Chapter 24:Birds

"I am sorry; did we make you wait for long?" Mort asked smiling as he brought out a colossal-sized bag with him filled to its maximum capacity carrying on his shoulder. Aksel had seen such a bag for the first time in his life even though he was aware of its existence thanks to his memories.

"How are you even carrying that much?" Yve asked astonished, disregarding his previous words as she eyed him with concern. He was bent slightly forward with the weight of the bag which was almost bigger than him.

Behind him, she saw the others also carrying out similar bags, and although the women had slightly smaller than the men it was still a phenomenal degree of strength that they must have been using to carry out these pieces of luggage.

The weirdest thing about all this was that they didn't look a bit strained.

"It's not as hard as you think it is. I'll admit it was difficult for me at first but now I don't even feel that much," Mort said as he placed the bag down in front of her. He watched as her eyes followed his movements and encouraging her he said, "Do you want to give it a try."

"They aren't trained enough to pick it up, Mort," Renee huffed as if speaking to a kid. When Mort scowled at her she scowled back and for a few seconds, they seemed to get into a staring contest.

Grunting at their attitude Grant nodded at the others to follow him and standing up from where Yve and Aksel had taken a seat on the ground Yve rolled her eyes and nudging Renee to move on she took her towards the rest of the group breaking their stupid banter.

While Mort was glaring at Renee who continued to give him a middle finger Aksel moved to the bag and tried to pick it up, the bag was heavy but Aksel could pick it up an embarrassing one inch in comparison to the others.

Placing it down quickly he inquired, "Why do you guys seem so much more skilled and stronger than us?"

His voice brought Mort's attention back to him and smiling as he heaved up the bag on his shoulders he said, "Practice and training. You already know that although weaker than the branded we have our own skillsets and fighting techniques inculcated in our bodies. If you train yourselves hard enough then your body will also be able to do these tasks easily as well."

Wanting to gain the ability to be this strong Aksel made a mental note to talk to Yve about staying a while longer to train with these Rueses and learn their ways before stepping out into the outside world.

"So did you two take a look around while we were raiding inside?" Mort asked as the two of them walked towards the group that was a few steps ahead of them.

It was still quite weird for Aksel to see them loot a place owned by the System so easily and come back out alive. It made him wonder how strong the security was of the system or maybe it was only strong inside the city where it could control the Branded anytime they wanted.

"Yeah, we saw the farm and the farm animals. Honestly, I hadn't imagined there could be such a place inside this forest when we were last here," Aksel said thinking back to the rich fields that stretched onto for miles with different vegetables, fruits, and grains grown in their sections. It was a sight to see and a thought had struck him then that maybe the Branding System took control over the distribution of food in hopes to control a rebellion if ever one arises someday.

"Yeah, right? These holograms are fucking amazing," Mort said as they reached the group at the edge of the forest where everyone was now waiting looking over the city and up at something.

Aksel joining the others noted their sight to be focused on the now bright sky that had birds flying high above with their wings spread out as they played around swirling and gliding among the soft clouds that were doting the sky of this fine day.

"Good thing we were in time to catch them before they flew further away," Grant muttered as he opened his bag and took out a big slab of meat. He held it in his hand up for a few seconds and then threw it on the ground in the light of the sun a few feet away from them.

Renee who already held a small mirror in her hand stepped out from the shaded part of the forest and angling the mirror up she seemed to make the surface glint to catch the bird's attention.

'Was this how they hunted birds?'

Aksel wondered as he saw three birds swoop down at once at the signal and pocketing the mirror Renee stepped back at once as she watched the tiny specks slowly and steadily making their way down.

Aksel wanted to ask what was happening and why were they so eagerly awaiting a few birds to come down when they had given away more meat than what those tiny birds would be worth of.

"Do you think those birds have some special qualities or are their meat a type of delicacy?" Yve asked and Aksel almost wanted to chuckle at the similarity of their confused thoughts.

"Maybe? I don't know I am just as confused as you are, or it could have been that they have some other better health qualities than farm-reared animal's meats," Aksel suggested as they continue to watch the birds come lower and lower.

