“SHOOT IT, QUICK WOMAN”

“DON’T CALL ME WOMAN!”

“TANDRA, WE REALLY DON’T HAVE TIME TO TALK ABOUT NAME CALLING”

She fires an arrow at the giant Roc as it soars towards them, causing it to swoop away leaving both sides unharmed.

“I GOT ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD FOR YOU. THAT THING DOESN’T”

“I KNOW, HENCE WHY I’M SCREAMING BECAUSE THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT WE’LL BE DOING WHEN IT GETS US”

The Roc makes a dive for them, causing the man to let go of his hold, dropping down, just catching himself.

“WHY THE HELL IS IT ATTACKING US ANYWAY?”

The man looks guiltily down at his hanging feet.

“YOU KNOW THE EGGS WE HAD THIS MORNING…”

“…YOU D-”

“I WAS HUNGRY” He screams as the Roc makes another round at them, this time going for Tandra, which she fends off by landing an arrow on its left wing, causing it to flail away in reflexive shock .

“YOU WERE HUNGRY? YOU TOOK THE EGG FROM ITS MOTHERS NEST AND COOKED IT…BECAUSE YOU WERE HUNGRY?” She roars down at him, spittle flying and spattering him below.

“THAT’S KIND OF WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU’RE HUNGRY”

“YOU DON’T PISS OFF A GIANT FUCKING BIRD WHILE CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN”

“OOPS”

“I SWEAR, WHEN THIS IS OVER, I’LL TOSS YOU OFF THE EDGE OF THIS MOUNTAIN AND WATCH YOU FALL”

“I WAS PLANNING TO DO THAT ANYWAY BUT I GUESS YOU CAN HAVE THE HONORS”

She just bawls with laughter, hysterical towards the man cracking what she knows isn’t a joke while a giant level sixty Roc is flying their way, pissed to death.

“NOT THE BEST TIME TO BE LAUGHING” He warns her, to which she quickly races up the mountain, just dodging the Roc’s talons as they tear through the mountainside.

“OH REALLY? I DIDN’T NOTICE”

“I THINK THE GIANT BIRD MIGHT BE A SIGN”

She knocks another arrow, this time shooting close to him.

“GET MOVING YOU LITTLE SHIT”

“AY AY MAAM”

Almost breaking her hold her furious grip, she starts to climb herself, keeping an eye out for the Roc.

Luckily, she had gotten a good shot when the Roc first appeared, taking out what was probably the dominant eye and destroying its depth perception.

Thanks to that, the Roc spends most of its time flying into empty cliff faces…but it’s getting better at targeting the right area.

“FUCK” She screams as the Roc’s shadow engulfs her.

Pushing on the ledge, she plummets down, smacking into her friend, who clings on for dear life as her foot lands on his face, almost snapping his neck.

Slipping down, she grabs onto him. Positioning herself to his right with legs wrapped round his waist, knocking an arrow onto her bow as it finally drops into her hands.

“WELL HELLO THERE, COULD’VE GIVEN MY FACE A HELL OF A LOT MORE WARNING” He screams at her with a decently deep imprint of her boot on his face.

“I’M COMING, PREPARE YOUR FACE” She screams back at him.

The Roc screams too, drowning out both their voices. It’s one good eye looks right at them and it starts to fly towards them.

“TANDRAAAA”

“I’M ON IT” She knocks an arrow, shooting it and knocks another.

The Roc dodges the first, put recoils from the second as it passes closeby to its remaining eye.

Slamming into the mountains side just beside them, it rips away moments after, taking its long circle in the air, giving them a momentary rest.

“TANDRA, GET OFF ME I HAVE A PLAN”

“YOUR PLANS ARE TO COOK BABY BIRDS WHICH PISSES OFF THEIR BIG FUCKING MOTHERS”

“I TOLD YOU I WAS HUNGRY”

“NEXT TIME EAT ROCK, ROCK’S DON’T COME TO KILL YOU WHEN YOU EAT THEIR CHILDREN” She prepares to jump off of him, but his free hand grabs her leg.

