“Come on Drago,” Axel groaned tiredly. “Just a little further and then we can rest.”
With an equally tired groan, Drago slowly walked after him as they moved through the Carnix Cliffs, following after King Burny as the hawk wheeled gleefully through the air above them, screeching happily as he led them deeper through the cliffs that the Windy Hawks made their homes on.
Finally, as the sun beat mercilessly down on them, Axel and Drago came to a stop before a large, rough spire of rock that rose nearly fifty feet into the air. King Burny screeched once more and circled the spire three times before landing at the top. Looking over the side, down at the two land-bound travelers he’d been leading, the hawk screeched impatiently and flapped his wings at them.
“Guess we’re climbing this,” Axel said to Drago, looking over at the Rockwolf in time to see him settle in the shadow of the spire and close his eyes for a nap.
“Traitor,” Axel muttered under his breath before taking a deep breath and beginning to climb the spire.
Using his Earthsense in tandem with his Manipulate Earth, Axel made quick progress up the side of the rocky tower, seeking handholds and footholds as he went and making them when they weren’t available. As he went higher, Axel did his best not to look down at the ground that slowly stretched further and further away from him as he climbed; instead he forced himself to keep his eyes searching higher and higher, looking for the next handhold, the next depression in the rock that he could use to move further. On and on he climbed for what felt like an eternity before he finally pulled himself, on numb and shaking arms, to the top of the spire and rolled onto his back, solid ground beneath him as looked at the blue sky stretching above him and he tried to catch his breath.
Impatiently, King Burny poked his head into Axel’s view and let out a short chirp that Axel wouldn’t have expected from the large hawk. Before Axel could say anything to the hawk, he pecked down at the Wolf-man’s head with his sharp beak and drew a cry of pain from him as Axel clapped his hands to his forehead and he rolled away from the bird.
“Dammit!” he cried. “What the hell was that for?!”
Offering only a quizzical look, King Burny remained silent as the Beastkin pulled himself to his feet and raised his hand angrily toward the hawk, finger out as he prepared to launch into a lecture toward the bird. Before Axel could speak, King Burny screeched once more and with a short hop and a flap of his wings, approached a nest that held a Windy Hawk that looked like the others inside it, looking curiously at the new creature that had appeared at its nesting site.
Axel looked at the Windy Hawk, his curiosity mimicked in its gaze as King Burny landed beside it and nuzzled the nesting hawk tenderly, cooing quietly as he did so.
“Hi,” Axel said awkwardly toward the hawk. “My name’s Axel. King Burny brought me here for something. You wouldn’t happen to know why would you?”
Silently, the Windy Hawk watched him, warily studying him before it flared its wings out, knocking away King Burny and standing from the nest. As the smaller, more naturally colored bird knocked the larger, magical bird away, Axel tried not to laugh as King Burny looked just a little upset by the treatment, before all thoughts of laughter fell away at the sight of the four eggs resting within the nest.
Flapping its wings, the Windy Hawk stepped carefully out of the nest and studied Axel carefully before bending down toward the eggs within the nest and using its hooked beak to push one of the eggs closer to him. As the Windy Hawk did that, King Burny turned toward Axel and began to jump around and flap his wings impatiently.
“Is this the gift?” Axel asked the red and orange hawk softly. With a bob of his head, the hawk answered that it was.
“Are you sure about this?” Axel asked the Windy Hawk that kept her eyes on him carefully. With a screech of her own, the hawk flared her wings and bobbed her head toward the egg.
“Alright then,” Axel said, stepping toward the nest and kneeling gently before it, “if you’re sure about this.”
As the two hawks watched him reach gently, carefully toward the nest, Axel wondered how he was going to carry the egg to the ground when both hawks lashed out and nipped his thumbs, drawing blood and splashing a few drops of it on the egg that he’d been about to grab.
Swearing, Axel jerked his hands back and sucked at the bleeding thumbs as he looked at the birds.
“If I was wrong about that, then you could have just told me,” he said unhappily. “Would have been less painful than this.”
The two hawks ignored him as they looked at the egg that was now glowing softly before a slight tapping sound rang out and Axel looked at the egg to see that it was beginning to crack.
“Did I do that?” he asked the two birds quietly, horror and fear filling his voice.
Finally turning his attention toward the Beastkin, King Burny screeched at him and shook his head toward the egg.
Deciding to do as the bird said and watch, Axel waited quietly as the cracks spread across the egg’s surface before it caught fire and crumbled away to nothing.
Flinching at the burst of heat that flared from the egg, Axel couldn’t help but gasp and reach out to smother the flames and keep the nest of woven grass, sticks, and feathers from catching fire when the small blaze guttered out and revealed and ugly, wrinkled, almost featherless chick.
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Immediately, the baby bird began to shiver and scream, demanding food, warmth, and everything else that baby animals want from their parents.
Cooing softly, the Windy Hawk immediately stepped up to the nest and covered the remaining eggs and the baby bird with her body, using her body heat and feathers to keep them all warm as King Burny took flight and began to wheel through the air in search of food.
“Congratulations,” Axel said to the Windy Hawk, still confused at what had happened, and wondering how watching an egg hatch was a gift from King Burny. “It’s a bird.”
You have tamed a young Burning Windy Hawk!
