Chapter 29

Hunting Grounds

(that time I fought a giant chicken…)

Ajax and I had taken a wrong trail and found ourselves knee deep in a salt water swamp. At first we thought maybe we should turn back, find another trail, it didn’t seem like it should be this hard getting to the docks especially when I could smell the sea. Of course, my nose for shortcuts got us into this mess in the first place. I was sure we were going the right direction. The nose knows right? Not always.

“If we just follow the swamp it will take us to the village,” I said. I tried my best to think positive. The only way through the swamp though was actually going through the swamp. We stayed close to the bed, were our feet sank down into the mud and the water came up to our knees. Ajax was hesitant at first but we’d seen and heard of communities that passed through swamps everyday. Mostly demi-human. The docks, our destination was known to be run by demi-humans anyway so if we saw any we’d know we were on the right path. We looked around for signs, markings of any kind to show us we were on the right path. About a quarter mile in we found one. Not exactly the sign we were looking for… but a sign. Buried halfway down into the tide, thirty feet out from the bank.

‘BEWARE FEATHERED HORRORS’

It said something else too but the black paint on the wooden sign had faded away, completely illegible like most of the journals I tried to keep as a kid. I wondered what kind of ‘feathered horrors’ could survive in a place such as this and together Ajax and I continued on, quietly. We continued and found wooden platforms to walk across, leading us deeper and deeper into the swamp. The platforms were like small bridges over large sinks in water. Put in place by demi-humans or people that must have once traveled across them daily. They were covered in wear and tear and looked like they hadn’t been used recently. A few of the boards were broken but easy enough to go around without falling through. At times Ajax and I crawled and I sheathed my sword back over my back. I could see small lizards, frogs, tadpoles, and fish swimming in the water below me.

Before long we were back in the mud. Ajax kept his slingshot ready while I held Samosek aka Asp the Serpent, my father’s sword, now mine, over the top of my head. Mostly I used it to shield me from the harsh rays of the sun which felt like they were frying my furry ears. I couldn’t stand being both hot and muddy. We searched for more platforms but they were gone. Whatever trail we had been following seemed to have been swept away by a flood or removed entirely for another purpose.

A few hours passed and it felt like we were getting nowhere. The smell of salt water turned sulfuric, strange. Something was wrong.

“We need to turn back,” I said.

“But you said we were close,” Ajax argued.

“I’ve got a bad feeling, the air doesn’t smell right.”

“What about getting to the docks?”

“We’ll still get to the docks, doesn’t matter if we have to go around. That sign was a bad omen. The smells here, they don’t carry in the air. Something is wrong with this place.”

“Like cursed?” Ajax asked.

I wasn’t sure what to say. I’d walked across cursed land before and it was far worst than this. In my past life I once walked across a field of rose thorns, each one capable of making a man bleed out if from a single cut. It was a garden in a ruin that belonged to a dead queen. Probably resurrected as a demon now, at the time our job was to clear it of goblins who had made the castle ruins their hideaway. It was an easy job once we got passed the cursed gardens. Rak, our heavy, who I think may or may not be Ajax reincarnated, was the first to suggest we burn the roses down. Of course his suggestion came after we completed our quest, at a tavern, three drinks in, two weeks later. We did eventually go back, Rak set the garden in flames, and each rose screamed like a cursed banshee as they burned.

Two weeks after that Rak had the brilliant idea that we should have gotten paid a bonus from the Adventurers Guild for that, and decided to take it up with the head of the cities commission. That didn’t go over so well and we spent a month on probation and what reward money we had left getting our licenses reinstated. Rak argued that wasn’t fair and we ended up having to spend an afternoon babysitting the commissioner’s granddaughter, a semi-powerful mage with a bad attitude. After all was said and done we learned our lesson… and so did the commissioner. The commissioners daughter learned an entirely new vocabulary from Rak.

