Gryphus pov:

They took our daughter. They would pay.

It was still dark. Phene and Periphas could barely see during the night, but Raphina and I couldn’t wait. They understood the urgency. They loved little Astera as well.

We flew high above the trees. Partly to avoid striking a branch in the dark, and partly to get a better view of any sources of light. As long as they lit a torch or made a campfire we would spot them. I doubt they’d be so foolish though.

We headed in the direction closest to the forest’s edge. Even that would take almost three days minimum of fast travel without sleeping. Depending on how heavily equipped they were it could take longer. Armies would take over a week easily, and that would run longer once we cut off their supply lines and began harassing their troops.

Once morning came the Empress would send some of her subjects to tell us her location. There was no place in the honey wood forest that you could hide from the mother bees, and the hives were all connected to one another with the Empress and her hive as the leader of the hivemind.

We weren’t that far out when all of us saw a flickering in the distance. It was the repeated firing of a lightning spell. We quickly turned and chased towards that direction.

It was the river, they were fleeing along the river.

That wasn’t good. If they encountered Sobek he would most likely kill all of them, Astera included. There was a reason no one used the river. Everyone obeyed as well, even if no one other than a few families remembered the reason. The nobility of other countries probably knew though, because nobody really complained about us outlawing any trade via the river.

When we reached the river we saw something strange. Trees had been felled so they lay across the river. I don’t know why they would do something like that.

The length of the river was strewn with these. Dozens of trees, each about the same distance apart from one another, were cut down so they fell into the river. The current had dragged most of them out of the center, but the trail was still clear.

We followed as quickly as we could, taking advantage of the fact that we could take a straight path rather than the snakelike passage the river took.

It was morning soon enough, and the mother bees were warming up. Once they were warm enough to fly a small group flew to me and Raphina. They gathered at our throats and began communicating by buzzing and vibrating against our skin.

The bees told us about the kidnappers, their numbers and their professions. The kidnappers had deployed a poisonous gas that prevented the bees from approaching. That was the only reason they weren’t dead from a thousand stings already.

The bees also informed us that not all the kidnappers were alive, some had been killed. They weren’t the ones knocking over the trees. The bees weren’t the best communicators, but they seemed to be saying that there was some kind of magic beast attacking and harassing the kidnappers.

I asked the bees to leave the beast alone for now. We had to be careful, but the creature was a decent distraction.

Phene and Periphas were fast. Periphas is a thunder eagle and Phene is a bone swallowing vulture that had eaten plenty of magic beast bones. Both are quite powerful as far as magic beasts go. We would catch up to the boats quickly.

The strategy was simple: take out the ranged attackers and slow down the boats till backup could get here. It wasn’t the best plan, but there weren’t many other options.

Normally this sort of kidnapping would never work. Unfortunately these idiots were using the river to escape the river quickly. If the risk of angering Sobek wasn’t so great it would be a good plan. They should have asked why Macedor hadn’t tried the same strategy before though.

Raphina and I caught sight of the swarm. Periphas cried out when he managed to catch a glimpse of Astera, but hushed himself quickly.

The mother bees were perfectly coordinated. With them swarming about the kidnappers had no chance of hearing or seeing us. When I gave the signal, a section of the swarm parted and I fired an arrow into the first mage I could identify.

They started firing back, although their response was odd. They didn’t seem to be thinking or moving right. I could tell they were powerful, but they seemed strained and frantic. By all rights they should be ready for us, but they were jumpy and slow to focus on us.

One the boats they had at least one mage, an archer and a couple warriors. The warriors were shielding the mage with their shields and even their bodies while he put up a clumsy shield. Meanwhile the archer was trying to return fire, but they bounced off my wife’s magic shield.

We needed to kill as many of them as we could as fast as we could. The kidnappers would hesitate to use Astera as a hostage while they were so far from the edge of the forest. If they could keep us from buying time they might be able to get far enough away before reinforcements came.

If they stopped to take her hostage they would lose speed. So instead they decided to try to kill us quickly and escape, they would only use our daughter as a hostage if they knew there was no way to escape.

We had reached the wetlands bordering the forest. I hadn’t managed to kill any more of them so now we were trying to deplete each other’s magic shields. The first to lose their protection would be the loser.

