Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 451: Extra Chapter: Saving Mortarion (3K version) (4 chapters in 4K words) (Part )

A large portion of this chapter consists of Mr. Clarks naming dishes(?), but don't worry, no starlings were harmed in this article.

The following is the text.

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When you realize that everyone doesn’t speak the same language but has an urgent need to communicate, you will deeply understand one thing:

Why the Tower of Babel was destroyed and what a profound meaning it implies.

Just like at this moment, when you are a southern European whose mother tongue is Greek, your genetic father can only express a little English and Seres in writing in addition to level 8 dog language, and his brothers either speak the sounds of birds, cats, squirrels or the Seres coastal dialect.

And all these people are still trying to communicate with each other and rush to hold a war meeting.

Felix didn't know why, but he felt a sense of nostalgia in the dense forest by the river, under the seats of the animals. It seemed... like the aftertaste of the thirty-second millennium over Terra.

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When Perturabo began to argue with their eldest brother based on the simple terrain map and stones on the ground, "How to attack this important city-house better? I am the expert!!".

Mr. Corvos Clarks turned his bright yellow round eyes without whites with a slightly scrutinizing look at Felix, who was quietly listening to the Primarch's (?) combat meeting and looking at the topographic map on the ground very seriously.

The starling cleared his throat secretly, then jumped onto the branch opposite Flix and spoke in the clearest possible voice.

"Son of Perturabo, do you understand my words?"

Unfortunately, as a local native bird, Mr. Clarks's current body was initially assigned one more language than his other brothers, but that one was a coastal Aboriginal dialect.

As a southern European, Felix had a hard time understanding the local official language, let alone this dialect with a lot of unique words and pronunciations.

Therefore, to Felix, the former Trident Chief and First Captain of the Fourth Legion, the man opposite him, who was not sure who he was but might be the Primarch of the Nineteenth Legion, opened his beak and uttered a series of chanting syllables to him (PADULABOLAXIAONUEN, NONGATINGDEQINGSUANGWULILEGAIGANGSAWA?).

This string of syllables, when produced through the vibration of the vocal cords of songbirds, sounded so much like the singing of birds that he began to wonder if he had made a mistake. This was not Lord Clarks from the 19th Legion. Could he be the third...? Could it be the ninth...?
Finally, he could only answer cautiously: "I'm sorry, I don't understand, sir. My current physical fitness is just that of a mortal. My body has become weak, and so has my brain. They are not enough to support the enhancement of my learning ability and other abilities."

The father of the Raven Guard sighed in disappointment, but he still remembered what his brother had just said.

"KAPI!" he muttered, shifting his feet on the branch. "KAPI!"

The pronunciation of this phrase strangely overlapped with the letter cards that Felix carried, so the captain of the Iron Warriors immediately understood what the respected Lord Blackbird wanted to say based on the actual situation.

He fished out a stack of cards from his pocket, printed with a Low Gothic-style alphabet, twenty-six in total.

Unfortunately, the native language of Felix's body is somewhat different from this language, and is closer to High Gothic. The Iron Warriors do not know whether there is any additional meaning in it.

But fortunately, his own body still knows some of this second language, so the communication with his genetic father is entirely through the third language that the two understand. The efficiency cannot be said to be completely impossible to communicate, but for His Highness the Shepherd Dog Primarch who actually sneaked out and had to rush back in time, the time was indeed too limited.

Felix laid out the letter cards in order and placed them in front of the starling. The black bird immediately flew down, picked up the first one, and was about to -

Then Clarks froze: Wait, since he can't actually speak the standard official language of Seris, and neither can the other party, then even if he can skillfully spell out the words on the cards, it seems that Flix still can't understand the final words? ! Perturabo! What are your descendants! Why didn't you reincarnate as a local native! ! !
But as soon as Cobos Clarks thought of this problem, he immediately thought of several brothers who lived nearby.

As a winged creature, it is undoubtedly very convenient for him to move and sneak into most places, so he is also one of the people who are sent out the most for reconnaissance, wandering and searching - the range and efficiency of biplane flight are much higher than those of four legs or two legs.

