Chapter 16: Unnatural Questions

The cave trembled, both Jack and Laura were sweating buckets as they saw what emerged from it, the fallen level bird monster.

''This makes no sense!'' Jack thought. ''What the hell is it doing here? Is this cave its nest?'' He frowned deeper and deeper. Both were in no condition to fight it like this, Jack was able to kill the fungi fallen because he had the advantage of the environment.

But with the bird, even if they managed to somehow lure it into the water, it could just kill them from the air.

The ground was shaking with every step that it took as the crawling got nearer and nearer to the pair. Jack prayed it wouldn't notice them, as they were anything but well hidden, the simple act of the bird looking to the side might already spell doom for them.

It was getting closer, both could feel it. Jack decided on a couple of plans in the few seconds of time left for them to think.

They could see its enormous face peering out of the cave now, and Jack went into action, willing the surrounding water to slowly wrap around their ankles, if it saw them, he would pull on it and try to run through the water.

Looking at it from up close, Laura couldn't help bur feel the hopelessness again, compared to its kin, its normally dirt-colored feathers were more gray and red. This attested to how old the creature was, its black and dead eyes looked forward with discernible wisdom and intelligence. Underneath the plumage, one could see the strong muscles that stretched like steel wires, ready to tear anything in its path apart.

The avian fallen looked ahead to the other side of the shore while putting the rest of its body out of the cave that seemed to be in its exact size, hell, it might have even overgrown the cave a bit as loose rocks and dust could be seen falling in its wake.

In due course, it was completely out of the comparatively small gape in the wall. The bird looked to his right, the way of the path that went around the lake and was about to turn left, when Jack began the other part of his plan, a simple distraction.

Using the water of the lake as a tool once more, he used all the force he could to stir it up, create some waves on the surface and some ways to the path circling the lake a loud splash could be heard.

The bird immediately turned its head towards it.

What splashed in the water had been a small beast from the forest Jack had seen and used to water itself to pull it in.

''Looks like its sense of smell isn't the best, or else he would've found us already. Now go! Go look at what prey has fallen in the lake!''

Seconds went by like hours in tense expectation, both Jack and Laura were holding their breaths, trying not to make a sound.

When finally there was some release, it beat its wings and flew over to the direction of the sound, while the pair slowly and silently went to the cave.

As they got out of sight, it got ever darker, and they could finally breathe in relief, but not in relaxation, since if the thing was here there has to be a reason for it. ''Is this its nest? If so, why build it so close to your arch nemesis, with whom you are at war?''

''Also, how come they fought so brutally with each other but were able to look at each other every day and not fight? Since the fallen bird can fly, it could easily assault the base of its enemy from here. It nearly appears like both parties have agreed to forgo fighting in this area.''

However, thinking wouldn't change anything, they had to be fast if there was the slimmest of possibilities that the fallen lord would return to the cave and tear them to pieces.

Thus, they moved on cautiously, Laura was having the hardest time as the absence of light in the cave rendered her almost senseless if not for the sliver of light that reflected in from the entrance.

On the other hand, Jack was also far from comfortable. Something in there was activating his instincts, not in a way that screamed danger ahead, but in one which screamed that there was something unnatural in there. His connection to nature was making Jack abominate the cave despite it being his probable way up, back to the human settlement, his hope.

The cave wall had no marks of claws, which gave the place an eerie atmosphere.

The area widened, and the ascending path almost looked like crude steps, which was preoccupying and disadvantageous for the pair going up, despite the relatively large are to maneuver. Laura tugged at Jack's clothes, signaling her discomfort. ''Why would beasts that could fly need stairs?'' she thought, with an unreadable expression and focused eyes.

After 20 minutes of climbing, Laura could barely see, which was in no way easy as she resorted to using a lighter to be able to see something, but her marksmanship was very limited. But suddenly Jack grabbed the lighter from her hand, she was about to protest when he crossed his fists in front of his body and pointed up ahead.

She knew what it meant, it was the first sign he recommended both to use when there is danger ahead. He did so because while he hadn't had time to grasp sign language, they could communicate important things in a way both knew. To explain how Jack was aware of it, he spoke with an elderly person in the city, who, before the oceanic catastrophe from 16 years ago, had been a diver. ''I always liked hearing the stories of how the ocean was and what it has become.'' he thought nostalgically.

''Stay some distance away from me, close enough to see the surrounding area but far enough to not be spotted easily.'' He said, to which she nodded, thought it might make things harder for her to move she wouldn't be a beacon attracting monster's attention. And she could always shoot in the dark or use star energy, though it drained her and has a massive side effect to boot.

Jack drew his sword with his right hand and fearlessly walked forward to a place where the ground evened out, in a smaller, still extremely crude more open area while Laura was behind him in the dark. Up front were seven danger rated birds like the ones they saw earlier. Some immediately spotted Jack, who was a single spec of light in a sea of darkness.

Soon all six were upon him, he was stronger than the last time they fought, much stronger, therefore, despite having only one blade in hand, he was confident and just stopped and waited as to not turn off the lighter.

