Disclaimer: I don't own Don't Starve or any of the characters
The inhabitants of this rocky land-bridge were not as massive as the deerclops, nor were they as terrifying as the living forest, or even as bloodthirsty as the savage pig-warriors. By all rights, they were perhaps the least outright threatening of the monsters Wilson and his companions had come across. They did have one defining feature however.
They were very, very, tall.
A comically small, round body stood atop twig-like legs that were as tall as two grown men standing on each other's shoulders. The avian creatures were covered in fine black feathers which decorated every inch of their bodies. Even the limbs and claws of the creatures were coated in downy blankets. The only two parts of the birds that were free from them were the beaks, large enough to bite a horse in half, and the eye. Singular. Much like the deerclops that hunted the frozen tundra, these flightless beasts had only a single eye in the middle of their foreheads.
In a less stressful time, Wilson might have wanted to stay and study them to get a better understanding of their behavior. They were territorial, but not overly aggressive. Exactly the kind of creatures he'd love to observe in the field. Right now however he was of the opposite mind. He didn't much care to learn about the nightmare monsters thought up by Maxwell.
Unfortunately, it seemed he was finding out about their territorial habits whether he wanted to or not.
"Okay, I don't think the small one is chasing us anymore." Willow panted, carefully eying up the birds that were prowling around their perimeter. "This way looks kind of clear. Stick close, all right?"
The others all nodded, not choosing to speak for fear of drawing more unwanted attention. They'd taken shelter behind an enormous pillar or rock which hid them from prying eyes.
The creatures, newly named tallbirds courtesy of Wolfgang, were using the rocky terrain to house their nests. They didn't go out of their way to attack the group, but anytime one of them ventured to close to a precious egg, they'd let out that terrible screeching noise and pounce. Already, they'd had to flee from three different angry birds which took offense to their presence.
Avoiding them hadn't been a problem at first. The nests were spread out enough that they could pass through unharmed. Sadly, it seemed that it wasn't going to stay that easy for long. The landmass they were standing on had continued to condense until their mile-wide expanse now only stood about thirty or forty feet in either direction. Needless to say, this made progressing without angering the locals much more difficult.
There were several times they'd had to skirt around the edges of the sheer cliff-face in order to avoid antagonizing the nesting animals. Each one left Wilson with an uncomfortable sense of vertigo as he'd glanced down at the roiling waters below.
"Wendy, how about you get on Wolfgang's shoulders and be a lookout?" Willow asked, peeking around a boulder to get a better view. "And Abigail, I need you to go up high and find out how long this stupid trail goes for. If it gets any thinner, we're going to run into some problems."
The girl and the strongman both let out simultaneous groans. She disliked the idea of being handled in such a way, and he didn't wish to be carrying an extra burden when the heat of the day weighed them all down so heavily. Despite their protests, a look from the fire starter left no room for argument. They grudgingly complied, Wolfgang stooping down to allow Wendy to better climb up. While not being all that much higher than she was previously, her position allowed her to keep watch on the flightless avian creatures while the strongman worried about where he'd step next.
Abigail for her part was much more cooperative. She floated upwards, earning a few hostile glances and warning squawks from the assorted tallbirds. Squinting in order to follow the ghost's progress, Willow watched until her pale form was no longer visible against the bright blue and white sky.
"Let me know when it looks like she's coming back down will you?" The young woman asked, wiping her dusty hands off on her pants. "I'm going to try and get a better view of what's going on up ahead."
"Wait, hold on." Wilson said, shuffling forwards until he was standing next to her behind the boulder. "What are you trying to do? Splitting up right now sounds like a really bad idea."
"Maybe." She admitted, nodding in response. "But there's an awful lot of nests really close together right behind this rock and most of them are occupied. I want to see if I can slip through and find a safe way past. If we all go together, we'll get caught out for sure."
"What if tallbird see you?" Wolfgang asked, putting one hand up to shield his eyes from the glaring sun.
"Then be ready to run."
It wasn't a very reassuring answer, but they all knew it was about the only thing they could do. They'd made the mistake of trying to fight one of the creatures early on, only to find that harming one drew the attention of the whole group. No amount of strange and mysterious weaponry could hope to hold back an entire army of enraged bird creatures.
