Chapter 16: Captured

As Finn and I began to walk back toward the farm outcropping in this forest, I noticed that the forest was really quiet around here, as if all of the animals were avoiding it.

Makes sense, I guess, with the big ass bird close by and all.

“Hold,” Finn said and stopped. “I heard something.”

“La'Quet! Finn!” It was Hazel's voice. I saw a figure through a break in the trees. It was her.

“We're here!” Finn yelled.

I hadn't realized how quiet the siblings were when they walked through the forest until now when she abandoned any notion of stealth and ran full sprint toward us, each step pounding through the grass and dirt.

I also didn't realize how fast she could run. One moment she was in the distance and the next she was right next to us. She practically fell into Finn's arms, her eyes puffy and her cheeks wet with tears. “Oh dear Goddess, I thought you were surely going to die!” She wrapped her arms around him tight, as if forcing him not to leave her side again.

Finn smiled happily but I could see the pain in his eyes from her grasp, “I'm not though,” He wheezed. “Thanks to La'Quet.”

She let go and moved her hands to his shoulders, “And good thing he was there with you, what in Gahen were you thinking?”

“He got on first!” He said, jabbing a thumb in my direction.

“And you followed him? What thoughts went through your mind to think that was a good idea? You could've died!”

“We're both fine,” He grabbed her hands and pulled them off his shoulders. “And that's all that matters.”

“Ugh,” She ripped her hands from his and turned to me. “Thank you for keeping my dumbass brother in one piece.”

I did a slight, sarcastic bow. “You're so very welcome m'lady.”

Finn threw his arms up. “What, you thank him?”

She wheeled back to him. “Of course, he saved you. Be thankful.”

He scoffed.

“No point in arguing with her man,” I said with a shrug. “You can never win an argument with a woman.”

“See,” Hazel said. “At least he understands.”

“Fine,” But Finn still kept his arms crossed. “I'm thankful and I will probably never do something that dangerous again.”

“Probably?”

“Jeez...you siblings...go way too damn fast,” Gronan said as he came to us through the forest, taking several wheezing breaths throughout the sentence.

“We'll continue this conversation later,” She gave Finn a hard glare before she took a few steps back to address the group. “I think it is obvious to all of us that this contract was a suicide mission. The mayor planned for us to die as we tried to complete it.”

“Hazel,” Gronan said, his breath back to him. “I don't think the mayor would've known how dangerous this mission was.”

“It easily carried the trint, why would he not theorize that it could have carried away a person that easily too? The mayor had to have sent us here to die.”

Gronan shrugged. “Maybe, but that's a bit of a leap, don't you think?”

Finn shot back at him, “Weren't you the one who felt the unholy aura in his house?”

“Well yeah,” Gronan shrugged again. “But that doesn't mean it's connected.”

“Even if he did not believe it would kill us,” Hazel said. “I think it is fair to say that he might have known it was dangerous enough to take down one or two of us, or at least just get rid of us for a while.”

“Well sure,” Gronan said, “I guess you could be right. Whatever the case is though, we're out here now. I think we should finish the job.”

“Finish the job?” Finn asked. “You want us to go kill that thing?”

“Well, of course. We were sent here on a contract, we should finish it. It's just a bird.”

“Yeah, about that,” I interjected. “That bird wasn't just a bird.”

“What do you mean?”

“The thing transformed,” Finn said. “It got bigger and became a whole different-looking bird.”

“Still just a bird,” Gronan said, tapping the hilt of his battle ax. “A few good swings and I'm sure we could take it out.”

“I do not believe we should,” Hazel said. “Finn and La'Quet nearly died in just a few seconds of that thing making itself known, and that was before it transformed. I think that it is just you, Gronan, who believes that we can take on such a beast.”

I shrugged, “I don’t know about that.”

Hazel’s gaze came to me. “What do you mean?”

“I got one good swing into it,” I said. “And it seemed like I hurt it pretty badly. I think Gronan's right, in the state that I put it in, we have a chance of taking it down.”

“I'm going with Hazel on this one,” Finn said. “This just doesn't seem all that worth it to me.”

“What about the town?” I asked.

“What about them?” He asked. “I doubt the biggest Adventurers around made their way to the top by risking everything in every encounter.”

Just then, a notification popped up in the top right of my vision. Quest Updated.

I looked at the quest box.

Quests:

Active

The Hunt:

After taking a ride on the mysterious, shape-changing bird, it seems the group has become uncomfortable pushing onward to vanquish the foe. If only the reward for this daunting quest was worth their lives...

