Chapter 3: Fledgling

Satha intently watched the girl grow under her father’s dutiful care and tutelage. What he knew was how to be Gibralan. She must admit that he had brilliantly adopted every quality being Gibralan constituted to his daughter. He had even painstakingly tailored his pursuits to include her at nearly each step.

First, Gaoh needed to feed her. He stalked what he once hunted for meat back to wherever they called home and waited, keeping watch for any trace of their young. At first, the man had considered whisking away his prey while they slept so he could milk them for his own cub. Wrangling them from their dens would be too treacherous without knowing more about what he was getting into. This was an endeavour which he would need to repeat until his daughter was finally weaned. In each instance he improved his technique which he would teach her in turn.

Gaoh taught her how to move among the trees with ease soon after she started walking without assistance. At times he would pretend to send her out by herself while keeping a close eye on her should she falter. Like her mother, she too was his gem. When he grew comfortable with her movements, it was time for her to explore weapons.

The girl learned how to fight with sticks before being introduced to anything edged. Now it was time for his fierce little warrior to learn how it felt to take a life. Such things were essential to being Gibralan, he reminded himself constantly. Each lesson brought her closer to his goal.

Warm with the blood of her first kill, Gaoh taught her what it was to maintain her weaponry after its use. Few Gibralans favoured the practise since their house’s weapon became the source of their pride. Having travelled so far outside of Gibral, Gaoh was sure he knew more than his heritage dictated.

Her success meant her father would lead her back to the hallowed land from whence her parents came. Gaoh had taken special care in painting his origins with colours bright enough to drown out its enveloping darkness. It was all towards her not rejecting what he had modelled into a trophy. After all, if things went according to plan, she would be pivotal to Gibral’s future.

Confident enough in her skills not to worry when she went out to find their next meal herself, Gaoh finally gave his daughter the opportunity to claim adulthood. He had told her many tales of her mother embroiled in battle with a great winged monster which no one else could see. The monstrous bird was one of the biggest reasons why her parents had left home. All the same, her decision to pursue her mother’s demons was still unexpected.

He accepted her proposal with a surprised smirk. Gaoh marvelled at how much the little girl who had growled at him and gnawed happily at his fingers had blossomed into a force all of her own. Should his daughter triumph, the honour to the name she shared with her mother was indisputable. Funny how the man had just hoped his stories would allow his child to develop a bond with the mother she never got the chance to know for herself. Who would have thought his fables would propel her to also go after something greater than any Gibralan dared attempting.

Instructing Kro to prepare their arms, Gaoh reflected on musings with his dearly departed. One of their favourite topics to discuss was where such a creature could reside. The map coupled with their hunting background allowed them the best educated guess as to where the behemoth of a bird might perch. His daughter agreed to his suggestion once he explained their destination using the piece of the parchment. He and his friends had named that place the Porcelain Palace.

The Palace was a massive opening in the Earth made up of uneven layers plunging into a swiftly running stream. Ridges and cliffs were marked by smooth white rocks which made them appear unassailable without wings. Anything capable of piercing those stones which shattered Gibralan steel was nothing the boys dared imagine. Perhaps the fear that thought evoked was what kept Gibral from admitting the animal’s existence. Wispy patches of eerily creaking trees caught in the screaming wind were the only living thing in the surroundings as if something had picked the land clean.

Father and child left the cave in the early Spring, alternating between whom tugged a small cart of supplies which they might need. Avoiding Gibral on the route to the Porcelain Palace meant the journey was lengthened by leaps and bounds, but that would all be time which he required. Gaoh could not help but grin whenever he caught flashes of his little girl in this woman who excitedly inquired about whatever caught her eye along the way. The added time would be filled in with whatever little knowledge he had left to pass on.

Weeks went by on faith before Gaoh offered a further nugget of support. The girl’s mother had put forward the idea that a bird so large would be migratory so as to go so unnoticed. What was worth wondering was how long those migration periods might be. They had agreed that the greatest determining factor in those periods’ length was the motion’s purpose. Gaoh smiled somberly, remembering how they had heatedly gone back and forth in deciding the most likely cause of it all to be the chance to mate. When could that be?