“NOT YET”

She immediately realizes what he’s doing.

“NO FUCKING WAY”

“OH YES!” He laughs maniacally while she patiently waits for the Roc to make its way back towards them, looking for a possible hold a short distance away.

Soon the shadow engulfs them both, but she doesn’t fire anything.

Instead, she leaps off the man, screaming her head off as she drops onto a hold, breaking it and plummets down till her arms slam onto a ridge, almost breaking them.

Looking up, she spots the Roc flying away, with one man clutching for dear life on its legs.

The Roc soon notices and begins to shake them furiously.

“STOP IT, I’M GETTING DIZZY YOU DAMN BIRD” He shouts merrily, voice carried in the wind.

She improves her hold to a more comfortable position and watches the Roc fly around, trying to shake off the man as he shimmies up the Roc’s leg laughing like the madman he is.

“HEY TANDRA, SHOOT HER A LITTLE PLEASE”

“NO WAY IN HELL AM I JOINING YOU UP THERE”

“IT’LL SAVE US SOME TIME!” He screams back, starting to climb the side of the Roc, to which it retaliates by flying towards the cliff.

“YOU’RE CRAZY”

“OF C-”

His voice is cut as the Roc smashes into the mountainside, her friend going into it first. Though she knows he’ll be fine, she has a slight scare.

The Roc, slightly dizzy, flies away, revealing a man still vehemently climbing towards its back.

It begins to do barrel rolls, dives, air flips, anything to get him off.

But he clings with a maddened grip almost as mad as he, slowly making his way to the Roc’s neck.

Reaching there, he holds tightly and laughs his head off.

“LOOK AT ME, I’M RIDING A GIANT FRICKING BIRD. WOOOOO”

“GET THE FUCK OFF THERE RIGHT NOW, STOP PISSING ABOUT!” She screams back, frustrated at the man, and slightly jealous in fact.

“NOW DON’T BE JEALOUS, I’LL LET YOU HAVE A GO TOO” He keeps shimmying up, till his feet squeeze on the upper bounds of the Roc’s neck.

The Roc still keeps doing all sorts of air stunts, voicing its annoyance extremely loudly.

It’s so distracted, that it doesn’t notice Tandra lining up her shots, until one pierces its wing, doing minimal damage, but successfully annoying it.

“TANDRA, HERE WE COOOME” He whoops as the Roc turns towards her, quite pissed.

“I HATE YOU” She puts her bow back in the inventory and prepares herself

“WAHAHAHAH” The Roc soars towards her, getting a hard knock on the head by the man, making it dip slightly.

Using her hold, she leaps into the air, feeling it slam towards her as the Roc flies into the mountain.

Dropping onto the Roc, she is grabbed and slammed onto the top of the neck, the man on top of her and gripping onto the Roc’s feathers tightly.

The Roc begins to do multiple violent air stunts, like dive bombing.

“BIRD, IF YOU TAKE US UP, WE WON’T KILL YOU” The man screams at the Roc, to which it responds by shaking its head profusely to throw them off.

“ARE YOU REALLY TRYING TO TALK TO A BIRD? I GUESS YOU DO HAVE A BIRD BRAIN AS WELL YOU TWAZZACK” She screams at him, slightly muffled by the feathers in her mouth.

“BIRD, IF YOU TAKE US UP THE MOUNTAIN, I’LL LET YOU EAT ME, ALIVE!”

“YOU CRAZY? EVEN IF IT COULD UNDERSTAND YOU, WHY THE F-”

The Roc immediately calms down and begins flying peacefully.

Tandra swerves her head from the ground to look at the man, who’s grinning manically and then towards the Roc’s head, in utter disbelief.

“You have got to be kidding me”

“NOW BIRD, YOU LIKE THE SOUND OF FRESH, SCREAMING HUMAN? TAKE US UP AND I PROMISE YOU, I’LL LET YOU EAT ME ALIVE WITHOUT COMPLAINTS”

It turns its head somewhat, trying to see the man, to which he leans to the side making eye contact with the Roc.

