Tala and Rane enjoyed a late breakfast in the center of old Marliweather.

Mistress Petra had really outdone herself, with a spread of foods that catered to both Tala’s and Rane’s magics, along with a bound pig, with a quick release on its bindings.

I need to tell her to tone it down a bit.

Terry had perked up at the sight of the pig, freeing it and letting it take off for a good two minutes before he vanished to pursue.

-But he’s so happy.-

…Yeah… It’s just… it seems odd to have the pig come with the other food, though. I’m also not really sure I like feeding that part of his personality.

-He can be rather terrifying… yeah.-

Even so, Tala didn’t spend too much time thinking on Terry’s activities. That was likely due to her mind being dominated with the eternal goal that Rane had suggested.

It wasn’t quite right for her, but it was tantalizingly close.

An eternal goal wasn’t the only thing that she needed to advance to the level of Paragon, but it was a large part of what she was still seeking.

To fix that which is broken.

It was interesting to be sure. It held so much of what she actually wanted to strive for, despite it being such a simple phrase. Even so…

Her head was starting to hurt, despite there being nothing physically wrong with her.

She had simply been delving too deeply, too quickly. She needed to let her thinking percolate out, seep in, and be tested through more experiences.

She ate one more breakfast pastry, downed another mug of coffee, then smiled toward Rane, drawing his attention with the expression. “Are you ready to head north?”

He nodded, taking a slow bite of his own breakfast. “Shall we see if Terry is ready?”

Tala nodded in turn. “Sure.” She drew power into her lungs, lacing it through the air in order to fill her words. Then, she spoke levelly, trusting the magic to carry her words far enough to reach the avian. “Terry? Can you come back to check in?”

Less than a minute later, Terry flickered across the plains, approaching at breakneck speeds only to land lightly on Tala’s shoulder to regard her with an interested look.

“We’re ready to head north again. Are you ready?”

Terry squawked inquisitively.

“Yeah, I know we haven’t been here all that long, but I think we can get to old Manaven by sunset if we hurry. It’s a bit further than our last legs have been, but it shouldn’t be an issue.”

The terror bird considered for a long moment before bobbing his assent.

“Alright, let’s go.”

The last half of the trip was through the southern edge of the northern forest. Unlike the Leshkin forest to the south, the northern woods seemed blessedly normal, with trees of various sizes, undergrowth, and relatively mundane wildlife.

There were no Leshkin, and the Anatalin wolves weren’t in ready evidence, leaving a general sense of mundanity about the place.

Tala was right in her guess, and they approached the site of old Manaven as the sun was starting to slip below the horizon. The low mountains to the west glowed as they seemed to try to eat the light of day.

Instead of entering the space that seemed to be the site in question—time had evidently worked to finally render the location mostly blended with the surroundings—Tala and Rane turned to Terry.

Tala smiled. “We’re here for you. Where do you want to go?”

Terry looked… concerned, but took the lead, growing to be as tall as Tala before flickering through the trees, always ensuring that Rane and Tala could follow.

Tala and Rane did so at a sedate pace, somehow feeling that rushing forward would be insensitive to the situation that they felt sure they would find ahead.

It didn’t take long for them to reach a low cliff in a raised clearing. The fading light of the setting sun streamed over the cliff to strike the trees as the sun dipped beyond the low, northern mountains to their west.

At first, Tala didn’t see anything special about the cliff, except that there were several larger rocks in the clearing near the rockface, but when Terry walked forward instead of flickering, Tala and Rane followed, after sharing a short glance.

Only when they were close enough to reach out and touch the cliff did they see a hidden entrance, reached by weaving past two of the boulders and pushing into the cliff itself. The opening looked to be broken open somehow, though Tala couldn’t quite place what it was about the rock that made her believe that.

Terry let out a low, whistling trill with a mournful air. He was still just about Tala’s size, but his head was dipped low, his wings pulled in tight, and he seemed almost to be shivering even though it wasn’t unusually cold.

Tala felt a cloying ache within her chest as she regarded her friend. “Oh, Terry.”

