Announo chapter Monday - chapter WednesdayChapter 155: Cock-a-doodle-doo

  This time, entering the vine room, I po hack the vines apart with the bck bde. Maveith stood in the corridor, watg ily. He was ready to hold his breath, rush in, and carry me away if I succumbed to the flowers.

  As I stepped into the room, I was able to enjoy the st of the flowers with only slightly heavy eyes. The viirred as they had done a dozen times before. They left their alcoves and snaked across the floor slowly. None of the flowers were on the creeping vines along the floor. I was about to ssh into the creeping vines when I thought better of it. Even though my runic on could not be dulled, acc to Konstantin, I sent it to my dimensional spad retrieved two of the elven hand axes I had taken from the fe.

  The vines moved so slowly that I could walk back casually while I hacked away. Maveith called from behind me, “Eryk, do not cut them into ses that are too small. I try making rope from the vines.”

  I gru the request, as all three alcoves in the room were trying to grasp me with their vines and pull me in to digest me. I realized that perhaps a well-pced fireball here would make quick work of them. I had a pocket griffin rider that could cast fireballs. I tried to appease Maveith by just cutting five-foot ses of vines off as I went.

  The sound of metal striking st out repeatedly oone floor, and sticky sap soon coated the bde and my armor. The vines seemed endless as an hour progressed, and my arms started to feel achy from the repetitive swinging. The elven hatchets were also fairly dull from hundreds of strikes into the stone floor.

  “Eryk, try cutting the base in one of the alcoves,” Maveith advised anxiously from the hallway. Why was he anxious? I was the one doing all the work.

  I danced around the vihat had thinned siderably but kept ing. I moved to the alcove on the right,. cautious and ready to retreat if I might get ered. I hacked at the base of a thick stem ing out of the floor. All the vines from this alcove stilled as I truhis pnt. Soon, I cut away the bases iher two alcoves, and all the vines became still. The flowers wilted in seds, and I guessed they o be harvested while the pnt was alive.

  A stone chest appeared in the ter of the room. “We won, Maveith,” I said tiredly.

  Maveith’s eyes widened in anticipation as he stepped into the room. He immediately got woozy and fell into the sappy mess. I ughed, at least my friend would also be covered in creeping vine sap. I could not evehe sickly sweetness anymore, but it must have still lingered in the air.

  I shattered the stone box, colleg fifteen rge silver s and one unknown potion. I dragged my friend out of the room into the hallway. I returo the room and attempted to use the collector at the base of the pnts. A few wisps of emerald smoke formed, but the small disc would not pull it in. I thought this strange, as I remembered Durandas trying to use this on the shambling mounds. Maybe I had destroyed too much of the body, or the collector could not harvest pnts. I moved the vines into a pile ahe mess to my dimensional ste. The sap was drying, and the ptes on my armor were no longer sliding easily across each other. It was getting increasingly difficult to move.

  Swearing to myself, I checked each alcove quickly and found nothing. Disappointed, I joihe sleeping Maveith in the corridor, removed my armor, and attempted to it before the sap pletely dried.

  The oiled ses of the armor were easily ed, but the other ses were not, and I had to wait until they hardened enough to scrape off with a knife. Maveith woke before I finished, and as he stirred, I asked, “Have a good nap?”

  “My head is a little foggy, but yes, thank you.” He suddenly realized where he was and sprang to his feet. “Eryk, I am sorry I fell! I barely smelled the flowers and thought they all wilted.”

  I chuckled. “It is okay, Maveith. I do not think we will try the room again. There was only oion in the reward chest,” I said, calming him down. His eyes turo the room, and he groaned in disappoi. He thought the dungeon had absorbed the age I had wrought on the creeping vines.

  “Did you colley of the vines for rope?” Maveith asked hopefully.

  I let him stew for a while before telling him with a grin, “I got you a little, but you will have to wait until we get to a safe room. Also, I do not know about the viability of the vines as the sap hardens.” I poio his front, and Maveith began peeling dried sap off his soft leather clothes.