Reward: 10g 50g

Gronan put his ax back into his holster. “Maybe they’re right, La'Quet. This does seem a little too risky.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I wished I could’ve just told them about the boxes I saw that no one else could, but I knew it would just complicate matters. “Check the contract,” I blurted. “If we don't think the reward is enough, maybe it'll change.”

“I'd doubt a contract would change midway,” Gronan said.

“You don’t know that. Just check it.”

He shrugged, “If you think so, let's see.” He pulled the backpack off his shoulder onto an arm and pulled it open, taking out the crumpled contract paper. His eyes went wide as he read it. “Well, I guess you were right.”

“What does it say?” The twins asked at the same time.

“There's a new reward, fifty gold.”

There was stunned silence in the group, everyone's eyes wide besides mine. Fifty gold sure seemed nice, but even so, I didn't even really know what a gold piece in this world amounted to in dollars.

“Seems like a pretty good contract now?” I asked.

“It sure does, eh?” Gronan suggested to the siblings.

Finn threw a dagger into the air, catching it by the hilt. He looked at the blade momentarily, “That’s quite a lot of gold, what do you think, Hazel?”

She didn’t speak for several seconds as she mulled everything over. Eventually, she gave a deep sigh and slipped her bow off her back. “I can not believe I am saying this but, let us go take down that beast.”

I smiled and pulled my sword out. One major similarity of this world to mine, money. Enough of it, and people will do anything.

Money makes the world go 'round.

#

We stood on the edge of the ravine. It was a steep drop that had to be at least a hundred feet and was made up of dirt for the first half before it turned into stone until the bottom, which had a small river that flowed lazily along. Finn and Hazel were quickly able to point to where the bird must've gone. It took me a moment for me to see it but about two-thirds of the way down on our side, I could just barely see where there was a hole in the stone.

“I'll get the rope out,” Gronan said and pulled his backpack off his back. He took the coil of rope out and wrapped it around a thick tree, tied it, and pulled. “Seems good. Who wants to go first?”

No one said anything.

I sighed, “I jumped on the bird first, I’ll go.”

Gronan nodded, “I'll be right behind you. You two,” He pointed at the siblings. “Be quick behind us, if either of you can land a shot into one of its eyes, it could win us the fight. Everyone ready?”

We all nodded.

“Alrighty then,” He threw the rope over the side of the ravine.

As I promised, I went first. I wanted to say I regretted that decision but I didn't. I was the outsider, the new guy. It was only right for the new guy to do the unsavory, more dangerous stuff. Plus, I was the one who seemed the most comfortable with this because I knew I had to be. These kinds of risks would grant me the best rewards in the fastest way possible. If I did things fast enough and lived, there was maybe a chance I'd be able to get back home.

However, now that I held the rope, the drop seemed to be much further down than before. I took a long breath.

I can do this.

I sat down on the edge and began to scoot off. I felt every inch I moved as the dirt that kept me on solid ground vanished. I only had a few inches left of ground that pressed into my bottom. I was right there, dangling off the precipice. I felt my pulse in my head and every cell in my body boiled with energy, ready for anything. I had just flown on a massive bird hundreds of feet in the air and here I was dangling my feet over a ravine, what the hell was I thinking?

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

I can do this!

I pushed my legs against the dirt side and felt my body fall.

I held tight to the rope in my hands and felt my arms get yanked hard. My side hit the dirt and I felt the rope burn my palms but I didn’t let go. As I hung there, the dirt side pressing into me, I realized how unstable the dirt truly was. It was soft and every little movement I made against it caused small clumps of dirt to fall away into the river below. I didn’t know why but the thought of how little stability the ground I usually stood on gave me comfort in that moment. I was hanging off the rope as if I was never truly safe, even when I wasn’t hanging off a ledge.

But even with that small comfort, I knew that one small slip up and I was going to be seriously hurt if not dead. Why did this feel so much more scary than being high up in the air? Perhaps it was the silence of it all. The wind didn’t flap in my ears, there was no bird that cawed loudly, and there wasn’t the mad scramble to avoid death.

It was just me, the rope, and the ground.

“You okay?” Gronan asked as he looked down at me with nervous eyes. He seemed to be feeling the same way I was.

“Never better.” He was so close to me, all he had to do to help me was reach down and grab me. Yet, he felt so far away.

If I fell, I’d be dead by the time he tried to help.

He nodded and took a breath. “Alright, go down so I can go.”

Right, I have to go down.

