Tercius heard them before he saw them.

First came a short, high-pitched screech, a sound wave that gave both him and Lucky the shudders. Then, barely a breath later, came a series of fast, hollow-sounding clicks.

Born and raised on the other end of the continent, Tercius had never heard the calling sounds made by Steel Beaks before, nor had he even seen the predator for that matter, but the book that he read was spot on in the description of the sound. He could just imagine the flightless two-legged raptor clicking its large beak dozens of times in a mere couple of seconds, the feathers of its short and taloned forelimbs puffed up.

He pulled on the reins for Lucky to stop and started patting the broad back. The ram had kept trying to change direction for the past few minutes and now Tercius knew the most likely reason why. Be it smell, sight, or hearing, the base senses of the giant mountainous herbivores were many times that of an unSkilled human, not to mention that the beast likely had Skills to enhance those senses.

Tercius swallowed. The true question now was what to do…

According to the book, that combination of screech and fast clicking was a call to others of its kind. Normally, Steel Beaks hunted in groups of two to three members— one large female and one or two males with her— but when one group found a prey that they couldn't take down on their own, they issued the call that others of their kind could hear far and wide. He better lose himself from here. Soon the place would be swarming with who knows how many packs of vicious carnivores, and both he and Lucky could be caught in the middle. Lucky was fast and agile, no doubts about it, but Steel Beaks were agile speedsters too and had no desire to find out which of them had the upper leg.

Tercius’ eyes narrowed. Tangling himself with them could end up losing him time, not to mention that in doing so he would risk injury which could set him back even more. If possible, it was much more preferable to just make a wide arc around them.

A little bit of scouting could help him do just that…

Neon green veins of {Magia Sight} lit his dark green irises and the late afternoon of the day was plunged into an absolute darkness, while all magia gained colors. The shades of green spoke of plants, the shades of red of animals and insects and reptiles, but although they abounded, these signatures were small and barely lit. Much further ahead of him and Lucky were three distinctly outlined shapes, a group of powerful shining beacons easily spotted through the duller tapestry of reds and greens. The three red beacons were on a much lower level than he and Lucky, perhaps in a canyon or a valley or something like that, and the intensity of the brightness of their magia spoke of their power, but Tercius’ glowing eyes narrowed even further at something else he saw. Near the three red raptor-like outlines were humanoid outlines.

Tercius blinked. Hunters, most likely. A group of two, perhaps even three— they were huddled closely together and it was difficult to count them apart from the distance. Tercius frowned. They were holding out on their own against three Steel Beaks. That wouldn’t last long, according to the book. As soon as other Steel Beaks came to respond to the call…

His eyebrows twitched and his hands clenched around the reins. He was alerted in time and could just choose to go around the area and avoid the problem entirely… Those people down there might just end up as food, if Steel Beaks responded in large numbers. He could help them deal with the ones that occupied them currently, certainly…

Should he, though? For all he knew, he could be interrupting one of those tests that the elders gave their juniors… Survival of the fittest was the way of the mountains and instead of gratitude, his help might earn enmity. While he cared for their enmity almost as much as for their gratitude– which was very little by default– the second one might end up causing him unnecessary trouble along the way.

Once more he checked and saw no other beacons of magia signatures in the nearby area. If this was a test, it was an unsupervised one. Lucky’s ears flicked at each screech and the beast kept shifting in place as Tercius’ face became more bitter with each second of indecision.

Urging Lucky to go on, Tercius shook his head and sighed. “Let’s go Lucky…”

They left the stream and took to the western hills intending to turn north after a short ride and in doing so reconnect with the upper flow of the stream within the hour. This had nothing to do with him, after all. He was neither responsible for these people nor should he put himself at risk when he had a clear goal that he had to meet.

But then he heard their small screams and shouts and he thought about exactly what he was doing and… Something in him couldn’t urge Lucky to go on any further.

One minute he was hearing their tiny screams and he started breathing heavily. He wedged one finger into the shawl that protected his head and pulled it a little if only to let some air reach his neck. Slowly, Tercius urged Lucky to stop.

“Dammit…” he said. “I should take a look at least. Maybe these people can be useful to me…” He nodded to himself and pulled on the reins, turning Lucky back.

The stream that he followed north was only a single branch of a much wider whole, and instead of going north along the wider stream, Tercius and Lucky rode east and followed the other branch until he arrived before a great depression in the rocky land. The water fell down into the valley and Tercius and Lucky stood at the top of it, taking the lay of the land and its inhabitants.

