I let go of the Soft Anchor and crashed into the ground, bounced back screaming, my fingers still clutched tightly around the pair of birds, my legs flailing aimlessly in the air. I tried to drive in a breath, but my chest felt like it’d turned into a shamble of broken bones and smashed inner organs. There was a pitiful wheeze and some oxygen.

  It wasn’t enough.

  Rising heat from my wrist soon covered every inch of my skin. I saw, at that brief moment, something manifest as violet lights took shape in front of me. Before I could do anything, they streaked upward and closer to the creature that nearly flattened my chest, passing through what seemed like a steely talon with ease.

  Blood rained down on me in thick drops. I cringed at the taste of it and managed, just barely, to throw myself sideways and into a tree’s bark. I reactivated the Soft Anchor to pull myself around the tree, breath rasping in my chest, the feathers of the sparrows rubbing against my fingers.

  A painful shriek echoed across the forest. It nearly drilled my ears for good. I heard an audible pop, followed by a pang of pain as warm blood trickled down from my face. Lifting my head and taking a glimpse into this horrifying scene took great effort, and when I did, I froze.

  What lay above me was one giant Golden Taloned Eagle easily thrice my height.

  It was a monstrous creature of this plane, a terrifying predator that was known for its speed and crushing power. The fact that I could still breathe after having been smashed by such a creature was alone a miracle. I’d been a fool by not taking my instincts seriously. I’d been stupid enough to think I could somehow deal with it.

  Then again… I dealt with it.

  It just wasn’t ideal, is all.

  A mighty creature it might be, but against the violet streaks pouring out from the bracelet wrapped around my wrist, it might as well have been a little bird. It didn’t have a second chance to scream before its whole body was pulverized by the Soul-bound treasure, after which a grave silence settled around this part of the forest.

  There was a thud.

  A Golden Core the size of an adult’s fist dropped squarely right in front of me, gleaming with inner light so rich it looked like a miniature sun.

  By all means, I should’ve been giddy with excitement at having cheated my way to a Golden Core. This thing was worth at least ten Silver Cores, meaning I got in front of me about a hundred Bronze Cores full of internal energy. A tenth of what I needed to drag my ass to the Silver Rank, and yet I could feel shivers creeping all over my back as I studied the canopy.

  No movement there.

  I cracked the necks of the two birds glued to my hands, putting their lifeless bodies into my bag before inching slowly toward Beatrice and my bag. Pulling them softly into my hands, I glanced back at the gleaming Golden Core with hesitation.

  Would I dare take it?

  Of course I would.

  I nearly died to get that thing killed by the treasure Radek so kindly gifted to me.

  I couldn’t let it go to waste.

  I couldn’t let it sit there even though I knew about the risks.

  The Core was warm as if something in it still tried to clutch onto the living side of things. I placed it inside the bag, between the squares of magical leather to keep its light from spilling out. That done, I risked another glance at the canopy and broke into a run.

  That expected shriek came right after I left the small destruction behind me.

  Wings flapped painfully loud over the canopy, wind battering the thick clumps of branches and leaves with strength, sending them wavering like the surface of an ocean recently disturbed by something big.

  That something could feel the warmth of his companion’s Core from a mile away, and by the occasional streaks of golden lights sprinkling in through the gaps of the canopy, it had a mind to retrieve what had once been dear to him.

  I couldn’t let that happen. I had to find a way to break the bond between—

  Sparks went alive just above my head, setting a good part of the canopy on fire as wings of pure gold dove straight down through the greenish blanket. The creature was much bigger than its female counterpart with a wingspan easily over ten meters across. Its beak could, if Belfray was to be believed, drill through a steel plate with marginal ease, meaning that it most certainly wouldn’t find human bones a formidable contender.

  The Undying powering my body, I Quick Stepped aside and threw myself behind a tree’s bark to at least put something between us, the lack of my soul energy sending a lance of pain down my stomach. I winced at the sensation and pulled myself groaning behind another tree, repeating the process while trying not to flinch at the loud crashing sounds echoing about the forest.