So he knew all the brothers who lived nearby by heart, and knew why they could not attend this small meeting today, and they had to rely on him to deliver the message later.

When Ferrus Manus woke up, he found himself transformed into a bionic mechanical bird developed by the UAV laboratory for special purposes. Even during the flight test, they were closely watched. They could only signal each other from a distance using flashing lights or other methods.

Fulgrim had no worries about food and drink, but there was a problem - as an imported rare star bird, the secretary bird lived in a luxurious large iron cage with houses, trees, lawns and pools. It was obvious that the zoo did not want him to find a loophole and escape.

Vulkan, the tallest among them, was now in a small ring-tailed lizard that could only be taken to the window and looked at them through several layers of glass on days when the weather was just right. God knows, his owner always carefully hid him deep in the house, and it was difficult for them to talk to him. Clarks thought that after rescuing Mortarion, they should take Vulkan away, but considering the temperature and humidity that the lizard needed in this place, it was hard to say that his owner was abusing him. A border collie commented that it sounded more like he was afraid that he would take the wrong step when he entered the door today and let the baby lizard die.

Robert Guilliman was taken to a party by his owner today and therefore could not attend. Clarks hid in a tree opposite his door and witnessed him getting into the car wearing a cute hand-woven little flower crown and a little lace cape. His face was as hopeless as if he was going to be executed. His owner was good in every way except that he loved to dress up his blue cat and take him out to attend parties with ladies who shared the same hobby.
Although Angron couldn't go out today, his owner sent him to a pet daycare before going to work, so the huge Bernese Mountain Dog was now lying in the small garden of the pet hotel, basking in the sun and playing with other puppies while waiting for news from him;

Conrad Coates issued a long statement claiming that he wanted to sleep during the day, and it was not convenient for a long-haired pet cat to go out anyway (Clarks privately suspected that this was his excuse for not wanting to see him, because Coates clearly screamed something like "Why! Why does he have wings! I can also be a bat or a blackbird!" when they first met. Of course, when Coates found that they could communicate even though they didn't speak the same language, he never expressed his opinions so casually again.) Therefore, he did not plan to attend, because his black and white long hair was not only troublesome to wash and blow dry, he couldn't do it himself, and he didn't like the feeling of his fur being wet by water.

...Wait a minute. Cobos Clarks repeatedly tapped the branches with his now-inadequate toes:

Wait a minute, so apart from Jaghatai, Russ, Sanguinius, Horus, and Alpha who have not been found yet or have appeared nearby on their own, there is also Mortarion who urgently needs their rescue. Is it possible that one of their brothers is late for the meeting again?

"Chi-Chia-Chia-Gua-Gua! (Sorry--! I'm late! Where were you talking about?!)"

A hoopoe with its crest spread out broke through the treetops like a meteor and landed next to Clarks with a "pop".

Flix tried to keep a calm face but actually looked at this new, seemingly rash and eye-catching bird with some surprise.

The father of the 19th Legion's greeting to his brother promptly relieved him of his doubts.

"You were only nine minutes late this time. That's quite an improvement, Magnus."

Even though he couldn't understand the other words, he could still understand the pronunciation of "Magnus".

So Felix followed the ancient legion etiquette and saluted to the leader of the Fifteenth Legion.

Then he was bombarded with an excited barrage of bird calls from the hoopoe.

"Chachachachagaer~gugujiguajiji, chachagugu! Chirp--erjiu! Gugugu! Gugu! Gugagagajiji! (Nine minutes? Good! If you enter within ten minutes, you won't be late! I was really fascinated by the ancient university library today, Clarks, you don't know how happy I was when I found that the glass on the top of one of their windows was broken. It was still too conspicuous to enter through the main entrance... The content of that library is really good! Although I still need to consult the dictionary from time to time, I think I will be able to learn and decipher the language rules here soon. It is really profound! - Oh! This is the son mentioned by Perturabo! I just found him recently. Really good, alas, I don't know when I can reunite with my heirs...)"

