The wind was strong but not unbearable. However, now that I was the only one fighting against it, it grew tiring. At first, near the coast, I watched a few seagulls and ducks’ fish small fish, but the further out I got the fewer and fewer birds I saw until I was the only one navigating the skies.

As I had nothing to look at, I stared at my reflection below me and thought about … I don’t know. I hoped that the demigod of the Dead Continent would know how to revive my Rose. If not, well, I don’t know what I would do.

#

When the moon got to its zenith and shined bright white over the ocean, hundreds. No, thousands, hundreds of thousands of small fish swam up to the surface and turned the surface a gentle silver.

With such a beautiful sight, I couldn’t get tired of flying and made it till dawn without issue.

#

After resting on a small rock islet for the day, I took off once again when the moon awoke. There were no clouds tonight, and the ocean shined a brilliant silver.

And as such, the days passed, and the nights flew.

Eventually I came to see the ocean as … not an ocean, but more. It was a being who moved like me and one who lived like any other. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but it did. It did speak. It spoke to me.

#

This was the fifteenth day of my journey, and for the first time I decided to take a night off as well.

Sitting on another islet, I spoke to what lay below me.

“Ocean! Ocean,” I called out. The water did not speak, but things like this took time. I wanted to catch one of these silver fish, bring it on land and have a chat with it, but I didn’t want to harm the ocean either. These fish were just as much a part of this ocean as my feathers were a part of me. Losing one or two wouldn’t hurt, however, without them, I couldn’t fly and would be naked. “Well, I just want to tell you how much I appreciate your presence,” I continued. “I’ve even been able to partially forget … my hunger…” Something caught my beak, and I jumped around, looking in the direction the smell came. It was strong. I flapped my wings and flew off.

Soon enough I found a ship on which twelve men hauled long lines of wires. Some threw them into the ocean and others pulled them out, full of fish.

“Criminals!” I couldn’t let this go on. I rushed towards them and dove towards the ship’s bow, omitting what I hoped to be a terrifyingly sharp caw. And it worked. The men dropped the lines, releasing the trapped fish back into the ocean.

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“A giant bird! It’s a beast or being, run and call up the sorcerer!” I heard one of the crew yell. His voice was deep and gruff.

As I landed on the bow I released another deafening caw, this time I infused it with flames, cooking half of the crew alive. The others, sweating profusely and smelling of blood, stepped back, and some jumped into the ocean. At least those would serve to feed the fish.

“Why are you taking what doesn’t belong to you?” I asked.

“Why! Why!” stuttered the crewman who had yelled the order to get the sorcerer.

“Yes, why!” I repeated. I needed to know if this occurred anywhere else. Yes, these were fishermen. I remembered now. They also existed in the Kingdom of Rosalia.

Mission: Eliminate the fishermen who fish beyond one day’s worth of travel from the continent's shore.

Reward: 3000 gods favours.

The ocean was finally speaking to me. For there to be so many fish, all living together, swimming together with ease, coordination, and defenceless attitude, they had to be protected by a god, and now it was my duty to fulfill this grand undertaking.

Humans always tried to abuse everything they got their hands on. Power, prestige, and power. That is all they wanted. What was the saying again? An artist must be creative, a mason precise, and a king greedy. What abysmal creatures. To think there was once a time I had to fight back their urges.

I flapped my wings and flew straight through the group of sailors, scattering their burnt bodies around. That’s when a young woman came up from below the deck. She wore clean robes, tainted by salt near her feet and hands. “Are you the sorcerer?” I asked.

She didn’t talk immediately, only looking over the carnage with a shocked expression.

“Are you the sorcerer!” I repeated while channelling my mana into the ship’s deck. This time, her head snapped towards me.

“Y … Yes. That’s me,” she quickly stated.

Without wasting a second, I injected mana in the wood below the woman’s feet, engulfing her in a hail of wood and flames. I kept my eyes on her, until I could clearly see her charred remains.

Now that the biggest threat had been disposed of, I couldn’t resist my urges anymore and dashed over to the corpses and fed on their hearts.

Finally, after five, my stomach stopped growling and reason returned to me.

I frantically looked around, “Did I kill them all!” I couldn’t help but say. I flapped my wings to snuff out the flames, but the rose flames continued to grow. No, no, no. I cut my supply of mana; since becoming a being, it felt like I had an unlimited amount.

After that freak out, I decided to take in a few deep breaths and use my nose to search for the smell of fresh blood to find any survivors. I needed to gather some information. And as I continued to smell around, I caught a whiff of blood. It came from below deck. With my talons, I made a large hole in the deck and fell below. Here, in the corner, there sat a cage. In it, a man with long grey hair and a frail, starved body lied. I’m sure the only reason I didn’t come after him during my feeding frenzy because he looked and smelled of the dead.

“Are you awake?” I asked, but I didn’t get an answer. You couldn’t tell me that this guy slept through all that ruckus. “Hey! Are you awake?” I repeated. But, yet again, I didn’t get an answer.

Not willing to wait forever, I tore open the cage and nudged him over.

He groaned. As such, I continued to nudge him until his eyelids twitched and he opened his eyes. His irises were blue, but the white of his eyes had turned dark yellow.

“Who are you and why are you here?” I asked.

The man coughed a dry cough, and then scratched at his throat. Where would I find water? I looked around, but there were so many barrels stacked up everywhere. I searched for the best sealed barrel and pulled it next to the man. Piercing the top of the barrel with my beak, I pushed it over, letting a small brown stream wash over him.