Chapter 7

This is the first time he had seen either of his parents so nervous. Not to mention his mother giving him the sword. Looking down at his hand, he began to examine it. The blade was steel and silver, with gold inlay running through the middle of the blade, in a beautiful pattern. It was a stunning blade.

"I haven’t really trained with a sword though. I have always trained with a poleaxe, or a war hammer with father, and a bow and arrow as I was riding on the roc with mother." Looking at the sword while thinking about what to do, the blade suddenly began to glow, and distort at a frightening rate.

Watching in surprise, the blade turned cylindrical, and grew longer, turning into a pole, while the top turned pointy and sharp, morphing into a spear head., The side turned square, and forged itself into a war hammer, and the other side melded into a wedge, becoming an axe head. Complete, it was a stunning poleaxe.

The poleaxe was compact, standing a few feet shorter than he was, with the head and spear consisting of a good portion of its height. The poleaxe weighed around a ton, and felt solid in his hands. Quickly looking for his mother’s scabbard, he breathed a sigh of relief as the scabbard had turned into a new attachment.

The new attachment allowed the poleaxe to be hung from a saddle. Letting him move around freely. "Awesome!!!" No wonder mother liked this weapon so much." The poleaxe was a little shorter than what he was used to holding, but it somehow felt even stronger than anything he had handled before.

Walking down the beaten dirt path, and through the nearby meadow, he began to make his way to the roc cliffs. Half an hour later he approached the cliffs listening to the deafening cries of the roc eagles. The cliffs were a large straight drop of around 1000 feet with many caves and ledges dug into its siding. Made from slate stone, the edges could become as sharp as a razor, and just as dangerous. Making his way to the ladder from the top he tossed it down to the big cave in the center. This is where his mother’s roc nested, and where cutter stayed as well.

Tossing the ladder rope down, he attempted to get a good hold of the rope and feel the rungs on his feet as he let himself slide off the top of the cliff. Dangling so high off the cliff still made him nervous, especially with razor sharp rock immediately below where he would fall, but they haven’t found a better system yet. At least not when the rocs were nesting.

Following the ladder down he began his descent until he had gone around 200 feet where he was able to see the large cave and push off the ladder into the cave. Immediately after getting off the ladder he was met with a huge golden roc screeching and coming up as close to him as possible seeming to search me and sniffing up and down for food. "Calm down, calm down Lady!!" "I don’t have anything this time look!!"

Holding out his hands and showing her he don’t have anything, she looked at him suspiciously. "We go through this game every time so I know she’s not going to give up." Rolling her eyes she went to the chest in the center of the cave, and pushed it towards him, with her massive beak. "Heheheh, smart bird."

Walking towards the chest, he saw her daughter, cutter, coming out from the back. No doubt drawn by her mother’s restlessness. Seeing him, she perked up and looked at him, as if waiting for gifts. “Oh you want something too huh?” “What’s the matter, the elder and his son not giving you what you need? Looking at me, angry, she stormed off to the back of the cave. "Brat bird." "Just remember the reason you got so big was because of me and my mom feeding you all those good things!!"

Unlocking the chest on the ground lady sticks her beak under my arm as she makes me hug her looking at me sadly. "Don’t worry lady, it’s not your fault, and I don’t blame you. Your daughter is beautiful, but doesn’t have your upright character. I wouldn’t blame her if she was truly interested in that short fat bastard.

But, I know for a fact she used to hate him. She used to chase him off when she was little and even pooped on him multiple times. She hated that kid all the way up until he started buying all those nice things for her and began to whisper in her ear how I’m not good enough for a bird like her and I couldn’t give her everything she wanted. Ugh! Oh well, forget it."

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Opening the chest, he pulled out a sack, and thought about it for a moment, before he spoke out loud. "You know, I was going to give this to your daughter, but I think you deserve it more lady." Taking out a round object from the sac, the smell of blood permeated throughout the air all around the cave, and even outside, making all the rocs around the cliff go wild. Cutter came running back to us, and saw the red core in his hands, screeching excitedly, and thoroughly upset.

