A Soldier's Life

Chapter 155: Cock-a-doodle-doo

This time, entering the vine room, I planned to hack the vines apart with the black blade. Maveith stood in the corridor, watching intently. He was ready to hold his breath, rush in, and carry me away if I succumbed to the flowers.

As I stepped into the room, I was able to enjoy the scent of the flowers with only slightly heavy eyes. The vines stirred as they had done a dozen times before. They left their alcoves and snaked across the floor slowly. None of the flowers were on the creeping vines along the floor. I was about to slash into the creeping vines when I thought better of it. Even though my runic weapon could not be dulled, according to Konstantin, I sent it to my dimensional space and retrieved two of the elven hand axes I had taken from the forge.

The vines moved so slowly that I could walk back casually while I hacked away. Maveith called from behind me, “Eryk, do not cut them into sections that are too small. I can try making rope from the vines.”

I grunted at the request, as all three alcoves in the room were trying to grasp me with their vines and pull me in to digest me. I realized that perhaps a well-placed fireball here would make quick work of them. I had a pocket griffin rider that could cast fireballs. I tried to appease Maveith by just cutting five-foot sections of vines off as I went.

The sound of metal striking stone rang out repeatedly on the stone floor, and sticky sap soon coated the blade and my armor. The vines seemed endless as an hour progressed, and my arms started to feel achy from the repetitive swinging. The elven hatchets were also fairly dull from hundreds of strikes into the stone floor.

“Eryk, try cutting the base in one of the alcoves,” Maveith advised anxiously from the hallway. Why was he anxious? I was the one doing all the work.

I danced around the vines that had thinned considerably but kept coming. I moved to the alcove on the right,. cautious and ready to retreat if I might get cornered. I hacked at the base of a thick stem coming out of the floor. All the vines from this alcove stilled as I truncated this plant. Soon, I cut away the bases in the other two alcoves, and all the vines became still. The flowers wilted in seconds, and I guessed they needed to be harvested while the plant was alive.

A stone chest appeared in the center of the room. “We won, Maveith,” I said tiredly.

Maveith’s eyes widened in anticipation as he stepped into the room. He immediately got woozy and fell into the sappy mess. I laughed, at least my friend would also be covered in creeping vine sap. I could not even smell the sickly sweetness anymore, but it must have still lingered in the air.

I shattered the stone box, collecting fifteen large silver coins and one unknown potion. I dragged my friend out of the room into the hallway. I returned to the room and attempted to use the collector at the base of the plants. A few wisps of emerald smoke formed, but the small disc would not pull it in. I thought this strange, as I remembered Durandas trying to use this on the shambling mounds. Maybe I had destroyed too much of the body, or the collector could not harvest plants. I moved the vines into a pile and sent the mess to my dimensional storage. The sap was drying, and the plates on my armor were no longer sliding easily across each other. It was getting increasingly difficult to move.

Swearing to myself, I checked each alcove quickly and found nothing. Disappointed, I joined the sleeping Maveith in the corridor, removed my armor, and attempted to clean it before the sap completely dried.

The oiled sections of the armor were easily cleaned, but the other sections were not, and I had to wait until they hardened enough to scrape off with a knife. Maveith woke before I finished, and as he stirred, I asked, “Have a good nap?”

“My head is a little foggy, but yes, thank you.” He suddenly realized where he was and sprang to his feet. “Eryk, I am sorry I fell! I barely smelled the flowers and thought they all wilted.”

I chuckled. “It is okay, Maveith. I do not think we will try the room again. There was only one potion in the reward chest,” I said, calming him down. His eyes turned to the room, and he groaned in disappointment. He thought the dungeon had absorbed the carnage I had wrought on the creeping vines.

“Did you collect any of the vines for rope?” Maveith asked hopefully.

I let him stew for a while before telling him with a grin, “I got you a little, but you will have to wait until we get to a safe room. Also, I do not know about the viability of the vines as the sap hardens.” I pointed to his front, and Maveith began peeling dried sap off his soft leather clothes.