  Turned out a Golden-Taloned Eagle didn’t care much about ancient trees. Splinters of wood sprinkled generously across the ground as I weaved through the bushes, evading the openings and instead making my way to the most crowded parts of the place. If there was any predator out searching for prey this morning, particularly a human child bloody and exhausted from dealing with a crisis of his own making, then they kept cleverly away so as not to anger the most vicious of the creatures in this forest.

  I, on the other hand, was on his radar.

  It wouldn’t let go.

  Had I recovered enough soul energy to manage a General Muffle, I could have at least earned myself a second or two to come up with something of a plan. As it was, though, I had to trust my legs and believe that they could keep me away from getting ripped to shreds by talons wider than my little head.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  So I searched for a hole as I scrambled hazily across the forest, my boots crunching on wet wood, my stomach stinging like I’d been stabbed by a dozen knives, and they all dangled painfully at each motion. The Soul-bound treasure might have saved me, but the impact of the talon still remained somewhere around my skin.

  I was still alive, though. Still breathing, against my sheer stupidity. That was a chance I wouldn’t get again. The bracelet was gone. I was, to my deepest horror, left to my own terms against a creature for which I was barely considered a snack, and nothing more.

  There had to be a hole. Somewhere I could hide this little body, and gain some sense of safety.

  I spotted one just beyond the riverbank, the place looking greatly familiar when my eyes glanced over a tree with its bark hollowed from the inside. Now that I’d seen what the Eagle had done to the prior trees I’d passed, I wasn’t about to trust a hollowed tree to save my scalp from those talons.

  Instead, I dove straight beside it into a hole that looked somewhat large with another Quick Step.

  Sharp bits of gravel rubbed into my skin as I pushed myself crawling deeper into the hole, coughing up mud and the rain, breath wheezing in my throat. I kicked with my legs and found them still over the ground, feeling the wind’s icy touch around my ankles.

  Instincts screamed at me. They were louder this time as though they learned from prior experience that I wasn’t a clever man heeding every possible danger I was alerted to. With growing tension, I finally planted my feet on the sides of the burrow and pushed myself further down through the tunnel.

  It smelled like wet fur and pines here. I couldn’t see anything. Darkness was, and still remained, a bitter company. I had to work my fingers into the straps of my bag on more than one occasion when it got stuck around the parts of roots growing sideways from the hollowed tree.

  Beatrice was there on the front, my right hand clasped tightly around its handle. Crunch and tap, followed by a metallic pang here and there as I kept at the effort, daring not to linger a second.

  I thought I was out of it by the time I crawled a good meter or two underneath the earth. That was when the ground rose as though gravity took a turn for the worse, but there were no supernatural feats behind this sudden change. It was just a pair of talons ripping apart a good chunk of earth to reveal the worm crawling underneath it.

  Turning my neck round, I glanced into the creature’s burning eyes with one hand shading me from the gravel raining down on me. It was a beautifully fierce creature, the golden mane streaked with a fiery color that stretched all the way under its abdomen. The beak shone with a metallic sheen that could, undoubtedly, rip through my ribcage.

  There in silence, I experienced a moment of pure ecstasy.

  Something was not right with my head. Something was definitely making a mess out of my thoughts and every budding plan I tried to devise in that momentary pause. My heart thumped loudly in my chest, fingers clutching further around Beatrice’s handle, the pain spreading from my dwindling soul energy being replaced by a sensation that literally burnt all my senses.

  I couldn’t think, yet my feet moved as a talon came screeching right toward me. I barely managed to wriggle my way out of the hole, sucking my stomach in to let the talon pass harmlessly and into the earth with a loud thump. My empty hand grasped the creature’s glowing feathers. I pulled myself up grunting across its leg, climbing with a newfound strength even as my body screamed in pain.