"Do I even need to point out how dumb that sounds?" Wilson asked, exasperated. "We should wait until Abigail comes back and have her lead us through. Taking pointless risks just to speed things up won't-"
As if drawn to his words by their logical application, a massive tremor shook the land-bridge and nearly toppled several occupied nests into the sea. Cries and shrieks of surprise sounded from humans and birds alike as the miniature earthquake uprooted boulders and sent clouds of dust shooting into the air. Most of the tallbirds huddled protectively over their eggs, crouching down as far as their oversized limbs would allow and struggling to keep their balance.
As the tremors reached their peak, a deafening crack echoed throughout the landscape, quickly being followed by an enormous splash as countless gallons of seawater were forcefully displaced.
As the rumblings of the earth slowly died off into distant echoes, the four survivors stood transfixed in their tiny slice of sanctuary. They remained fixed to the spot as the tallbirds walked the effects of the quake off and returned to their earlier business.
"What. Was. That." Willow demanded, forcibly emphasizing each individual word. Nobody answered, but all eyes turned back the way they'd come.
"No way." She said breathlessly. "Please tell me I'm not seeing that."
Again, no answer came. Nobody could think to speak. For almost as far as the eye could see, nothing had changed. The only visible difference in the terrain came just at the edge of the horizon. That was where their attention was focused. They couldn't tear their gazes away from the land on the edge of their vision.
Or rather, the lack thereof.
Their original position no longer existed. The quake they'd experienced wasn't simply a fluke. A massive section of the ground had, quite literally, sunken into the ocean.
Abigail's return went largely unnoticed. She too had seen the land crumble, and was just as enthralled at the sight.
Taking a shaky breath, Willow turned back to the scientist.
"What were you saying about taking pointless risks to speed things up?" She asked, her voice cracking slightly. "Because that looks like a pretty good reason to want to move faster!"
He stared in horrified fascination for several more moments before mustering enough self-control to find his voice.
"I don't… I don't understand…" He stammered. "The whole thing just fell. That shouldn't just…"
"Shouldn't just happen?" Willow finished for him. "I've been seeing a lot of stuff like that lately. Now if you don't mind, I think it'd be best if we kept moving as fast as possible. Something tells me that wasn't just a onetime thing."
He struggled to come up with some kind of coherent thought, but was unable to. She was right about their immediate survival taking priority. As much as it pained him to do so, he had to force himself to stop thinking and start acting. Shaking his head, the scientist blew out a sigh and nodded.
"Do you have a plan?" He asked.
In response, Willow turned towards Abigail. The ghost had been floating gently nearby waiting for the fire starter's gesture. At her attention, she glided over to Wendy, an action which caused Wolfgang to visibly tense, and began speaking in the echoing language whose words couldn't be understood by any save her sister.
Wendy frowned in concentration as she deciphered the message, her brows knitting together in a fine line as she leaned over the strongman's shoulder. After about half a minute, she returned to her former position.
"Abigail tells me that there is some kind of structure atop a cliff at the far end of the next open stretch. There is a ladder leading up to it." She explained. "There's no safe way through, but she volunteered to go ahead first and provide a distraction for the rest of us."
Wilson opened his mouth to ask just what a ladder was doing in a place like this, and how it could possibly be large enough to scale a cliff, but he restrained himself. This was Maxwell's world. He had to stop thinking logically and start thinking like their deranged host.
"How many of those birds are between us and this cliff?" Willow questioned, tightening her grip on the divining rod with one hand and holding her staff in the other.
"Enough to be troublesome." The girl replied.
With a weary noise, the fire starter shook out her shoulders and gestured for the others to prepare themselves. By the looks of things, they had no choice but to make a break for it.
"All right, I hope you're all ready for a run." She said, peering around the edge of the rock wall that they were sheltering behind. "I think I see the cliff off in the distance. It's going to be one heck of a dash."
"I is ready for running!" Wolfgang stated, shouldering his heavy club. The action nearly bashed Wendy, who gave him an annoyed smack on the back of his head. "That something I is good at when world is fall apart."
"What about you Wilson?" She asked, turning his way with a half-joking half-serious tone. "Think you can make it?"
"I was never very good at track and field…" He began, grimacing at the thought of the grueling task ahead of him. "But I think I'll manage." He had to. There was no other choice really. If they didn't make it across quickly, the ground they were standing on would eventually plunge into the water below them.
Seeing the determined expressions all around, Willow nodded towards their spectral diversion.
"All right Abby." She said. "Whenever you're ready."
