With a running leap, Archivuald pushed off the ground, latching on nearly fifteen feet upward. With a thud that jostled him, he clung to the sheer rock face, digging the long curved claws of his hands and feet into small cracks on the wall.
Heart thudding loudly in his chest, he started climbing, carefully scaling the sheer rock face. It was slow going, with him testing each hand and foothold before trusting his weight to it. With the dusting of snow and ash covering the rock, it wasn't easy to find secure holds.
He spent most of his effort scratching around with his sharp claws, feeling the ice part until they were firmly lodged in small cracks. His monster form, unlike his human form, seemed like a natural climber.
His monster form was a good foot and a half taller than his human, with lean, corded muscle, the curved claws on his toes and fingers able to latch onto even the smallest cracks.
Like a monstrous spider, he scrambled up the rock face with surprising ease. Within the first couple minutes, he was already about fifty feet up.
At this height, falling wouldn't kill him, maybe just a broken leg or two. Still, that wasn't an exciting prospect. The higher he climbed, the more likely death on a fall became.
A slip half way up made his heart leap in his chest, his breathing ragged as he frantically clung on by one arm. He could feel his claws sliding as he slowly lost his grip, his claws unable to pierce the hard stone..
In a panic, Archivuald scramble for purchase, scuffing his elbows and knees as clawed at the rock. Stomach lurching he finally found purchase, and he clung tightly to the icy rock, his chest heaving as he glanced down. Archivuald immediately regretted it. He suddenly felt queasy, his stomach lurching as he realized just how high he was.
His head swam and he tasted bile. Over a hundred meters up, at least. With a force of will, he looked away, focusing back on the cliff face.
Breath misting, he just hung there, trying to calm himself. Damned heights… The strong wind wasn't helping either, trying to rip him from the wall.. Even with his monstrous body, his arms were starting to ache from the constant strain, his fingers and toes straining to keep him in place.
Why did that stupid bird have to make its nest so high on this cliff? The monstrous chicken really wasn't considerate. He cursed the stupid bird for the umpteenth time. When he got there, he was going to pluck that oversized chicken for forcing him to do this.
After nearly falling to his death, he just hung there for a bit, catching his breath and steadying himself.
After a few long seconds to calm himself, he threw a glance back to the skies. The storm above was still just as vibrant as before, with no bird in sight, thankfully. When he didn't see an angry bird coming to peck him to death, Archivauld continued his climb.
His arms and legs were aching something fierce, and he couldn't have a break until he reached the nest still looming high above on a small shelf. If he were in his human form, he would be sweating buckets right now. His monster form didn't seem to sweat at all, or perhaps his sweat just turned to frozen particles immediately. An interesting quirk, but one to contemplate later.
He sighed. Well, no rest for the wicked. Gritting his teeth, he reached up, feeling around for a new handhold. All the while, he swore up a storm, cursing his own damn greed.
How had he been roped into this? He couldn't collect his payment if he fell to his death or was pecked to death.
This was the last time…. After this, no more cliffs.
It was painstaking work to scale the sheer rock, but he eventually did it. With a heave of shaky arms, he pulled himself up, and into the nest.
Exhausted, he lay on his back in the nest, chest heaving as he caught his breath. Made of craggy branches, it looked quite small from below, but it was quite large, big enough for him to lay down with room to spare.
Just how massive had that bird actually been? The thought was more than a bit concerning. He just lay there for about a minute until he was able to breathe. With that under control, he turned his head, and excitement filled him.
There it was. Not one, but three head sized green and white eggs wrapped up in tufts of guanaco fur. He wasn't sure why the eggs were green, but he honestly didn't care.
With a grin, he pulled the empty pack he had brought up for just the task, and stuffed the biggest of the three eggs inside. After only a moment of hesitation, he stuffed handfuls of fur into the pack with the surprisingly warm egg.
He would have loved to grab a second, but sadly there wasn't enough room in the pack for more. He shook his head. A second egg would be useless to him. Now he just had to deliver the egg to Davian. Raising and feeding the monstrous bird wasn't his problem, that was up to Davian.
Slinging the now full pack, he peered back over the edge of the nest, to the ground far below. The height made him nauseous, a far enough fall to leave him nothing more than a shattered smear on the ground.
It was a very unsettling thought..
Archivuald took a deep steadying breath forcibly looking away. As much as he wanted to wait around for a while before descending, he didn't have that luxury.
After shaking out his tired arms, he draped his legs over the edge. Archivuald was tired, but lingering in the nest was a bad idea. No telling when that monstrous bird would come back. For a moment, he even considered turning into his bird form, to try flying down. He quickly shook off that idea. The last time he tried to fly from a tree, he nearly broke his neck, and this was a hundred times higher with crazy winds.