When she entered the little sheltered alcove, she saw what had elicited Terry’s reaction with her own eyes. The impact was much greater than when she’d seen it with her threefold sight.

A clearly long-abandoned nest filled the space. Bones—large and small—and the remnants of surprisingly thick eggshells were scattered about.

The walls were scarred in a way that clearly indicated various magical attacks, the alcove clearly having been reshaped by the same. That was also likely what had marred the entrance.

It wouldn’t shelter from the weather anymore. Based on some of the rock nearby, it looked like the alcove once would have been an excellent place of refuge, but no longer. That was probably the only reason some other beast hadn’t moved in.

Tala and Rane moved to the unnaturally clear center of the nest—which was easily large enough for both of them to fit comfortably—making sure that they didn’t disturb any of the remnants around them as they took a seat.

Terry was looking around, nudging various bones with his beak, clear sorrow in his movements and gaze.

“Terry?”

The avian looked up, obvious emotion in his eyes.

“Is this…” She swallowed. “Was this your nest?”

His gaze held hers for a long moment before he gave a slight bob.

“Oh, Terry.” Her voice was soft, but it carried easily in the small space. “So, this was your mate? Your hatchlings?”

He let out a burbling chirp in affirmation before the terror bird flickered into the middle of the nest, between Rane and Tala, shifting until he was curled up across both of their laps.

The two humans leaned forward, wrapping their arms around the larger-than-usual avian, letting silence and touch convey their presence as the last light of the day slowly faded from the clearing.

Long had the alcove stood empty, bereft of the flock which had called it home. Yet, as darkness fell, night found the potential for a new flock resting within the embrace of the cliff once more.

* * *

Dawn found the three unmoved. Terry seemed to have found some measure of comfort in the contact with the two humans.

Rane seemed to be content meditating on… something or other.

Tala couldn’t help but consider the loss that Terry had suffered, and how she would fare if she suffered the same. Not well.

She would prefer to die opposing that which sought to harm anything of hers rather than be left without those she cherished. That knowledge—each time she mulled over the facts and her feelings about them—made her hold Terry all the more stalwartly through the night.

As the sky brightened—and the sun broke over the horizon behind the trees outside their alcove—Rane shifted, and Terry lifted his head to look at the big man.

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“Terry?”

Terry tilted his head to the side in obvious inquiry.

“Can we bury these remains?”

Tala felt immense gratitude, not having really known how to proceed. She felt really odd, if she was being honest. She hurt for Terry, but she also knew that these terror birds had died hundreds of years before she, herself, was born. It didn’t feel like Mistress Odera’s death, or any of her family who had passed. The closest thing was the death of her mother. Cognitively, she knew that her mother had died, and she was sad to not have gotten to know her, but it honestly didn’t cross her mind very often.

This whole situation felt like mourning the death of some historical character. Even so, Terry was very real to her—and incredibly important—so his suffering affected her deeply, and he was obviously deeply affected.

The avian seemed stunned into immobility for a long moment.

Seeing his hesitation, Rane asked further, “We could also burn them, or Tala could disintegrate them, if either of those would be preferred. We want to honor the dead, but you will have to let us know how.”

Finally, Terry bobbed his slow assent.

“Bury?”

The avian gave a hesitant shake, then bobbed again.

“Yes, but something else first?”

Terry bobbed a yes to Rane’s understanding.

“We’ll want the grave ready, then.” Rane gave a sad smile. “I’ll get it done.”

He shifted, and Terry shrunk before flickering to Tala’s shoulder.

Rane pulled out a shovel from his dimensional storage, scanning the remains before nodding. “I’ll be back.”

Why does he have a shovel?

-I have no idea… should we ask?-

No, it’s not important at the moment.

He ducked out of the alcove, and the regular cadence of a shovel moving earth soon resounded through the clearing, bouncing off the cliff.

Tala could see what Rane was doing with her threefold sight, and his magics were making the work much easier than she’d thought it might be, thankfully.

She scratched Terry’s head, speaking softly, trying to fill her tone with her warmth and caring for the avian, “Do you want the remains burned or disintegrated?”