Facing more than one of them was a nightmare multiplied tenfold no matter how one looked at it. Their quarry must have a defined hunting ground near Gibral where it returned to regardless of the season. Of all the locations depicted on the map, the Porcelain Palace best fit the criteria. Its many caves and terraces would offer it safety as it recovered from whatever it had done.

Unbeknownst to the young Kro, Gaoh began grappling with his doubts. Was this all a fool’s errand? He questioned the aim he adopted further with every passing day once a season marched past. No matter, he could not summon the courage to tell his daughter the truth of it all. So what if the bird was a figment of her mother’s imagination? The cart loaded with their supplies caught on an exposed root as if to remind him of what weight they bore. How could he do any of that when Kro had left him to carry on their faith? Gaoh felt his uncertainty lift from his shoulders as he shook the cart loose for them to lurch forward.

Fall playfully nipped at Summer’s heels with crisp breezes darting across the plain ahead of them ending in sheer white walls. That was when the impossible appeared in front of them in the form of what appeared to be a glowing, sharpened steel plate. Kro lifted the shape from the soil to examine it more closely. The figure was an otherworldly hue of white that shone to seem like it was still aflame from whatever forge had crafted it. It was weighted like a weapon meant for ripping victims asunder. At the same time, she felt like it would be difficult to pierce should one use it as a shield. Gaoh observed her in hushed amazement, knowing what it could mean.

“Kro…” Her throat dried up as she tried to speak, passing the discovery to her awestruck father.

“A feather.” he comments, inspecting the piece for himself. “The entrance to the Palace is just up ahead.” he nodded ahead. “We should prepare.” Gaoh handed her a broadsword to which she acquiesced.

Kro accepted the sword forged from Gibralan steel because of its versatility in combat. It stabbed like the shortsword but cut just as well. She wagered she might need both motions in close proximity if she wanted to stand a chance. Watching her father sling his longsword over his shoulder while she slipped the sliver of steel they had found under her light armour. She was determined to give herself any advantage she could grasp.

Her bow and fletch of arrows lay concealed by thick cloaks along with the rest of their weapons and armour, she exchanged a wary glance with her father. The canyon before them created a theatre of death for anyone who entered on the formation’s lower levels. It would not be the first time that the pursued turned the tables on its pursuers.

White stone terraces loomed overhead as others plummet into the furiously flowing waters below. Thankfully the entrance her father had chosen was wider than most of the ledges it accompanied. Still, Kro did not know which opening to focus on when so many blank rocks menaced from above. The two seasoned hunters themselves could not have chosen better settings for an ambush if they had the chance. They would have picked their place atop one of the outcroppings and waited for when the time was right. Steeling themselves against their suspicions, Gaoh and Kro resolved to push onward.

Late afternoon sun painted pregnant dark clouds a reddish orange as the two moved among the creaking trees, snapping under their slightest touch. Hopefully the bird was diurnal like most of the others they knew. Dusk drew its curtain over the land upon their approach, offering them some sense of safety from what they sought.

BOOM! A sharp clang of a blow against metal was followed by an ear-splitting shriek. Father and daughter froze between the quaking walls until they settled. BOOM! The following report and scream shook loose debris as the first faint flicker flashed across the dark sky. BOOM! This time Kro swore she heard the song of countless blades being unsheathed at once sung nearby.

BOOM! Lightning briefly lit up their faces as they briefly shared a look of confirmation. A storm was coming. They stood back to back with swords and shields drawn while the sound of marching armour echoed around them. As suddenly as it had appeared the clamour vanished once it reached a frightening crescendo, leaving the thunder to fill the silence. BOOM!

The steps towards the nearest opening in the white rock seemed to stretch out an eternity while the world held its breath. A peal of lightning illuminated an empty cavern as the heavens burst open. Drenched, Gaoh’s instincts begged him to shield his eyes against the deluge and look up.

Time seemed to slow down as her father’s expression quickly became one of worry. He threw his full weight into her, catapaulting them both out of the way of a massive silhouette which had silently plunged towards them from an unknown height. Terrifying talons tore through the space the two had occupied just seconds earlier. It was only when they landed in a muddy heap that she started hearing the rain dancing on its metal feathers. Her father had been right about the steel plate they had found.