I slowly began to go down the rope by carefully sliding down, the rope burning my hands even more as I did so. As I made it far enough down, Gronan scooted off the edge and crashed into the side of the dirt like I had. Dirt peppered me as he did so.

I went further down and felt my foot hit something more solid, stone. I no longer had to strain my eyes to see the hole in the side of the ravine. “We're getting there.”

“Sure,” Gronan sounded as if he was just punched in the gut.

I kept my foot against the stone as I slid my way further down. As I did so, I could hear the water of the slow-moving river getting closer. I wanted to believe that if I fell, the water would protect me from any serious harm but I knew my luck. I’d probably in some way that I went down head first right onto a rock.

Luckily, I didn’t have to find out how my luck was as I suddenly didn’t find purchase on the stone side. “I'm at the cave,” I slid further down and touched the sole of my shoe onto the lip of the cave. Inside, the light of day shined into the cave about three feet before it turned into a black abyss. “I'm going in.”

“Don't do anything rash, I'll be there soon,” Gronan said.

I pressed a hand on the side of the cave as I let go of the rope, willing the world to stay balanced and not fall out of the cave. I managed to keep my feet firmly placed on the stone. With each footstep, there was a dull echo into the darkness.

But that wasn't the only sound in the darkness. All around me came the sounds of wet meat being torn apart and swallowed. Soft croaks bellowed out, deformed by the echoes until they became an unrecognizable monstrosity of noise. I didn't want to take another step but even if I did, I wouldn't have been able to push past the sudden fear that lumped itself in my chest. couldn’t see anything after a few feet in front of me.

There was an echoey bang from behind and I quickly took my sword out as I flipped around to meet the enemy that had just entered. I sighed in relief as I saw in the sun that came through the entrance, Gronan's large figure.

“Watch it,” Gronan whispered to me. The whisper took a new shape as it echoed into the cave but it didn't seem to mingle with any other sounds.

Because there was no other sound coming through the cave, I turned back around and once again was met with absolute darkness. The bird was in there, I heard it as it made a low clack with its beak. At least, I wished it was that but through the echoes it could have been large, piercing nails scraping against the stone.

The room suddenly became alight with a bright, white light that shined into the cave. Everything happened very quickly then. I heard the soft sounds of two more people touching down into the cave. “By Goddess,” Hazel whispered, her voice a mix of fear and awe.

In front of me, the light revealed the massive, golden-blue bird. It shielded behind its giant wings three human-sized birds with the same hues to their feathers. This beast was apparently a mother to three babies. And as a mother, it was rightly pissed off for us invading its home.

The next thing I knew, the bird launched itself directly toward me. There was nothing I could do, she was much too large for me to dodge it. Her beak was outstretched, ready to swallow me whole. I didn't think even my healing powers would keep me from that grim death.

I put my sword out like it’d stop her and squeezed my eyes shut, ready for death to come. I felt my body give a sudden jerk as if I were possessed. It had to be the bird, I was in its jaws and was about to be crushed by her.

But the pain didn’t come. I was still breathing, my body was okay. I looked where the bird was and found it was no longer there. In fact, it wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Instead, what was in front of me made my jaw drop.

A yellow-outlined, purple robe dangled in the air, outstretched like a drying towel. It was my robe. I felt my body and quickly found the only thing I had on above my waist was my white button-up.

The robe took off, still outstretched, toward the baby birds. It swallowed them up, and then went limp onto the ground.

What the hell?

“You didn't tell us your robe could do that!” Finn yelled.

“I- I didn't know it could,” My words stumbled out of my mouth. What was going on? What the hell kind of tricks did this wizard’s robe hold?

The robe shot toward me and I took a step back but bounced off of Gronan's stomach back toward the incoming robe. The robe stopped short just before it smashed into me, outstretched, and faced toward me. It wasn't just the purple insides of the robe I looked at now, but some other place that looked like nothing I had ever seen before. The image appeared to be on top of a stony mountain, with other mountains all around. The sky was purple and there was a black tree to one side. In the middle of this picture, was a small, blue man in brown overall and a white apron with smeared blood on it. Except it wasn't a picture as the man was waving a hand at us.

“That's a cobald dwarf,” Gronan said amazedly. “I thought they were all wiped out.”

“What do we do, do you think he's friendly?” I asked no one in particular. “I mean, he's got blood all over him.”

“What else could we do but walk inside and greet him?” ” Hazel asked.

Dammit, I knew there was no way out of this. With a reluctant sigh, I took a step forward and walked through the cape into another world.