Chapter 73: Cheep!? 72

Cheep!?

Chapter 72

Following after the Gilded Feathers was a laborious task in the middle of the night, but a necessary one. The fledgling group of adventurers were strong, considering they weren’t even fully tier one as a whole, but that meant almost nothing when any given tier three could wipe the floor with them. Dressed in all black, the man who steadily kept pace with them like a distant shadow tried to think of all the ways someone could attack them and potentially steal away the Red Hawks. Luckily, the Guildmaster had already cleared the area of most other adventurers with specific and pointed requests, and others were simply recalled to take their advancement tests to a higher rank ahead of schedule. 

The tier three man put that out of his mind, knowing it was far above his pay grade. He’d been with Orson for years now, and while he wasn’t averse to eventually changing careers, the Guildmaster had long earned his honest loyalty. That didn’t mean that he would blindly put his life in danger, but just keeping an eye on these people? That was fine.

Admittedly, there was a dark nagging whisper in the back of his mind telling him that he could somehow procure the five Red Hawks for himself, but he drowned that voice in a thousand and one reasons as to why that would be his end. It ashamed him that the first reason was that Orson would probably have him killed.

He paused as he continued after them, noting that they slowed upon coming across a peculiar place in the forest. There was a distinct silence, a stillness that didn’t belong here, especially considering the fact that this stretch of forest belonged to the Eldergreen. From his position, he could see the three conferring with one another while the Red Hawks flitted between branches overhead. They made his task of following the group much harder, but they weren’t yet strong enough that he had to truly be wary of their detection abilities. Still, he was too far away to hear what the group said to one another

Thankfully, they turned away from that particular area of the forest, continuing roughly on course towards the outpost.

When the tracker reached the area that they’d been in, he too paused, sensing the strangeness in his bones. “Hmm… That’s unusual.” He murmured to himself before pulling out a medallion from his bag. With a slight push, he injected a trace of his essence into the metal, just enough that one of the other trackers could read the predetermined signal to take his position behind the Gilded Feathers. As much as he wanted to ignore the strange happenings in the forest, he knew that the higher-ups would want this examined. 

The tracker slipped through the underbrush, pulling his cloak a little closer around himself to better conceal his presence. He lacked the kind of equipment that would let him truly pass unseen, but he was a ranger, not some assassin. 

Yet, even with how quiet he was, his footfalls sounded inordinately loud in his own ears. All of the ambient noise in the forest had fallen away rapidly as he proceeded further and further into stillness. He slowed his steps as his heart rate picked up for no reason he was consciously aware of. Goosebumps broke out across his skin, and he suddenly had the feeling that he was not welcome. A survival instinct he didn’t even know he had roared into full volume, and he found himself crouched down low to the ground beside a tree even before he knew what he was doing.

And then, there was a new sound, still far off, but easily audible. The ranger clenched his jaw hard, feeling severely unnerved by the bizarreness of what was happening. In spite of his instincts screaming at him to flee, he forced it all down and didn’t move, trust in his own skill and training after more than a decade of experience pulled his presence of mind from the brink.

A twig snapped somewhere, echoing out like the breaking of an arm. Slowly he turned his head, trying to ensure that he could see as much of the forest around him as possible. It was difficult, his line of sight stopped within fifty meters at best, the towering trees and overgrowth forming upon hills that further obstructed his line of sight. He hunched down lower, careful not to make any noise as he did. 

Then he saw the beast that prowled the forest floor.

It was unlike any wolf he’d ever seen, its shaggy fur rough and outgrown in places as though it suffered from mange. If that was all, it would have been pitiful, but he could see a wide-eyed madness in its eyes, lips pulled back into a perpetual rictus snarl that exposed teeth longer and sharper than should belong on the animal. A three slitted nostril flared as a rough, ridged tongue lolled out of its open maw. As it stepped forward, another twig snapped under its feet, and the beast carefully watched and listened for any other sound.

‘It’s listening for anything to respond to the snapping twig.’ The ranger noted grimly, grateful that he was downwind of the creature. It was scarcely a stone's throw from him, impossible that it would miss him if the winds changed. In spite of his wariness, he did his best to note everything he could about the creature, the strange glint of malevolence in its eyes, the general biology the beast had, and of course its size. It was no taller than most of the wolves in the area, but it was longer, wider, and with small traits that marked it as decidedly unlike any of the native fauna he’d ever seen.