Clarks shrugged his wings and looked towards Flix.

At this moment, the souls of the Primarch and the Astartes were in sync. They transcended the barriers of identity, race, status, and language, and deeply felt each other's helplessness.

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Meanwhile, the debate over who will be the boss's battle plan is about to turn into a full-scale "primarch showdown".

But fortunately, it ended when Rogal Dorn jumped into the middle with his tail swung, and used his sturdy body to separate the two brothers, one of whom was baring his teeth and ears, and the other was bending his back with his fur standing on end.

"Alright, alright, how about we listen to our brothers' testimony about Mortarion's situation and location again? After all, we don't have a holographic combat map, a flagship auspex array, a Terminator boarding team, or even a reconnaissance servoskull. We should listen to the scouts' detailed explanation again."

"Woof! (Hum!)/(Meow! (Hum!)"

Two sharp eyes suddenly turned to the man and two birds standing aside.

"Oh, Magnus, when did you come? Come stand beside me, how is the library you mentioned last time? / You are late again! Magnus! Sloppy and lacking in discipline! Fortunately, we still have Clarks now, so we don't have to rely on you to do some important things."

The shepherd dog and the Maine Coon cat greeted their fifteenth brother in unison, then looked at each other again, made louder "Mow!" and "Meow!" sounds, and turned their heads away at the same time.

"Uoooo. (Okay.)" Rogal Dorn walked over with his four short legs, and Felix had to use a great deal of self-control to adjust his eyesight and facial muscles, so that he would not show any loss of composure or excessive emotional tendencies towards the current appearance of the Primarch of the Imperial Fists in such a distinguished meeting. "Uooooooa ...

"Of course." Clarks jumped from one branch to another with his tail feathers raised, and the small feather crown in front of his beak opened and closed. Lorgar was still sitting there, holding a freshly dug hickory with his two thin claws and chewing it. It must be said that the action of eating nuts concealed most of his expression and gave him a reason to observe without saying anything.

"Our brother's location is easy to defend but difficult to attack." Clarks began to speak briefly. "His residence is located at the angle between two wide and deep rivers, so there are only two natural directions to enter. Given Mortarion's current size and estimated weight, the option of entering from the air can be ignored. Even with Magnus, the two of us cannot safely get a huge, fluffy brother that looks at least seven pounds out with our thin claws and then put him downstairs. Mortarion, according to my observation, although I can feel that he is our brother, according to my observation, he is most likely not yet through the period of ignorance and does not know who he is. This further increases the instability and insecurity of our rescue."

"Indeed." Dorn agreed. "It's like trying to save a drowning man. If Mortarion doesn't quite understand who he is, he'll struggle in the process. So we don't have to consider the airborne strikes that we used most often before... the rescue method. I must say that I miss my wonderful sons, the Phalanx and the Phalanx Guards at this moment."

"So you didn't try to get closer or jump onto the windowsill of his place and talk to him?" This is the frowning orange-gold Maine. "The humans here may be wary of ravens and crows, but they won't be wary of the size and appearance of a starling."

"Of course I tried, but I couldn't get too close. His owner was so crazy that he turned his house into a... I don't know what kind of person would install wire mesh, iron fences and hang huge glue boards on his house in such a safe and comfortable city. That thing would immediately stick my feathers together and tear them off my wings. So I'm sorry, yes, Lion. I can't get any closer, and Mortarion didn't respond to my attempts."

"...Oh, that sounds true." The Primarchs looked solemn.

"In addition, based on my observation, Mortarion's master, to be honest, I don't really understand what he wants to do. He would take him out and beat him up, and he would also comb his hair and straighten his bones carefully. Several times when Mortarion seemed to be unable to breathe, he would even perform CPR on him seriously."

"Can't catch your breath?" Leon shouted, "How dare this evil man treat our brothers like this!"

"Yeah." Cobos Clarks shrugged his wings again. "From what I understand, as a giant Angora rabbit, it should be this kind of rabbit, right? He can be considered very tough."

(End of this chapter)