After we cleaned up a bit, I asked, “Cockatrice room next? I am going to go into the dreamscape to see if I have any more information on the creatures. Watch over me while I am gone.”

It did not take long for me to find some references for the ugly birds in one of the elven bestiaries. Translating the script was a slow process.

Cockatrice

These avian creatures are much more dangerous than they appear. They usually form flocks of between eight and twelve and attack as a group. The males of the species have azure, blue combs, and dark blue feathers. The females usually have deep brown feathers, but younger specimens can be tan.

The saliva of these creatures is extremely corrosive and can petrify flesh. Multiple bites can turn a creature completely into stone. Severe damage can be done to a person’s veins and arteries from a single bite and may result in death.

The meat of the creature is considered a delicacy in many nations—not so much for the taste but for the difficulty in harvesting it. Many people say they cannot tell the difference between chicken and cockatrice. The saliva of the cockatrice is useful in numerous alchemical preparations but needs to be fresh, as it will lose efficacy soon after the bird’s death.

The rest of the text discussed habitats and had a few pictures.

I was also able to decipher the runes on the potion. When I exited the dreamscape, Maveith let out a relieved breath. “You were in there for two hours, Eryk. We probably should not linger in the corridors.”

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I stood, reached up, and patted him on the shoulder reassuringly. “We are okay. I even found an elven book detailing the cockatrice, and there is good news. Their gaze cannot turn you to stone—only. their saliva can, so we need to ensure we do not get bitten.”

Maveith chewed on his lip, thinking. “Maybe I confused them with a basilisk.” He looked away abashedly. “I do not want to be turned into a statue.”

“I will count the birds before we enter. You will not have to approach the chamber,” I tried to reassure the big bald gray man.

Maveith reluctantly walked with me down the long looping corridor to the massive domed room. He stayed back a good fifty feet while I scouted. The tall grass hid the birds, and I could now identify the males by their blue crests and the females by their brown. The cockatrices did not seem interested in me as they scavenged in the long grass.

Maveith impatiently rumbled, “How many do you see?”

“Give me some time,” I replied, scanning the area. I was envious of one of the female cockatrices bathing in the pool as it preened its feathers. Another male cockatrice snapped its head up with a thick worm in its mouth before swallowing it. I watched for almost an hour but may have missed some resting birds. “Seven, Maveith. We can handle seven together, right?”

Maveith did not look too thrilled at the prospect. “I will give you your bow, and maybe you can kill one or two before they even reach us.” He brightened at that thought. We slowly prepared to enter the room, Maveith’s confidence steadily growing. One of the females approached our corridor, curious about us.

As it got closer, Maveith shielded his eyes, but I was confident in my interpretation of the text. It was not a pretty bird. The closer it got, the uglier it looked. It was a cross between a turkey and a lizard, with sporadic feathers and a scaly tail. The wings were tucked into its sides but were featherless and more bat-like. “They looked more edible from a distance,” I commented to Maveith.

Maveith slowly opened his eyes to look at the creature. Some people had a fear of water, and Maveith had a fear of being turned into a statue. “It is ugly,” he said, laughing hoarsely. The bird rushed at us in the corridor. Surprised, I readied my black blade. It launched itself into the air and came at me feet first, claws extended.

The bird slammed into the archway, an invisible force preventing it from reaching us. The failed attack was accompanied by a loud clucking challenge, which caused the remaining birds to come out of the grass. Seven more joined the female: four males and three females. So, my count had been off by one. The cockatrices were agitated as they pranced around the archway, making a racket. They stood almost three feet tall, and I could see viscous yellow saliva on their tongues.

I backed away from the room and pulled Maveith with me“. Let them settle down, and we can come back. They swarmed to the door this time but not all at once.” Maveith nodded. We rested and snacked on apples and berries before returning to the archway. Maveith, with his bow ready, and I with the black blade.

Only one of the males was close to the corridor this time. “Ready?” I asked, and he reluctantly nodded. “I will take this one. Shoot them as they race out of the grass.”