Name your new Creature to add them to your Menagerie and attain your Creature Perk from them.
“That makes more sense,” he said quietly as he read through the notification. “Now what to name you. Are you a boy or a girl?”
As Axel tried to puzzle through his new bird’s gender while its parents took care of it, he forgot to worry about where he was, fifty feet above the ground on the top of a spire of rock that measured maybe twenty feet in diameter.
“Come on, Drago,” Axel called impatiently to his Rockwolf as he moved through the Carnix Cliffs back toward Hero’s Crypt. “Daylight’s wasting and you’ll have time to examine your new sister later.
With another curious sniff at the crude sling that Axel had made for his newest tamed Creature, Drago followed after him as Axel led the way through the cliffs, following King Burny as he flew above them.
“I hope someone can help me with a name for you,” Axel told the small baby hawk that slept soundly in her cradle, nestled against his bare stomach to keep warm. “I also hope that no one stops me from entering the city because I don’t have my shirt on anymore.”
As the Wolf Beastkin and the Rockwolf followed after the Burning Windy Hawk that flew slowly through the cliffs, Axel tried to think of a name for his hawk.
“Name and business,” the guard at the gate demanded as Axel stepped forward.
“I’m Axel and I live here,” Axel said, pointing toward his wooden Hunter’s Guild token.
“Keep your animal from destroying anything, follow the laws, and welcome home,” the guard said boredly as he waved Axel through. “And maybe find a shirt.”
“Will do,” Axel muttered under his breath as he made his way through the crowded city, one hand supporting his baby hawk, the other scratching Drago behind the ear for a moment as they made their way toward the Barfing Minotaur.
As he pushed his way into the crowded tavern, Axel looked in every direction as he searched for Willow or maybe Wulf when one of the waitresses bumped into him.
“Sorry,” the pretty Dwarvish girl said, whirling to face him. “You need a shirt on if you’re going to be in here.”
“I’m looking for Willow or Wulf,” Axel said. “Can you point me to them?”
“Not looking like a vagrant with no decency,” the girl said. “No shirt, no service. Master Wulf’s rule.”
“I’ll put a shirt on if you tell me where they are,” Axel assured her as Drago sniffed at the hem of her dress curiously.
“I need to see the shirt on you before anything else,” she insisted.
“Fine, hold my bird.” Axel said, pulling the sling off his shoulder and pushing it toward the girl. “Be careful, she’s a baby.”
Reflexively, the Dwarf took the bird from him as he reached into his Bag of Holding and pulled out his shirt and pulled it over his head. Once it rested snuggly over his shoulders, Axel reached his hand out for the baby bird and impatiently curled his fingers toward her.
“Come on, give her back,” he said. “And then let me know where Willow or Wulf are.”
“I’m right behind you, boy,” Wulf’s voice answered him as the waitress passed the bird and sling back to Axel and turned away from him to resume her work. “She’s only doing her job, don’t be giving the lass a hard time.”
“I’m trying not to,” Axel assured the Dwarf as he turned to face him. “I just need some help.”
“And do my Willow and I look like experts in whatever the hells you’re doing now?” Wulf asked with a raised brow.
“No,” Axel admitted. “But you’re both a lot more connected than I am in this city and if I have a question you tend to at least know the right direction to get started looking in.”
“I guess we have spoiled you in that regard,” Wulf sighed. “Come on to the bar. Tell me what’s going on with you now.”
“Did Willow tell you about what Drago and I did the other day?” Axel asked. “With Harn the Mystic?”
“Aye, she did,” Wulf said tiredly. “Told me all about that man and their talk. All I could do to keep myself from trying to force her to give up on the foolish idea of running into the wild and living like he did. Lucky for me, she decided that she’d rather stay where the meat’s already cleaned, the water’s kept from being dangerous, and the predators are kept at bay by stronger folk than us.”
“Well, I was promised a gift for helping out the Windy Hawks,” Axel said. “So, I followed after King Burny, the leader of them or something, and he took me to a nest and gave me an egg from that nest that hatched into this.”
As he spoke, Axel carefully rested the still sleeping baby bird on the bartop, using the sling it had been carried in to form a crude nest around the creature and keep it warm.
“I was just looking for some help on how to take care of her and maybe someone to help me name her,” Axel explained to the Dwarf that looked at the baby bird impassively.
“I haven’t the foggiest idea on where to start with taking care of the thing,” Wulf said bluntly. “Show me a baby deer, or some other furry, milk-drinking animal, and I’ll tell you what to do, it’s not that different from what we do for our own babies, but this is something I have no idea what to do with. Would milk even be good for the little one?”
“Well, that’s more than I had to go on before,” Axel sighed unhappily. “At least you know that milk might not be a good idea for the bird.”
“As for a name,” Wulf snorted. “That’s up to you. It’s your bird. You’ll take care of it, you should be the one to name the damn thing.”
“But I don’t know what to name her,” Axel protested.
“You know it’s a girl,” Wulf said. “That’s a pretty damn good place to start, don’t you think?”
“Thanks for the help, Wulf,” Axel sighed, cradling his head in his hands. “Can I get a dinner for myself and some meat for Drago?”
“Coming right up,” Wulf said, turning away. “Two Irons for it all.”