A/N: Wasn't that rant fun? Here's the chapter you've all been waiting for. Leave a comment, give us a like and don't forget to subscribe! (That's a joke if anybody's wondering)

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“The Cockatrice is a being with the head of a chicken

And the body of a wyvern.

Be wary of its stare as its glance can petrify a man,

And it’s teeth is coated with deadly poison.

Thankfully, the creature can’t fly

But it can run a breathtaking speeds.”

-Wildlife Guide to the Domain of Beasts

I cringed my nose as an odor of a beast crept up my nose. The once almost undetectable stench was now clearly distinguishable from the fresh scent of the nearby flora. Mother’s exit and probably entrance must have attracted the local wildlife.

I had no knowledge, much less an expert, on the wildlife of these woods, fauna or flora. Before I can even attempt to travel back home, I need to study the local wildlife, figure out which plants are edible, the local ecosystem, who’s at the top of the food chain, patterns of various creatures. That sounds like a lot of work. Thank god for the lights and mana, which I am starting to suspect are one thing.

I released the tendrils within a mile radius, searching for any traces of wildlife. There were five that I was able to sense, three of them walked on the ground, eating the purple tipped bushes. I wonder if dragons are able to eat those. One was underground, lying still though I could still feel some life in it. Sleeping perhaps. And the last one was rather close to me, in fact, it was moving towards my direction at rather fast pace too.

The incoming beast could be pose a potential threat towards me as I was inexperienced. I’ve always had my mother protect me from any threats posed against me. If it was dangerous then I would need a plan to defeat it, flee from it or hide from it. If it wasn’t, well, that would be great and it would become my first meal. But I would need to be within the vicinity to observe the incoming creature and determine the amount of threat it possesses. That eliminates fleeing from the creature, leaving me with fighting or hiding.

While fighting could help me determine the level of threat very well, I don’t have any confidence in my fighting abilities. Though I was able to injure mother, she was taken unaware and had many of her defenses down. She was practically naked when she took that blast from me. In addition to that, I wasn’t able to recreate that situation again. Though I was able to release a blast a few times, it was nowhere near as powerful as the first time. I suspect that the song mother sung, or rather the squirming lights, had some sort of strengthening aspect.

Though I can use the shield to block any incoming attacks, it has never been combat tested thus I do not know how long it can last or how strong it is, considering I do not know the level of my incoming opponent. And plus, only defending without any means of counterattacking is a loss already.

I could try to release the lights to manipulate the surrounding environment but the amount of light that I can use at one time is extremely small, enough to summon a small breeze or maybe an ember. Combined with my inexperience in combat, it would definitely not be enough to take on the creature, I think. I can absorb the light quite well though. Perhaps I can eat up all the light the creature possesses? That might take too long, it can just dash right up to me while I concentrate on absorbing the light.

I guess that crosses out fighting, leaving me with only hiding. But if I were to hide, how would I gauge its power? Perhaps I should just stalk it for a few days and watch it confront different beasts? If I do that, I can learn about other creatures in addition to this one. And if it’s a herbivore, I can learn about the plants that can possibly be eaten and those that must be avoided.

But where and how should I stalk my prey? The creature seems to only be able to run on the ground but it could potentially have additional abilities it hasn’t shown yet. It seems to have rather keen senses of either sight or hearing and maybe smell. So I’ll need to sit completely still and blend in with the environment. As for the smell, I can rub dirt on myself and hopefully that can cover up my scent.

Now, where do I hide? Perhaps inside a bush? But if it were to be able to find me, I would have to confront it. Considering that I have no idea that ability of the incoming creature, I’ll assume that it has a keen sense of sight, hearing and smell and a tendency for aggressive behavior. So I’ll need to be somewhere where it can’t get to me and can easily hide me.

I look up into the ocean of leaves blocking out the sun’s warmth. Large branches intertwined like lovers, creating a rather easy way to transport oneself from one tree to another. The leaves are thick enough to block out anything within, perhaps even a four foot lizard. There might be some birds or other creatures up there for sustenance while I study my prey. And if it ever notices me, assuming that it doesn’t have the ability to climb or fly, it will never reach me as I’m hundreds of feet up. Perfect.

