Pitt reached the Lowlands. He was still days from his home, but he was starting the long climb out of the forests of the plains. He might even be able to join a wagon train headed where he wanted to go.

It would be walking pace but something else would be doing all the walking.

The trip had been long and more work than he liked. Hopefully he wouldn't have to deal with more problems before he reached the valley leading up to his cabin. He could see Monteque grabbing him for a job and stranding him another hundred miles away which he would have to walk back to get where he was now.

His former brother needed to work on that.

Pitt decided that maybe he couldn't put whomever he snatched back where he had taken them. Maybe he just had enough for one jump to the problem, and nothing for another jump.

And he couldn't do anything if Monteque decided to invoke the oath. That was a binding contract and the source of his great strength. If he refused to help, he would lose what he had acquired with no way to get it back.

He liked being able to easily do things other men struggled to accomplish.

Even with most of the monsters gone, there would still be problems that needed his special touch to solve no matter if he liked it or not.

Pitt took his bearings. He could take the long way around and go up the Spiketale Trail to the right of his view. The short way was through Falling Rock pass on the right. The center trail meandered until it crossed the other trails and then headed fora a pass that led to the center of the mountains and then down the other side.

The center path only got as close as the end of Falling Rock Pass to his home before it turned away. Spiketail Trail actually cut across both before joining the trail above Falling Rock and heading toward his valley.

He should be able to get through the pass and headed up toward his place in a couple of days. That was better than the additional week offered by the other trails.

The main problem would be a collapse. He should be able to handle those well enough, but it would be dangerous to bring others into the pass with him. An animal panicking might be enough to cause an avalanche. He didn't want to risk a horse to something like that.

He definitely didn't want to spend money on a horse and then have it die to a falling rock from the top of the stone walls.

Pitt reached the top of the trail and looked out in the distance. Vertical walls rose on each side of the road as it climbed up, down, and then up again. He couldn't see the end of the walls from where he stood.

He looked at the beginning of the other trail going the other way. It already curved in a climbing switchback before it got two wagons worth of distance from where he stood.

He briefly considered taking the safer way even if the distance traveled was three times more than the other. He pictured both of them in his mind before he decided to keep on the fast path anyway.

The risk of an avalanche didn't seem that much compared to the extra time it would take to get home.

Pitt spotted birds up ahead as he made his way down the valley. He didn't often see anything winged on this route. There was nothing in Falling Rock that would feed birds of any kind. Avalanches and landslides prevented vultures from eating any living thing caught in them, and there was nothing for smaller raptors and songbirds.

What were they circling?

Had something been caught in a slide up ahead? Were they trying to eat that animal? Did he want to get involved?

He figured he could take a look. If there was something he could do, then he would. Otherwise he could keep moving. Vultures had to eat the same as anything else.

And it wouldn't be the first time he had left something to feed the carrion birds.

Pitt slowed as he neared a rock fall piled up near the wall. He didn't see anything moving. Maybe the vultures had it wrong. Maybe there was nothing around to attract their attention.

He stopped next to the rocks. How had that happened? Should he clear it to make it easier on the next person through the pass?

A rock just missed his head. He looked up. He saw birds swooping down on him. They released rocks as they veered up out of their dives. He frowned as he stepped back from the barrage.

The birds had collapsed part of the wall with their rock throwing. He saw the signs easily once he knew what he was looking for. He had to get out of the pass before they buried him.

He didn't like to retreat but he didn't have a bow to drive the flock of monsters off. If he had, he would donate the meat to the next village he came to on the other side of the pass.

He wondered if he could use their tactics against them. He was more than capable of knocking birds out of the air with rocks. He had done it before when he had been fighting with the Brotherhood, and settling monster problems.

He liked to think he had a fair hand at that sort of thing.

He also had plenty of things to throw. They covered the ground around him. He snatched a rock up and hurled it at the nearest bird. The animal corrected in midair to let the missile slide by without touching it.

The crowd circled, picking up ammunition from the top of the defile. They gathered to let the rocks go on top of him, or the walls on either side.

He thought if they hit the tops of the walls enough, they would wind up dropping a section of rocks down on top of him. He couldn't allow that to happen. He didn't want to fight being buried by overgrown chickens.

What should he do? Could he get out of the pass before they collapsed it? Would they follow him out of the killing zone they were taking advantage of to use?

He grabbed the biggest rock he could lift and balanced it on one hand. He gave it a little toss in the air. When it started down, he punched it with his other hand.

The stone turned into fragments spewing upwards from where he stood. Some of the birds fell to the floor of the canyon with wrecked wings unable to support their great weight. A portion fell wounded on the top of the walls, calling for help. Some flapped out of the way at the last minute, surprised by what had happened.

Pitt grimaced. He charged forward, kicking any of the vultures in his way to get them to let him pass. He jogged to the other end of the pass, watching the skies.

He scooped up rocks and put them in his coat pockets as he went. He had been lucky to knock some of them out of the air. He wanted to be ready if they came back.

He had been unlucky on this trip so far. He had been fighting monsters all the way to his home region. Would he be fighting monsters right to his doorstep? If he had to do that, they would be dead.

He didn't have a lot of patience at the best of times, and he was losing what little he did have at the constant dealings he had undertaken so far.

He definitely needed to talk to Monteque about transferring him back home after every summons. This was ridiculous.

Pitt reached the end of the pass. The birds circled but didn't follow as he cleared the last of the walls. He smiled as he walked out in the clear air. He could see the road ahead. Once on that, he could make a straight shot for home.

He decided to stop at the general store and get some more tobacco. He seemed to have run out on his climb out of the plains into the hills. Maybe his nerves would calm down if he had a smoke and chance to sit back.

He knew there were stores leading up to his mountains. He could get tobacco from one of them before he headed up his valley to his house. He might have to stop for food and drink also.

He hoped he didn't run into any more problems before he reached home. It would be good to sleep in his own bed after the traveling he had done.

He might have to come back to the pass with a bow to settle with the vultures once and for all. He would leave that until he was home. Once he had put in some work around the place, if he felt like it, he would test out his marksmanship.

He felt he was still good enough to hit a bird on the fly if he wanted to do it.

Pitt walked on. He dumped his rocks on the side of the road as he walked. He didn't need them if the birds weren't following him. He had half-thought they would. Maybe he had killed enough of them that they didn't want to press for more deaths.

He didn't mind being able to move on peacefully. He had killed so many things for the gods, he could let a flock of birds off the hook until he came back and took a real look at them.

If he did that, he would have a bow, a quiver full of arrows, and maybe some help from the local hunters so he could finish the flock fast enough they couldn't drop rocks on everyone under them.

They might move on before that happened with the dent he had made in their numbers. Some birds were smart enough to leave an area where something hunted them and not the other way around. That didn't stop cats from grabbing the next bird in line.

Pitt found his turn and turned to follow the road to the next town on his way. He would talk to the people living there before he decided he should put off dealing with the vultures until he came back this way. If the vultures were a serious threat to the locals, he would borrow what he needed and make sure they couldn't bother people using the pass to get around.

He didn't want to put in the extra time on this problem, but some things bothered him more than he liked to admit.

And he didn't like the way they tried to ambush him with falling rocks, hammering at the sides of the canyon. The vultures were too smart to not know what they're doing. He told himself to calm down before he started a crusade against large birds everywhere he went.

He had smokes to buy.