Chapter 41 - Little Gluttons

Skyle barely had enough time to stumble to his feet before he had to throw himself to the floor again, this time leaping sideways as the bird rushed forward once more, flapping its wings as it snapped its beak hungrily. The useless gesture with the wings seemed to be an indication of its excitement. Almost, Skyle could picture it as a young snowblade tiger cub reaching eagerly for its meal.

Almost, if only Skyle himself weren’t about to become that meal, the small boy reflected as he rapidly dodged yet another lunge from the hungry bird. The two meter tall chick who would be rather fetching, even cute if only it were smaller. That vibrant fan of feathers on top of its head was especially dashing.

“What the hell?” Skyle growled to himself, shaking his head groggily. What was the matter with him? Why did he keep having these useless thoughts when he least needed them? Cute? The thing was trying to rip out his entrails to slurp them up for breakfast!

Glaring at his attacker, Skyle breathed harshly through tightly compressed lips. He had no weapon, and it began to make sense to him as he realized that he’d been dropped into this nest as food for the young chick. Skyle’s father had taught him that some birds would refrain from killing smaller prey and would instead bring it back to their nests so as to develop their young offspring’s hunting instincts.

Skyle had to admit that the birds were certainly as beautiful as they were deadly, however. Even though the young bird’s feathers didn’t not have the same metallic iridescent quality as its mother, it still had the same air of grace and nobility to it. If anything, the slightly uneven proportion of its head to the rest of its body and limbs made it look even cuter, not less. Those feathers looked so soft, he wondered what it would be like to run his hand through and ruffle them.

As the bird’s beak rushed forward once more, Skyle barely managed to pull back the hand he had unconsciously begun to raise in its direction. The loud CLACK as it snapped its beak shut on nothing but empty air brought Skyle out of his reverie.

“Just what is going on here?” Skyle gasped inside his own head, rapidly backpedaling to gain some distance from his enemy as he tried to rally his thoughts. “It’s trying to eat you, you fool. Wake up!”

It finally struck Skyle as incredibly suspicious that his eyes kept wandering back towards the bird, and his focus would begin to waver once more.

Hastily, Skyle dropped his gaze to focus on its legs as he continued to back away, but after a short moment his eyes would once again disobey him and begin to track upwards. Back towards those beautiful feathers.

Skyle bit his tongue and the jolt of pain seemed to clear the haze in his head somewhat. Shaking his head, Skyle plunged headlong into the True Sight, grasping at straws that would help him avoid whatever strange hold the bird seemed to be able to exert over his mind.

In his vision, strange waves of a soft red aura seemed to radiate from the young bird, and his eyes quickly found a mysterious pattern within these waves that seemed too complex to be random. They seemed to be originating from the crown of feathers on top of its head. However, as Skyle examined the patterns with the True Sight, to his relief he found that he was still able to remain clear-headed.

“These patterns, why do they seem so familiar somehow?”

Finally free of the strange magic this aura had cast, Skyle was able to realize that this bird had to be very young, almost newly hatched. It lacked any of the grace that its mother was obviously capable of. In fact, its steps were rather clumsy and its movements were almost hesitant once it realized that Skyle would not just stand there and let it tear him to pieces.

“It must rely on the strange magic of those feathers in order to daze its prey,” Skyle realized. Still, there was a limit to how well Skyle would be able to dodge the bird with his injured leg, and it began to make its displeasure felt as fire began to crawl its way up his spine from it.

Grimly tearing off a slender branch about the length of his own arm, Skyle swung it experimentally a few times as he cautiously eyed the mother bird. It still lay perched on top of the same rock, watching with an eerie intelligence in its eyes. However, it made no move to intervene and thus Skyle let out a small sigh of relief.

“Want me to serve as an object lesson for your child, do you? That’s fine, I’ll teach it something alright,” Skyle promised darkly.

When the baby bird once again rushed forward, leading with its beak, it finally learned its first lesson. Its clumsy attempt to attack what was likely its first target that was not distracted by its strange magic was met with failure, and a painful one at that. Skyle didn’t even need to use the Farsight, as the little bird’s attack was straightforward and easy to dodge by skipping sideways.

All lessons must come at a price, and Skyle extorted such at the cost of a heavy rap against the top of the bird’s skull. The branch in his hand crunched with the impact, and the small bird howled as it backed away.

