Well if the owner of the feather was going to piss her off by being obnoxiously silent, she was going to play her own games. Carefully Chiaki braided a section of her hair, tightly fastening the end of the feather into it. Both Yue and Kun boggled at the sight of her wearing the bright red feather as decoration. She ignored their looks.
"We'll be making it to the rock landing shortly." She said, gesturing to the outcrop of rock that remained of the top of the mountain. From this distance, the damage done to the land itself was noticeable. The tip of the mountain was sheered off, deep gouges where giant claws had tore into the solid stone, uprooted trees long dead.
What was she doing? Both males wanted to ask. The bright red feather must belong to one of the bird beasts above and she was flaunting it in her hair like a prized gift. Lu Yue felt his heart tighten. Despite her insistence that she didn't want or need any more mates, he had began to develop feelings for her over the past weeks. He wanted to take the feather from her hair... and twist the neck of the male it belonged to.
They started the last part of their ascent.
o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o
Chiaki wanted a more dramatic entrance, but the looks of the few members of the bird tribe quelled that. Four males stood before them, perhaps ten yards between the two groups. But they weren't what she was expecting. Their thin frames and hollow eyes showed defeat. Their feathers were dull, their hair shorn short and dirty. She noticed the red and yellow pattern of one male. Chiaki was sure he was the night visitor. His eyes looked hardened instead of dead. All of them held stone tipped spears.
"What do you want?" The red and yellow feathered males shouted at them.
Chiaki held up her hands, while Yue and Kun moved in-front of her in protective stances. "We're just going to the remains of the temple." She grasped at the long white hair of the two males. "Guys, don't be hasty."
"I'm not going to let some half-dead and filthy birds harm you!" Yue yelled, aiming the words at the others more than Chiaki.
"I'll kill them if they try anything!" Kun added.
"No, no fighting." Chiaki yelled back. "They haven't made any aggressive moves."
The four winged males only tightened their grips on the spears in their hands. They made no other moves. "Why would anyone want to see a grave?" It was the same male, so Chiaki guessed he was the leader.
Chiaki sighed. "I'm Chiaki and I'm on a quest related to the Beast God." She said, hoping it wouldn't bring her too trouble.
"You're a chosen one?" The bird male asked, some of the anger draining from his voice.
"In a way." She agreed. "Are you four protectors of the temple?"
"No." He said, then turned his back to the three of them. "I'm Emperor Dragon. We are what's left of the Feather Clan." The other bird beast men seemed to use this as a cue to relax.
Chiaki put a hand on both Kun and Yue's shoulders. She could feel the tense muscle below her palms, ready to spring at a moment's notice. "See, no fighting needed." She tried to sooth the pair.
"I don't trust them." Yue stated.
"Look at them, they are skin and bones." She nodded to them. "I doubt they would be much of a threat in this state."
She got them to stand down. Chiaki walked towards the other group, seeing them stiffen at her approach. She held up her hands in a 'I'm not a threat' manner. They let her draw close. One finally noticed the red feather woven into her hair.
"Why do you have one of out leaders feathers? How" He said roughly, tightening his grip on the spear.
"He left it in my camp this morning as a calling card."
Emperor Dragon crossed his arms. "Sorry to lead you on, but it must have simply fallen out."
"But you admit you were in my camp last night?"
"Only to see if you were a threat-" He cut himself off and looked away. "It matters not. Remove it from your hair, it's unsightly."
Yue felt satisfaction as he watched Chiaki pull the red feather from her braided hair. He'd make sure to tear it to pieces later. He didn't like the haunty tone of the red and yellow feathered beast.
"Well, what is your thoughts then? Am I a threat?"
"A female and her two weak mates is not much threat."
"They aren't my mates, just my traveling companions." She interjected. The words hurt both males a little, even if it was the truth. "And you are a four-stripe male. I admit you are right we'd be no threat." She added.
"So Chiaki, go see your fallen temple." He waved up the mountainside. Her eyes followed the gesture, but there was nothing, just a deep gouge out of the side of the mountain, with this place being the bottom of it. "Is it what you hoped to find?" There had to be something left. Chiaki took a step in the direction of his wave.
'Quest given: Retrieve the Soul Stone in the ruins of the Beast God's Temple. Reward: Unknown. Status: Ongoing. If you fail something bad may happen.'
Chiaki blinked at the pop up. This was the first time she'd been given any quests while in the past. She had started to think that they were disabled. Find a Soul Stone? What was that? She frowned at the words, then flicked the image from her sight.
"Let's go look." She said turning to Kun and Yue. With a nod they followed her, glancing back at the four males that slowly shrank into the distance.
Chiaki started to search the area where the ground curved up into the huge gouge. It cut the top of the mountain into two. Slowly she started to find stone that didn't match the surrounding area. Then she found the graves.
A dozen, no more. Small graves, ranging in size from only a foot or two, to ones almost her size. They were covered in crumbled and broken chunks of marble. No headstones.
'This is where my body was buried.' Tobi's voice entered her mind. She jumped.
'I'm sorry.' She thought back to the young Voice.
'I remember a lumbering hulk of a beast make his way into the temple.' He continued. 'I'd been serving the Beast God for only two seasons when it happened. I was... in your measurements, only six years old at the time.'
Chiaki would swear she could see the young form of Tobi sitting on one of the graves. She nodded to his phantom as she moved around the small cemetery. 'Who made these?'
Tobi shrugged. 'No one survived and I woke in the Beast God's Realm, so I don't know. What I do remember is being pushed back by the forceful power that male held. He was beyond a four-stripe and he also had star-marks on his back... but it was all so hard to see as he was almost like ink... He bellowed about his lost mate. How she had been his love and how he knew she wasn't dead and how could the beast God tear her away from him?'
'What happened then?'
'The Beast God's mortal form came out of the inner temple, tried to calm the male. But he wouldn't listen, he attacked the Beast God. I don't remember what happened next clearly. Just that the male transformed and he had no true shape. He tore through the temple and it came crashing down. The last thing I saw before I died and woke up in the beast God's realm was him... it... beginning to grow to a colossal size.'
Tobi stopped then his image pointed to the grave. 'Take my Soul Stone, it holds a few memories of my life, but mostly it holds the power I had as one of the Beast God's Chosen.'
Chiaki who had continued to look around as Tobi spoke walked over to the small grave. She knelt down and shifted the stones, she hoped she wouldn't find bones. But after only a few stones she found a small gold crystal. She picked it up. Power radiated from the small gem.
"What did you find?" Yue asked, having watched as Chiaki had silently wandered around the area for a time, before suddenly digging at one of the graves.
"This." She said holding out her hand, the gold crystal on her palm. The two males moved to look at what was in her hand. They had never seen a crystal like it before. It wasn't a Spar, and the color was not like any crystal found in a colossal animal.
'What do I do with it?' She asked Tobi mentally. She looked over to where he had been, but he was gone.
'Quest: Retrieve the Soul Stone in the ruins of the Beast God's Temple. Reward: Learn Tobi's memories from the attack on the Beast God's Temple. Status: Complete.'
'Quest given: Save the Feather Tribe. Reward: A life saved, a life given. Status: Ongoing.'