Laura, on the other hand, had already drawn her bow, it was a bit difficult in darkness but nothing she couldn't do based solely on muscle memory. She felt the bow's weight and carefully took a single step forward to see only the tip of the arrow in the dim light, stabilized her weapon and shot it out before returning to darkness.

Just as Jack was ready to fight the first bird, an arrow whistled past his head and went straight into the bird's neck.

It began gasping for air, which gave him the time for a first attack, that went straight to beast's heart while it uselessly expanded its chest to try and breathe.

''That's right, I'm not just stronger but no longer alone now! No injuries on this one.'' He thought, feeling secure about having his back covered.

Laura repeated her earlier sequence of moves and shot another arrow at one of the middle birds, she didn't want to accidentally harm Jack as he was recovering from much more severe injuries as he was going to engage in a melee fight.

But as if to astonish her even more, he went forward and cut one beast's head in half before her second arrow even hit her target. ''How the hell is he healing so fast? The light went off for a second, befor he re-lit the lighter. Then advanced again at his enemy, that startled Laura as it felt counter intuitive to move and relight the flame again, he repeated the sequence a couple of other times until it dawned on her. ''Is he... trying to atack with his blade without putting out the lighter?!"

The young mute was right on the mark with such thought, for Jack, looked at it as a way to train his balance, swordsmanship and versatility even in the deadly situation.

It was hard, but with his improved instincts and body, not impossible.

Three beasts came up at once this time, so it got even harder, but Jack noticed another arrow was sticking out of the third one, slowing it down.

''Oh, so I can leave you for last?'' He thought, while parrying a beak with his blade, and kicking another bird away. The flame swayed a bit when he did so, but he quickly steadied his body.

That's when his instinct perceived a threat from above, differently from his first time fighting the birds the place was open enough for one of the birds to take off and fly, Jack twisted his body to dodge.

The bird he had kicked away also drew flight.

''This is getting a little complicated.'' he thought out loud.

As Jack was about to abandon his insane training, another arrow flew and struck the ascending bird directly in the interior of its wing, causing it to fall to the ground.

In response, Jack raised the lighter in the air while doing a thumbs up and went on the offensive as there were only two birds around him with on in the air.

He parried the first beak with one hand while letting his sword slide and cut off one of the monster bird's eyes. The lights went off again.

When the lights went back on Jack, stopped there as he felt the other one on the ground trying to jump on top of him, it's claws going straight for Jack's face. 

''Oh, no, you won't.'' He dodged to the side while leaving a little gift to the creature that had lost its eye.

It shrieked as the lighter was no longer the only thing on fire in the dark hall, as Jack had deviously set the bird's plumage aflame while close to it, using the blind spot he had created in its vision.

With a better light source, Laura began to shoot more often at the beast in the air, her job was to get them down, so Jack could kill them even if she failed to kill it herself.

All the present beasts except this one were horribly wounded, be it by arrows, fire or blade and panting furiously, shrieking sounds coming from its throats.

So, after slightly stepping into the light, she took a deep breath and aimed as precisely as she could in the darkness. ''When is the best time to hit a target, you ask?'' She thought of her sister's words. ''Of course, it's when it has its eyes on its own prey.''

And when the bird first poked its beak into the domes of light Jack had surrounding him, its black lifeless eyes stared at Jack with the intent to kill. Laura let go of her things, and the signature sound of a bow string clapping could be heard, followed by a thud.

The creature she had aimed at lay dead on the floor.

''Nice shot! '' She saw him saying, beside a bird on fire and another torn to pieces in its ally's wake.

Yet what followed was his face quickly turning from one of praise to one of preoccupation, which led to Laura hesitating and stepping back just in time as a beak appeared right in front of her through the darkness.

At that point, Jack, who had been playing with his life in the "training" he had devised, couldn't care less because it was his partner who was in danger; thus, he threw the lighter in the air and dashed to thing in the penumbra without hesitation.

When he got to her, Laura had just dodged based on reflex, instinct, and good battle reading skills, and was about to turn away and run when he drew and slashed the sword that was in his sheath.

Connecting perfectly with the bird's neck and decapitating it in two different places as another, more angry blow came only a second after the first.

Even from the front, the beast had no luck as an arrow was released right inside its gaping maw too.

The previously hectic environment went quiet as all the birds were dead and there was just the noise of burning, the ting of the lighter falling to the ground still on its feet, with the spark still going brightly beside its much larger sister flame.

''Now that! That nearly went south several times, but we're both unharmed and haven't wasted any blood, so I guess it's all good?

He said to Laura just as she came back into view, and she seemed all but pleased with his "training" antics.

''Okay! Okay, sorry, I won't do it again, but I believe it would help me gain control of my body!''He exclaimed, reading right through her.

''But at least I dropped it before things got serious, right?'' She gave a smile that was more terrifying than the fallen bird lord in Jack's head and went back into the darkness. "Right?" his voice echoed in the dim light.