After the brief disturbance of the tremor, most of the tallbirds had settled back down in their respective areas. Several cast curious gazes towards the empty space where a large section of land had once stood, but most paid it no mind. They were far more concerned with the land right in front of them, letting out annoyed chirps and shrieks whenever another creature wandered too close. All in all, it looked as though the shudders of the earth had died down and normalcy had returned.
Which was why none of them were expecting what happened next.
Like an ethereal cannonball, Abigail rocketed towards the flocks of flightless birds. She shot back and forth between nests at breakneck speed, causing many of the startled creatures to tumble over their own feet as they instinctively tried to jump away from her. Now thoroughly thrown into chaos, the tallbirds lashed out at the invading ghost, pecking, biting, leaping, and clawing all in an attempt to halt her flight. She nimbly darted between snapping beaks and slashing talons with the fluid grace of an acrobat, exploiting each and every opening in order to further muddle the attentions of her targets.
"Go! Move now!" Willow ordered, taking off at a dead sprint and leading the group into the wall of enraged feathers. "Don't stop! Keep running to the end!"
The others needed no further encouragement. Hot on the fire starter's heels, Wilson, Wolfgang, and the passenger Wendy moved as rapidly as their bodies would allow, running in-between the legs of the giant birds as their attentions were directed skywards.
It wasn't as easy as Willow had hoped it would be. Even though Abigail was doing an excellent job of keeping the creatures distracted, the rocky landscape was proving to be difficult to cross quickly. Uneven patches of rock and soil meant that her eyes had to remain focused downwards at all times or she'd risk breaking an ankle. What's more, running while holding two long staff-like objects was much more difficult than she'd anticipated.
She pushed on regardless. This was a test, and all tests could be overcome. It was just a matter of holding onto her willpower until they managed to-
"Willow! Duck!"
Wendy's shouted warning had barely reached her ears before she instinctively dropped into a roll. She felt wind rush past the back of her neck and a small tear open up on the back of her dress as a sharp beak plunged through the spot she'd occupied a second ago. One of the birds had noticed that Abigail wasn't the only disturbance in their territory.
Using her momentum to swing back up to her feet, Willow lashed out with her jewel-topped staff and swatted the creature in its oversized eyeball. With a screech of surprise, the angry avian stumbled backwards and missed its chance to harass the group any further as they rushed past.
Even though the peck had missed its mark, the damage had been done. Several more tallbirds, curious to see what had caused the pained cry, turned their attention away from the wisp-like phantom that had continued to elude them. Almost instantly they spotted the fleeing survivors and sent up a raucous din, alerting their fellow nest-mates to the party.
"Ah crap…" Willow cursed breathlessly. "Time to step it up guys! Looks like we've been found out!"
The run for the cliff quickly elevated into a fully-fledged mad dash as the hoard of tallbirds abandoned their fruitless pursuit of the ghost in favor of easier targets. Wendy called out each new threat as they approached, but there were far too many for her to keep track of even though she didn't have to watch her footing.
Two sharp claws cut open a gash in Wolfgang's leg, prompting the strongman to stomp heavily on the toes of the next bird that got in his way. He ducked under the next attack, barely avoiding a vicious bite. Wendy wasn't so lucky. One of the smaller birds struck from the side, managing to latch its beak on the girl's hair. It tugged hard, coming away with a patch of blonde locks and tearing her hairband free. The sudden loss caused her hair to whip around into her face, momentarily blinding her as she struggled to hold the strand back and fight against the burning pain in her scalp.
Another bird managed to hook its beak under Wilson's vest, hoisting the scientist into the air. Before the birds managed to capitalize on his vulnerability, a bolt of fire impacted the side of the tallbird's head, causing it to drop him with a panicked warble and bowl over several others as it frantically tried to extinguish the flame.
Wilson let out his own startled cry as he plunged back to the ground and landed heavily, twisting his shoulder as he did so. The pain was quickly overridden by adrenaline as he jumped back up, shooting a grateful look to Willow who held her smoldering weapon high to intimidate any would-be attackers.
Life threatening crisis momentarily averted, the group resumed their sprint for freedom. The cliff wall was easily in sight now and drawing closer with every passing second. A massive rope ladder extended down from the top, stopping just before it reached the ground.
Wilson felt a grin fix itself on his face as he took in lungfuls of scorching air. They were going to make it. His throat burned, his muscles felt like they were tearing with every step, and he was getting dizzy from the unrelenting heat of the blazing sun, but they were going to make it. Only a little further and they'd be home free. All they needed to do was get high enough on the ladder so that the birds couldn't reach them and they'd be set.