That’s when I saw the archer glance towards Astera.

I felt my heart sink into my stomach. If they took her hostage they could kill her or take her away. Now that they had gotten this far the chances of reinforcements coming was slim. The wetlands were hard to traverse on foot. Even our wolf riders wouldn’t be able to gain ground on the boats.

Then a tree branch poking out over the water exploded.

It was good that I had trained my vision to its limit or I wouldn’t have recognized the creature shooting like an arrow over the water. It was an utterly massive tree monk. My thoughts went to the golden one before I shook my head. It couldn’t be.

When a kidnapper turned towards the soaring insect monster he did something weird. He shrieked. Like a scared girl. The rest didn’t have time to react before the monster was in the boat and cutting the screaming man’s throat.

The archer dropped his bow and pulled out a sword. The giant tree monk managed to stab him in the gut but lost part of one of its scythes in exchange.

I don’t understand why it’s doing this, it can’t be for food or territory. The thing is ignoring the danger and throwing its life away to attack powerful enemies. It shifted past the leader who was bent over and lunged past the other kidnappers.

My heart beat like a drum as it reached for Astera with its remaining claw. I shot an arrow at it but the mage’s shield was still up. It grabbed her and leapt from the boat, swords hacking at it as it fled from the screaming men.

The insect left the range of the smog, the bees would have a chance to save Astera now. Periphas swept out behind me, Now that Astera was away we could go all out. The two were bombarding the boats with lightning blasts, smashing against the mages shield.

I was going to help her when I heard a deep, bone rattling sound. The water of the river seemed to boil at the sound of the river king’s roar. Sobek was here.

Water poured off a massive shape, forming great crashing waves. Sobek rose from the muddy depths of the river. His massive scaly hide was craggy like jagged rocks, and his body so long I wasn’t even able to gauge his size properly. His mouth opened and teeth as tall as a man shone in ivory splendor.

He was Sobek, the greatest crocodile.

Everyone froze. We couldn’t do anything else. Sobek had this ...aura about him that made everyone incapable of resisting.

Sobek was older than most nations, and stronger than many smaller ones. There was no debate about this. We could all feel it. We were bugs before him.

His eyes focused in annoyance on the boats floating in his river. The kidnappers turned pale and shivered, their wounds dripping blood onto the deck of their boats.

Sobek’s titanic tail waved once, and he shot towards the front boat. He opened his mouth and bit into it.

That massive set of jaws were almost large enough to swallow the boat whole. Only a few chunks of wood stuck out the edges of his mouth. He chomped once and swallowed. The boat was gone.

The people on the other boat didn’t react. They couldn’t react. Every cell in their bodies had already surrendered. For people on our level, Sobek didn’t even have to make an effort.

The other boat was bitten into and swallowed down like a dry biscuit. The people in it barely let out hoarse screams before they disappeared from the world. They were gone as well.

Then Sobek’s giant slit pupils focused on us.

Phene and Periphas almost fell out of the air. They barely managed to keep flying in the under the gaze of those giant, mesmerizingly green eyes. We felt like we were far, far too close. I had heard that crocodiles could leap out of the water to snatch prey.

...And yet, I don't think Sobek would need to. It was almost like he could will us out of the sky if he chose.

Then, without a word, Sobek sank beneath the waves.

I released a breath I hadn’t noticed I was holding. If Sobek had wanted, he could have reached us all the way up here. The only reason we were alive was because he hadn’t bothered. The cold sweat dripping from me felt almost freezing thanks to the breeze from Phene’s wings.

“Astera!”

Periphas and Raphina dived to the river’s shore. My heart started beating again as I remembered my daughter.

Phene and I swooped after her. Were we too late?

The mother bees had formed a barrier around our daughter. They hadn’t fled from Sobek, probably because of the Empress’s control.

When the barrier parted we were greeted by a strange sight. Our daughter was tearing strips out of her blanket and using them to bind the giant tree monk’s wounds. She looked up and gave us an innocent smile.

“Mommy! Daddy! I made a contract.”

Oh Dame Fortune, how you like to play with us all…

Silly Mortal, You Have No Idea.