Terry looked around the alcove, seemingly taking a moment to inspect each and every group of remains. He then hunkered down, pulling in on himself before letting out a mournful cry.

“Take your time.”

The next few minutes passed slowly, the only sound—besides the background noise of the forest—was that of Rane’s digging. Finally, the terror bird shook, fluffing his feathers before headbutting Tala’s cheek.

She thought she understood what he meant. “Disintegration?”

He bobbed in agreement, then headbutted her again.

“Understood. I’ll do it. I won’t just use seeds.”

She began opening portals below each remnant, rejecting anything but the bone, feather, and egg-shell fragments. The nest itself had been made of well-arranged rocks and large sticks, though most of the sticks had long since degraded.

It didn’t take long until she’d gathered all that remained of the terror birds who had called this alcove home—mother and hatchlings alike.

Can you help me?

-Absolutely.-

Rane came back a minute or two later, brushing his hands free of dirt. “It’s ready.”

Tala rose, Terry clinging to her shoulder as she stood.

As soon as she had regained her feet, he flickered to the ground, changing to be of a size with Rane and Tala. His fully erect height likely would have been between them, but he wasn’t standing up straight. Instead, he was somewhat curled in on himself, hunched low as they walked out to where Rane had dug a deep hole with startling rapidity.

It was six feet deep and nearly as wide across. The pile of dirt and rocks on the far side of the hole stood testament to just how much material Rane had moved so quickly.

“Rane, this… this is impressive.” She’d seen him do it, and it was still impressive.

He shrugged. “For Terry? It was worth the effort.” He gave a sad smile. “Honestly, it would have been worth the work even if my magics hadn’t made it easier for me.”

Terry chirped his gratitude.

Tala opened a portal across the bottom of the pit—just a bit above the dirt—before she pushed out the remains as she moved the portal upward. This allowed for the precise placement of each bone, rearranged with Alat’s help to be as close to how they should have been as possible.

When the portal closed, revealing the remains, Terry let out a low, startled squawk.

A mother terror bird lay curled around six broken eggs with hatchlings within, all simple skeletons, long picked clean by predators and time.

Even so, they were so well put together that they seemed almost to be waiting for a word or sound to wake them up.

Thank you.

-It was my honor.-

Terry hunched down, trilling with sorrowful need at the sight below.

Tala and Rane waited for a long few minutes as Terry simply looked down at his mate, his broken flock.

Finally, he turned and looked at Tala, and she felt a welling up in her eyes at the emotion on his avian face. “Is it time?”

He gave a long trill of assent.

“Alright.” Tala breathed in deeply—and unnecessarily—before she went through the process of building up endingberry power into her sanctum-lung.

She didn’t overcharge the air, nor do anything else to make it more potent. This wasn’t an attack. She simply wanted to ensure that her breath reached the bottom and covered the whole area.

With a slow nod, she opened a portal into her sanctum’s lung, directing the pulse of compressed air—laden with power—into the center of the hole.

The dissolution magic washed over the remains, turning them all to dust without fanfare or warning.

She closed the portal within her mouth and rested her hand on Terry’s head.

As Rane went around to the pile of dirt beside the hole, Tala felt the need to say a couple of words. “Here rests the remains of a flock, a family that never reached its potential. Let them be remembered, and let their purpose be fulfilled in other ways.”

Without waiting for her to say more, Rane pushed on the pile, using his magic to affect the totality all at once, filling it with enough kinetic energy to roil over itself and fall into the hole, sealing the remnants in the earth.

Terry threw back his head and let out a woeful trill, filled with his power and sorrow in equal measure.

It hung, lonely in the early dawn stillness for a long, long moment before it was echoed from uncounted directions, each at a different distance.

Tala’s eyes widened. There were still terror birds here?

She shouldn’t have been surprised; terror birds were a rather pervasive species, often going through founts to gain arcanous powers of many kinds. That gave them an additional edge in the eternal jockeying for prey.

Even if the fount that Terry had gone through was gone—along with all the avians who had gone through it as he did—that didn’t mean that the region had been depopulated of the avian predators.