The first problem now comes up, I need to scale a four foot lizard up a few hundred foot tree within two minutes. Talk about challenging. I raise my wings and slam them back down onto the ground as I hard as I could. A draft of wind lifts me up off the dirt ground and into the air. I felt weightless in the air like I was defying the gods themselves. I bent my head forward, angling my body so my head would point towards the ground before slamming my wings down again.

The force of my wings blew me higher up into the air and closer towards my destination: a branch sprouting from a humongous tree trunk. I spread my wings to stabilize myself. I had to strain my wings quite a bit as the wind tried to push it back. Again and again I flapped and again and again I flew higher and further until I reached the branch.

I dug my claws into the wood, piercing through all its resistance like butter. Then I dug my other limb a bit higher than myself and pulled myself up then again and again and again until I made my way to the top. I laid on my back as and gasped for air. The muscles that controlled my wings were screaming in agony while my limbs burned with a passion. I have come to realize that I am not very good shape. I need to start lifting.

I crawled over to the edge of the branch and stuck my head over. Below me, the once distinguishable pieces of underbrush now merged into a barrage of red, yellow orange and brown. The wall of flora that had once taunt me so now resembled insects to be stepped on. And the greatest thing was that there was no sign of the beast, yet, meaning that I had climbed up nearly fifty or so feet under three minutes. Well, I also flew most of it. But I think that’s a point of celebration.

I spread out the tentacles again to look for the beast. I didn’t need to look far. As I sent out the tendrils, lo and behold, a four long-legged beast leaped out of a bush. White fur flowed from its body and two antlers grew from its head.

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It sprinted past my position like it was running away from something, or perhaps it was just racing against something? But problem is, I don’t feel anything else it’s running away from or racing against.

I turned to chase after my prey as another beast came rushing out of the bush. I looked over in surprise, well kind of. The newly entered contestant/predator had a red fins on top of it’s head, a beak and a dangling piece of red flesh below its chin. It can run quite quickly on two very skinny legs and had wings similar to mine. It’s head was feathered in white while a scaled tail whipped left and right.

The beast had somehow avoided my detection and the only way to do that is by dodging every single tendril I released. That by itself is worthy of my praise. To see how the creature did it, I sent out every single tendril I had and concentrated it at the running creature. As the tendrils reached the creature, it was suddenly gone, as if it had been eaten. There was no reaction from the tendril because only the parts close to it were gone. If the entire thing had been sucked away at the tentacle-eating creature, I would’ve felt it.

This thing would pose quite a threat to me. It had the ability to sneak up behind me and strike when I’m not looking. I shivered at the thought of being attacked unaware then getting devoured by such a funny looking creature. Shameful! I need to find a way to counter it and to do that I should catch up to it.

I lifted up my tired wings and leapt off the branch before slamming my wings down, propelling me forward towards the race. Thankfully, I was able to fly faster than either of them can run and that neither had noticed me. The rush of adrenaline probably got to them. In fact, I think the adrenaline is getting to me too, the sensation of burning muscles started to fade away as I continued my chase.

I focused my eyes on the cockatrice all the while launching my tendrils at it with different means. I tried to pierce it by attacking in all directions that didn’t work. Later, after a close dodge with a tree branch, I tried to get it to run into the tendril, that didn’t work either. Actually, I don’t know why I did that, it seemed pretty smart back then.

Perhaps if I barrage it with a concentrated attack? I combined a few hundred tendril and launched it like an arrow. The invisible, intangible tendril flew threw the air at breathtaking speeds before crashing into the creature. Most of it was eaten away but a small, nearly unnoticeable strand got in, sending me a signal of the creature before it was eaten. Success!