Pressed against the cliffside were a bowman and a spearwoman. Two white scaled raptors, their heads decorated with flared crowns of rainbow feathers, were snapping their massive metallic beaks at the young woman. For their efforts, she rewarded them with a strike of her spear, drawing blood along the length of their long slender necks. From behind her, the man shot arrow after arrow at the beasts, missing more shots than hitting. For their size, the raptors were agile and fast on their feet, with an uncanny ability to move out of the way of the projectiles. What arrows were embedded into their scales seemed to have no impact on them whatsoever.

One raptor— a visibly bulkier and taller version of the two raptors, which marked her as a female of the species— was behind the screeching duo, a spear deeply embedded into the base of her neck. She was slow and wobbly on her two taloned feet, bleeding out with each passing moment.

As Tercius urged Lucky to settle in place, the female raptor fell to the side and gave a weak wail, as if she struggled for air. The male raptors turned and screeched. Taking the opportunity, the spearwoman silently ran at the Steel Beaks and speared the closer raptor's brain out from behind, jumping backward towards the protection of the cliffside just before his taloned friend could retaliate. The snapping beak found nothing but air and that seemed to enrage the beast. The last living raptor jumped back into the fray, but where before the woman was on the defensive, she was now free to act. In a moment, the beast received a spear to the brain, this time directly through the mouth.

Seeing the casual moves from the redheaded woman, Tercius blinked. He came back to help these people? Yea, right. As if they needed his help.

The people of the mountains were hardy. They had to be, to live here.

Suddenly, the woman that casually brained raptors turned around and ran to her companion. The bulky man threw one hand over her shoulders and so propped up he limped out of the small indentation. His entire left leg was bloody.

Tercius shifted in the saddle. What should he do now? Stay and help or—

The two people down below turned his way and Tercius tugged on the reins and had Lucky move away from the edge and out of the field of vision of those below.

“Stranger, I beg a boon! Help us! The Hunters of the Verdant Grove always pay their debts!” the woman yelled.

Tercius’ eyebrows rose. He knew that language. One of the words might have been “mother”, at least it sounded like that to him, and, if he recalled correctly, one of them might be the color “green”. No, it was definitely “green”, he was sure of that much, but he was not so sure about “mother”. The way she said it…

Tercius shook his head. It was “help” that drew most of his attention. Tercius’ face grew clouded as took a large coil of rope and dismounted. If he didn’t distinctly remember asking Perdinar if he could join in on learning the languages that the older man was studying, he could have sworn for a moment that Perdinar’s lessons had groomed him for this.

Suddenly, there was a scream of panic. “Fire and damnation! They’re here! We’re too late!”

What was that about? Something that might have been about a fire or—

As he looked down into the valley, his hands clenched onto the coils of the rope.

There was a moment of silence, a quiet peace where Tercius counted eight new arrivals, fast-moving, slender and long, white-scaled and gilded with colorful crowns of feathers. Three of them were bigger than the rest, yet they stayed centered in the moving formation, with five slightly smaller protectors running around them in concert. All of them screeched as their short forelimbs, each bearing three long and sharp talons, slashed the air in anticipation.

A wide-eyed Tercius pointed at the crevice in the rocky cliffside. “Run!”

The woman below stirred. Tercius saw that her eyes bore the same color as her cherry red braids of hair. It took Tercius a moment to remember the word in the language, but when it finally came to him, he unleashed it with all the power his lungs had.

“Move!” he pointed again. “Move!”

The power behind the shouted command made Lucky move back a little in distress, while the woman’s beautiful eyes went completely round. Confusion warred with something else across her freckled cheeks, but then her face grew grim and hard, the mouth tightening into a line. She shouted something at him, then together she and the man turned around and hobbled towards the protection of the cliffside.

It took him a moment but the meaning of her shout word struck him as familiar.

Deceiver, liar, imposter, if his memory served him right.

What?

Tercius shook his head. Now was not the time to brood over her words. For all he knew, he might be mistaken. His help would be needed down there, as soon as possible.

He patted Lucky’s side, as he reached for his new hunting spear and slid it out of the holder. His new bow was next, along with a quiver full of arrows and a large metal vial from one of the special saddlebags.

{Running} to the edge, Tercius looked down into the valley. A rush of relief ran through him as he saw that he wasn’t late. While he went to arm himself, the duo down there had relocated into the safety of the cliffside, the land itself shielding them from three sides. Four Steel Beaks were crowding the entrance to the crevice, but a long spear would flash here and there, drawing blood and holding them at bay.