Quickly eyeing the branch in his hand, Skyle sighed in relief as he noticed he hadn’t even drawn any blood. In fact, as he returned his regard to the bird, he could see that there were hardly any of the red colors which he had learned indicated pain or injury in a creature’s aura. The cry had been one of surprise more than anything, as it likely hadn’t dealt with much resistance from its prey before.

In truth, Skyle had purposefully dealt a soft blow to the bird. After all, its mother was still watching him closely, and he had no doubt it would swiftly intervene should it determine that its precious offspring was in any real danger.

As it was, Skyle reflected that he had just bought himself some precious time. This was time he badly needed, as Skyle began to to limp his way towards the sole object that offered some hope. It was the pack he had been wearing when the bird had snatched him into the air.

Skyle snatched the pack off the ground as he began to slowly back away from the bird, all the while rummaging within it. Skyle let out a breath of relief as he realized that through some miracle, the bottle he had filled with the poison from the Dracolings had not broken. Initially, Skyle had intended to use the poison to set up traps if need be, or to use with his arrows in order to bring down bigger threats that his arrows otherwise would not be able to handle.

“Well”, he reflected, “this certainly qualifies for the latter, I suppose.”

While the mother bird would likely be far more resistant to such a poison, Skyle knew from experience that younger animals would be far more vulnerable to such. Still, as the small bird finally found its courage and began to approach Skyle once again, the small boy’s hand paused briefly as it hovered over the bottle of poison.

Skyle had thought of the poison because it would slow down the bird and allow Skyle to better resist its attacks, and buy him more time to find a way to escape the situation without invoking the mother bird’s wrath by killing or injuring her offspring. Still, the thought of poisoning what amounted to a small baby, no matter how dangerous it might be to himself, was sickening.

For some reason, as he watched the baby bird cautiously amble forward, Skyle was struck by an uncanny image of Ash and its first tentative steps when they had first met.

***

“Da, what is it?” Skyle murmured sleepily, rubbing at his eyes. “Can’t this wait till morn?”

Kendric Farrow had returned one late night and much to Skyle’s surprise, opened the bundle he carefully, almost gently cradled to his chest to reveal a small kitten with white fur streaked with gray. Though it sniffed in the air and shook uncontrollably, its clear, focused eyes revealed no fear nor hesitation, but rather the beginnings of an uncanny intelligence that captivated Skyle’s attention from that very moment.

“What is it?” Skyle asked, breathlessly.

“Your new charge, from now on,” His father replied, while looking solemnly at the little boy. “Are you ready?”

Skyle’s excited whoop of assent died in his lips when he saw the uncharacteristic seriousness in his father’s eyes. Closing his mouth instead, he returned his attention to the small cub wrapped in the blankets, and amazing though it might be, he could swear the cub was returning his regard with equal seriousness.

“It’s almost as though he can understand us,” Skyle breathed to himself, no matter how ridiculous his own words sounded to him.

Kendric Farrow did not say another word, nor did he otherwise prompt another response from his son. Instead, he waited patiently. Though his expression was neutral, underneath the surface there lurked a somber severity to his expression that Skyle didn’t quite understand. It was so unlike his father.

Still, Skyle had no opportunity to ponder at this as his attention was wholly centered on the cub now. It gazed back at Skyle without uttering any sounds, and though its trembling grew even more violent, its eyes burned with ever more intensity.

Just like this, several moments passed during which the small boy and the newly born cub seemed to reach something of an understanding. It was an exchange with no words offered, because they were not needed. Instead, a delicate communion was created between two remarkable young souls, and in the end it was well.

“Yes, I am ready,” Skyle said softly, his eyes still riveted on the small cub, and his father gently, if somewhat solemnly, passed the small bundle in his arms to his son.

As though it could understand the words and their meaning, and almost as if it had been waiting for just such a declaration, the cub finally stopped trembling. Instead, lying cradled in Skyle’s small arms, it lifted its head and let out a fierce cry as its body finally stopped shaking, and the fierce fire in its eyes finally seemed to come to rest.

