Family Trip (7)

The gray scaled winged snake drew closer, and as it opened its hooked beak a pale red glow glimmered in its maw, making my eyes widen.

Not knowing what that could be, I only knew that it was staring at Aethisia, who was just now looking up at the monster as it dived down towards her.

My eyes widened as it drew closer, and my heart raced as that glow grew brighter.

Racing forwards, I tried to close the distance between Aethisia and I as quickly as I could, desperate to push her from harms way.

Seeing the winged snake approaching her, Aethisia readied her spear, preparing to stab out towards its lithe body.

However, I had a feeling that, despite her tall frame and impressive reach, paired with the length of her spear, she wouldn't reach the winged snake.

I might not know exactly what that glow meant, but I had a feeling that the snake would stop a distance away from Aethisia, just out of her reach, and launch some kind of attack at my youngest daughter.

Managing to reach her in time, I shoved her out of the way and collapsed on top of her, feeling a searing heat coming from where she had previously stood.

Laying on top of her muscular chest, I glanced over my shoulder to see a gout of flames spewing from the jaws of the snake, scorching the stony ground that we were on moments ago.

I wasn't aware of it, but my own large breasts were squishing against her chest, and I missed the mild lust that sprung to her eyes, quickly chased away by anger and regret.

The snake turned its head from that spot to us, and that glow strengthen again, prompting me to roll off my daughter to allow her to move again.

Placing the spear back in my inventory, I took out my bow and arrows, laying a stone arrow on the string and aiming towards the snake.

Aethisia got off the ground and readied her spear again, just in case the snake swooped closer.

Taking a deep breath, I pulled back on the string and steadied my aim.

This snake was thin, meaning that I would need great precision to hit the damn thing.

However, over the last few weeks I had managed to get some practice in with the bow, so I should be able to...

Pursing my lips, I let the string go, sending the arrow hurtling towards the gray snake.

Seeing something flying towards it, the snake lowered itself slightly to avoid the arrow, only to shriek as it twisted its body to attempt to avoid Aethisia's spear thrust.

While my arrow missed completely, Aethisia managed to knick the snakes body, scoring a thin wound on its side.

Crimson droplets fell to the ground from the cut, and the snake screeched as it glared at us.

Shooting another arrow at it, I knocked the next and waited for it to move again, attempting to utilize its movements against it.

Dodging my arrow again, it shrieked as Aethisia scored another wound on its body, only to let out a weak screech as my next arrow punctured its chest completely.

As it fell to the earth it let out another shriek, falling silent after Aethisia stabbed her spear into its skull.

I was about to approach its body when we hear another few shrieks coming from around the mountain, making Aethisia and I ready our weapons again.

However, even after another few minutes of warily standing guard, nothing appeared.

Aethisia remained on guard, while I placed my bow back into my inventory as I approached the snake monster, reading the notifications as it was dismembered inside my inventory.

{Quetzalcoatl Feathers x10}

{Quetzalcoatl Scales x 4}

{Quetzalcoatl Meat x 7}

{Quetzalcoatl Blood x 2}

So this winged snake was called a Quetzalcoatl...

Interesting.

Shrugging, I turned towards my daughter, saying "I'll go back to harvesting, so protect me."

Nodding, she said "I will mother."

Smiling gently at her broad back, I returned to the various boulders in the quarry, my club returning to my hands.

During the next hour and a half, I whaled away at those boulders, increasing the amount of stone and metal ore in my inventory by a lot.

I had around ~2,000 stone and about ~250 metal ore, which I would need to determine the refining process to figure out what that equaled in usable material.

Anyways, that entire time that I was harvesting materials from the boulders around me, Aethisia was guarding me, her eyes on the sky as she kept a lookout for any Quetzalcoatl that might try and attack us again.

Thankfully enough, nothing like that happened, and we were able to journey back to the camp in peace.

Sadly, just like the journey here, Aethisia was silent, and her eyes were more conflicted than before.

I could also feel her gaze on me every once in awhile, but whenever I turned to look at her she was staring ahead.

Pursing my lips, I sighed before deciding to distract myself by browsing the new crafting recipes I had gained while humming.

The main one that caught my eye was the smelter, which required stone, wood, a stone mortar, and a campfire.

It told me that, should I craft it, I would unlock all the metal recipes after I smelted a single ingot of metal.

I could already imagine the various things that I could use the metal for; first was tools and weapons, but what really excited me were pots, pans, and other kitchen appliances; it opened up so many different possibilities for foods I could make for my family.

This would be especially important during the winter, since making the same meal over and over would grow rather annoying for both me and the others.

I mean, who would want to eat the exact same thing for months on end?

The meat and salads we were eating now were already making me rather annoyed, so I was looking forwards to those pots and pans more than anything else as of right now!