Save That Belbi Kelbi!

The two worked tirelessly, moving from one mining outcrop to the next without rest. Velk and Ash took turns pulling on the sled that was gradually filling with ore, only switching off when one grew tired or when they were pulling it up a steep slope; Velk had to do all the work in those instances.

Occasionally, an ore would manage to find its way off the sled, and one of the two would have to retrieve it—usually whoever wasn't the one doing the pulling—and bring it back to the sled, often up the slopes in the terrain. Eventually, the duo reached the final outcrop within their third hotspot. The day was already growing thin, and they had collected forty-two iron ores in total. They were thinking about possibly heading back for the night, but before they could come to a decision, another rumble reverberated through the valley, knocking the two unbalanced.

Given that this was the second time today a landslide had occurred, Velk and Ash were curious about the cause. It couldn't be that someone was fighting a wyvern all the way out here—could it? Velk turned to his companion with a questioning gaze and asked, "Should we check it out?"

Ash nodded his head, his ears twitching slightly, and responded, "Meow."

"Well, let's hurry. Somebody might be in trouble." Velk quickly got back to his feet and hastily pulled upon the sled towards the sound of trouble. The two navigated through the woods as speedily as they could. Ash followed close behind Velk, ensuring that nothing fell from the sled and was left behind.

Since they didn't exactly know where the landslides were occurring, they had to take a couple of guesses and wrong turns before finally finding a large, unnatural clearing with dislodged trees and rocky debris. A herd of Kelbi was surrounding the area, mainly just grazing on the grasses present, but a couple of them were inspecting the rock pile, stuffing their noses into it, and sniffing around. There was one short-horned kelbi, in particular, that seemed distressed by the circumstances and was trying its absolute hardest to dig away at the landslide.

Kelbi are a species of deer-like herbivores known for their gentleness and the medical properties—namely their horns, which are used in multiple potions and remedies—they possess. Coats of dark green—females being lighter, almost of grey—and beady black eyes, kelbi are the perfect shade to camouflage themselves well within the forested biomes. They would often stick in herds and graze together for pack survival, but that is sometimes to their disadvantage as more intelligent predators would exploit their behavior for more substantial pay-offs of meals and/or materials. . . .

Ash was the first to hear—but soon Velk as well—the wail of a young-sounding kelbi trapped under the debris that had seemingly fallen on it. "Ash, we have to help it!" Velk quickly scrambled through his mouth and hastily rushed towards the rubble, scaring off the kelbi who had been hard at work. He began digging through the landslide, one rock at a time, as he cleared the path.

It seemed as if the trapped kelbi was further under than Velk had formerly anticipated, as he had already cleared a sizeable amount of rocks from the collection of thousands. Soon, Ash came around with the iron spade that they had luckily brought and given it to Velk before continuing to dig through with his paws himself. Velk had totally forgotten about the tool's existence and was glad he had a partner who was more attentive than he was. It was likely that Velk would have remembered at some point after nearly giving up, but that never happened.

Now with the shovel, Velk was able to work much faster than he was previously. Now clearing out multiple large rocks at a time, he could complete triple the amount of work in the same amount of time. As the duo worked to save the entrapped kelbi, the kelbi who had formerly been trying to help it was appearing to grow uneasy as she would repeatedly stomp at the ground behind Velk, seemingly as if bracing itself to attack.

Eventually, it did, and it charged at Velk from behind. Since Velk was distracted digging, he took the full brunt of the attack and was sent flying to the ground after getting hit in the back. Discombobulated, Velk was confused as he lay face-first into the rocks, pain hurting like it was just struck by a thick stick.

"What's the big idea. . . !" Velk yelled out angrily, sitting up and turning to get a look at his aggressor. He expected to see another person, or maybe one of the more aggressive male kelbi but was surprised to find the female kelbi who he had scared off. "I'm only trying to help. . ." His tone calmed down as he strayed off with his words.

Velk didn't know what to make what just happened. Usually, female kelbi are hyper-docile and would only ever attack another living being if it was threatening her or her baby if she had one. Unsure why he was targeted, Velk decided to ignore the kelbi and pick back up the shovel he had dropped when he was struck and get back to digging, this time keeping his front turned towards it. Perhaps if Velk had seen the kelbi's slightly swollen nipples, he would have had a clue what was going on.

The kelbi did not put up any more offenses after that and seemingly decided that it was not worth risking her life in such a manner. This left Velk and Ash free to dig, unattested by any other kelbi or disgruntled wyverns. They could still hear the young-kelbi's cries, so they knew it was still alive under there, but for how long that would be the case—they were uncertain, so they had to move quickly.

It had only been a couple minutes since they started digging, but yet again, another landslide sounded out off in the distance. The kelbi all looked up in the direction of the fall but didn't seem all that bothered otherwise. This time, the landslide sounded a lot closer than the previous two times Velk and Ash experienced it, which means that whatever was causing it was still nearby, causing them to increase their pace.