Kendric’s expression did change now, and it was a smile that lit up his face. It wasn’t a boisterous grin that stretched from corner to corner, nor a loopsided smirk such as the ones he used to infuriatingly good measure to encourage his children to do better. No, this one was the most rare of all, the secret ones his father allowed himself to indulge in when he thought his children were not watching. The ones that were the smallest rays of sunshine piercing through a patchy sky, bringing with it the radiant promise of a new sun. They were the ones that spoke of pride that burned deeply and shone brighter still, no matter how his father tried to hide it.

“Good, good. Well done you little runt. Since this fellow seems to have taken a liking to you, you might as well give him a name.”

“Me?” Skyle started, looking up at his father in bewildered surprise.

“Do you see any other little runts here,” His father cried out in mock exasperation.

“Err, no. I just thought, ah, names were important to snow tigers,” Skyle mumbled, lowering his gaze to the small cub.

Catching hold of his son’s chin in one massive, calloused hand, Kendric gently lifted it to gaze into Skyle’s eyes.

“They are,” came the simple response.

Skyle’s eyes beamed with joy, but then the fire died down slightly as his brow furrowed in thought.

“Ash?,” Skyle finally said in a hesitant voice, peering up at his father.

“You telling me or asking me, boy?” came Kendric’s grunt.

“Ash,” Skyle said, more confidently this time. “His name will be Ash.”

“Well, alright then. Ash it’ll be,” Kendric nodded contentedly. “It’s a good name. Looks like the little fellow likes the name too.”

Indeed, the cub had begun to let out contented cries that might have sounded fierce had it been little more than a newborn. As it was, it was simply too funny.

Skyle began to laugh, and his father’s hearty chuckle joined in. After a moment, the cub seemed to realize why they were laughing, and a prickling pain came from Skyle’s hand as tiny fangs chomped down on the little boy’s skin, an indignant glare burning in Ash’s eyes.

Skyle couldn’t help but continue to laugh, especially when Ash began to mewl in protest. When the cub chomped down on his hand again and finally drew a few drops of blood, Skyle couldn’t help but collapse backward.

He was laughing so hard he could barely get a breath in.

Finally giving up, Ash let go and instead raised his head to give another baby roar, and though this one was a good deal fiercer, it was still simply one of the most adorable things Skyle had seen in his young life.

***

Snapping himself out of a memory that simply wouldn’t help him in the current situation, Skyle frantically dug through his pack as he looked for something, anything that could help him in this situation. Finally, his hands reached a carefully wrapped bundle with several hard objects within.

“The essence crystals!” Skyle cried out in his mind.

Shifting his gaze back to the bird, Skyle narrowed his eyes as he delved deeper into what his True Sight revealed. Those patterns that emanated from the feathers seemed to be consuming an inordinate amount of elemental essence, and Skyle could see that several of its colors were quickly losing their luster, as though being drained dry.

Frowning in thought, Skyle decided that the crystals wouldn’t do him any good in any case, since he couldn’t tap into the elemental essence himself, in any case. They had only been gathering them for Leon’s use and in case they could use them for barter later on. Now, a more intriguing idea sprang to Skyle’s mind.

Sifting through the handful of crystals in the bundle, Skyle risked a quick glance down to pluck out a crystal that seemed of a similar hue to that of the one being depleted on the small bird.

The instant he took out the crystal, the baby chick’s eyes abruptly shifted from Skyle to the crystal being held in his hand. When Skyle shifted the crystal to his other hand, its eyes followed as though they were glued to it.

“That’s right, it’s crystal, ah, candy. Delicious crystal essence candy, you little beast,” Skyle cooed in a soft voice, trying to sound as friendly as he could. “You want this candy, don’t you you little glutton?”

The bird’s eyes were rivetted on the crystal, and Skyle almost imagined that it nodded its head up and down as it slowly drew closer.

“Yes, a delicious essence crystal candy that costs more than what I’ll make in ten years, now how lucky is that?” Skyle continued, and though it took every fiber of courage in his body to do it, he stopped backing away and instead let out a deep breath as it held out the crystal to the bird. “Here, you can have it. All yours, little fellow. You know you want it, don’t you?”

The chick stepped forward, and a massive beak that could easily snap his entire hand off slowly yawned open. Skyle’s eyes were open as wide as he could as he burned his True Sight as brightly as he could, inspecting the bird’s intent. While Skyle could tell the bird’s aura was full of a voracious hunger, Skyle simply couldn’t tell if it was aiming at just the crystal or a crystal and a bit of little country boy on the side as well.