It was then that he noticed the wolf’s ears flick back and forth, followed by the wolf’s head as it looked around. When its gaze passed over the rangers hiding spot, he stopped breathing out of sheer desperation. Yet, fortunately, it simply kept scanning, seemingly trying to discern the location of a noise if its shifting ears meant anything. Finally its head faced deeper into the forest, both ears pointed in that direction.

Then the ranger heard the low buzzing sound.

‘What is it now!?’ Mentally he groaned, but also did his best to just envision himself as part of the tree and bush he sat in. 

The not-wolf growled, a sound like a gnomish gear-contraption that was near to exploding. Suddenly the buzzing sounds doubled in volume, as though in response to the wolf. The ranger felt the blood drain out of his face as the noise grew louder and louder. Any reasonable beast would have fled at the sheer noise, but the ranger was rapidly suspecting that the wolf was not just a beast. It was easily possible that it had undergone a transformation into a monster, though he wasn’t aware of what could have triggered it.

The wolf charged into the direction of the sound, yipping and snarling, and the ranger had to fight not to let out a long breath of relief. He rose from his position, turning around and readying to flee when he stopped himself and slowly sat himself back down, this time going totally prone onto the forest floor. It wasn’t out of practice, no skill that he’d trained told him that was the right move. But, even so, all of his instinctive response to flee for his life had suddenly shouted the exact opposite, to hide, to make himself as unattractive to attention as possible. He could barely even see anything when the buzzing sound elevated to sheer, deafening levels.

Wind rustled hard over his head, and as though passing beyond the peaceful eye of the storm, the world began to roar with a cacophony of what he recognized as insect wings. He didn’t dare move a muscle, but he could just barely see through the rustling branches over his head. 

A flurry of white and red passed over him, followed by another, and another still. The ground vibrated with the massive hornets passing, easily the size of his torso. 

For the first time in a long time, the ranger found himself praying to any god he could think of that he would go unnoticed. If they found him, he had no doubt that he would be dead.

Then something fell to the ground near him. It was one of the hornets, half-chewed through it seemed, followed rapidly by another hornet, still grasped in the wolf's jaws. Its eyes were bloodshot, and the ranger couldn’t look away as it raked its head back and forth, ichor spraying from the bug as it did. Yet, for the two it clearly killed, there were five on its back, biting and stinging it over and over again.

The wolf bashed itself against a tree with a howl, dislodging another of the hornets. It rounded quickly, seeking to bite into it.

Then an even larger hornet appeared, slamming down from above on top of the wolf’s head. It ground the monster's skull into the dirt, and the ranger noted that the bug somehow seemed to give off an air of contempt, even with its alien, insectoid physiology. In a concerted motion, the other hornets shifted their positions, serrated mandibles hovering over the wolf’s legs. As one, they snapped their pincers closed before they shifted their heads back and forth like saws. 

The monster never stopped struggling, even as the bugs cut through its tendons, rendering it helpless. The large hornet and two of the smaller ones grabbed onto the wolf with hooked feet, struggling for a second to lift their prey off the ground. With a gust of wind, they succeeded, and just as quickly vanished into the shadows of the trees.

Leaving a terrified ranger staring at the corpse of one of the most dangerous beasts in the natural world.

“Massacre Hornets… Shit.” Uttered the still pale and now violently shaking man. Before he knew it, he was on his feet and running, sprinting for dear life as far away in the opposite direction as he could. His hand already clasped the medallion, pumping it full of essence like a siren call to those who also carried it. He didn’t run towards the city, nor did he run towards the outpost. Even in his current state of mind, he knew that doing either was incredibly foolish. If the Massacre Hornets picked up his scent trail at any point, they would follow him wherever he went. Their sense of smell was better than almost any other creature, something to do with how they communicated with one another. 

“Why the hell is this happening now!?” He cried out to himself.

Then, he remembered the pilgrimage, and wanted to wail. If nothing else, the Gilded Feathers knew nothing of the hornets. So long as they didn’t meet or know about the hornets, they’d be fine. 

What were the odds that any members had seen the hornets and said nothing, though?

—-----------------

The first thing Niko did when he woke up was stretch his limbs out. While the padded bed wasn’t as good as what he’d had at Orson’s, it was still admittedly better than most beds he’d slept on back as a human. 

With a long yawn, he plodded over to the window of the second floor, the curtains drawn over the glass panes keeping the first real dawn light from invading the room too harshly. Niko looked over his shoulder at the bed, noting Skye still peacefully asleep, something he was surprised to see considering she needed very little. 