  After we ed up a bit, I asked, “Cockatri ? I am going to go into the dreamscape to see if I have any more information on the creatures. Watch over me while I am gone.”

  It did not take long for me to find some references for the ugly birds in one of the elveiaries. Transting the script was a slow process.

  CockatriceThese aviaures are much more dangerous than they appear. They usually form flocks of betwee and twelve and attack as a group. The males of the species have azure, blue bs, and dark blue feathers. The females usually have deep browhers, but younger spes be tan.

  The saliva of these creatures is extremely corrosive and petrify flesh. Multiple bites turn a creature pletely into stone. Severe damage be doo a person’s veins and arteries from a sie and may result ih.

  The meat of the creature is sidered a delica many nations—not so much for the taste but for the difficulty in harvesting it. Many people say they ot tell the differeween chi and cockatrice. The saliva of the cockatrice is useful in numerous alchemical preparations but o be fresh, as it will lose efficacy soon after the bird’s death.

  The rest of the text discussed habitats and had a few pictures.

  I was also able to decipher the runes oion. Wheed the dreamscape, Maveith let out a relieved breath. “You were in there for two hours, Eryk. We probably should not linger in the corridors.”

  I stood, reached up, and patted him on the shoulder reassuringly. “We are okay. I even found an elven book detailing the cockatrice, and there is good news. Their gaze ot turn you to stone—only. their saliva , so we o ensure we do not get bitten.”

  Maveith chewed on his lip, thinking. “Maybe I fused them with a basilisk.” He looked away abashedly. “I do not want to be turned into a statue.”

  “I will t the birds before we enter. You will not have to approach the chamber,” I tried to reassure the big bald gray man.

  Maveith relutly walked with me down the long looping corridor to the massive domed room. He stayed back a good fifty feet while I scouted. The tall grass hid the birds, and I could now identify the males by their blue crests and the females by their brown. The cockatrices did not seem ied in me as they sged in the long grass.

  Maveith impatiently rumbled, “How many do you see?”

  “Give me some time,” I replied, sing the area. I was envious of one of the female cockatrices bathing in the pool as it prees feathers. Another male cockatriapped its head up with a thi in its mouth before swallowing it. I watched for almost an hour but may have missed some resting birds. “Seven, Maveith. We handle seven together, right?”

  Maveith did not look too thrilled at the prospect. “I will give you your bow, and maybe you kill one or two before they even reach us.” He brighte that thought. We slowly prepared to ehe room, Maveith’s fideeadily growing. One of the females approached our corridor, curious about us.

  As it got closer, Maveith shielded his eyes, but I was fident in my interpretation of the text. It was not a pretty bird. The closer it got, the uglier it looked. It was a cross between a turkey and a lizard, with sporadic feathers and a scaly tail. The wings were tucked into its sides but were featherless and more bat-like. “They looked more edible from a distance,” I eo Maveith.

  Maveith slowly opened his eyes to look at the creature. Some people had a fear of water, and Maveith had a fear of being turned into a statue. “It is ugly,” he said, ughing hoarsely. The bird rushed at us in the corridor. Surprised, I readied my bck bde. It uself into the air and came at me feet first, cws extended.

  The bird smmed into the archway, an invisible force preventing it from reag us. The failed attack was apanied by a loud clug challenge, which caused the remaining birds to e out of the grass. Seven more joihe female: four males and three females. So, my t had been off by ohe cockatrices were agitated as they pranced around the archway, making a racket. They stood almost three feet tall, and I could see viscous yellow saliva oongues.

  I backed away from the room and pulled Maveith with me“. Let them settle down, and we e back. They swarmed to the door this time but not all at once.” Maveith nodded. We rested and snacked on apples and berries before returning to the archway. Maveith, with his bow ready, and I with the bck bde.

  Only one of the males was close to the corridor this time. “Ready?” I asked, and he relutly nodded. “I will take this one. Shoot them as they race out of the grass.”