Listening, he talked back to her. "This was originally meant to be yours, but you don’t seem to appreciate me, so I was planning to give it to your mother. What? Have something to say about it??" "Scree!!!! CAW!!! CAW!!!" Cutter began to screech with her feathers stiffed up looking horribly aggrieved. "So what if I give this to your mom. If I gave you this would that change anything? Would you want to suddenly become my mount again?"

Looking at him nervously, she began to think about the idea, Lady, even going to far as to nudge her towards the core, as she continued her thoughts. "You can’t honestly think that I am weaker than that midget can you?" Anom continued. "He’s smaller than most the women in the village. And don’t think just because he is giving you stuff now that he will keep doing it after he takes you. If you don’t believe me why don’t you go see the elder mounts cave? Oh wait, that’s right, he wouldn’t pay to have one dug out so his mount is out on the ledge nesting outside with all the elements.

While you and your mom are nestled in this nice big cave where we even bring you fire stones to keep you warm when its winter. Have we ever mistreated you? But, I will not beg. This is the best item that I have come across during all of my hunts. If this is not good enough for you then I have nothing else to say. Take it or not the choice is yours."

Looking at the core, then looking at the golden chains and trinkets that have been given to her. She looked at the core one last time, then determinedly looked at him with distain, and flew out of the cave entrance.

Looking saddened, he took the core and gave it to lady. The roc happily ate it then looked at him and nuzzled up close to him as she cooed and attempted to placate him. "Stupid bird, I hope she won’t regret it." "Don’t worry lady, I’m going to find my own mount and she will be even better than that gold-digger."

Happily cooing, he could see traces of disappointment on lady’s face, as she watched her daughter fly out of the cave. "Worse comes to worse I can always get a slepneir from the pack. I know father has been saving me a stallion that he won’t shut up about." "Ok, let’s get going lady." "We have a lot of ground to cover." Putting on her saddle and taking all the preparations with us from the cave.

He grabbed his leather armor, Bow and arrows and strapped in his new poleaxe. Pulling himself atop Lady she began to scoot towards the edge with her massive talons and then, swoosh, jumping out of the cave she unfurled her massive wings and flapped as we flew towards the sky.

Flying out from the cave we quickly rose to the clouds and above the thermal winds allowing the roc to coast while looking for the area we will be searching. Up this far in the sky one normally would not be able to see the terrain in any degree of degree of detail. Fortunately he had unnaturally good eye sight.

He do not know why he can see so well, as none of the other giants are able to see as far and clear as he can, but it has always come in handy. It has allowed him to sneak up on unsuspecting prey, and made tracking prey much simpler. Coasting for around 20 hours they began to descend when he spotted other giants on their slepnirs and rocs.

Gliding to the ground he Saw the vice-captain of the hunting party. With a shaved head and a braided goatee he always thought he looked like mad max Mr. clean, but would never say that to his face unless he wanted a hammer to the back of the head.

Landing, anom yelled out. "Rorther, How goes!!" Smiling and surveying the area, he replied. "Not well large one, not well. The tracks of the herd end around this gully, and beyond this is nothing but forests. Large old growth which makes it hard to track. But, usually this is where the herd would spread out and feed. Plenty of food, no predators. I don’t know what to make of it, but something’s fishy if you ask me. Nothing just vanishes." Taking in the seasoned trackers words, anom replied. "Hmmmm…… ok, I’m going to go check out the area, Ill holler if I need you."

Waving the young hunter away, Rorther thought for a moment, before deciding to speak up, for his friend. "Ok lad sounds good. Hey, you know, I love riding my Roc just as much as you, or your mom does, but you know, you can’t go wrong with our horses either. I just saw your dad not a week ago and I’m telling you the one your paw has for you, is a beast!! You know how many people tried to buy, beg, or steal that damn thing from him?"

Laughing at the funny old man, and knowing his good intentions, anom replied. "Ha, yes I know, dads been talking my ear off about it, and who knows, I might be joining you all again. Sooner, rather than latter, with the way things have been going." Surprised, Rorther replied. "No kidding? Well, all right then, I bet your paw will be jumping with joy, instead of moping around all day, and taking it out on me, ha." Jumping off the roc, anom nodded to Rorther, and started examining the tracks around the area.