The rooms appeared to be soundproof, if the fact that they couldn’t hear anything downstairs said anything. In spite of that, Niko barely managed to hold himself back from emulating a rooster–though he was a little bewildered to find that the idea of doing it was a little too natural feeling for his tastes–and waking Skye up as loudly as possible. Instead, he tugged the blinds open with his beak and claws, careful not to snag them on the fabric. 

After that, he sat down next to her bed, and made a soft cooing noise to begin with, “Skye, it’s morning.” 

He waited a few more seconds, before trilling slightly louder, “We’ve got gear to get.” 

A few more seconds, louder still, “I’m bored.”

“And hungry.” Louder still.

Niko waited, placing his head on the bed next to Skye and boring his eyes into the side of her head. All of the things he said were true, they had a lot to do today. 

Finally, he squawked slightly louder, “I wanna see what you guys made!” 

Skye made an unintelligible noise and rolled over to her other side. Niko warbled at her, “Fine, I’ll be right back.” 

He stood up then, noting that she barely stirred. Niko shook his head, waking people up was not a pastime he enjoyed. With nothing better to do, Niko left the room, closing the door behind him, and went to the bathroom. After taking care of business, he made sure to clean himself up a bit and then went downstairs. The cafeteria was already running, and a few adventurer’s that he didn’t recognize were already downstairs. ‘Heh, early birds,’ he mused to himself as he passed a few of them, giving a surprised table of adventurer’s a nod in passing. They looked on with a mix of awe and amusement at the sight of him, but word had already spread about his presence. Plenty of people still stopped and stared wherever he went, but whether that was due to his Phorus identity or how gorgeous he was, he couldn’t say. 

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He strolled up to the kitchen counter, a wide and long thing with plentiful condiments, ready made breads and other basic breakfast items, and a pair of attendants that went back and forth between taking orders and resupplying when necessary. 

Niko assessed a wooden plate seriously before gently picking it up between the knuckles of his clawed hands. He couldn’t hold it quite right otherwise, but he could handle one item. After a quick perusal, he selected a few rolls and slices of bread, unbothered by the continued staring of the other patrons.

“Huh, never thought I’d see a Phorus fetching breakfast,” someone said to his table, his tone suggesting he was trying to be quiet, but failing.

‘I suppose I am doing that,’ He admitted to himself as he gently grabbed a food ladel’s handle with the tip of his beak, a lightly heated bowl that held melty butter. After painting generous portions onto his and Skye’s toast, he did the same with a few different types of jam. The attendant watched, nodding to himself everytime Niko didn’t make a mess.

Finally, when Niko was finished, the same woman commented, “Doesn’t even make a mess, unlike these oafs.” 

A few of the adventurer’s nearby suddenly busied themselves with anything else at hand, and Niko trilled at the compliment. 

She smiled, “Don’t eat too much bread now, we’ve got the kitchen open too when you and your friends come down.”

“Thanks!” Niko said, knowing that she couldn’t understand him, but the spirit of the tone seemed to do enough. 

He moved back upstairs, slipping back into the room to see Skye sitting up in bed. Her head rotated towards him as he entered, and a flicker of awareness entered her gaze. Then she saw the food, and perked up even more, “Food?”

“Yeah, food.” Niko snorted, “Figured this would be a better way to wake you up. You’ll have to deal with drinks on your own. I don’t have thumbs to carry all this clucking stuff.” 

Skye smirked mirthfully before helping him put the exceedingly overstuffed plate on the small table that sat beside their respective beds. After a second of appraising the food, she said, “Thanks, Niko.” 

“Sure.” He chirped, before the pair of them began to stuff their gobs. With the morning light now pouring into the wide open window, Niko let himself simply soak in the ambience.

After a few minutes, Skye seemed to be firing on all neurons, and asked, “Are the others awake?”
Niko shrugged, “No clue. I didn’t see them down there or anything.” 

She nodded, before standing up and stretching out, “Alright, I’ll get dressed and we can go pound a door or two before getting some more breakfast.”

Niko trilled in agreement as she got dressed, while he himself licked sticky, syrupy goodness off of his claws. In little time, they were out of the room again, and Niko watched as Skye pounded on two different doors in rapid succession before calling out, “We’ll be downstairs getting breakfast!”

They stopped in at the bathrooms before Niko once more entered the cafeteria hall. Skye had brought along the dirty plate, and placed it on a table that had a big enough padded floor seat next to it for Niko to be comfortable. 

“Mornin’,” The same attendant from before cheerily greeted Skye, who smiled and nodded at her, doing her best impression of the morning person that she was most definitely not. “Your friend there came down earlier, very well mannered. Well, anyways, what can I get you, hon?”