Tercius' eyes glanced at where the other half of the newcomers were feasting their dead, tearing out chunk after chunk of flesh and devouring entire pieces. Good, that's good. Divided, they will fall easier. He glanced around, searching for a good spot to target the Steel Beaks that harassed the humans. From where he stood now if he were to miss the beasts, there was a small chance that his arrows would end up deep inside a human. Avoiding that should be as big a priority as getting rid of the Steel Beaks…

He ran silently along the edge, the agitated Lucky following closely behind him. Finally satisfied with his position, he stabbed his spear into the ground near his feet and readied himself. To start with, he crouched and unscrewed the top off the fat vial he brought along, dipping only ten arrows into the dark gelatinous mixture within while making sure to give each tip a nice glistening coating.

He arranged the coated arrows onto the grass away from him, before he carefully sealed the vial and put it away.

Swallowing, he took the bow firmly into his hand, nocked an arrow, and took in a deep breath. The wood groaned and animal tendons tightened, the arrow slowly pulled back. His dark green eyes narrowed at his target. Distance. Angle. Wind. The Steel Beaks were moving around, but the central mass of their combined bodies was considerable. He couldn't miss a target that big, even if he wanted to. Not with both proximity and his high {Precision} to aid him. He let his breath go and his fingers let the feathered arrow’s end loose.

The bow twanged.

The arrow was a blur of momentary motion and then he saw it clearly again, the feathery end wobbling from the side of the closest Steel Beak. The beast looked up at him, the others following suit as well, their beady eyes locking onto him. As one, they screeched his way, their feathered crowns flaring and shaking. Out of nowhere, a long spear appeared and stabbed one into the neck. The stabbed beast screeched, even more, the taloned forelimbs swiping to the side. The woman tore the spear out with a roar and a spray of red rain, rapidly stepping back into the protection of the crevice. The Steel Beaks turned away from him and snapped at the flashing spear with vigor.

Tercius didn’t wait. As his spine ran with shivers, he reached for another arrow. Breathe in and pull. Hold the breath and aim. Release the breath and let it loose. The bow twanged again and he saw the arrow sprout on the back of one of the Steel Beaks.

Two down, six to go.

With their thick protection— which merited an entire page in one of the books he read— Tercius suspected that normal arrows and perhaps even knives were nearly useless against Steel Beaks, if perchance you didn’t hit a sensitive spot like the eyes. An arrow was to them what a mosquito’s bite was to him— a tiny nuisance. Yet even mosquitos could be dangerous. His coated arrows would do their job in the next couple of minutes. The first effects should be occurring even earlier…

Two more arrows flew from his bow quickly, raising his score to three. One Steel Beak, however, managed to avoid the arrow meant for it. The beast was centrally located within the group, hidden behind the shifting mass of others. One more arrow flew the beast’s way, only for another beast to jump and collect it with its back.

Tercius frowned. The others around it would fall down any minute now, and he could deal with that one then— if the blood loss from the spear wound didn’t finish the beast off first.

He picked up his spear and carefully collected the remaining coated arrows and ran around the edge until he arrived back near the stream and the waterfall, and laid his eyes on the still feasting foursome. Blinking rapidly, Tercius couldn't believe what he saw. The three females and the sole male had devoured their way deep into the sides of their fallen brethren, their feathered heads and teeth-filled beaks visibly expanding the dark caverns of blood, gore, and bones with each bite.

Without wasting time, he embedded a coated arrow into the side of each of the large beasts, one at a time, missing only once, and from what he saw it was only by a hair. The beast's backside had moved after he shot at it. The interesting thing was that not one of the beasts pulled away from eating, the feeding frenzy tightly gripping what little mind they had.

Tercius' eyes narrowed at the beasts below. Cannibalism was dangerous, but it had some powerful side effects. That being received a temporary growth boost from consuming a set of channels that were very close in likeness to itself. The boost wasn't anything major, but the true danger of it came from the fact that it could occur no matter the age you were in. For people whose channel growth slows as their body reaches the peak of maturity and then starts to fall as they age even further, cannibalism was a powerful draw.

That same appeal was present for beasts too.

Tercius looked down at the feeding frenzy with a frown. For some, that was more true than for others… In any case, seven out of eight were done. He better get to the last one and get those people out of there. More Steel Beaks arriving was a real possibility still. He glanced at the hills from where he came from and the stream he followed. They could easily come from his side, as well.