After some more time spent digging, the duo finally began to see the end to their troubles as a tiny smidge of light grey fur peaked out of the rubble. Velk threw his spade to the side and crawled down to where the small opening was. He started to clear the nearby rocks, but there was one problem, and that consisted of one mega-large stone that neither Velk and definitely not Ash thought they could move, but maybe if they worked together, they could roll it away, but that would be difficult without hurting the kelbi trapped beneath.

Understanding what they had to do, Velk looked at Ash, straight into his round orange eyes, and asked, "Ash, you with me?"

Ash flexed his arm muscles and voiced out a confirmatory, "Meow.!"

Together, the two pushed on the boulder as hard as they could, careful not to crush the kelbi, and after struggling with all their might, managed to get it to start rolling, but only for a second before it stopped, but that was just enough. Quickly, Velk and Ash uncovered the last of the rock debris from the young kelbi and recovered it from the confines of the stoney coffin.

Receiving the small grey Kelbi into his arms, Velk now realized just how young it actually was, which clarified a few things for him but also gave a couple questions.

Realizing that the kelbi from before was probably its mother, Velk felt sorry for panicking it, but he knew that the mother alone would not have been enough to free its baby, so there was nothing else that could have been done. But the fact this young one was even born yet in the first place was surprising, to say the least, given just how early into spring they were. Usually, kelbi would only give birth in the later periods of spring and early summer months.

The second most remarkable thing was just how tenacious this little girl was to have even survived the landslide, to begin with. She couldn't have been older than just a few days, and given how weak baby kelbi are when they are young, had the positioning of the rocks been slightly different, it was very likely that the baby kelbi would have died on the spot. The cruel, unfortunate facts of life.

Hugging the tiny and adorable baby kelbi close to his chest, Velk carried it close as he made his way out of the rubble. Despite having just been crushed under literal tonnes of stone, the baby kelbi was quite lively and was trying to wiggle out of Velk's grasp at every possible moment while constantly crying out. The kelbi was not used to the presence of humans, much less being handled by one like so—so it must have been quite the daunting experience.

Velk started to walk up to the mother kelbi, who was pacing and stomping around quite anxiously as it stared at its baby. Getting close, he didn't immediately put it down—for safety precautions— and instead held out the baby towards the female kelbi to look at. The mother kelbi, seemingly getting the memo, stuck out its head towards the baby kelbi and took a couple good sniffs. Then, the mother kelbi started licking the baby's face, acting overjoyed at their gratuitous reunion.

Understanding that there was no harm in releasing the baby from his hold, Velk was about to let it go, but right before he could, he spotted something big off in the distance, distracting him. Instantly recognizing what it was, Velk broke out in a cold sweat as he began to subtly panic. Although he has been waiting his entire life for a moment like this, he knew he was neither skilled enough nor equipped enough to deal with the threat making itself known on the nearby cliffside, looking down towards the clearing where they currently were.

Standing tall over the clearing, a long, robust wyvern of dark brown, beige, and grey exposed itself as the possible perpetrator of the most recent landslides. A massive head and jaw projected from its long neck, and its razor-sharp teeth bared for all those witnessing it. Leathery wings were attached to its clawed forelegs, and it possessed a long spiky tail with three spines protruding from its base. Its yellow, striking eyes glared at them from above; having now just found its prey, it gloats—after all, it was the king, and he's come to collect his taxes.

Behold—its name was Tigrex!

Cautiously backing away, kelbi still in his arms, Velk attempted to distance himself as far as he could from tigrex without appearing like he was scared. Alerting the tigrex that the notion of fleeing even crossed his mind could quicken the rate at which it decided to strike, so for now, it was best to slowly retreat while biding his time.

Ash seemed to have the right idea as well as he also slowly backed away and towards the sled. Hopefully, the tigrex was only stalking around its territory and wasn't looking for a quick snack. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case as tigrex opened its maw and released an ear-piercing roar that scattered the nearby dirt, sending it flying away. The ground started to rumble, and rocks from the cliff tigrex were standing on began to slide into the clearing, causing another landslide. Since Velk was holding the baby, he couldn't cover his ears, thus suffering from the full brunt force, causing him to go partially deaf, but only for a second. If that roar was taken up close, he could have just outright lost his hearing altogether, possibly permanently.

Tigrex glided off the cliff it was perched on and down into the clearing, putting itself in clear viewing distance for the kelbi, who immediately began to scatter. Velk, now discerning that slowly backing away wasn't going to work, burst out into a full-blown sprint along with Ash, who had already started running. The duo had worked out a protocol, that in the case of an immense wyvern ambush that could be fleed from by the both of them, Ash was to immediately start running while Velk either escaped himself or bought enough time for Ash to leave and figure something else out. There was only one rule to this clause, and that rule was that they were not allowed to die. Simple enough.

In this case, albeit not easily, tigrex could be escaped from due to its brutish nature. Despite that, it was still fast and cunning, and one needed to be clever to outplay it in the long run, or you would lose out in the race of stamina and endurance if you couldn't fight back. Since Velk had never fought a wyvern before, nor had he really read up all that much on tigrex, he wasn't quite sure what to do, and he just hoped that it would target one of the fleeing kelbi—but why would it? He's the bigger meal.