  I stepped into the room, and the male nearby made a huge racket to summon the family, crowing like a malevolent rooster. It unched into the air and stuself when it smmed into my invisible shield. I quickly sidestepped and beheaded the fused cockatrice. As the head satisfyingly hit the ground, I was shocked as the body started running around, pumping out small spurts of blood. Thankfully, it had no awareness of me and ran into the wall of the chamber. The distra almost e, as the other seven were rushing us.

  Maveith’s bow sang, and a thick arrow thudded satisfyingly into the male leading the charge. It rolled away, clearly incapacitated, and out of the fight. Of course, our pn to take them a few at a time did not work, as the four trailing cockatrices took to the air to catch up. An arrow from Maveith took out a sed running cockatrice. “Only five left,” I said encingly as they closed. Maveith’s bow sang again, but I was focused on my own fight and did not see where the arrow went.

  I set two shields, one high and one low, for the two fliers and one running at me. Why did three of the four remaining cockatrices target me? Maveith was the much bigger target! I waited unti they smmed into my shields and then moved to the side. One of the flyers tumbled toward me after striking the air disc. I timed my swing, beheaded the fused bird before it hit the ground, and dodged the decapitated head as it nearly hit me.

  The runner recovered quickly and dashed toward me. A quick air shield cast through my foot was supposed to halt the female’s charge, but it fpped its wings, ung itself over the shield and going for my face. I did not want to risk the beak getting close, so I used my dimensional spaove the head and deflected the headless body with my round shield.

  Taking in the chaos, I yelled to Maveith, “Above you, Maveith!” The other flier that I had deflected off my shield was now above him and closing in. While I had been busy, Maveith had dropped his bow and crushed the other cockatrice with his hammer.

  Maveith went into a rapid forward roll, his massive body moving faster than it probably had a right to, and he came up fag the other dire, already swinging his hammer. The cockatrice, with cws outstretched, crumbled uhe force of the hammer blow, and was thrown a good distance away. The cockatrice’s body was crushed, and it struggled to move, clug pitifully.

  The fight had only taken a few seds, but my heart was still rag from the bat. A few clucks from dying cockatrices overcame the noise of the waterfall. “Stay on guard until the reward chest shows.” I walked around and carefully dispatched the mostly dead birds. Only one of the ones with an arrow in it put up any fight, but the arrow shaft greatly hampered its movement.

  We stayed away from the tall grass around the pool for now, and I used the collector on the cockatrices while Maveith remained on watch. “I think I see a box on the shore,” Maveith said excitedly as I kneeled over the first male cockatrice I had killed, removing the collector from my minimalist-packed backpack. I knew Maveith was ed about the treasure; it was just that the chest sighat all the petrifying birds had been killed, and he was no lo risk of being turo stone.

  The blue smoke was thick, and I watched the essen on the collector. A rich broex essened with swirls of gray moving in the sphere—ah affinity essehe rest of the roosters yielded major earth essehe four female cockatrices all yielded clear major essehat could be mistaken fss balls. These were aether tolerance essehat were useful iing magic. It was an excellent haul, and Maveith might want the earth esseo improve his shape stone spell form.

  Together, we walked to the pool in the ter of the chamber. The cooling mist from the spshing waterfall was wele. There were four s in the grass but no eggs. A few green leaves sprouted from the ground that I reized as wild onions. Somewhere uhe soil were fat worms, and I wondered if they would also yield an essence.

  We reached the shore, and I shattered the stone box to reveal a dozen silver s and a balled-up dark gray cloak. A piece of clothing was slightly disappointing, and after unfurling it, it was too small for Maveith to wear and too small for me to wear over my armor as well. It would fit me without my armor, but Maveith would probably be upset if I wore this over the manticore cloak he made for me. I sent it to my dimensional space.

  “What now?” Maveith asked over the noise of the water.

  “Now we bathe!” I said happily as I walked into the shallow water with my armor still on.

  ? Chted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne

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