Chapter 297: Independent Investigation (2) |
I encountered the black fox and the falcon that hunted it, but I knew that my testimony would lack convincing power. I didn’t think that no one would believe me, but having some physical evidence does significantly reduce the difficulty of imagining the appearance.
Therefore, I approached the scene where the falcon had made its kill. There, I found more evidence than I expected. It consisted of the black fur of the fox and feathers from the bird of prey. With these, the others could roughly understand their sizes.
“Alright, I can go back now… oh, come on.”
Just when I thought I had enough, I couldn’t ignore a scene that caught the corner of my eye. It was the falcon that killed the fox being attacked by another bird of prey.
This bird of prey was about twice the size of the falcon, and it was characterized by bright white plumage and a long, slender beak that was brighter yellow and longer than its body. At first, I thought it was just scheming to snatch the prey on the side. The long beak seemed specifically adapted for that purpose.
But that didn’t seem to be the case. The two birds began to seriously fight to the death. The falcon abandoned its hard-earned prey and not only its tail feathers but its entire body was enveloped in flames as it attacked with its claws. It had clear killing intent.
The other bird of prey was not to be outdone. Its slender beak shone brilliantly as it emitted branching rays of light. It was indeed a powerful spiritual art.
“Ah, so that’s how it is.”
The resolution of the battle between the two birds was immediate. The falcon swooped through the gaps in the rays of light, approached quickly, and grabbed the body of the white bird of prey with its claws engulfed in flames. Immediately afterward, the white bird of prey burst into flames and transformed into a fiery torch.
Both birds inflicted fatal wounds on each other and, intertwined, they plummeted straight down before crashing into the ground without slowing down. I hurried to the place where they had fallen.
“The one with the beak died instantly, the falcon… it’s surprising. It’s still breathing?”
Surprisingly, the falcon was still alive. It appeared that during the fall, it had used the bird of prey as a cushion beneath it. Because of this, the white raptor’s bones were completely crushed. And that led to its death.
However, even though I said it was alive, it was barely hanging on. Several holes had been drilled into its body by the rays of light, and the fact that there was no bleeding from the wounds due to the heat of the ray was probably what kept it alive. Whether that was lucky or not was another matter.
“This must be some kind of fate. Let me relieve your pain quickly.
“…Quaa.”
I cradled the falcon, who seemed to find even breathing painful. As I stroked gently from its head down its back to reassure it, I restored my normally reduced tail to its original size. I manipulated my poison to change it to a type that would cause it to die as if it were falling asleep. I thought this was the only mercy I could show the falcon.
But the falcon took an unexpected action. It mustered the last of its strength to gently bite my thumb with its beak. At first, I thought it was struggling in its final moments.
But immediately after that, several visions flooded my mind. Among them, the one that left a strong impression was a vision of two fledgling birds.
“You have chicks? You want me to look after them, is that it?”
“……….”
The falcon was probably a creature that could instinctively master spiritual power, as it used fire spiritual arts. Though it could not understand language, it communicated by sending images of the scenes it wanted to convey to me, much like telepathy. These must have been the visions I witnessed.
I asked the falcon cradled in my arms, but it passed away before showing any response. According to the vision, the nest containing the falcon’s chicks was hidden in the shade of a large rock halfway up the mountain range. Fortunately, I could fly using sand so it was not impossible for me to head straight there.
“It’s easy to abandon them, but… I would surely regret it. I truly am a soft-hearted man, unable to be firm even with Shuu.”
The best choice would have been to forget that I had ever seen the falcon’s vision. But that was impossible for me. I could not deny the falcon’s dying wish and concern for its chicks to the point of entrusting them to a stranger like me.
I wrapped the bodies of the long-beaked raptor, the falcon, and the black fox each in a coffin of sand. I did not bother to collect the crushed body of the squirrel…. besides, I did not want to show the dead body of their own kind to the squirrels.
After securing what I needed to take back, I mounted a platform made of sand and flew toward the falcon’s nest. I had set out to conduct a ground survey, yet how had it come to this?
“It seems birds are indeed flying around. None seem to be coming this way, though….”