Tercius used {Magia Sight} briefly to glance around him and breathed easier. Apart from Lucky, he failed to spot even a single large magia signature behind him.

The three raptors that had received his arrows were already wobbling on their two long legs, with no energy left to jump up and down as they did. The last raptor got its arrow with ease now and Tercius lowered his bow, picking up his spear and observing.

As the raptors started to trip over each other and fall to the ground, the woman took the opportunity. Before his eyes, she moved out of her little natural hideout and made some quick spear-shaped holes in the long white necks of the barely responsive Steel Beaks. One by one, all eight newcomers fell in short order.

Tercius nodded when he saw that and he turned to Lucky. The anxious ram had followed after him without fail, almost like a lost puppy. Tercius stood up and with his free hand patted the strong neck. The rectangular irises narrowed then expanded. Bowing his massive head down, Lucky pushed the horned head against his chest and Tercius nuzzled the beast in return, all the while careful of the curling horn at his side. If that thing poked him in the front or the back of his head, the result likely wouldn’t remain a superficial one…

“Well done,” Tercius petted the gray muzzle one more time and carefully moved away from Lucky’s head and horns. “Calm and collected, as you should be. Well done,”

He took the rope and found a sizable rock to tie it around. As he threw the other end down the cliffside, he waved to the woman.

Getting them up proved a bit more troublesome. The man was nearly unconscious, and he was both taller and of stockier build and by all metrics considerably weightier than the woman. It took willpower, endurance, and strength from her and some rampower from Lucky, but they did manage to do it.

When they ascended, the young woman spared him only a glance or two, and then she just laid the man on the grass and wept on his chest, her hands gently caressing the man's face.

Below the dark green face paint, the thick dark beard, and too many scars to count, the man was pale and his eyes were barely open. The leg was bound by cloth and yet it was still bleeding profusely, the open gash on his upper thigh as long as his palm and wide enough for a finger to go in there. Looking at it, he was sure that he saw bone.

He swallowed. Should he do something?

He glanced at the man. What would he like for others to do for him in a situation like this?

There was no such thing as free help, at least not in his book. If he was in the position of that man on the ground and someone offered this potion and stated the price of the potion in a form that he could comprehend, eventually pay, and most importantly was willing to pay… then he might just take it.

If the conditions weren’t met, then he would have to pass.

But not everyone was like him, he knew. Some people would take the provided help without thinking through and weighing the costs. Then again, some, like that man there, didn’t have the time or capacity to think it through. If there was one thing he wished for himself, it was that he always had both of those, when decision time came. If he didn’t… then he just wasn’t sure what could happen.

Come to think of it, if someone asked him this question right now and he was in that man’s situation, then even he would have to take this deal too— regardless of what the price was. He couldn’t leave this trip unfinished, no matter who or what stood in the way.

Before he knew it, he was walking to Lucky's side, climbing up one stirrup, and reaching for the saddlebag made of hardened leather, whose inner compartments were inlaid with cushions of soft wool. He returned the vial he had taken earlier to its safe spot and reached for another one, though this one was of a different nature.

He walked back to the prone man and the young woman with the vial in his hands.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" Tercius asked.

Red-haired, red-eyed, and tall, with a sharp nose and pronounced cheekbones, the freckled young woman looked up sharply at him. Her green face paint made her beautiful face savage for a moment. Tercius almost took a step back.

Swallowing his nerves and raising the metal vial to his eye level, Tercius spoke slowly, “I have something here that might help him get better,”

The woman’s red brows scrunched.

“Err… This—” he shook the vial. “can heal him… You don’t understand? What’s the word… oh— Medicine. For… man? Yes, for man.”

She just looked at him then at the vial, her eyes blurry.

Dammit. At this rate, even if the man was clinging to life at the moment, he would surely die by the time they understood each other. His jaw clenched and he crouched near them. His move made her reach for her spear and Tercius stopped.

Once her tear-filled eyes were on him, he mimed pouring the vial over the bloody rip in the leg and he pointed at the man. “Help. Err… Medicine.”

Leavara took the vial slowly, looking at it without understanding, then back at him.

Tercius repeated the mimes and the words, hoping that she would take things over from here. Thankfully, she seemed to have understood him this time. Her hands darted and she grabbed his wrists with a speed that almost made him blast her away with {Spring of Crystal Thoughts}.