Rane stood back up from replacing the dirt, leaving a circle of turned earth as the only evidence of those buried below.

Terry was looking around, head tilted slightly in clear, focused intensity.

Soon, the shapes of terror birds could be seen in the trees around the clearing, a few even appearing up on the cliff.

Each clearly had arcanous power flowing through them—and not all of the same kind by any means—but Tala wasn’t worried.

Rane rested his hand on Force’s hilt but didn’t draw his weapon.

Either one of them could slay every terror bird that they saw, and Terry could do it twice. They were in no real danger.

Then, a clear outlier came into view. One exceptionally large terror bird strode up to the edge of the cliff above them, looking down from nearly forty feet up.

She—for it was somehow obviously a female of the species—had matte black feathers with sparks flickering along their edges and a blue light glowing in her eyes.

There was a flash and a bolt of lightning connected her to the ground beside Terry, the female avian covering the distance within the strike.

Then, she was there, towering over Terry and trilling in a manner that seemed… possessive?

Terry straightened, growing until he was a bit larger than the lightning-female. He squawked back, clearly a bit irritated and disagreeing with her assertion.

A moment later, lightning struck at Terry, and Terry flickered away.

Tala’s eyes widened, but even as she drew Flow, Terry appeared on the far side of the clearing, looking straight at her and shaking himself in a clear negative.

“You want us to leave you to it?”

He had moved on, avoiding another strike, but as he reappeared, he bobbed his agreement.

“Alright…”

Each bolt was accompanied by thunder as the female and Terry flickered around the clearing, up the cliff, through the trees, and back again, exchanging blows, tumbling, pecking, and slashing at one another.

The other avians—barely more than shadows to Tala’s mundane vision but laughably obvious to her threefold sight—watched the clash with obviously rapt attention.

Soon enough, the inevitable conclusion came about, and a final strike of lightning exploded at the base of the cliff, revealing the female terror bird, pinned down by Terry, his talons around her neck.

Terry let out a long, undulating cry toward the stars once again. This time, when the other terror birds joined him in his cry, it was in a chorus of triumph.

After the echoes died out, the avians slowly strode into the clearing, out of the woods, lowering their heads to the side, showing their necks to Terry one after another in obvious submission.

Terry straightened even further, growing and placing more weight on the struggling female’s neck. She tried to move away one last time, but something about Terry’s hold around her neck kept her from escaping.

Finally, she stopped moving, turning her beak down in surrender of her own.

Terry huffed, chirping once more before releasing her and flickering away to stand among the crowd—the flock—head and neck above the others in size.

The female rose to her feet, tilting her head to the side as all the others had, solidifying her surrender.

Terry chirped again in seeming acknowledgement of the action. Without anything further, the flock turned and began to melt into the woods, the twenty or so terror birds moving in the same direction.

The female was at the rear, and she paused at the edge of the woods, looking back toward Terry in obvious question.

Tala felt her eyes widen. Oh…

Terry looked between Tala and the waiting terror bird.

“Terry? Do you want to go with them?”

He looked back and forth, seeming to actually consider the question.

Tala swallowed. “If that’s what you need… you’d always be welcome back.” She swallowed again. “I would like you to stay, though.”

Terry flickered to her shoulder, and when Tala turned to look, he met her gaze evenly. Finally, he headbutted her cheek before flickering away, appearing beside the female.

The two terror birds shared a long look—but didn’t make a sound—before she turned and strode away, weaving between the trees.

Tala felt her breath catch, but then Terry flickered, once again appearing on her shoulder.

She let out a relieved breath. “Good to have you with us, Terry.”

Rane reached out and scratched the avian’s head. “I’m glad that you stayed, too.”

Terry chirped happily, but then his head turned back toward the circle of turned earth, the happy chirps fading into silence.

Tala looked as well. “Do you want to stay for a bit?”

He seemed to consider, but finally, he shook himself.

“Alright, then. Let’s investigate what’s left of the ruins of Manaven, and then figure out what’s next.”