Chapter 1266 1266 Big Eyes in the Sky
--- Nixilei ---
Even after the decision was made to 'just keep going' things were tense. Neither woman wanted to speak lest they draw the beast's attention. The problem was that the thing's eyes were so large it was hard to tell what it was looking at. The bird was just hovering there now, looking menacingly down at everything else. The hovering was a problem in and of itself. The slow, heavy beat of the bird's wings was sending a good bit of turbulence there way. Even diminished so far from the bird itself, the wind was still shaking the plane they rode in. Nixilei was starting to find it a little awkward that the bird was just hovering there.
*What is going on here? Why is it just remaining in place? We're probably within its attack range considering the size of those wings. I just don't know what to do about it. Even assuming, very generously, that it's only Rank 2, it has to be at the peak of Rank 2. And a monster like that would be much stronger then a fae at the same rank. Just its size alone is enough to be a problem in a fight. The defences I've seen just because it can eat the popping snake thing makes me suspect Rank 3 or 4.
What does that mean for us? Just pretending we're nothing worth going after? Or that we're not scared? I don't know what the heck the bird will think of the little dot we must be to it. Can we stay safe until we get to the forest? We're still… perhaps five minutes out from the taller trees we want, and if we needed to hide in the smaller ones we'd have to dive… and I'm not sure we can dive faster then that thing should it become necessary. Does that mean we should start heading towards the ground.*
Leaning backwards, voice barely a whisper Nixilei asked, "Do you know why the bird is just hovering there?"
lightsΝοvel.cοm Asteodia shivered. Nixilei's breath on her ears was very distracting. Damn her elven heritage, and damn Nixilei for whispering like that despite probably knowing of that particular elven issue. It wasn't something you could hide. Having a bunch of additional nerve endings for clarity of hearing had… trade-offs. The fact Nixilei had a helmet on barely helped. Asteodia had to assume Nixilei had lifted the helmet up slightly.
The only reason she was able to shake off the feeling so quickly was that the terror of the bird was quickly able to smash any less appropriate ideas the action was causing. It did still take a few seconds for Asteodia to register the question, then a few more to give her guess. "Um… there is a type of ambush predator found in elven forests. It's only Rank 1, but it's near invisible. It's a… I'm not really sure but it's a little squirrel like thing with flaps of skin that make it look like it's wearing a wingsuit.
"When it's completely still it can go invisible, hiding from everyone and everything… but it's just Rank 1 so it doesn't work properly once you've seen it move. So if it attacks, then hides, if you can follow it the entire time you can still see it. I don't know the proper name for them, we just called them 'Evil Squirrels' most of the time. It was a bit of a running joke… though I really wish I remembered their real name now,"
"So… you think we can still see it because we know it's there? It can't just be line of sight because I've blinked at least once while watching the thing," said Nixilei.
"Um… it doesn't quite work like that, at least with the squirrels," said Asteodia. "It's a combination of 'knowing it's there' and only looking away for a short time. Part of it's focus as well, I believe. So… you know it's there, and not only that we're both quite scared of it, so we're not going to forget it's there… and somehow that forgetting is an important part of the spell? I think. It's all innate monster stuff, so I have no idea how it really works,"
"Nobody does," said Nixilei. "If we could figure out how monsters do half of the nonsense they manage on a daily basis we'd be the greatest mages of all time. Alas, we can't. So… wait does that mean that the bird is 'hidden' again? As in, it's not expecting us to be able to see it?"
"Hmm…" Asteodia bit on her lip as she chewed on that bit of information. It would certainly explain the lack of reaction it was having to them. Perhaps it didn't recognise them as part of its regular diet, and was just watching to see what we'd do. "If… if it thinks we don't have good enough eyes to see it I could imagine a world in which we're safe from it. Too far away, and likely not considered nutritious enough if that's the case,"
"Are we living in that world?" asked Nixilei.
"That's the question, isn't it?" grumbled Asteodia with a sigh. She was getting used to fighting the turbulence now. It was just a number of small adjustments, and the plane seemed to be handling it all well. Still, that really was the question. 'Does the bird know we can see it, and if not, how scared should we be?'
The pair sat in silence for a few moments as they puzzled once again on what they could do. The annoying answer they kept coming to was 'not all that much'. Fighting it likely wasn't possible, and certainly wasn't something they wanted. Fleeing from something that had a wingspan so large that each feather was probably the size of a person was even less likely. So in the end they just had to sit there and hope not to attract attention.
It was grating on their minds. Nixilei was struggling to regenerate more mana then the bare minimum because she couldn't slip out of 'combat mode' long enough to meditate. Asteodia wasn't doing much better because she had to keep focus on the path ahead to make sure they didn't hit anything, while keeping the bird in the corner of her eye so she could see it should it attack. If it was just those two things maybe it would be fine but Asteodia had to keep an eye on her hands, lest they start shaking. Shaky hands combined with turbulence was not what anyone wanted.
"How are you doing with the pedalling?" asked Nixilei, "Will you be fine to keep going for a while?"
"Ah… we'll have to see. The giant bird spiked my adrenaline something fierce, and I'm sure I'm going to crash at some point… the question will be if I'll stabilise quickly or not. I… I hope I'll be fine. Could you take over if you had to though?" responded Asteodia.
"Certainly. Not forever, for my mana isn't full, but my body is rested. I can hopefully keep us in the air until you're ready to take over again. I should have enough mana to get tired of pedalling before my mana runs out," said Nixilei.
The pair lapsed into silence again… but that didn't last long. Asteodia got quite uncomfortable with it quickly. "Why do you think the bird is hovering instead of flying around? I'm pretty sure hovering in place is harder for birds… right?"
"I… I don't know?" said Nixilei uncertainly. "What you're saying makes sense, but it's really not something I've ever cared to check. Though… assuming you're right… that brings up other questions. Is there something it's looking for in this area?"
"I suppose it could be? My best guess would be that it's sticking around the giant trees because it can eat the things that eat the things in the trees… but why isn't it closer to the forest then? Plus, some of those trees are huge. It could probably rest there if it spread its weight amongst a few of them… then again, how heavy would it be? If it's hovering in place perhaps it's lighter then it looks?" questioned Asteodia.
"I see the logic," agreed Nixilei. "I'm not sure what's more important to it. I mean, how much energy would that snake thing give? Food requirements get really weird as things rank up. Most things need less… but there are a few notable examples of things that need more, and something that size is probably one of them… unless it doesn't get any bigger with each Rank up… but that would be weirder I think,"
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l