah. But it’s all she thinks about. You’re saying I should appeal to that?”

“If it gets her vote,” Nacho replied.

“So, I should appeal to Zya’s ban on extra-pair copulation? That’s ridiculous. We’d go extinct.”

“What about Val? What does she want?”

“Oh, she’s deceitful. She wants to eliminate educating the young about the ones that have done wrong to us. And you want to know something? Oberon will placate them with lies. He’ll make them believe what they want is what he wants, then turn around and do nothing. The status quo remains. Our murder will be no better than the year before.”

“Their beliefs will be hard to change. But it must be done for the sake of the murder.”

“If I fail, Nacho, I’ll be exiled. And I fear for the fledglings. Only I will speak for them.”