Thankfully, Skyle’s minucius attention paid off as he saw the bird’s intent just a second before it lunged forward. Its beak dove towards the crystal and snatched it in the blink of an eye, but if Skyle hadn’t let go and withdrawn his own hand, he had no doubt a few of his fingers would have been part of its prize as well.

Skyle could detect no malice or disappointment in the bird’s aura. Instead, it quickly backed away from Skyle while holding the crystal in his beak, all the while glancing sideways at the little boy with more than a little suspicion.

Finally plumping down at a comfortable distance, the little chick began to nibble at the crystal instead of swallowing it whole. Skyle’s gaze turned incredulous as just after a few moments, sharp cracks could be heard as the crystal’s tough exterior was no longer able to endure under the chick’s voracious assault. With a series of small explosions, hairline cracks finally burst open and the chick began to swallow the smaller pieces, gorging itself with happy sounds.

Again reminded of Ash, for a moment, Skyle wondered if all baby magical beasts were as unashamedly gluttonous in their meal time.

Reminding himself that now was not the moment to reminisce, Skyle glanced up towards the giant bird, but it seemed to be pointedly ignoring Skyle for the moment, no longer even looking at him. If it were his own father, Skyle could have sworn he would have been shaking his head and clucking his tongue, clearly far too embarrassed to even acknowledge what his child had been reduced to.

Using his True Sight to inspect his surroundings, Skyle had to fight down despair as he realized just how deep his predicament was. The nest’s walls extended to merely three times his own height, and he was certain climbing outside would be no obstacle at all. However, the true problem was what did lay beyond those walls.

Nothing.

This stupid bird had chosen to lay its nest on top of one of the tallest stone columns in this entire strange forest of such, and Skyle could see that the nearest column lay a good fifty feet or more away. It was an impossible distance to jump across. As for climbing down, Skyle couldn’t help but glance down at his wounded leg.

The broken bones had barely begun to knit back together. Although Leon had been able to use the medicine they had found to great effect, and further reinforced the effect with his own elemental spells, Skyle had not been able to make use of either. The potions, though helpful, hadn’t been nearly as effective for him as they had for Leon. And though Leon had tried to cast the healing and reinforcement spells on Skyle on more than one occasion, it had resulted in failure time and time again. Not even Leon, let alone Skyle had been able to guess at the reason. Skyle’s own True Sight could tell him nothing beyond the fact that the elemental essence seemed to simply scurry off his body as though it were rain bouncing off the surface of a rock.

Thus, Skyle knew he couldn’t possibly negotiate a three hundred foot climb down the pillar. There was a length of rope in the pack, looted from the camp. However, it wasn’t even thirty feet long, and sorely lacking for the task at hand. Even in the event that he did manage the climb, travelling the hundreds of miles the bird had crossed in the space of a handful minutes of flight without Leon’s help would be a nightmarish ordeal. After all, who knew what kind of predators lurked this deep in the forbidden Black Zone?

“One problem at a time, Skyle,” the small boy muttered, forcing himself to take deep breaths to calm down the frantic beating of his heart. “First, I need to find a way to take little country boy off today’s menu.”

Almost as though it had heard him, the little chick finally raised its head back up from its meal, returning its hungry gaze towards Skyle. It stood back to its feet with an excited bounce, and began to draw closer while its hungry gaze lay rivetted on the pack in Skyle’s hand.

“Want more crystals?” Skyle couldn’t help but chuckle nervously. “Come get them, you little glutton.”

The little chick chirped a reply, somewhat sharp but not entirely unpleasant, as it slowed down and turned its gaze upon the little boy. Beneath the ravenous hunger, there seemed to be a little caution in its eyes.

“Hey, no need to worry little fellow. I got your crystal right here.” Matching words to actions, Skyle took out another crystal, this one a little bigger than the last one. It sparkled prettily in the morning sun, and the chick’s beak let a thin line of drool slip down its face.

“That’s right, come closer. I’m not gonna hurt you, we can be friends. You be nice to me, and I’ll give you all the candy you can eat,” Skyle grinned, growing more confident and endlessly grateful that they had collected all the crystals from the dracolings’ corpses.