“No, I don’t think this swamp is cursed, just… wrong,” I said. I was glad more of my past life’s memories had come back to me but this wasn’t the time or place to reflect.

“Stop,” Ajax said. He raised his hand. Something had startled him.

He pointed towards the water.

I could feel something moving around my leg as we stopped. When I looked down I noticed a small snake wrapping itself around me. Tickling my skin I tried not to fumble, or laugh. I felt the snake sink its teeth into me. No damage whatsoever, I was too immune to its venom, if it had any, and too strong to really be anything more than annoyed. In the water in front of us though was a giant salt water croc, ready to chew us into tiny pieces.

It emerged less than a foot from Ajax who fired a shot from his slingshot into the back of the beast’s throat. It retreated backwards, choking for a moment before swallowing the stone whole. Crocodiles often eat stone and pebbles to help them digest, this wasn’t anything new. All we did was make it easier for the large reptile to eat us whole.

“Run,” Ajax shouted. We both moved up the bank as far as we could. Our shoes heavy with mud. We had been walking in the water to avoid leaving a trail behind us but now we had no choice. The bottom of our boots left large imprints in the mud as we made our way onto dryish wet-land.

The massive crocodile followed behind us, moving out of the water. I turned with my great sword, ready to fight it but realized I still didn’t have the strength to swing down hard enough to make a dent in the monster’s toughened body. With my insight I discovered the croc had 40 HP. Stronger than a variety of monsters and demi-humans. For it to have health that high, and to be as big as it was, the beast must have either had one hell of a diet or it was ancient. Nothing short of nature taking its course stops a croc from growing.

Ajax stopped and I bumped into him. Both of us fell on the ground face first into the mud. Both our front sides were completely covered as the crocodile neared us, but there was something else. Standing tall in the forest was a giant fucking chicken. I didn’t even have time to use my insight as the crocodile ignored us and snapped its jaws down on the giant bird. It didn’t even have time to react, only a single ‘cluck’ as it became a full course meal. The crocodile’s teeth shredded the bird as feathers fell down around us. Ajax and I wasted no time standing up and running farther into the trees away from the water. We stopped when we could no longer hear the crunch of bird bones anymore. To our surprise we stumbled upon another large chicken, and another, and another. Soon we were surrounded by an entire flock of giant chickens, each one ignoring us as we moved passed them. Some of them were white, others were brown, reddish orange, and a few were black and yellow. A large chicken coop made of wood sat in the woods like a cabin. We dared not approach, instead turning moving away from the coop, the chickens, and the swamp inland.

-Bestiary-

Cockatoo

Description: Giant chicken. Ever wonder what would have happened if an asteroid hadn’t wiped out the bigger dinosaurs and they continued to evolve? The giant cockatoo looks like a white and red feathered T-Rex with no arms and a beak.

HP: 5/5

Weaknesses: Stress, Ovens, Bird Flu, FowlPox, TurkeyPox, Parasites, Chicken Anemia Virus, Fire, Water, Ice, Poison…

Immunities: Not much really…

We could have slain every last one of them without blinking an eye. Not that it would have really helped us any. If anything they might have decided we were a threat and attacked us all at once. Even monsters with such low health and no real defense can do real damage when they attack in mass.

The only thing that worried me was what kind of creature had built the massive chicken coop and where was it now?

“Be as quiet as you can be,” I told Ajax. He nodded. He was thinking the same thing I was. There were either other people nearby, demi-humans, demons, or giants.

A loud groan echoed through the trees. We both froze in our tracks wishing that the swamp had been cursed as giant cyclops stared down at us, its body covered in swamp mud and chicken feathers covering fat flesh. It’s body looked like it had mange. Parts of it were covered by fur, other parts feathers, other parts were completely bar, scarred over. It had a dozen large crocodile teeth strung on a necklace that it wore around its neck. I couldn’t tell if it had a beard or was just hairy.

It spotted us with its one big eye almost immediately, walking towards us thumping its big feet against the ground.