The creature’s eyes dashed around, looking for something. Don’t tell me it can feel my tendrils! What kind of cheating monster is this? Seeing that there was nothing that poses a threat to it, it continued to chase the white furred beast. This beaked monster is more dangerous than I thought! And with those wings, it can potentially fly! Meaning even if I climbed to the top of trees, I still wouldn’t be safe from them! Every single one of them must be eliminated! They are a grave threat to dragonkind!

Right there and then, I made a pledge to destroy what would I come to know as the most delicious delicacy dragonkind has ever known but that’s a story for another time. Right now, the white furred beast started to give way and the cockatrice slowly started to catch up. I’m amazed at the distance they both were able to run, as expected of adults.

Eventually the feathered creature was an arm’s length away before it spit out a green blob with different colors sprinkled on top. Did it just spit out the world’s first mucus ice cream? The disgusting blob of unspeakable horror landed on the furred creature’s two hind legs, binding them in place while tripping it.

The majestic creature fell the floor with a thud, struggling to get out of its binding as the beaked monstrosity slowly walked up to it, absorbing the spectacle of its struggling prey. My body cringed as I high-pitched screech echoed through the forest. My limbs degenerated into jelly, figuratively, at the beaked creature’s screams.

It’s long, thin tongue was in the air, standing proud and mighty. Its head raised towards the sky, mouth opened, proclaiming its victory. It’s wings spread out as far as it can possibly reach like it was accepting the applause of an invisible audience. It’s hooked foot dug into the furred creature, drawing blood.

That noise was able to distract my concentration, barring me from using the tendrils that I know and love. I flew higher and higher to try to get away from it but the sound was loud enough to be heard in a mile radius, maybe. Well, I’m not a masochist and I have no intention of suffering through this! I flapped my already tired wings harder and faster, launching me through the sea of leaves and into the open sky.

The screeching had been blocked out by the dense layers of leaves, thank god, allowing me to fully concentrate. That thing needs to die. If I encounter it in the future, game over man, game over! Just by screeching and it’ll bar me from using my most trusty set of skill: magic.

The sun’s kiss was a welcoming feeling. I let its warmth wash over me, as the tense muscles relaxed from the sun’s massage. I stopped flapping my wings and let gravity do its job. For a second, all was still. The sun shone as it had always shone, the leaves rustled as it should, the birds sang its melody as it had always sung and I fell towards the earth as I always had.

I angled myself so my head would face the ground, straightened up my body to get as aerodynamic as possible and released my shield at maximum power. I launched my wings once more, this time propelling me towards the earth, before folding them. Combined with gravity, I fell at supersonic speeds, probably. Instead of a bubble-form the shield usually took, I forced it into a point to deal more damage and hopefully protect me.

My heart started to beat faster and faster as I nosedived through the leaves. I moved past blurs of green, red, brown and orange as gravity pulled me down faster and faster. Soon I staring at the underbrush covered ground and a very familiar scene. The beaked monster had raised its head, it's beak pointed towards the injured beast, intent on delivering the final strike.

Sorry bub but you have had your chance, that strike will belong to me. I raised my head a little to adjust myself to strike straight through both creatures. As my sight aligned with the beast, my lips curled up while I readied to slam my wings to hopefully break the fall. If my timing is wrong, I could either miss my target or crashing into the ground at full speed. Either choices aren't very promising.

The wind whistled as I got closer and closer to the target. It raised its head to find what easy making the noise and as its eyes met mine, I saw it open in surprise and fear. A sparkle of green started to form from the center of its eyes but before it could fully take shape, I had slammed into the creature, piercing through it. I entered into a realm of red as I brought my wings down as fast as I could to break the fall.

Luckily the furred creature was soft. As I exited the beast’s body, I was still moving too fast and had pierced into the other creature, killing it. But at the same time, it had helped break my fall.  I climbed out of the hole to a scene of carnage. The scent of blood attacked first, clouding my olfactory senses with a metallic odor. Pieces of intestines and flesh laid all over the floor and streams of blood flowed from two great bodies, both bigger than me.

Well, bon appetit!