The deafening beat of mammoth wings caught the behemoth of a bird midfall and sent the two flying. Kro and her father lost each other in the sea of toppled trees it had caused. The ground trembled as the creature landed heavily with another mighty flap of its immense wings. Gleaming in the brightening flashes of light was a bird more wickedly beautiful and fierce than she ever dreamt.

Armoured plumage covered most of the bird’s body, ranging from white atop its head to black beneath its wings. Metallic grey highlights its stomach in shifting plates that sing with its every breath. Pitch black eyes the size of her fists coldly reflected all its wildly moving head consumed, shining with a malicious intelligence. Kro could not remember anything she had hunted prior evoking anything near what the creature before her now made her feel.

BOOM! BOOM! Her survival instinct picked her up from the dirt though her legs took a few stumbling steps to steady. BOOM! BOOM! She was running before her feet found their proper rhythm. BOOM! BOOM! There was no time to think about whether the sound was the thunder or her pounding heartbeat. BOOM! BOOM! She could not afford to think of her father’s wellbeing when her opponent could so easily dispatch her. BOOM! BOOM! He would be at her side once able, and if not, she would deal with whatever was left of him when the deed was done. BOOM! BOOM! For now, she needed to concentrate on closing the distance between them and cutting down its range of motion.

The bird shifted its wicked gaze from a splintered pile of wood to the woman brazenly bearing down in its direction. Kro freed herself from her sullied cloak and wrenched her bow free. There was no guarantee that the bird would stay in place for their battle to unfold unless she made a move. Had it possessed the features, Kro thought it might have sneered at what havoc it had wrought.

Suddenly, the woman broke to a side in an attempt to judge the animal’s field of vision. With eyes set in its skull, it had to shift its head whenever something eluded its sight. That could offer her the opportunity to get close enough to it for her to drive her blade home.

In learning how to hunt and hunting what could be similar, Kro had grown to question some details of the tales her father had told. The bird puffed out its chest as if daring her to attack its peerless defense. If nothing else, the animal was thoroughly proud of itself and what damage it can cause. That would come in handy towards her goal.

Coming to an abrupt stop, she notched an arrow and let it fly in one fluid motion. The projectile ricocheted uselessly off of the bird’s plates with a loud clang. Kro smiled at the confirmation of her suspicions. Its feathers were dense enough to act as armour against conventional weapons as she had guessed.

If Gibralans were truly the venerated hunters that Gaoh made them out to be, she assumed that an animal such a society made myth would not be so easily felled. It must have surely overtaken any opposition with similar ineffective weaponry. Knowing such a prize existed, how could Gibral never seek it out? That had always boggled the mind when she contemplated things. No one was brave enough to try before her mother, and she doubted anyone had until her. Kro beamed excitedly.

Curious about the darting speck shooting flecks bouncing off of its iron shell, the animal arrogantly stood still. Kro scrambled up one of the remaining rooted trees onto an upper ridge and took aim. She loosed an arrow at the monster taking her measure with narrowed eyes between sheets of steel.

It exploded into a frenzy as the missile sank into its eyeball. Shrieking shrilly while thrashing, the bird tried removing the source of its pain but only succeeded in burying it deeper. As Kro had hoped, it had thought the arrows less of a threat than the errant eyelash until it fell into its eye. She smirked at her short-lived victory.

The bird’s pained stomping and frantic flapping violently rocked the earth while generating gale forced winds. Kro was sent tumbling from her perch until she found purchase on one of the crackling trees below. Her fingers crunched into the blackened timber she made her anchor while she fought to keep hold. She grit her teeth as the wood gave way and she went end over end into a clump of mangled branches. Slashing her bare skin and snapping under her weight, the trees laid her in the mud with a splash. Though she had stopped, her world continued spinning.

Gaoh wrenched himself free from the mountain of broken branches slipping loose while the bird thrashed in futile attempts to flush the object from its eye. Its suffering screams ran him through the gamut of emotions as his longsword rested somewhere to the bottom of the pile. The man opted for the greataxe cinched to his back and stole the higher ground. Kro was reeling where the rampage had deposited her. He knew what needed to be done.