Skyle’s job had been to deal with what many people considered to be some of the fiercest magical beasts anywhere, snowblade tigers. From a young age, he had come to learn that the smarter the magical beast was, the more cues they took from your body language and the tone of your voice. Hell, some of them could obviously understand the human language!

Thus, it was important to show assertiveness and strength from the very beginning. Only then could the foundation be laid for mutual respect. Without such a relationship, a magical beast would inevitably come to view you as food.

“Here, take it,” Skyle smiled with far more confidence than he felt, holding forth another crystal.

The baby bird glanced back and forth between the crystal and Skyle’s face, and Skyle could see far more complex thoughts in its eyes than he would have initially attributed to it. The fact that he could use the True Sight was infinitely helpful in this, but his own experience dealing with the often times canny and greedy younger snowblade tigers was as much of a factor.

In the end, Skyle caught the covert glance the chick threw at the last moment and read its decision a split second before it acted upon it. Thankfully, Skyle had been prepared, once again aided by his experience dealing with his own roguish snowtiger cubs, Ash in particular. Clever and greedy little fellow that he was, he had given Skyle plenty of headaches while growing up, but now it likely saved the little boy’s life.

The little bird’s last hidden glance had been towards the pack on Skyle’s back, and at the final moment instead of reaching out for the crystal in Skyle’s hand, it had decided to go for the much bigger prize of the bag where all these delicious snacks were coming from. That this pack apparently already had an owner seemed to be of no object to the baby chick, as it drove its beak right for the center of Skyle’s chest.

Skyle, however, was far too canny and had been prepared even before he saw that last glance betraying the chick’s intentions. This was why on the hand he held the crystal while the other still held the stick.

As soon as the bird’s beak shifted course towards Skyle’s chest, the little boy shuffled sideways as though he had been ready for the move and the little bird’s attack met no resistance at all. Instead, it closed on empty air only seconds before a sharp blow landed on top of its head with a sharp crack!

The bird instantly recoiled as it howled both in pain and surprise. However, it had already felt this pain before and this time it was better prepared to deal with it. Instead of backing away, this time it readied itself for another attack.

Little did it know, his opponent was again prepared to meet this new attack. In fact, even before it had begun, the attack died altogether as another sharp blow fell on top of the bird’s head. The sudden shock of yet another attack finally shook the bird’s courage as it flapped its wings and scrambled back in surprise.

When the chick finally lifted its gaze back towards this strange prey that had stung it several times, it couldn’t help but shudder at its expression. Although the baby bird didn’t have much experience, this prey was different from all the other ones previously. It had not only managed to dodge its attack instead of standing dazedly gazing at its feathers, it had even struck back!

Now, the prey stood there in a stance that spoke of easy confidence and overbearing power. In one hand it still held out the delicious crystal, while the other casually swung that hateful stick which had already given the bird several stinging blows.

“Now, you fat little glutton, come get your prize and you better not even think of going for this little master of yours again, or I’ll really make you regret it,” Skyle growled, his grin all teeth.

At first with obvious reluctance, the bird finally drew closer to Skyle. Its eyes constantly darted back and forth between the crystal and the stick, but it no longer dared to even look at Skyle’s face. Instead, it slowly and tentatively reached out for the crystal, this time being very careful to avoid touching Skyle’s skin.

This time, when it lifted the crystal it didn’t immediately back away, and instead hovered there for a moment, as though waiting.

“Go on, it’s yours to enjoy. Good little birdy,” Skyle said encouragingly.

As though it could understand the words, the baby bird finally scrambled away from Skyle and after a final glance towards Skyle, it began to crunch away at the crystal.

All the while, the mother bird stood impassive, its gaze focused at a point as far away as possible.

Still, Skyle wondered if he imagined a few heavy sighs coming from that direction from time to time. They could easily have been the wind, but they were uncanny in the way they never failed to remind Skyle of Kendric Farrow, his own father’s sighs whenever Skyle tried something and failed so spectacularly, that it was all his father could do not to slap a hand to his own forehead in despair.

“Skyle 1, Birdy 0, I suppose,” Skyle allowed himself a small smile of victory, though his smile withered away as he thought of his limited supply of crystals, and the impossible climb down that awaited him.

“One step at a time, right Da?”