That would be like a form of suicide. As quickly as it came, he shook off the idea. It would be safer to descend the way he came. Just as he was about to start climbing down, a furious screech filled the air.
Archivuald still in the nest whirled, frantically searching the skies, just in time to see the approaching threat.
Wrapped in crackling arcs of energy, the white and brown monster shot through the sky, diving right towards him.
Archivuald reached for the ax at his belt, the worn haft feeling good in his hand. It dove towards him with incredible speed, growing rapidly in size as it approached.
Archviuald braced himself, as the monster rapidly closed, extending its massive claws to snatch him. With nowhere to go, he braced himself, waiting for it to get in range.
Essence flooded from his reservoir, rushing up his outstretched arm as he activated windcutter. A dozen sharp blades of wind shot out, the wind howling as they slashed the air in a cone.
At the last second, the massive bird let out a thunderous screech that almost threw Archivauld from the nest.
He crouched low, gritting his teeth, as his wind cutter was ripped to pieces. The bird flared its wings, seeming to drown out the sky as it glared down at him.
This close, the monster was absolutely massive, with a thirty foot wingspan crackling with lightning. With a beak that could crack stone, it lashed out at him with its talons..
Unwilling to get snatched up in those dagger like talons, Archivauld swung his axe, meeting the attack head on.
His ax met talon and won, and ax won, the sharp blade biting through bone and sinew. The bird pulling back, angrily squawking as blood gushed from the stump of its severed talons..
Archivauld didn't have time to rejoice, as arcs of energy gathered across its wings. Without any cover, Archivuald did the only thing he could do.
He leapt behind the two remaining eggs. It was a gamble, but it paid off, as the monster frantically redirected its lighting at the cliff nearby.
Even enraged, the monsters motherly instinct saved him. Shards of rock sprayed him as scrambled back to his feet, essence flooding into his second divine curse.. The nest shook, darkness gathering above his head as a ghastly eye formed. The world seemed to fall deathly silent, as the eye opened, dragging all those who looked inside into the abyss.
The monstrous bird shrieked in agony, torrents of essence flooding from its eyes and beak, disappearing into the eye. After several moments, it fell from the sky like a puppet with its strings cut, hitting the rock below with a distant thud.
Breathing heavily, Archivauld cautiously peered over the edge, dust rock and ash clattering around the massive bird's corpse. That had been much too close for comfort. If the monster had not been too afraid of zapping its eggs, he would have been done for.
Dusting the ash off his pants, he let out a relieved breath. He wasn't out of the woods just yet, but at least that angry bird was dealt with. Before he descended, he checked his precious cargo. The green and white egg was thankfully unharmed, still wrapped in a soft layer of guanaco inside his pack. He spared another glance at the other eggs. One was covered in cracks from rock shrapnel, but the other seemed fine.
It was unfortunate, but the eggs would likely never hatch now that their mother was dead. Even now, ice was gathering on their shells, as both the cold, and his presence froze the air.
Speaking of which, he needed to quickly descend before his presence turned his precious cargo into an egg sicle. If that happened this would all be for naught. Spurred on by urgency, he hung over the nest and began his descent. Without the worry of an angry bird, he was much faster, quickly climbing down the way he came.
It was incredibly nerve wracking but he finally made it. Archivauld was incredibly relieved when his feet finally touched down on the ground.
Worried for the egg, he returned to his human form, the familiar strain of tired muscles washing over him. The bitter chill and biting wind hit him like a slap to the face.
He grimaced, as the pains from being battered by rock shards, and the tough climb hit him aswell. Quite unpleasant. Shivering, he scrambled to retrieve his cloak where he left it before the climb.
After tugging on his cloak, he checked inside his frost covered pack, finding the egg surprisingly warm in its pouch. Even so, he took his extra clothing from his pack, and wrapped the egg in them, to help insulate it further. A layer of cloth, and a thick layer of fur to be safe.
With that done, he finally turned his attention to the dead monster nearby. The bird lay there on its back, its feathers still faintly crackling with energy that was slowly dissipating into the air.
A dangerous monster, one that could have easily killed him. He'd gotten lucky this time. It just proved that he couldn't let down his guard. Next time, he might not have some eggs to hide behind.
A close call, but that couldn't stem his excitement as he climbed up its feathered chest. With a sickening squelch, he brought his ax down. The bird was sturdy, but after some gory digging he was able to retrieve its essence stone.
The lord tier essence stone radiated power, fractals swirling along its surface as he pulled it out. He grinned. A lord tier emblem, and a potent one at that.
