The Twice-Enchanted Blade: Part 18

It was time for the finale of Rhombus’s story.

“Just before next door, Gandor and I found ourselves strapped to the belly of an old elephant. The beast stank somewhat horribly, but given that we were using the poor thing as Roc bait, I couldn’t get too angry at it.

“The plan was simple. Large animals, aware of Roc’s hunting habits, didn’t approach the Igla mountain, and the creature had to travel far to find its meals. An elephant this close to home would make its day a lot easier, and we were banking on the bird going for easy prey. This has allegedly already worked once a thousand years ago, when the golden egg was placed in the nest.

“Thus, we found ourselves in a, frankly, uncomfortable position. Our first hint of the Roc’s arrival was the elephant getting nervous, eventually breaking into a run, but the poor creature never had a chance. A sound not dissimilar to a powerful gust of wind could be heard, and the elephant was swooped off the ground like it was a mouse.

“Our position was ideal to watch the ground get more and more distant, and I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a terrifying sight, but at least I didn’t – unlike Gandor here – close my eyes to spare myself the view. Soon enough, I could see the mountaintop below me, and the Roc placed its prey down with gentleness I appreciated.

“I expected the nest to look like, you know, a regular nest, just made of entire logs, and it made me worry, because the thousand-year-old trees would’ve been long rotten and replaced by now, and finding the golden egg would become that much harder. That wasn’t the case, however, and the nest basically consisted of large boulders arranged in a circle. The ground was covered in elephant bones.

“The boulder walls were there to make sure the two Roc chicks – who looked, as you would imagine, like horse-sized baby eagles – from falling out. Their mother had helpfully disembowled the elephant for them and was now lovingly overseeing her children feasting on the entrails.

“None of the birds deigned to pay any attention to us, so we were, for the time being, free to search the nest. We were focusing, as much as possible, on the floor, digging under piles of bones, until Gandor eventually noticed it through a triceratops eye socket.

“During our search, another complication, which would turn out to be beneficial to us in the end, arose. Smelling blood, large beetles started crawling out of various holes, as big as a man. That armor Clossar is wearing is probably made of something similar to theirs. Anyway, they went straight for the elephant carcass, but the Roc chicks were unwilling to share and crushed a few with their beaks before returning to their meal.

“The beetles didn’t want to challenge this force that could dispatch them so effortlessly, but that didn’t make their hunger go away, and they began skittering about looking for alternative sources of food. It just so happened that the only other edible things in the nest were Gandor and me.

“The first insect to notice us went after Gandor. He saw it coming and swung at it with his sword, but it did nothing against the chitinous shell. Then he attempted to shoot it a few times, but that too barely put a dent in it. ‘It’s like plate armor, ’ I shouted at him, ‘You need to aim for the gaps in it!’

“I couldn’t rush to help my bodyguard, however, as I was now facing a beetle of my own. Following my own advice, I aimed carefully and stabbed it between head and thorax, electrocuting it for good measure.

“Gandor finally took care of his opponent, too, but the beetles still found us less intimidating than the eaglets, and a few of them were still coming at us. One of them took to the air and came at me. I blocked its attack, but it latched onto my sword and almost lifted me off the ground before my lightning enchantment did its job.

“That was when I had the most outrageous idea. I am still not sure whether to be proud or ashamed of conjuring this suicidal strategem. ‘Gandor! Follow my lead!’, I shouted and ran for the rocks at the nest’s edge. I climbed on one of the boulders, finding myself at the edge of the abyss.

“As I hoped, the first beetle following me decided to attack from the air instead of crawling on the rock. Narrowly avoiding its mandibles, I grabbed it with my bare hands and leaped off the cliff.

“Just as last time, the insect was not quite strong enough to carry me, but it slowed the speed of my fall significantly, to survivable levels. As I was elegantly descending the mountain, I kicked the cliff to make as big a distance as possible between myself and the rocks.

“About halfway down, it fully dawned upon me how half-baked my plan had been. My arms began to hurt, my palms were sweaty and threatening to slip, and it wouldn’t have surprised me if the beetle simply stopped flying and let me fall to my death.

“None of this came to be, thankfully, and I landed mostly safely, twisting my ankle in the process. Gandor followed suit, suffering a few bruises but otherwise not being any worse for wear. The beetles flew back to their mountain, this unexpected excursion dissuading them from continuing to attack us.

“We limped our way to the hermit’s cave to inform him of our triumph. He seemed slightly disappointed. ‘I guess that means there won’t be any more claimants, ’ he said, ‘well, at least I’ll keep helping the biclopes out. ’ Then he worked some healing spells – mighty convenient, those, my leg was working perfectly by the evening. Since it was already pretty late, we spent another night by the mountain. The next morning, we said our goodbyes.

“That’s it, more or less. We returned without further incident and realized we were the quickest to complete our quest. Then we took it easy until you lazy bums decided to finally show up”.

With that, his story concluded.