Skye glanced over at Niko and patted him, “Thanks, he’s great. And, uhh… I have no idea. Coffee to start, definitely.” 

The lady laughed, “Can do. Some for you, too?” She glanced over at Niko, who nodded with a trill, “Two coffee’s then. Cream and sugar?” More nods, “Sounds good. I’d recommend just leaving breakfast to chef’s choice if you don’t have any allergies.”

Skye and Niko exchanged glances before Skye said, “Sure, we’ll try it out.”

Afterwards, they found their way to the table, and less than a minute later Niko spotted Ronald, Dachna, and Mithel as they all trundled down the stairwell. 

They joined them at the table soullessly until a waitress came by and took their orders. Coffee was the first order, followed by more chef’s choice breakfasts. Contrary to what Niko expected, ‘chef’s choice’ was not just whatever the cook happened to throw together. Niko had a breaded pork-steak covered in a rich white gravy with thick cuts of honeyed ham and something that halfway resembled green beans and asparagus that had been fried up on the side. Skye’s was different in the main meat choice, which was instead a much more lightly breaded cut of fish filet. 

Everyone had something different, and Niko found it delicious in the entirely non-essence variety. “That was good,” Dachna patted his stomach, “I don’t know who the morning cook is, but I’m gonna have to start getting up earlier for this.”

The waitress was passing by then and happened to catch that, “I’ll let Gus know you liked it,” she giggled, and took plates from the table. 

After she left, Ronald leaned in a bit, “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m ready to get my gear. To Stella?”

They agreed, and after cleaning up a bit again, they all found themselves navigating the awakening city streets. As usual, they drew attention wherever they went, but now there was an undercurrent of excitement that wasn’t solely attached to Niko. More than once, Niko heard ‘Baron’s Mansion’ mentioned, along with a few questions thrown around about what happened. The stories were inevitably getting blown up a bit, but Niko didn’t especially mind it. 

When they found Stella’s shop and entered it, the armorer practically sprinted out of the backroom. “Finally! I was going to have someone come and get you all if you didn’t get here soon!”

Skye grimaced, and Niko found himself nearly doing the same. Stella was a very pretty elf, but right now she looked downright manic.

“Whoa, calm, be calm,” Skye gestured with her hands, “That is way too much energy for this early in the morning.”

Stella nodded, “Ah, right, right. I just couldn’t sleep all night so I ended up drinking a lot of–” she flailed ineffectually at a pot in the corner, “Whatever that stuff is.”

“Coffee?” Mithel offered, before staring at the slight amount of liquid still in the pot. Then she realized said liquid was blue, “Err… not coffee.”

“Not coffee,” Stella nodded, “I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s this new stuff-” Stella stopped herself abruptly before continuing, “Not important!” 

She sprinted away and back into the backroom as the Wyldwalkers all felt a bit of concern for the armorsmith. “Is she… normally like this?”

Skye groaned, “She… might have a slight caffeine addiction.”

“You sure that’s caffeine?” Mithel arched an eyebrow doubtfully.

“One can only hope,” Skye shrugged helplessly.

Stella pulled a display cart behind her through a double-wide doorway to the back end of her workshop. “And here we have your stuff! I went over and collected your weapons, too, since I was awake already.”

“I’ll bet Chris was positively enthused by your arrival.” Skye stated dryly.

“Oh, he hated it!” Stella happily informed her cousin, “But, it’s not like this is the first time this has happened.” She waved her hand flippantly, “Not important. Here, I need to see you wearing this before you leave so I can take it in a bit if needed.”

Niko shifted on his feet, “Skye, she’s looking at me like I look at badgers.” 

“It’s okay, Niko.” Skye stared at her cousin, slightly glassy eyed, “It’s the same here.”

“Come, come! I just have to see how everything fits!” Stella insisted once more before darting past them and locking the doors.

Ronald blinked before wordlessly stripping off what little armor he had left. Niko counted themselves lucky that they didn’t ask for any undergarm–

“Oh! That reminds me, I have some other clothes and undergarments here, so you can all use the changing rooms.” Stella gestured to some additional fabrics that Niko had completely missed beneath the many armor and weapon pieces.

‘Welp, sorry you guys!’ Niko trilled with amusement as he saw the others bewilderedly look at the cart. 

“Oh, don’t worry, I have some things for you, too, Niko.” Stella said, and Niko’s amusement died in his throat. Skye laughed, hard at Niko’s expression as Stella virtually dragged him towards the cart.

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