Morality lacks borders and is not about the laws of the people. Intelligence is humanity’s greatest weapon until it is used as a means to ignore morality.

~Dagda, the All-Father, Chief of the Gods

Flying was frightening and liberating. Crow wasn’t completely fearless, and the fall into the pit last time had scared him more than he wanted to admit. As he gained height, he worried about the adage that what goes up must come down, so his bird head occasionally tilted to see the world below. Last time, his plummet into this valley had been unavoidable, and Crow reacted to the situation to survive. This time, he was deliberately taking the risk of falling.

The main thing he needed to watch was his mana because he’d be fine, provided he wasn’t completely drained. He didn’t fly directly upward because he instinctively felt that it was a bit like swimming in a river. It was often better not to swim against the flow but to use it to his advantage. The air currents around him were like that, and going against them depleted his mana faster. As long as he was ascending, he didn’t care which direction he was flying.

Lily kept up for a while but eventually landed on Crow’s back and rode him. His bird head turned to glare at her, but it was hard to do as a beast.

“Birdbrain, pay attention!” Lily shouted and pointed ahead. Crow was distracted, so he almost slammed into one of the valley’s sheer bluff. After recovering both his focus and from the near-collision, he swore he was going to compose a series of limericks and spout them off to her when she slept.

Crow realized his beast form greatly enhanced his sight. There was a loss of some colors, but another depth existed. He couldn’t quite tell if it was natural sight or something to do with his other abilities, but either way, he could see past the clouds and the land below them. It wasn’t some kind of penetrating sight, but rather his vision was so sharp it could see through smaller gaps.

Catching an upward draft, he rose above those clouds. Above, he could see the place he fell from. The bridge was destroyed, so it was impassable for most. Only when he was close to his destination did he finally sense danger.

Lily sensed his tension, and she, too, became alert. Both looked around to see where the threat was coming from, combing the ground with their eyes. Even with Crow’s beast-enhanced vision, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. It took a dark shadow to fall across them before they realized their mistake—the threat was never below.

Pulling in his wings and rotating his body to the left, he dove. The two actions were enough to dodge the raking claw of the flying beast. While twisting past the bird, he recognized it immediately. It was like the one that attacked them on the bridge, only larger.

Rather than fight it, he aimed his dive toward the narrow pass that Otto and Mara took when they left him. Aerial combat was not something he was ready for yet, because he was still a novice at flying. An instinctive part of his mind knew he was taking dangerous risks that a learned beast wouldn’t. Crow felt he was only surviving because he chose actions normal flying beasts wouldn’t.

It was odd how aggressive this thing was. Even the hunter-type birds wouldn’t chase down prey it wasn’t sure it could overcome. Either this thing knew Crow somehow killed its mate, or it was some type of guardian. The more he thought about the prison pit, the more he felt the second option was closest to the truth.

Another issue arose when he realized he didn’t know how to land. In his mind, he could analyze birds he’d watched in the past, but that was theoretical knowledge. None of it was written out or formalized, so it was hard to replicate in the little time he had. On the other side of the pass was a winding slope down to the forest below. Keeping his wingspan extended, he glided down as close to the surface as he dared. His goal was the closest cluster of trees, but not knowing how land he felt it was safer to crash before them and not into them.

Rotating his wings to catch wing and slow his momentum, he felt them almost snap in half. The sudden change in inertia sent him stumbling to the ground. A talon raked past as the predator-like bird screamed past him, and he was only saved by his stupid method of landing.

He morphed back into a human and ran for the trees without sparing a second to his predicament. The jagged gravel flayed the flesh on the bottom of his bare feet, but again he ignored that too. Crow saw the bird coming back around, and he began summoning a fireball. As it came down for another attack, he threw the fiery sphere.

Crow felt a headache coming on as the extremely agile bird managed to dodge. Before he could think of something else to do, Lily flew right at it and turned into a meter tall crackling ball of lightning. When she struck it like a comet, Crow saw an explosion of feathers followed by a painful screech. It didn’t kill the bird, but it fled back to the skies, frightened into passivity.

Either way, it was enough to enter the forest. Afraid of bumping into others, he quickly changed into the loose pair of pants he wore before transforming but didn’t bother finding a shirt or shoes. The bird continued to hound them, so he was more concerned about going deeper into the forest and finding a thicker canopy so it couldn’t track them.

Most city-bred people had an unnatural fear of forests because they contained a lot of hidden dangers. Crow, on the other hand, loved the serenity. Druids had a natural affinity for forests because it was their strongest connection to the universe’s natural laws. Their power thought processes and even cultivation methods connected to natural laws.

Strip away civilization, man-made creations, and the noise of opinions, and it will reveal the natural order of things. Life was like the forest. Living or dying was always at hand, but embracing that simplicity was the core of what a druid stood for. That communion with all elements between the razor’s edge of life and death was the best place to gain an understanding of one’s place in the greater scheme of things.

Feeling his bare feet digging up the loamy soil of the forest as he ran, it calmed him and made all the stress fade away. He actually forgot for a few seconds that he was fleeing from a dangerous beast. Still, He refused to let go of that fleeting feeling of enlightenment. It reminded him why druids were powerful. They lacked pretentiousness when it came to power because no matter how much they gained, the universe was infinitely more so. A druid’s power came by accepting it from the nature of all things.

While Crow wasn’t paying attention, he entered an area of the forest with very few trees. The bird swooped down, aiming to rend Crow apart. But in his blissful state, he waved his hand in a complex gesture and felt mana coursing through him as he bent the natural to his aid. Unlike his fireballs, he didn’t force it to his will. This was more like he melded his mind to the world. Using that connection, he combined his will and the potential of the surrounding trees together.

Crow abruptly stopped and turned, his hand shoved toward the flying beast diving at him. Limbs and roots wove together, forming a net or wall, and from those limbs grew thousands of thorny protrusions. The beast didn’t even have time to react before it slammed into the spell Crow created on a whim. Limbs, roots, and vines snapped apart. It sounded like the entire forest was breaking apart. While it was tangled in such a way, Crow had already activated his Ghostly Aura and disappeared. He didn’t go far because he wanted to ensure that the beast would cease pursuing.

The beast struggled to its feet, its body was torn and bleeding, but surprisingly its wings remained intact. The thorn wall scared the bird witless, and it launched into the air, seeking to escape. Crow didn’t bother trying to harm it more, and after it disappeared, all sense of danger dissipated.

Crow sat down under a tree and began meditating. He wanted to consolidate what he’d just learned and replenish his mana. He was dangerously depleted of mana from using his bird form and the spell he just cast.

Lily flew around and kept watch.