Tigrex instantly gave chase and clumsily clambered towards Velk, ready to strike once close enough. Running as fast as he could with a kelbi in his arms, Velk reached the tree line and darted into the forest, attempting to lose the tigrex in the thick expanse of trees and plant life. Jumping over fallen logs, zig-zagging through the woods, dashing through dense and pointy shrubs, cutting himself a multitude of times over on the loose tree branches, he tried to escape the tigrex, but it was of little use, as most of the obstacles left it unfazed due to its sheer bulk and defensive scales.

The tigrex attempted to cut Velk off by intelligently snaking its way up a thick tree and gliding through the air at speed faster than Velk could run. Velk didn't notice this as he was too busy escaping to look behind him. He was essentially relying on his sense of hearing to tell if the wyvern was close behind him or not, and since he could no longer detect it, Velk grew concerned. Not believing for a second that the tigrex had stopped chasing him, he kept driving forward—there was no way in his mind that the tigrex just gave up; they were nothing if not pertinacious.

His thoughts were soon proven to be correct as he heard the chaotic scrapping of claws on bark above his head, so he abruptly dashed to his left, guessing that the tigrex had somehow managed to get on the tree right above his head.

Velk was right—but not for the reasons he expected. The tigrex had indeed been on the tree above him, but it was closer to an accident than purposeful execution. Since it couldn't move its body in time to avoid the obstacle, and because of how thick and tightly confined together they all were, the tigrex had bunglingly crashed into the tree, allowing Velk time to make his escape.

After running for some time, Velk decided to look behind him and up in the trees. Not spotting the tigrex, he determined that the best option was to hide and assess the situation in a calm matter. Diving into some nearby, loose plant life that would conceal his appearance, Velk burrowed himself deep into the plant and laid down. Velk didn't know how good tigrex's sense of smell was and could only trust in himself that he would not be detected once the tigrex inevitably crossed by.

Some time passed as Velk hid in the plant. The kelbi, seemingly paralyzed in fear, hadn't even twitched one since they began sprinting. Velk was glad he had saved its life from the rubble but was at this moment wishing he had just given it to its mother, but then there was also the possibility that she would have been abandoned by the herd as they fleed for safety. It was a lose-lose situation. Why was he thinking this? Well. . . it had just now started to come alive again and fidgeted aggressively in his clutch while making a whole bunch of noise.

It was the most inopportune time, too, as the tigrex approached the location he was hiding. It had tracked Velk's scent all the way to the general area and was scanning around, looking for its prey. Velk had to clamp his hand around the fawn's muzzle to stop it from making any unnecessarily tragic sounds.

Alas, it was of no use, as the baby kelbi released a bell-like sound from its throat, alerting the tigrex of their location. Quickly, releasing the kelbi from his grip, Velk readied his iron sword and shield to make a defensive stand against the tigrex and jumped out of the bush.

Tigrex, spotting its target, squared up, ready for rumble. This wasn't its first time going up against a hunter, nor would it be its last.

"Come at me!" Velk cried towards the monster, taunting it, arms spread out wide.

Taking the bait, the tigrex charged forward, ready to crash into the puny hunter in comparison before it, but Velk dived out of the way just in the nick of time and narrowly avoided getting smashed. Rather than relenting, the tigrex quickly turned and scrambled towards Velk, but he was, again, able to dodge out of the way.

Ultimately, there wasn't much Velk could do but run. He knew that his iron sword and shield as about as good at chipping tigrex's scales as a stick was at bending steel—nigh impossible. Tigrex jumped at Velk, and he foolishly tried to backstep out of the way, only allowing the tigrex to spin around and smash his tail into Velk.

Velk took the thick, powerful tail to his side and was sent flying, amazingly staying conscious through the whole ordeal as he rolled through the dirt and pine needles littering the ground before coming to a stop. Barely cognizant of what he was doing at that point, Velk sat up, ready to block whatever strike was coming his way next with his shield, but nothing ever came. Instead, the tigrex seemed to have found a new target—the tiny baby kelbi staggering around awkwardly as it tried to move. It seemed like it may have indeed been hurt in the landslide.

The tigrex stormed towards the kelbi, appearing to want a quick snack before moving on to the debilitated Velk. "Nooo. . . !" Velk attempted to scream out but almost immediately started to choke on his words and throw up some blood. He was not in a good position right now.

It seemed like this was the end of our little kelbi's life right here, but as history tends to perpetuate itself, so does the natural flow of authority. Eventually, every king falls or willingly abdicates from his throne. Today, it won't be any different.

A roar blasted out from above the combatants, and the sound of explosions blared in their ears. High above was a monstrous bronze wyvern flapping its wings as it stayed afloat. The only thing Velk could really see were the egg-like objects hanging from its underside, just ready to be dropped at a moment's notice. No king was safe from this beast, as it took it upon itself to eradicate every last one of them.

Cower—Its name was Bazelgeuse!