He probably should have realized at that point that nothing was ever so easy.
No sooner had they set their sights on freedom than another massive quake shook the ground they were standing on. Grinding themselves to a halt, the group struggled to maintain their balance as the earth shifted beneath their feet.
"Another quake!? Are you kidding me!?" Willow shouted, no longer caring about keeping a low profile. "That's cheating! The last one took hours to show up!"
Her protests went unheeded by the force of nature as the rumbling increased in intensity. A quick glance over the shoulder was all Wilson needed to confirm his worst fears.
The land bridge was folding downwards, slipping into the ocean like some kind of submerging serpent. The rock and dirt rippled under the incredible forces drawing them into the water, turning the formerly solid footing into earthy waves.
"Keep going!" Wilson shouted frantically, shoving Wolfgang forwards. "We can't stop now! Just keep moving to the ladder!"
Dashing across the roiling ground, the group rushed the rest of the way to the cliff wall. Thankfully it seemed that the tallbirds had lost their will to fight as the earthquake started. Too busy trying to keep themselves upright, the creatures couldn't be bothered to lash out at the running figures.
Willow was the first to reach the ladder. Quickly tucking both her staff and the divining rod under her armpits, she latched onto the steps and began climbing as fast as she could. Which, given the objects she was carrying, wasn't actually all that fast.
Wolfgang was next. Apparently uninhibited by Wendy's weight or the fact that he was holding a massive club in one hand; the strongman practically flew up the rope pathway, catching up with the fire starter in no time flat.
"Come on Wilson! Hurry up!"
The scientist had fallen behind. Even though his natural stamina had been heavily bolstered by living in the wilderness for so long, he still lacked the endurance needed to keep up with the others. His whole body ached but the constant rumbling of falling earth supplied him with enough motivation to push past the pain.
He ran as hard as he could, drawing closer and closer to his goal. With each step, he bought himself another precious moment. With each second, the dissolving path stole one away. He was practically there. Only a couple more steps to go when the unthinkable happened.
As he leaned forwards to place his next step, his foot came down into open air. The ground had crumbled beneath him before he could reach the ladder. He felt his entire body start to drop as gravity pulled him downwards with the falling landscape. In sheer desperation, his arms flailed towards the hanging object in a last ditch attempt to escape the hungering maw of the ocean.
As he felt his palm brush against the worn wooden rung of the rope ladder, he closed his hand and clung to it for all he was worth. Momentum carried him forwards, slamming him against the cliff wall and nearly tearing his arm from his socket, but he held on. His hand gripped the lifeline with the iron willpower of a survivor, refusing to let go for anything.
Putting forth an inhuman amount of effort, Wilson threw his other arm upwards and grabbed the next rung in the line. Little by little, he began to climb, ignoring the burning protests of his body which begged for a moment of rest. He grunted and groaned, pushing himself far beyond his natural limits and forcing himself upwards for what felt like an eternity. Each new rung was another step and each strain in his body was proof that he was overcoming them.
After a time, two arms reached down and grabbed him by his own. With a mighty heave, Wolfgang and Willow pulled him the rest of the way up and deposited him on the top of the cliff. They all wore faces of sheer relief.
"That… was… way… too… close…" The fire starter gasped, patting Wilson's shoulder as he lay spread eagle on his back, too exhausted to move.
"Thank you Abigail." Wendy said, sparing a small smile for her spectral sister as the ghost settled down nearby. "You did an excellent job of keeping them occupied."
She whispered her incoherent response happily, practically glowing with contentment now that the immediate danger was past. As the group caught their breath, Wolfgang was the first to notice the change in the atmosphere.
"Fire lady?" He ventured. "Talk box is making loud noise. Is we close to exit?"
Blinking in surprise, Willow turned her attention to the divining rod. Just as he'd said, it was now blaring loudly with the kind of infuriating noise that only sounded when they were very close to a doorway.
"Ha!" She exclaimed. "He's right! You hear that? We beat that stupid gauntlet in record time! Take that and shove it up your big dumb suit Maxwell! We can't be beaten so easily!"
As one they all looked up to take stock of their escape route. Almost immediately, a crippling silence descended on them as they laid eyes on the sight.
"You just had to taunt him, didn't you…?" Wilson groaned, any hope of an easy ending dying then and there.