Apologies if this is in the incorrect spot - I couldn't find a Fiction section.
The first short story in the new TalK Wargaming Series is live! Available to download in epub and mobi
www.talkwargaming.com/2013/08/vociferous-kai-by-josh-reynolds.html
The Vociferous Kai wrote: And the Vociferous Kai was, by all accounts, an unnatural and eldritch being. Found in a long-deserted jungle ruin by explorers who witnessed its wondrous divinity for themselves and duly brought it back so that others might bask in the rapture of Kai, who had purportedly seen civilizations rise and fall, though how anybody knew that to be the case, no one had said. Such trivialities seemingly made no difference to the faithful. Vash, however, had been to university, and knew that there were only one hundred and six gods, and none of them were a small white bird with funny plumage.
“You’re sure it’s not a god?” Vetch said dubiously. “They say it reads the future in the entrails of men.” He peered at the bird, which eyed him back. It didn’t look particularly interested in entrails. If it had been some form of hawk or buzzard, perhaps, Vash thought he might’ve been able to give credence to the stories.
“Would a god have gak itself the way that bird just did?” Vash said, gesturing towards the white mess that now ran down the engraved perch.