After a minute of smooth flying with constant eye contact with the man, the Roc shoots up, somehow made its mind.

He whoops and keeps holding on, laughing merrily along the way.

Tandra however, is still slowly letting the fact that her friend just made a deal to a bird, to eat him alive, and the bird seems to have accepted the deal.

I’m surrounded by crazy.

The hundreds of feet they had yet to climb disappear in a blink of an eye, a beautiful sight to the two of them; since they had spent over four days climbing from the base of the mountain.

It had only been two weeks since they had left Ronthar, two weeks and they’ve almost made it to their first destination.

Soaring past the peak of the mountain, she spots a deep dish of rock inside the mountain, with a small black church resting in the center. Though she notes the black stone is quite cracked in many places, even visible from this far.

According to the man, this was some abandoned church which he'd found out during an encounter at the tavern.

Though when he said they were going to an abandoned church, she did not imagine it was on top of a mountain in a level sixty zone, way over her head.

Bastard didn't break the news till they'd already traveled a week and a bit, and arrived at the foot of the mountain.

The Roc slowly descends, lowering its head to let them off.

Dropping to the ground, she rolls and takes out her bow, knocking and drawing in record time.

“Now now Tandra, no need for that” The man stands up, dusting his clothes and walking towards the Roc’s face.

“Now then, our promise is to be kept, eat me” He looks back towards Tandra “Oh, you might want to run inside before it decides to eat you t’” Chuckling, he’s cut off by the Roc as it chomps on his upper half.

Lifting him in the air, Tandra can hear the screams of the man as the Roc chomps violently on the man, cracking a few bones audibly.

She turns towards the temple, leaving her friend to his own crazy business and starts running.

Hearing a loud gulp, she swerves her head, to see the Roc’s tongue flicking out its mouth, as if licking its lips.

Increasing her pace, she slams into the cracked stone door, jarring her arm and surprising her, since she thought the door would just break open since it looks so cracked.

Pushing violently at the door, it creaks open and she slips in hearing a loud bang and screech as the Roc hits the temple with its talons.

Delving slightly deeper, away from the angry screeching noises of the Roc, she almost bumps into a small figure in charred robes.

“Child, please do not run in the temple, for the brothers are sleeping” The voice is gravelly, like two rocks grinding against eachother, yet still peaceful.

Jumping in shock at the figure, she quickly bows in apology.

“Who are you?” She raises an eyebrow, slightly alert but somehow calmed by his peaceful voice.

The figure lowers its hood, showing its skin to be the same cracked black stone that the temple is made from.

“Brother Tesurc. Now please wait here while I go quieten our very noise guest”

…

“Fourty one” Fadrim’s eyes gleam expectantly towards the heavily sweating Ankorr, who hold a knife, crusted in both fresh blood and old blood.

Clenching his teeth, almost cracking them, he forces ‘It’ to remain back and places the knife on the blood soaked skin of Fadrim.

Slowly, he slices down, letting fresh blood bubble out from the new wound and apply a new layer of blood to the already sticky body.

“Fourty two, now you’re free to go” He chuckles, increasing it to a laughter when Ankorr madly rushes for the water, slamming into it with a loud slap.

Forcefully drowning himself in the water, he can let his tension leave him quickly, but still he retains some, to make sure ‘It’ doesn’t release itself and claw itself from the water.

A few minutes later, he resurfaces, to find a dead Fadrim on his knees, disappearing in a pillar of light.

A short while later, more late than usual, Fadrim returns; sweaty from sprinting his way here.

“Well done, seems like we have progress” He claps and collapses to the floor to recover his breath. He is a mage, so sprinting long distances is not his strength.

For the past two weeks, Ankorr had been slowly cutting Fadrim, controlling ‘It’ as best as he could.

He failed quite often in the first few days, but soon got better, since he got used to the close proximity with the blood, with the feeling of it spurting out with the knife.

The most he was able to cut in the past two weeks was fourty two times, but that alone stood for around half an hour in close proximity with Fadrim’s blood.