  There was a lull in my mind. A sort of peacefulness not really similar to anything I’d experienced before. I knew I should feel afraid. I knew dread should fill every inch of my being, and yet all I could think of at that moment was that I needed to get on top of this creature.

  My chest burned. My fingers itched with impatience as I grasped one handful of feather after another, swinging myself round the leg whenever the Golden Taloned Eagle took a peck at me, slowly closing the distance.

  Air filled my lungs. The ground receded in a blurry shift, and it took me a painfully slow second to understand that we took off. Branches scratched at my bare arms, cutting deep nicks across my skin, the Undying trying desperately to make fast to the wounds. The churn of my internal energy couldn’t keep up with the rate at which I was being wounded forever, but I had no mind to take that into consideration.

  Climb on and upward.

  That was all I could think of.

  We passed through the forest, up across the canopy where the sky welcomed us with its pristine scenery. I could hardly breathe as I clutched at the creature’s rich mane with one hand, Beatrice hanging for her dear life as I struggled to stay on the beast’s front.

  I was maybe a breath away from the eagle’s giant beak, which made it inconvenient for it to try and peck me into pieces. Not that it hadn’t tried, but thanks to my instincts, I had somehow brought myself to the safest part of the creature.

  My body still burned like a bastard.

  What the hell was going on?

  This wasn’t like me.

  Why did I want so badly to get on top of this creature?

  ……

  Belfray’s POV

  “Oh my.” I blurted out in pure panic as my back stiffened from the pressure.

  “He’s really going for it!” Radek nearly jumped to his feet, clutched the hem of the railings and jabbed with one thick finger at the screen being displayed before us. “He is going to ride that little bird!”

  “Is he…” The Grand Marshall blinked confusingly at the scene, then turned and glanced at me with a million questions in her eyes. “How is this possible?”

  “I…” I swallowed. “I’m not entirely sure, my Lady.”

  At no point in my life had I wanted to be in possession of an answer to a question, yet I must admit, with no little amount of shame, that this particular scene baffled me just as much as it left my Lady in such a state.

  She could not speak. All she managed was to utter a surprised remark, after which she remained glued to the scene.

  Meanwhile I worked in my mind all the possible accounts that spanned across a thousand years, all neatly recorded and kept safe in the Empire’s Ancestral Library, accessed only by the most distinguished figures of the legacy who, even in the direst times, had to be granted the Keeper’s permit to even step foot in that miraculous space.

  As one who had been granted a lifetime permit by His Majesty, thanks to being the right hand of the most beloved person in his life, I’d had ample time to go through many a recording and thus knew, with excruciating detail, that the Bloodline of the Paragon had not been once manifested in a child’s body until the ripe age of sixteen.

  Young Master was nine years old. Ten, if you were willing to be generous and take into account many different cultures that differed in calculating one’s age.

  “Small glimpses of it, though,” Radek’s exhilarated murmur brought me back from the endless accountings and into the present, where I found myself witnessing a boy riding on a Golden-Taloned Eagle as though it were a carrier bird. “He’s not the ears for the wind, yet.”

  “He will,” I muttered instinctively. That was an inevitability. “He’s his Father’s son. He’s born with the manner of it.”

  “How can this be?” The Grand Marshall stepped wearily round the table and stumbled a step on her way to the railings. I nearly held her there and then, to keep her afoot, for while thousands of Runemages and Runeknights wouldn’t have been enough for her to form a crease, the manifestation of the future seemed to have shaken her to the core.

  She remained steady, however, as she clasped the railings and settled beside Radek, who looked prouder than the time he brought the Drardsong to his knees and had him slit his own throat willingly to bring an end to a century-long war.

  “Small glimpses of it, indeed, but he will grow,” he repeated when the Young Master raised his chin and closed his eyes, arms stretched to the sides upon the Golden Taloned Eagle as he let the wind wash over him, as though welcoming the first waves of spring. “He will grow enough to become who he was meant to be.”

  ……..