Unfortunately for me, it looked like my wish wasn’t granted. The shadow turned into a huge black bird, with a hood of pebbly skin that covered its face. It had red eyes with a black pupil. The hood looked vaguely like one of those wigs that you see English lawyers wearing, hanging down to their shoulders. This hood completely covered the head and neck, ending just above the shoulders. On the back of the neck, the pebbly effect of the face gave way to a more wavy pattern, like waves of stone. Its wings were enormous. They literally blotted out the sky when it raised them, flew in, maybe 50 meters? They stretched easily between the loading dock of Maxes and the cypress tree that Janet was under. Its feet and talons were white and looked like someone had stretched a pair of athletic socks over them. However, the sharp ½ meter talons at the end of each toe made them formidable weapons. Its badge said Giant Black Vulture, Level 18, HP 434.

“Look out Monsoon! Look out!” I heard Janet saying as I rolled away from the carcasses I’d dropped and tried to make some distance.

Its talons had just missed me. Fortunately, it wasn’t a hawk, eagle or even a giant owl. Vultures don’t really rely on their feet that much, mainly landing and yanking on their prey with their beaks. Of course, it helps that in old-Earth, their prey was mainly dead. Although, black vultures were famous for killing baby deer, sheep, even calves. They’d blind them and then bleed them out by pulling out their tongues.

It hissed and grunted at me. Then stepped forward and brought its head down over the carcasses. I heard it’s breath inhaling and then exhaling. It sounded as if a giant bellows were working right next to me. I could see through its nostrils on top of its beak. There was nothing that separated one side from the other, just a big hole in the beak. I could literally see the trees on the other side of its head. Suddenly its huge head snaked towards me and I quickly pulled out my shield and sword from my inventory. I barely got the shield in place before what felt like a small SUV hit it and sent me flying about five meters away back towards the loading dock. I felt the shield crack where its hooked beak had hit it. Its mouth was open and I could briefly feel the shearing pressure between the upper part and the lower part where the beak was closing down and pinching. Thankfully, I’d got knocked back, otherwise, the beak probably would have probably cut the shield and my arm in two.

I stood up, spitting out the dirt I swallowed during my two dives and looked at the shield. It was cracked, broken, and the top part flopped, held in place only by the layers of flashing that I’d stuck in between the layers of wood. ‘Need that mend spell pronto,’ I thought. ‘Maybe a strengthen wood spell too.’

It reared back and its head moved side to side as it peered at me first with one red eye, then the other. I guess it was puzzled by the fact that I was still standing and the appearance of the shield. Just then, I heard three impacts and saw magic bolts hitting it on the face. Not a direct hit to the eyes, but close. A fire bolt and two light bolts. They did eight points for the fire bolt and eleven points apiece for the light bolts. It hissed again and moved its head toward Janet.

I pounded on the remaining bit of the shield and its attention shifted back to me. I yelled, just plain noise no words, and it seemed to have forgotten about Janet for the moment. Fortunately, it had never really noticed Tanya, who had been sitting under the first archery tree when this whole mess had started. Of course, she’d run closer to be part of the attack. Her spell was originally almost out of range.

The bird leaped into the air, surprisingly fast and hit out at me with its talons and then followed it up with a sharp peck with its beak. I tried to block it and, surprising no one, didn’t succeed. None of my martial arts used shields, so I’m starting to wonder if I just lacked a necessary skill. ‘Maybe I need to dump the shield and try parrying or blocking with the sword,’ I thought. ‘Get your head in the game.’

For some reason, I got lucky and all three of the attacks missed. I ducked the peck and shifted to the far left and both of the talons missed as well. Our three spells hit the bird again in the face, again not hitting an eye or anything particularly important, but doing damage nonetheless. The pebbly skin looked tough, a bit like armor and I wondered if it was like armor? Was it somehow reducing the damage done? But where else could we hit it? Those feathers or flight pinions looked tough like they’d been made out of metal. Nine, nine and twelve points of damage. I was out of position and too far away to attack the bird’s body after it settled back into its position over the squirrels.

It hissed again, then grabbing one of the small squirrels from under the tree up in its beak, and the other small one and the large one with its feet talons, it bounced for a second and then succeeded in taking off. It flew off, apparently heavily laden, just above the tree canopy.

We just stood there and watched it flee. I felt like I should make a Monty Python joke to Janet, something like, “I offer you these four, nay one squirrel that you may butcher them and have meat” but I figured she probably wouldn’t get it anyway. And it probably wouldn’t be that funny.

“So,” I said. “That just happened.”

“What the FUCK!” Janet yelled. “Did you see that? Fuck, fuck, FUCK!” Tanya went over to her and they hugged again. “Shh! Shh!” I could hear Tanya whispering. “It’s alright. It’s alright!”

It wasn’t really, but that’s what you say. I turned and looked at the sky. From what little I knew about vultures, I thought that they came in packs, oh, wait, my new super memory supplied that a group of vultures was called a committee. So, I looked, trying to scan the sky to make sure that no other big birds were going to swoop down on us.

“So,” I heard Big Mike’s Barry White voice speak out from the side of Maxes closest to us, “is this a bad time?”

I looked over and sure enough, it was Big Mike, along with a Latin looking lady that I knew was his wife, Consuelo and two girls, that looked about ten and eleven.

“Big Mike!” I said, smiling. “Yeah, It’s nothing. Just got into a scuffle. A little tussle with a vulture. Took some of our squirrels. It’s good to see you.”

I knew from the pictures in his office that he had four kids, eleven, ten, six and three. Amada, Baila, Corazòn, and Dominica. He called them the start of his alphabet. Loved, Dance, Heart and Belonging to the Lord were what their names meant in Spanish. He’d talk about them and show pictures all of the time. I recognized Amada and Baila from their pictures. I knew that he’d never go anywhere without the missing two; the fact that Corazòn and Dominica were missing told me something bad had happened.

I walked over and grabbed him in a hug. No words, just some skin to let him know that I was there, that we’d survived and that we were going to keep on surviving, keep on ensuring that the people around us survived also. My eyes were wet, but fortunately, I didn’t break down. We held it for about thirty seconds and then broke apart. He was a big man, about 6’4” and 320 pounds, a big hairy white guy with a lot of tats from his days in the marines. All coverable by his uniform. Civilian short sleeve shirts like he was wearing now, not so much. He was no-nonsense if he told you to do something he expected it to get done. Kind of like my mother; maybe that’s why we got along.

I’d never met his wife, I’d just seen her around the store. She’d come in with one or two of the girls and talk about whatever she needed to talk to him about and then leave. She seemed like a good mother. The life of a truck stop manager was long and hard, 60 to 80 hour weeks were common. It was no wonder she needed to talk to him at the store. She’d also bring him dinner, lunches, depending on his schedule and, when he was closing, his girls in to say goodnight on non-school nights. They lived in a small house about four blocks from Maxes. Three bedrooms, two girls to a bedroom, and Big Mike and Consuelo in the other.