It took them some time but after a certain degree of height, Aksel saw them charge down at once and in a matter of few seconds the small birds were replaced with mighty birds taller than them and equally ferocious, flocked near the meat as they tore and ate at it.

These birds were deep black and had red eyes. Their wings span in itself must have been more than twenty-five feet and their height taller than twelve. They had talons that they had perched on the ground and the nails viciously gleamed speaking of all the terrorizing things it could do if only the creature was to make a slight movement with it.

Aksel watched as the birds squawked and fought for food as they tore at the meat and Aksel noted that their beaks though slender had a set of sharp cracking teeth and solid enamel-coated beaks that were a shade lighter than their jet black feather.

In a simple sentence, the birds looked at what people would consider monsters to look like in olden times.

When their food had been finished they cawed a little more causing Yve to grimace at the noise as they looked around for anything more. Finding none they moved their red eyes around when one of them stopped and fixed its glare at Aksel.

It almost made Aksel gulp in fear as the devil bird watched him and then suddenly turning to face him it came sprinting towards it cawing hysterically.

Aksel was about to take a step back or look around for something to hit the bird with when suddenly he felt air shift around him as he saw Mort dash down from beside him and run towards the bird with his arms spread out.

"Bob!" he shouted like a maniac laughing as he made his way towards the ugly bird that was surely going to chomp the man down in a single gulp.

What he found weird was that none of the other Rues stopped him from doing this as they watched Mort skip towards the creature and then at last when he had noticed the bird spread its wings almost in an attacking manner he saw Mort rush into the fluffed chest of the bird and… hug it?

He was hugging it! And the stupid and evil-looking bird was hugging him back!

"What the fuck!" he exclaimed unable to stop himself and he heard Renee laugh from beside him as she came towards Yve and Aksel who had yet again been plastering such flabbergasted expressions that she couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah believe me; I really wish the bird would eat him too but it doesn't," she said glaring at the bird that seemed to catch her eyes and squeal at her making her avert her gaze as she muttered, "The stupid thing is even protective over him."

"Let's go, load the bags," Grant ordered as they prepared to put the bags on the other two birds' backs that had been patiently although disinterestedly been looking around.

"Do you use these for transportation?" Aksel asked as he eyed the birds doubtfully.

"Yes, we have only been using them for the last six months after Mort here discovered their use before which we had to rely on manual labor in bringing back these heavy bags." Renee explained and looking at his new 'friend', Aksel saw him patting the bird's head as he talked to it.

He was right when he had termed this guy as strange in the beginning but somehow he also had his redeeming qualities.

"Aksel!" he heard his name being called and walking to Mort he hesitantly looked up at the bird who assessed Aksel with a glare of its red orbs as it brought its head closer and closer to him.

Suddenly it squawked in his face almost making Aksel scared at the nearness of its sharp teeth and foul breath. The response to this action of his was a slight scolding from Mort who merely said, "Bob, be nice! He is my new friend."

Aksel didn't know if the bird understood the human language or not but it surely seemed a little embarrassed as it looked at Mort and made a humming noise as it rubbed its head against his cheek.

'This guy was definitely crazy! Who befriends a deadly creature so easily?'

Aksel thought wondering how he wasn't scared of such a creature who could snap his neck in a single second.

Mort had by now fixed his bag on the bird's back with the help of rope as well and climbing up he said, "Come on. Bob is the best of them all and I promise you won't fall."

Aksel looking around at the others noted Yve squashed between Renee and another female already sitting on the bird. He could see how nervous she was and taking a deep breath he touched the light feathers of the gigantic bird and holding onto Mort's hand he climbed on it.

"Hold onto this rope tightly," Mort gave him the end of a long rope that had been circling the bird's body. When they both were finally settled with the bag behind Aksel fixed to the bird Mort asked, "Ready?" and before Aksel could even reply he had already struck the rope and gave a cry making the bird stretch out its wings and with a powerful movement swoop up into the sky and towards home.