She rushed through words like there was no tomorrow and Tercius barely managed to hear individual words.

He frowned. “I didn’t understand a word you said. Help. This might help him. Medicine.”

The woman’s eyes went wide with panic. “Help! Yes, help! Help!”

Hearing the familiar word of Empire’s Common, even butchered as it was, was a relief that made him sigh. “Listen, we have no time to lose here, but we must clean the wound before we pour this. I will need a small fire as soon as possible as well.”

Leavara nodded rapidly. “Yes, yes,”

“You have no idea what I’m speaking of, do you? Fire… burn… hot… fire. Make fire. For help.”

The young woman scrambled to her feet, dropping the spear and looking around. A moment later she was running to a small copse of large bushes.

Tercius looked at the man and his barely open eyes, all the while going through one of the mental lists that Mistress Prime’era gave him.

The rip was bone-deep and long, but it was a clean cut. He took it all in and his eyes narrowed. The potion would close the wound perfectly, but he would need something to enhance the man's blood recovery speed and something to hold the man alive. For that, he had… Actually, he had something that would do both. Yes, he nodded, that one should do more than fine. Only… he wasn't quite sure if he should use it. It was a perfect fit, but…

Swallowing his nerves, he picked out larger debris out of the wound with his bare fingers, then washed out the rest with fresh water the best he could. That would have to do. The blood was still leaking slowly from the wound, which Tercius took to be a good sign. Since the blood was leaking, that meant that he had some still. Just how much could a human lose, before the irreversible threshold?

Finally, he opened the vial and poured half of it onto the wound. The man grunted as his leg jerked, but Tercius held it down as the wound hissed and the red liquid started bubbling. The edges of the gash closed slowly, the new skin puffy and reddish.

With that done, Tercius stood up and ran to the small fire that the young woman had made. From one of the satchels on his hip, he took out a small wooden box and a pipe. From the box he grabbed a fingerful of dried herbs and stuffed it all down the pipe, lighting it all with a small tinder under the watchful gaze of the young woman.

With watering eyes, Tercius took a few puffs to make sure that the packed herbs were properly caught by the embers. He coughed a couple of times, but that went away quickly. With each inhale, he felt more awake, more alert, and sharp. He went back to the man and on his knees, he paused and took a deep breath and an even longer exhale, preparing himself mentally and physically for the next step.

Just don’t think about it and do it, he said to himself.

A deep inhale filled his lungs with the smoke and he held it in. He offered the pipe to the young woman and she tentatively took the pipe from him. With a free hand, he grabbed Murain's nose, while the other opened the mouth. To the gasp of his onlooker, Tercius' mouth covered the man's and he exhaled, pushing the smoke into the bearded man's lungs.

Getting back up, he waved to the woman. “The pipe— no, just… give it here.” He grabbed the pipe from the woman and repeated the entire thing again and again, until he saw the man’s cheeks turn rose. That had been a little bit difficult to gauge as the cheeks seemed to be the most prominently painted over.

Tercius breathed a little easier, but that relief lasted a second. His worry spiked and he went over the list, searching for anything he could do for the man… but nothing came to him. His knowledge of healing others came from the crash course Mistress Prime’era and his Mentor gave him and a part of him worried that he might have overlooked something that would be obvious in hindsight.

Still, for now, he could do nothing more for the man.

Tercius rose slowly, feeling tired beyond measure. His stress tolerance was screaming that he was reaching the limit. The last few minutes, and the dozen before it, have taken their toll. The entire day was like that, come to think of it. He wanted nothing more than to find a safe place, curl up and sleep.

“Murain… good?” the young woman asked.

“He should be good, yes. But we should go,” he said. “This place could be swarming with those things any minute now,”

The young woman rose and nodded. “Gratitude, khereshak. Owe debt,”

Khereshak. Priest, in the language he knew. He might be many things, but a priest he was not. He didn't have the tattoos to mark him. At best, he could be a priest in training. Still, she had to know that and Trecius would not correct her. Sometimes assumptions were helpful, but he should be careful never to confirm her assumptions. That was the line he wouldn't cross, but there were words to tread near it.

A familiar screech came from the distance, soon followed by another. Then even more of them joined.

Tercius and the young woman looked at each other's eyes with understanding.

Tercius grabbed one large arm of the man and pulled up, nodding to the woman to take the other side. “Let’s get him on Lucky here and let’s get going. I don’t think we’re welcome here anymore.”