It was extremely rare for higher tier monsters to appear in lower tier rifts, but that didn't mean it couldn't happen. He had gotten double lucky, not only in surviving the ordeal, but also in the monster forming an emblem upon death. It was exciting, but he wasn't too enthused. After all, Davian was the sole beneficiary of everything they harvested.
He wanted to keep it anyway, but had made a promise.
Nothing he could do about that. Grumbling to himself, he glanced up at the pillar of smoke above the volcano to the crackling storm above. It was about time they retrieve the nexus, and return to Stronghold. Not a day to soon. At this rate, he would be cutting it close, they would need to rush to return in time for the auction.
With the egg retrieved, clearing the rift was a piece of cake. After all, they had already found it and killed the monsters guarding the nexus a few days prior. It was as simple as snatching the nexus and riding back to the rift exit. They left the slowly crumbling rift with a few days to spare, starting the trek back. All the while, Davian fawned over his new egg, having put the thing inside a fractal marked box. The box drew in ambient heat, supplying the egg with a similar temperature to what the egg would receive with its mother to warm it. The kid was quite well prepared.
They had no way of knowing if or when the egg would hatch, even so Davian seemed optimistic.
Archivuald really hoped the egg wasn't a dud. All that hard work would have been for nothing.
Davian about had a heart attack when the egg formed a crack on the third day of travel back.
His worry turned to excitement as a dark beak pierced through the egg from the inside, a soft chirp filling the air. He practically bounced in his saddle, his black stallion snorting at the unexpected movement.
"Look, it's hatching!" Davian exclaimed, staring down into the open lid of the box he held.
Archivauld pulled his horse up next to Davian's, peering over.
Sure enough, as he watched a small beak poked through, pecking at the crack to widen the small hole. Davian's grin was infectious.
"I can't thank you enough Alex. You went above and beyond," Davian replied.
"No problem. I hope it works out for you," Archivuald replied honestly.
"Me too. This is better than i could have hoped for. Hopefully, this monster will imprint on me, that will make raising and training it much easier," Davian beamed, as the little bird finally pushed its head through, panting as it tried to escape its egg.
Archivuald smile.
"Im sure youll figure it out. That's going to turn into one hell of a pet full grown. You might even be able to ride it," Archivuald said.
"That's what I was thinking! I'm going to be the envy of every young noble," Davain replied.
They made good time, the little bird slowly breaking free more with each passing day. It was finally free from the egg after two full days of effort.
It looked like a plucked chicken, but even so, Davian couldn't stop grinning as he fed the small bird tiny strips of dried meat.
The little monster was insatiable, looking at Davian like he was its mother, constantly begging for more food.
It looked like a featherless chicken now, but Archivuald knew just how formidable this monster could become in time.
When they could see the city walls, Davian tossed him a small pouch that jingled with gold. Archivauld caught it, more than happy with his payment.
"Thanks again for the help. I will send Pelas my best regards." He paused, before smiling.
" I know I already paid you, but I feel like I still owe you.. That lord tier item from my family's vault is still yours, but I recall you mentioning the auction on the solstice tomorrow evening. If you want to come by the family estate, we can go together. My family owns a private booth that's fully staffed for these occasions. I doubt my father will attend, so it will just be you and I," Davian said.
Archivuald considered the offer for a few seconds before slowly nodding. A private booth would be much nicer than what he had been planning.
The free food and drink would also be more than appreciated.
"You got yourself a deal. Where and when can I meet you?" Archivuald asked.
Davian rummaged through his pack, pulling out a crumpled envelope. He held it out.
"This is my family crest. It shouldn't be too hard to find our estate. This crest is emblazoned onto the front gates. If you come tomorrow evening, we can meet up and sort out your reward from the vault before the auction," Davian said.
Archivuald hesitantly took the proffered note, eying the stamp thoughtfully. A dark storm cloud crackling ominously, with a bolt of lightning striking down at a lone tree. The crest seemed oddly familiar, though he couldn't place why. He could swear he had seen this crest somewhere before.
When nothing came to mind, he shook off the thought.
"Alright Daina, I guess I'll see you tomorrow afternoon," Archivauld said.
"Sure thing, later Alex!" With a bright grin, Davian waved, his destrier prancing down the road towards the city gates. Archivuald couldn't help but smile. The kid was about as subtle as a runaway cart, but still, he was a good kid. Davian reminded him a lot of his brother, Malakai.
That put a damper on his good mood. Just where was Malakai? Was he still in the outer band? Consider Pastor Landen was with him, his little brother should be safe away from the kind of danger Archivauld ran into on a weekly basis.
It was a consoling thought. Archivuald might be a horrible elder brother, but he still loved the only family.
He hated it, but it was perhaps for the best that he kept away. Malakai would be much better off without Archivuald's bad name to make his life more difficult.