He still thinks Fadrim is mad, but this is helping him like never before, or in the case of Fadrim. He doesn’t know what the case is for other people.

“Now” Fadrim says from the floor “How would you like a field test?”

Ankorr stops daydreaming and looks towards Fadrim, only noticing the sound of metal chinking in the distance.

“What did you do?” He looks towards Fadrim, scared he might have to kill more people.

He may have killed people, but it’s still not something he enjoys, rather he detests it violently.

“I…might’ve fooled a young party of adventurers to come explore the cave…” He chuckles lightly.

“You absolute b-”

“Ah hello there” A deep male voice calls from afar, mildly scared but somewhat trusting.

He looks up from Fadrim to see a small group of four adventurers; all warriors by the look if it, walk into the room.

“AH” one of the group, a burly man with a black tattoo of a rat across his pale face, points towards Fadrim, who is acting dead.

“What’s happened to him?” The supposed leader steps up, supposed since his armor is the best, albeit only studded leather.

“My friend just collapsed from the running, he’s too excitable sometimes” Ankorr swears he can see Fadrim still a smirk at his lie.

“Friend? Sorry for being a bit on edge, just a bit strange to find a couple of other adventurers out here, much less newbies like you” The leader shakes his head, probably empty of brains.

The group make their way towards them, checking Fadrim’s alive by giving him a light slap on the cheeks.

‘Waking’ up, Fadrim gives them all a quick hello before standing up excitedly.

“Hi, yeah as I was saying, we needed a bit of help in the boss room next door” He points to the large rock Ankorr usually sits on.

“That’s the boss room?” One of the group, a darker skinned man with spiky blonde hair looks unconvinced.

“It’s sealed magically; some blood will do the trick, though apparently neither of ours is the right type” Fadrim shrugs despondedly.

The leader nods towards Fadrim before taking a knife out and going to the rock.

Slicing lightly into his hand, he places it on the rock, letting it snake down to the floor.

Ankorr looks away quickly, holding his knuckles till they go white.

The scent of another person’s blood after almost a month of just Fadrim’s is extremely enticing.

One of the group notice the strange behaviour, which Fadrim quickly intervenes in.

“He’s just a little, well quite squeamish with blood” He chuckles.

After a minute or so, nothing happens and the leader looks back confused and angry.

“Why is nothing happening?”

“Alas, seems like you might have the wrong blood. Maybe one of the others could try?” Fadrim shakes his head solemnly.

Another goes up to cut his hand on the rock, the one with a rat tattoo. Fadrim stops him and whispers in his ear, to which he glances at Ankorr and nods gruffly.

Ankorr doesn’t know where Fadrim found these people, but to find such trusting men, either they’re way too dumb for their own good, or way too trusting for their own good, especially with their looks, but then again looks aren’t everything, he knows that well.

This time, the wave of voracious hunger clawing at him to escape is even greater than before, enough to make him drop to the ground, holding it as drool drips down his mouth and he breaths raggedly, almost growling hungrily.

“You alright man?” The leader leans down, touching Ankorr with a damp, bloody hand.

He snaps.

The men stand no chance, caught off guard and unprepared for a mad demon to gut their leader in an instant and behead another immediately after.

He notices Fadrim bleed deeply from a self-inflicted gash on his chest, and ignores him, going for the man with the rat tattoo, ripping through his spine.

The last member, dies before they can take more than two steps and Ankorr feasts on their blood, tears of his own forming as he tries vehemently to stop, but this meal is delicious, like a flood of water after having nothing but salt.

Slowly, his body becomes his own and he sees Fadrim watching over him with an ear to ear grin, his own blood pooled around him, but only from a self-inflicted wound.

“Seems like this field trip was…quite the success wouldn’t you say?”

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Author's Corner:

................Well, seems like i had maybe a few hours of free time which i've used to write this :D

Because i have no other life right now...T_T

Anyways, hope you enjoying it and please land a nice comment!

Also i've gotten 7 more followers in the past few days, totally awesome!

I solemnly try to swear, no more chapters for the next two weeks (this isn't working well T_T)

-TRUE NORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD