Chapter 9
"Well… she sounds… really, really, sad..." stated Polka as she watched Botan shout, groan and moan at the state of the bodies. The heads of the owlbear corpses were not spared by the saber-tooths. Even the least damaged one had gauges and teeth marks all over it.
"Well, we have the saber-tooths tied up," stated Nene as she hefted it up with Moona holding up the other end of the branch, "Let's get back to the village and get our reward."
In the end, Botan decided on carrying the least damaged head and skillfully carved it off, with help of course. And so, the group trekked back to Solena with a few extras in tow. They dropped off the dead bodies at the hunting lodge and received their reward from the village head. Risu refused the gold, saying she lived off the land and didn't really need it. So, the reward was split five ways. Then, as they made their way back to the capital by cart, Risu parted ways with them, stating that she wanted to bring Baloo to the circle and start training him there.
"So what are you going to do now?" asked the aasimar as they departed from the stables. It was already late at night and they were very lucky not to get accosted on the way back.
"Well, we are heading straight for the school to preserve this for tomorrow. I don't think Botan is willing to wait any longer," stated the lore bard as she motioned to the now antsy archer.
The former giggled and said, "In that case, go ahead. I'll let Mister Miyabi know about this."
"Okay, thanks a lot," the latter replied as they parted ways.
Botan became a hundred gold poorer that night.
The next day, a short visit to the tannery revealed the cost of stuffing the head of the owlbear.
"Oh, my gods… that's expensive," muttered Botan as she paled at the price. A full two hundred gold.
"Well, even if the head isn't too damaged, the gnawed and gouged parts have to be restored and that itself will be expensive," stated the lady at the counter, "Plus, it is quite rare to find such a beast like how you described. It will take quite a long time to restore it to a presentable condition."
"I suppose..." she admitted. Turning to the others, she asked, "Umm… eheh… can you guys help?"
"I suppose I can help," stated Lamy with a frown, "But… next time, you should try and raise the proper funds yourself. You are lucky that you will be owing us instead of other unscrupulous people."
After contributing and pooling their resources, they paid for the stuffing services. They left after topping up on ammunition. They then stopped by the leatherworkers store, where Nene traded in her leathers for studded leathers. After that, they headed to the herbalist for more healing potions. They finally stopped by the guild house and met up with Miyabi at the counter.
"Hello!" he greeted with a smile, "Moona submitted the report last night. So, what will it be today?"
"Anything simple today?" asked Nene, "Escorts or something?"
"Well… I guess there are always that," he mused as he pointed to the board, "I think there are a few on the board."
They wandered over and looked over it. Two others were at the board as well. One was a handsome blonde in full plate armor and the other had lightning bolts crackling in dark blue hair wearing yellow and brown robes. They picked one request and moved out, only pausing the wave at the guild clerk. Eventually, Polka picked one out, brought it over to Miyabi and asked as she waved it at him, "Hey, what's a cockatrice?"
He shrugged and replied, "I'm afraid I don't know. Perhaps you can check it out at the library in the school."
"Aah, okay!" quipped the monk.
"Huh, let's go then," said Nene.
"Ah, welcome," greeted the lady at the counter with a smile, "I am Rosalyn the librarian. How may I help you?" She was clad in blue and white, a large hat of the same colors and a monocle with black rim.
"Hello. I… want to find out about a cockatrice," replied Nene as the party crowded around the counter… minus Aloe, who went ethereal before entering.
"Ah, the bestiary is down that row, letters A to C," she stated as she pointed down one row of shelves, "Do remember to mind your voices when doing research, alright?"
Giving her their thanks, the bard headed down the directed row all the way to the end, where C was. Taking out a few books, she brought them to the table that her party secured for themselves. Together, they poured over them. A hideous hybrid of lizard, bird, and bat. It is about the size of a goose. Any creature bitten by it will be turned to stone by its venom. They are immune to their own venom. They live in lairs and would swarm invaders that try to take them.
While reading up on these titbits, Botan was the first to get bored of all this. Looking around, among the students busy going over tomes and parchments, she spotted Artia doing the same. Getting up from her seat, she walked over to the studious ice genasi and sat next to her. She was a bit too into her book to notice. Leaning over, the lion girl noted that this was about the existence of ice elementals.
"Hnn," she sounded.
"Eep!" Artia sounded loudly in shock. Every other student then looked at her for a moment, before going back to their reading material.
"What was that about?" she whispered angrily, her face red with embarrassment.
"The party is looking up cockatrices and I got bored," the lion girl explained with a nonchalant shrug.
The wizard grumbled under her breath and went back to reading. The archer rolled her eyes and left the table. Sliding back to the party's table, she muttered, "Are we done? This is getting unbearable."
Polka smirked as she tossed her book on the table, "Well, we can always go to the hunting shop to find out. Or we can ask Miyabi. It must be on the piece of paper."
"You didn't see what was on it?" asked Nene in surprise.
"Nope."
Lamy sighed. "Let us go back then. I think we got enough information here," she stated as she stood up. The party was in agreement and they made their way back to the guild house to speak with Miyabi.
"Hello again. Are you ready to take the quest?" he asked.
"We are! What did the paper say?" asked the bard.
"Alright. This is a request from the chef in Robel. She wants someone to hunt down some cockatrices," explained the guild clerk, "She wishes to experiment to see if she can make an interesting dish from the meat. As to where to hunt them, she heard that there was a lair of them bordering the southern part of the swamp and the forest."
"Hmm, I guess that sounds good," she mused, "I guess we can go now?"
"Well… it's past lunchtime… go get something to eat before going," he advised them.
"Alright! Thanks, Mister Miyabi!"
"Eh? But I'm too young to be called that," he exclaimed in surprise, to much giggling.
The afternoon turned to evening. They took a lot of time to get to the southern area of the swamp and to search for the lair. No odd noises and no clucking anywhere.
"This is tiresome," spoke up Lamy, "Did the chef get it wrong?"
"Well, she heard about the lair from someone. It should be around here somewhere," reasoned Nene, "Maybe it's further in the forest than around here."
"Maybe," muttered Botan as she scanned the area, "They do hunt for frogs and the like, so they would be near the swamp, but not as near."
"Alright, maybe Aloe can fly over ahead and… what was that?" spoke up Polka.
The party caught an ear of groaning coming from the swamp. A shambling corpse suddenly appeared and was heading towards them. It used to be human, but now had long sharp teeth and claws. Its eye sockets were empty, the organs already rotted away in the swamp.
"Ew, it stinks," exclaimed fennec fox girl as a stray gust of wind blew, her nose wrinkling in disgust. The lion girl looked like she wanted to throw up.
"What a sad state," muttered the cleric, "We must put it to rest once more. Take care of its claws. They can paralyze you."
"Not human anymore… got it," murmured Nene as everyone got ready to fight.
"Feed..." it groaned out, "Claw them... down to the ground..."
Suddenly, hands burst out of the ground… only hands… and skittered towards them.
"Ooh, creepy," shivered Aloe as she took to the air.
"Yeah, no," said Botan and shot a bursting arrow at the ghast and getting it in the shin, the resulting blast slamming into several of the crawling claws and decimating them.
"Yeah! Keep your hands to yourself!" shouted the monk as she followed up and threw a dart at the undead, burying it in the shoulder.
"Eee! Get off!" shouted the half-snow elf as she kicked off a hand that grabbed her leg.
"Feed..."
This let the ghast simply walk up to the cleric and swung its claws. They scraped on the shield, not touching her at all, but its stench made her stomach churl. Nevertheless, she steeled herself and then slammed her mace on the claw that grabbed her.
"Urgh!" groaned the bard as two hands crawled over, jumped up, and punched her stomach. She got over it quickly and stabbed one.
Yet another hand tried to grab the archer, but she dodged to the side. This allowed the succubus to grab it as she swooped down and she tore it apart with her claws. Meanwhile, the lion girl retreated back and shot at the ghast again, this time striking it in the eye socket. As it roared in reaction, the monk tumbled forward. Leaning back, she slammed two punches into its chest. One feint followed by one real punch. She then swerved out of the way from its swipe, tumbling forward and tried to kick another claw, which flattened itself to the ground and avoided the foot. She then tumbled back to her original position.
"Huh, very fancy," praised Aloe as the undead hands continued scratching and punching Nene and Lamy. She then swooped down and tore into another hand with her claws.
"Quite," agreed the cleric calmly as she nicked the ghast in the side of the head as it suddenly lurched past her to go after Botan. Much to her surprise, the undead being froze and then started shambling away as fast as its stiff legs could carry it. "What in the world?" she muttered to herself in surprise, missing the claw she attacked while staring at the retreating ghast.
"Huh, I guess we're winning," stated Nene with a grin, impaling another hand to the ground.
"Hn," sounded the archer as she missed her shot. Polka just shrugged as she kicked the last hand into the swamp.
"It must be falling apart!" shouted Aloe as she flew after it. She swiped at it as she landed, her claws leaving deep grooves into the skin on its back, "After it!"
"No need to say it twice!" replied the bard as she and the cleric chased after it. One dagger to the neck and a ray of frost later, it crumpled to the ground.
"Hn, that was weird," muttered Botan as they retrieved their respective projectiles from the re-deceased body, "I think this means we need to go further into the forest."
Twilight came and went. As it was night time, Polka pulled out her driftglobe and with two words, made it shine brightly as well as float over her. This was quite helpful as they searched further southward. Eventually, they came upon a grassless area that had a raised hill with an opening going into the earth. They could hear a lot of squawking from inside and a little behind the hill.
"I guess we found the lair," stated Polka as she turned to the others.
"Ah… and I think they noticed us already," informed Botan as she pointed at the hill. Five cockatrices loomed over the hill. All five of them suddenly made horrid noises, something between a squawk and a shriek, and charged straight at them. The din brought four more out of the cave and enraged them too.
"Ah, here we go again," sighed Aloe as she took to the sky again.
"Hn," the archer sounded as she shot a bursting arrow. It struck its target true and buffeted the other monstrosities, but that little to halt their squawking charge. Polka and Aloe tried to do so as well with darts and dive bombs, but nothing stopped them.
They all converge on the least armored ones, Nene and Polka. They were rained with multiple bites and pecks of their beaks. Lamy tried to bless the bard with a shield spell to protect her but it was useless. One solid bite and she was quickly turned to stone.
"Damn it! Die already!" roared Botan as she let loose another shot, killing one in the throat. The sight of the stone statue made her worry where she shouldn't feel it.
Polka fought back as well, pummeling another down with Aloe's assistance. Then, for whatever reason, the ones attacking the lore bard flew up and swarmed on the succubus, much to her great shock.
"Take this!" shouted Lamy after summoning a knife of ice to her hand. She threw it accurately into one of the monster's bodies, the ice exploding outwards in a nova of frost. It still didn't slow them down.
Botan continued to shoot and Polka continued to fight. The monk dipped and dodged, moving between the twisted creatures, punching and kicking. In the middle of it, Aloe cried out and her petrified form landed on the ground. The archer's heart skipped a beat but thankfully, it didn't break or anything. But, that became a signal to the cockatrices to swarm the monk en-masse.
"By the gods, this is madness!" swore Lamy as she froze one into a block of ice before retreating to Botan's position.
"Madness is right," the archer growled through her gritted teeth as she shot again, Polka succumbing to the poisonous beaks and turning to stone. Her anxiety continued to spike as she realized that there was a chance that they could lose this battle. To her, such a thing was unthinkable, and yet, the possibility was staring at her in the face.
"My goddess, I beseech thine aid!" the half-snow elf chanted as she grasped her amulet with a worried look. A spirit sword materialized as the remaining cockatrices surrounded them. Their armor held their beaks back for a time being, but as the battle wore on it seemed to Botan that their attacks were wearing the cleric down slowly but surely. Her spirits were lifted when she noticed that the ones attacking Lamy had been taken care of, but suddenly, the two remaining cockatrices turned tail and attacked Lamy instead. As if they knew that she was weakened from her fights.
"Get off her, damn monsters!" she roared angrily as she continued shooting at them. They took down one, but the last one got a lucky peck and Lamy was petrified as well.
The fact that she was the last one here and these damn mutated chickens turned all her party… allies… friends… to stone, weight heavily on her. All her anxiety, all her anger, all her rage. She saw red. With the loudest roar she could muster, she shouted to the heavens. Her eyes gained a bright red glow and black streaks akin to whiskers appeared on her face. She tensed her body and like a spring, launched herself at the last one, tearing it into half with her claws.
With a feral growl, she looked around for more enemies. As she searched and found nothing, her heart calmed. She calmed down. Her eyes and face lost their changes. As she got reacquainted with her surroundings, it began to rain. The first few drops wet her ears. She shook her head and hurried to retrieve her shortbow. Her body was still tense as she checked up on her petrified friends. Despair struck her heart as she never did find out how long this state lasted. What if it lasted forever? With this despairing thought, she slunk into the cave to take shelter, absolutely unsure what to do.
AN: Hello, readers. Welcome to the next chapter. So... owlbears are very expensive. And here we are, going on another quest. Cockatrices. It seems that a certain phoenix wants to experiment with monster chicken meat. However, this means they have to contend with the chance of petrification. Now, this stone state is said to last 24 hours. Not sure if Botan can stand waiting this long. However, this gave me a chance to unlock Botan's lycanthropy. Her unique transformation I call Feralion. Usable per long rest, she transforms with a bonus action and gains proficiency with her claw and bite attacks. Later down the line, she may get bonus damage and even shorten it to after every short rest. When? That remains to be seen.
Alright everyone, thank you for reading and have a good day, dear readers.