Pain racked her frame as she fought her way back to consciousness. The mass of broken limbs sapped her strength through every cut etched into her flesh in exchange for having preserved her life. She dreamily watched blood swirl into the waterlogged dirt, nourishing whatever would grow from the ruin. Kro laughed bitterly at the thought of life’s many cycles. The hunter was no more than collateral damage in her own hunt.

She glimpsed movement in flashes before fully waking. Something launching from the trees and terraces amidst the bird’s tantrum with a glint at its side. There was a familiarity to how it moved that invigorated her more than anything she could dream. Kro dragged herself to her feet for a better view of the sight unfolding before her.

Of course she had seen him hunt in the past, but Kro could not recall ever having seen him so openly enthused. Gaoh met the animal with a leap and heavy downward swing that split a wing from its side. Where the arrows were deflected, his steel slipped under its armour into the soft flesh underneath with a wet thud. Red warmth sprayed as the man’s weight tore the wound open along the wildly bucking bird’s spine. He flung his weight back and twisted to wrestle the axe loose. Gaoh tucked himself into a roll once he hit the ground to mitigate his fall and looked back at the flailing creature. He needed to get clear of its irate swatting and get to his daughter’s side. The thrum of a bowstring’s release brought a smile to the man’s face as an arrow sailed overhead to cover his retreat. It was as if she had read his mind.

Both looked on in disbelief as the furious bird whipped its head towards them without warning just in time for Kro’s shot to blind it. Kro dropped her bow with a clatter and a relieved sigh, drawing her sword and hefting her shield for the final battle. This was when the hunted was the most unpredictable.

Gaoh’s attack had grounded the great animal whose shrieks overpowered the retreating thunder with its wing held helplessly akimbo. Any movement aggravated the injury enough for it to be denied flight. Its scarred eyes were too large for its hearing to play a difference, but it could be used to their advantage. Seeing her stride towards him, he knew she understood and faced the bird with renewed vigour. The man deftly danced around the animal’s blind strikes and brought it to roost with his own well timed strikes to the back of its trampling legs.

Although driven to the ground, the bird beat its good wing angrily. Gaoh sliced this one on the inside upon his daughter’s approach so that its only weapon was its stalwart head which it swung madly and snapped its cruel beak. A double edged sword held in one’s death throes was better than surrendering without a fight.

Stopping to catch a painful breath, Kro moved within the bird’s reach. She banged her steel off of nearby surfaces to catch its attention. Despite not normally relying on its hearing because of its incredible vision, it certainly needed to now. She knew she had it when the creature turned in her direction and waited for her next clash of steel. The bird shot towards her, clicking its beak in an attempt to catch the little foe who had made it a fool. Kro shifted so its attack glanced off her shield with a dazed squawk. Wasting no time, she plunged her sword into the creature’s extended throat with all her strength. She saw herself reflected in its ruined eye as if acknowledging her having overcome it while the light slowly left. Regardless, Kro ensured she had hacked her opponent’s head clean off before allowing herself to relax.

Shuddering with the fleeing adrenaline, she fell to her knees. Kro screamed victory into the fading rain until she broke into a heavy sob. A daughter of Gibral had done the unthinkable and become recongized as a woman.

Kro did not have to look to know her father was proudly observing her. His daughter had put a lot of the knowledge he handed down in her hunt. Anything armoured had its chinks, especially around the eyes. Who would have thought that luck would conspire with experience in their favour? The man rest his hand on her shoulder lightly,

“Gather what you can and I’ll get the cart.” He said gently with a broad smile.

Using her sword to shear off the bird’s protective plates, the woman noted gouges and dents that were earlier obscured. Their fight could not have caused this, meaning that it was recently in combat with something else. Was there something out there capable of preying on these monstrosities? Something that this one had barely escaped and was still recovering from. Perhaps, she thought. Then again, it was just as likely it was recuperating from a failed mating foray. Kro shrugged the thoughts off and focused on her work.

Eager as she was to claim the promised reward, the woman made no mention of Gibral while working. With her father’s help, she fashioned what she could from the sheets of metal; unique blades and a peculiar suit of armour. This was her right as the monster’s conqueror to serve as proof to her feat. Imagine her surprise when they arrived at the edge of a settlement she only recognized because it was somewhere her father had continuously described.

“Welcome to Gibral.” Gaoh told her, smiling.