Kaden spoke nervously, “let me guess, you’re the result of nature deciding it would be a fun experiment to just go ahead and throw different forms of death into a blender and see what comes out on the other end“

The creature snarled at Kaden as if to size him up.

“Don’t look terrified, don’t look terrified….” Kaden kept muttering to himself. “I am just going to back away slowly” Kaden desperately hoping the creature would leave him alone.

Unfortunately for Kaden the creature had other ideas and started to slowly advance towards him. Its tail with the giant scorpion like sting raised up as if ready to strike.

The creature finally deciding it had enough of Kaden let out another snarl and pounced. He barely had any time to react and just managed to dodge the creature’s fully extend tail coming towards.

Almost the second the creature’s feet touched the ground it leapt back towards Kaden again, its tail getting ready for a second midair strike. Kaden dodged it yet again by the skin of his teeth. This time however Kaden managed to thrust his weapon towards the creature.

Clank!

The edge of the former long sword made contact with the armor on the creature’s side. Kaden managed to knock a few scales lose.

Splash!

The creature landed back in the stream, this time however it slipped on a few of the wet rocks. If it wasn’t angry before it would most definitely be pissed off now.

“AaAaAaAaAa Awaaa, AaAaAaAaAa Awaaa” a familiar bird call sounded.

Seizing the moment Kaden desperately chanted, “Gi Vem Est Ren Gth, Gi Vem Es Wif Tn Ess”.

Just as he finished, the creature leapt at him from the stream but Kaden was ready this time. The creature extended it tail out to strike at him. Kaden dodged the tail ever so slightly, and with all the strength and speed he had to bare. Kaden brought both his hands down with the sword in tow cutting right through the fir, armor and scales on the creatures tail.

The creature went tumbling forward the second its feet hit the ground. Kaden took the moment to yell at the creature in celebration.

The creature rose to its feet unsteadily and turned to face Kaden. As if it was going to attack again, it lifted the part of its tail that wasn’t severed and pointed it at Kaden.

“What are you going to do with that there stumpy”, Kaden smiled as he said those words.

The creature seemingly able to understand the meaning of those words appeared to get a cold glint in its eyes. It snarled while staring him down and at the end of its tail stump a new one started to form.

Kadens face froze, “O ..m..oth.. u..k.. Your kidding me, U..K ..ou. How is that even fair.. u.k.. evolution.. ..ck.. nature”.

The creature leapt towards Kaden again. This time however, something else intersected the creature mid leap.

Kaden just barely noticed a body half his size with black, greenish-red feathers swoop from out of the sky at a blinding speed clutching another much bigger lifeless body in its powerful talons flying back up towards the sky.

Kaden was stunned, at this moment he absolutely no idea how to react.

He then collapsed as the fatigue resulting from his earlier encounter finally set in.

After an hour, Sofia finally broke the silence. “That was close, don’t go dying on me yet.”

“No promises, thanks for the warning by the way”, he was laying on his back looking up at the sky. “Ready to finally get going?”

“I’ve been waiting on you the whole time, get moving lazy…. By the way nice moves but, be careful next time. You used two spells at the same time, if you hadn’t gotten extremely lucky you would have collapsed after the very next step. ” her tone indicating a little bit of concern.

“I had no choice, it was do or die and frankly I preferred to avoid the latter. I got the idea from watching the fight between those two, hit, run and strike when the opportunity presents itself. Different methods but it worked out ok.

What the hell was that thing anyway? It regrew its tail but died as soon as that bird attacked it.”

Sofia took a moment to ponder what he said and then sent him her memory of his fight. “Take a look, the bird, I believe it is called a Blood Green tipped Wolf Falcon at least according to the information in the cook book. It flew just close enough to the creature’s tail to avoid the sting, using both its speed and strength it severed the creature’s spine and I am sure caused additional damage all over. It was quick, efficient and instant.”

“Not to mention, it had the element of surprise”, Kaden added while went over and picked up several of the creature’s fallen scales.

“I want its tail, but be careful not to touch the sting as I have a feeling it may be poisonous” She was staring at it wide eyed not that Kaden could tell.

“Sure.. You have some strange tastes your highness. What do you want with it anyway?” as he sent it to her.

Using the same method as before she absorbed the tail, “You’ll see”.

The Gilmore started to harden, it’s soft leather bound cover turned into something more solid. “You used the tail to make a cover, I that why you wanted the oak earlier?” he asked.

“Yes, although this is better and I like the reflective green scales, they are so shiny.” She smiled almost like as if she was admiring her new home.

“Wait, that tail was much bigger than the entire cover of this book. What did you do with the rest?”

“Hm.. I used it all”, still admiring her own handiwork. “I combined it all making them stronger and much harder to break. Although I put the sting aside, I may find a use for it later. Do you want me to store those few other scales you picked up?”

“Sure..”

Kaden got a last drink of water, gathered a few various herbs he was able to recognize and headed back along the road.