I stepped into the room, and the male nearby made a huge racket to summon the family, crowing like a malevolent rooster. It launched into the air and stunned itself when it slammed into my invisible shield. I quickly sidestepped and beheaded the confused cockatrice. As the head satisfyingly hit the ground, I was shocked as the body started running around, pumping out small spurts of blood. Thankfully, it had no awareness of me and ran into the wall of the chamber. The distraction almost cost me, as the other seven were rushing us.

Maveith’s bow sang, and a thick arrow thudded satisfyingly into the male leading the charge. It rolled away, clearly incapacitated, and out of the fight. Of course, our plan to take them a few at a time did not work, as the four trailing cockatrices took to the air to catch up. An arrow from Maveith took out a second running cockatrice. “Only five left,” I said encouragingly as they closed. Maveith’s bow sang again, but I was focused on my own fight and did not see where the arrow went.

I set two shields, one high and one low, for the two fliers and one running at me. Why did three of the four remaining cockatrices target me? Maveith was the much bigger target! I waited unti they slammed into my shields and then moved to the side. One of the flyers tumbled toward me after striking the air disc. I timed my swing, beheaded the confused bird before it hit the ground, and dodged the decapitated head as it nearly hit me.

The runner recovered quickly and dashed toward me. A quick air shield cast through my foot was supposed to halt the female’s charge, but it flapped its wings, launching itself over the shield and going for my face. I did not want to risk the beak getting close, so I used my dimensional space to remove the head and deflected the headless body with my round shield.

Taking in the chaos, I yelled to Maveith, “Above you, Maveith!” The other flier that I had deflected off my shield was now above him and closing in. While I had been busy, Maveith had dropped his bow and crushed the other cockatrice with his hammer.

Maveith went into a rapid forward roll, his massive body moving faster than it probably had a right to, and he came up facing the other direction, already swinging his hammer. The cockatrice, with claws outstretched, crumbled under the force of the hammer blow, and was thrown a good distance away. The cockatrice’s body was crushed, and it struggled to move, clucking pitifully.

The fight had only taken a few seconds, but my heart was still racing from the combat. A few clucks from dying cockatrices overcame the noise of the waterfall. “Stay on guard until the reward chest shows.” I walked around and carefully dispatched the mostly dead birds. Only one of the ones with an arrow in it put up any fight, but the arrow shaft greatly hampered its movement.

We stayed away from the tall grass around the pool for now, and I used the collector on the cockatrices while Maveith remained on watch. “I think I see a box on the shore,” Maveith said excitedly as I kneeled over the first male cockatrice I had killed, removing the collector from my minimalist-packed backpack. I knew Maveith was not excited about the treasure; it was just that the chest signaled that all the petrifying birds had been killed, and he was no longer at risk of being turned to stone.

The blue smoke was thick, and I watched the essence form on the collector. A rich brown apex essence formed with swirls of gray moving in the sphere—an. earth affinity essence. The rest of the roosters yielded major earth essences. The four female cockatrices all yielded clear major essences that could be mistaken for glass balls. These were aether tolerance essences that were useful in resisting magic. It was an excellent haul, and Maveith might want the earth essences to improve his shape stone spell form.

Together, we walked to the pool in the center of the chamber. The cooling mist from the splashing waterfall was welcome. There were four nests in the grass but no eggs. A few green leaves sprouted from the ground that I recognized as wild onions. Somewhere under the soil were fat worms, and I wondered if they would also yield an essence.

We reached the shore, and I shattered the stone box to reveal a dozen silver coins and a balled-up dark gray cloak. A piece of clothing was slightly disappointing, and after unfurling it, it was too small for Maveith to wear and too small for me to wear over my armor as well. It would fit me without my armor, but Maveith would probably be upset if I wore this over the manticore cloak he made for me. I sent it to my dimensional space.

“What now?” Maveith asked over the noise of the water.

“Now we bathe!” I said happily as I walked into the shallow water with my armor still on.

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