As I traveled through the sky on my sand platform, I noticed more birds flying around as I approached the mountain. The closer I got to the mountain, the more the vegetation on the ground increased. So perhaps this provided ample hunting grounds for various insects and animals. It seemed that birds of prey were at the top of the ecosystem on this mountainside.
Although they were the rulers of the sky, none of these birds attacked me. In the wild, anything unknown is considered a risk to be avoided. And I who “flew” without wings was too strange an entity for the birds. So it was only natural that they didn’t want to attack me.
“According to the vision, it should be visible from here…”
The mountainside, much like the foothills, was riddled with gaps but still covered in vegetation. But unlike the foothills and gravel deserts, larger rocks were scattered around her.
Among these, I found a rock that matched the exact shape shown in the falcon’s vision. I landed next to it and peered into the shade of the rock.
“Peep peep!”
“Chirp!?”
Indeed, just as in the vision, there were two chicks under the rock. Both were small enough to fit in the palm of my hand and they were covered with gray feathers unlike their parent. Their plumage would probably turn reddish brown as they matured. In contrast to the sharp appearance of their parent, these chicks were round and almost spherical.
Although they are two baby birds, their personalities seem to be completely opposite. As soon as one saw me, it vigorously stretched its beak toward me, while the other turned its head away and distanced itself. One was full of curiosity, while the other seemed wary.
“They’re lively, huh? Well then…”
Having confirmed they were unharmed, I reached out for the two chicks. The chicks could not even walk yet, and whether they liked it or not, they could not even put up a proper fight. The retrieval of the chicks was completed quite easily.
While gently cradling the retrieved chicks in both hands, I flew back along the path I had taken. And I managed to return to the temporary base just before the sunset.
Now that I returned to the temporary base, it was my duty to report the results of my independent investigation. The first thing I needed to show was the chicks chirping in my hands.
“Oh, these little ones are cute, aren’t they?”
“Well, well, well~… Who was it that was reluctant to see the number of the cats increase~?”
“Muuh …”
When Chris saw the chicks, she broke into a smile, while Woodsorrel walked slowly around me with a sly grin. I knew this was going to happen, so all I could do was keep quiet.
While I was being teased by Woodsorrel, I kept the chicks a distance from me while hiding them behind Shuu and Apao. This was because I was carefully examining the three types of corpses I had brought back.
“Wonderful…! Wonderful indeed! To think such creatures existed!”
Among those three types was the parent of the chicks. I doubted the chicks could understand this, but I wish they were kept out of sight as much as possible.
Lorenz readily agreed with a gentle smile. However, as he continued observing, he grew excited and began to raise his voice. Shuu and Apao who were now acting as a wall for the chicks glanced at each other and then snorted with disinterest.
Incidentally, Woodsorrel showed very little reaction to the black fox. It seemed completely different species did not concern her, which made me feel like I had worried over nothing.
“Peep peep!”
“What? Is it food? Can’t be helped.”
The chicks resting in Chris’s palm chirped loudly and the most curious one turned to me. From its open mouths, it seemed as if it was crying out in hunger.
Since I was the one who brought them along, I felt responsible for their care. I pulled out some of my dried food, tore off a piece, and offered it to them. One chick eagerly grabbed it but, regrettably, soon spat it out.
“Hmm. Not to your liking?”
“Wait a moment. I have an idea.”
Just as I was about to get up to hunt something more suitable for them, Chris stopped me. She picked up the piece of dried food the chick had rejected and wrapped it in water she conjured with her spiritual powers. After soaking it thoroughly to soften it, she gently brought the moistened piece back to the chick’s mouth.
This time the chick held onto the food without spitting it out. Instead of rejecting it, the chick began to cry for more as if demanding that we keep it coming.
“The parents of these chicks must have been hunters, right? Then, they were surely used to eating raw meat. They must prefer soft, juicy meat.”
“……Piyy.”
“Oh, you must be hungry too.”
Chris’s judgment seemed to be correct, as the chick eagerly devoured the moistened dried fish. Since it was a chick, it quickly became full.
Perhaps because its sibling was eating to its heart’s content, the other chick reached its limit of patience and opened its mouth to demand food. Chris and I exchanged a look, smiled at each other, and then continued to feed them.