For a while Lefty and Ol Blu simply stood on the chilly, cliff-side terrace that had been the beast's lair, listening to the wind as it whistled past them. The breeze rattled the dead chicken's metallic feathers, making them clang against each other like a pile of broken wind chimes.
“It’s dead,” Lefty said again.
“It sure is lad,” Repeated Ol Blu.
They had been stating the obvious for several minutes now. The beast was little more than a skeleton, about as dead as a thing could possibly be, and yet Lefty couldn’t stop pointing it out; as if he couldn’t believe it was true and needed to be reassured. He was dumbfounded. And Ol Blu enabled his dumbfoundedness because he was at a loss for words. It wasn’t every day that he stumbled upon the remains of a legendary monster and it was quite awe inspiring in person.
The two of them repeated their lines a few more times, before Lefty finally broke from his stupor and asked an actual question.
“...What do you think killed it?”
Ol Blu didn’t have an answer. The two companions simply stared in silence at the gigantic skeletal remains, trying to imagine what could have possibly defeated such a large and powerful creature.
Later visitors to the Food Tabernacle would deduce that the chicken had starved to death. The same magics which had transformed the ordinary bird into a giant, had also allowed it to survive on very little food… but it did still require some food, and if anyone was supposed to have been feeding it, they had clearly stopped a long time ago.
It’s theorized that the beast had sustained itself entirely by eating the ill-fated adventurers who came to fight it. That occasional meal of raw flesh, combined with natural rainfall, had been enough to keep the chicken going strong for many many years. Eventually though, its own terrifying reputation worked against it. People came to realize that it was suicidal to confront the beast, and so stopped challenging it all together. Unable to leave its lair, and having frightened away it's only source of food, the chicken ironically died of hunger atop the food tabernacle.
Lefty had been extremely lucky. Despite how completely decomposed the beast was, best estimates place it's time of death at less than a month before his arrival. Strong mountain winds and a hard rain the previous week had stripped the meat clean from its bones in a relatively short span of time, rendering it naught but a skeleton clad in metal feathers.
Of course, at the time, neither Lefty nor Blu could have possibly known that was the case... and even if they had it wouldn't have changed anything. The beast was dead. Exactly how it died wasn’t all that important. The decrees of Scaevolus didn’t specify that the beast needed to be slain… because they didn’t mention the beast at all. The text simply stated that “certain obstacles” would lie between potential future kings and the Clavis Imperium. The exact methods used to overcome those obstacles didn’t seem to matter. So regardless of how it had died… Lefty was free to claim the royal key. The duo realized this after several moments of idle speculation, and promptly stopped caring about the cause of death; they had a key to find.
It didn't take long to locate it. The chicken’s chamber was not all that complex. The only way in or out was the doorway Lefty had entered through. That is, unless you counted the sheer cliff that looked out over the side of the mountain. I suppose it was technically an exit, as long as you didn’t mind a long drop onto jagged rocks. Other than that, and a few large boulders, there was only one spot of interest. On the far side of the cave sat a crude, circular formation of rocks that resembled a giant chicken’s nest. And just beyond that, carved directly into the cave wall, was a perfectly rectangular hole roughly the size of a doorway; large enough for a human or thulhan to easily enter, but far too small for the beast.
Walking into that doorway with Ol Blu perched on his shoulder, Lefty found himself in an elegantly carved room. Like the rest of the tabernacle, its smooth rounded walls were expertly crafted, showing little sign of natural wear and tear. Their only bit of decoration was a series of small holes which had been drilled into the ceiling. Sunlight filtered through some of them, creating diagonal beams of light which all pointed towards the center of the room. There, bathed in majestic radiance, stood a white marble pillar. And upon that pillar, almost glowing in the dim light, sat the treasure they sought… the Clavis Imperium...
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“...is that it?” Lefty asked as he approached the pedestal, and casually grabbed the treasure from where it sat gathering dust.
“It doesn't look like a key. ” He said, looking over at Ol Blu on his shoulder, “I thought you said it was like, a key, or something?” He asked, before looking back at the object in his hand.
Indeed, this Clavis Imperium was not a key in the traditional sense. Instead, it resembled a gear made of some dream crafted material. Circular in shape, light brown in color, and about a smidgen thick, the thing had nine rectangular teeth spaced evenly around its edge, as well as a single triangular peg in its center, which presumably allowed it to be plugged into some kind of mechanism. Lefty held the object up into one of the luminescent sunbeams and rotated it slowly, looking for some indication that it was special or valuable in some way. All he found was a small symbol shaped like a Y which was carved into the peg. Though he didn't recognize the mark, Ol Blu identified it as the royal seal of Scaevolus.
“Are you sure this is it?” Lefty asked, looking back towards Ol Blu.
Truth be told, the kicken wasn't certain. How could he be? No one had ever recovered Clavis Imperium before, and the king’s proclamation didn’t describe them. Everyone assumed they were literal keys because of the name… but they didn’t have to be. They could be anything really. Only the king himself knew for sure… and he was beyond questioning at this point.
Still... after thinking it over for a moment, Ol Blu could think of no other explanation.
“That's got to be it.” He said “I mean... why else would it be here?”
The question hung in the air like a blurry mirage, the two of them squinting as they tried to make sense of it. Why would this thing be here, at the top of the tabernacle, tucked away in a corner of the beast's lair? Even if someone had arrived before Lefty and taken the real Clavis Imperium… why would they leave anything behind? Much less a dream crafted gear marked with the royal symbol. And if this wasn’t the Clavis Imperium, then what was it? Why was it placed in such an important seeming spot? Where else would the key be?
No… this had to be it.
“Yeah.. I guess you're right”, Lefty said after a bit. He was still not fully persuaded, but he could think of no better explanation. With a shrug he reached back and dropped the gear into the rucksack on his back, the Clavis Imperium making a soft clanking sound as it joined the rest of his pilfered possessions in a disorganized pile.
With that, the young man took one last look around the chamber, examining the walls and the pillar to make sure he hadn't missed anything, before shrugging once more and turning to leave.
As the two of them emerged from the hole in the wall, their impossible quest somehow achieved, Ol Blu asked a simple question: “So... what are you going to do now?”
This stopped Lefty dead in his tracks.
For a moment he just stood there, his expression blank as he tried to recall information that didn't exist. That wordless moment soon turned into two moments, and then into a full on awkward silence as he stared off into the distance with unfocused eyes and quivering lips.
“Lefty!” Ol Blu shouted, freeing the young man from his trance-like state with a start.
“Are you alright lad?” He asked with a mix of annoyance and concern.
I said, “What are you going to do now?”
The repetition of the question finally hammered through Lefty's brain, and forced him to confront the only response he had.
“I... don't... know...”