Chapter 6: From Feathered Fugitive To Feathered General

Su stood frozen in the dragon’s cave, the feather feeling like a live wire in her beak. The dragon’s final, rattling breath echoed through the cavern, and then there was only silence. The immense, ancient presence was just… gone.

Well. Shit.

The system, with its usual impeccable timing, flashed a notification.

QUEST COMPLETE: THE COLLECTOR’S GAUNTLET

REWARD: +500 EXP!

LEVEL UP! SPECKLESS PEACOCK IS NOW LEVEL 6!

REWARD: THE COLLECTOR’S ‘KEY’ HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR INVENTORY.

A warm surge of power flowed through her, stronger than before. Her feathers felt denser, her legs stronger. But the feeling was hollow. She looked at the mountain of treasure, the "lock" the dragon had mentioned. What had she just unlocked?

She didn't have time to ponder. A low, distant rumble shook the cavern, sending a shower of dust and small gems from the ceiling. It wasn't an earthquake. It was the sound of marching. A lot of marching.

She scrambled out of the cave, the dragon’s feather clutched tight. Her peahen squad was waiting, agitated and flustered.

TRANSLATION (Cluck Norris): “Great and cunning one! Many two-legs! With shiny sticks and loud noises! They come from the valley!”

Su craned her neck. From the high vantage point of the canyon, she could see it. A massive, organized column of soldiers was moving through the jungle below. They weren't the simple peasants from the village. These were professional soldiers in chainmail and leather, carrying pikes and swords. And they were heading straight for a purpose-built wooden barricade that stretched across a narrow pass.

It was a barracks. A war zone.

The system helpfully provided a new, terrifying prompt.

WORLD EVENT INITIATED: BORDER SKIRMISHES OF THE FALLING LEAF.

THE VACUUM OF POWER LEFT BY THE CRESTED WYRM HAS INSTIGATED HOSTILITIES BETWEEN THE HUMAN KINGDOM OF ELDERWOOD AND THE… UNAFFILIATED TRIBES OF THE JUNGLE.

HOST IS CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE. SURVIVAL DIFFICULTY: HIGH.

‘UNAFFILIATED TRIBES’? You mean the monkeys and the murder-weasels? We’re at war with an army? This is the worst game expansion EVER.'

Another notification, this one in stark, urgent red.

MAIN QUEST UPDATE: THE TRIALS OF CHARACTER.

TRIAL THE FIRST: THE QUIET MIND.

OBJECTIVE: INFILTRATE THE ELDERWOOD BARRACKS AND RETRIEVE THE ‘SILENCE-STONE’ FROM THE COMMANDER’S TENT.

REWARD: UNLOCKS ‘THE HUMBLE HEART’ TRIAL. +1000 EXP.

INFILTRATE A MILITARY BARRACKS?! ARE YOU INSANE?! I’M A FOUR-FOOT-TALL BIRD! My ‘stealth’ stat is probably in the negatives! And ‘The Quiet Mind’ involves stealing from a army commander? The irony is physically painful.

But the 1000 EXP was a siren’s call. That was a massive chunk of progress. And the "Silence-Stone" sounded useful. Maybe it would shut the system up for five minutes.

With a groan that shook her entire body, she turned to her harem. “Alright, ladies. New mission. We’re going to war. Try not to get turned into soup.”

They clucked in determined agreement, clearly having no idea what she’d said but trusting her completely.

Getting into the barracks was, against all odds, the easy part. The soldiers were so focused on the jungle in front of them, they never thought to look up. Su and her girls simply walked around the back, through a gap in the palisade that was clearly used for dumping latrine waste.

Charming. My legendary infiltration begins in a sewage ditch. My life is a poem.

The barracks was a chaotic mess of shouting men, the clang of blacksmiths, and the smell of sweat and stew. Tents were everywhere. Finding the commander’s tent was simple; it was the biggest one, with a fancy banner out front.

The problem was the two very large, very bored-looking guards standing at the entrance.

Think, Su. You’re a regional cryptid. How does a peacock get past two armed guards?

A plan, so stupid it just might work, formed in her mind. It was time for a performance.

She strutted out into the open, right in front of the guards. She ignored them completely. Then, she began to dance.

It wasn't the majestic, elegant dance of Azure Majesty. It was a ridiculous, jerky, spasmodic shuffle. She flapped her wings erratically, spun in circles, and let out a series of choked, gurgling squawks. She looked less like a bird of paradise and more like a chicken having a seizure.

The two guards stared, their jaws slightly agape.

“What in the seven hells is that thing doing?” one asked.

“Dunno,” grunted the other. “Looks sick. Or possessed.”

This was her cue. She stopped her ‘dance’, made direct eye contact with the guards, and then violently, projectile-vomited a half-digested berry all over the first guard’s shiny boots.

There was a moment of stunned silence.

Then, chaos.

“AGH! IT’S CURSED! IT’S GOT THE WASTING-SQUIRTS!” the guard screamed, hopping backward and frantically trying to wipe his boot.

His partner, torn between laughter and horror, was distracted just long enough. While they were occupied, Su gave a sharp, silent signal.

From behind a stack of crates, Cluck Norris, Hennifer, and Meg Hen launched their own diversion. They ran through a nearby mess line, squawking and flapping, knocking over bowls of stew and sending soldiers scrambling.

In the ensuing uproar, Su simply ducked under the flap of the commander’s tent and slipped inside.

It was spartan. A cot, a map table, and a locked chest. And sitting right on top of the map, glowing with a soft, blue light, was a smooth, oval stone—the Silence-Stone.

Jackpot.

She snatched it in her beak. The moment she did, a profound, blessed quiet fell over her mind. The constant, low-level hum of the system notifications… stopped. The internal monologue was still there, but it was… peaceful.

TRIAL THE FIRST: THE QUIET MIND - COMPLETE!

The silence was glorious. It lasted for about three seconds.

The tent flap was thrown open. A grizzled man in ornate armor, the Commander, stood there. His eyes went from the chaos outside to the giant, drab peacock standing on his map table with the kingdom’s most powerful anti-scrying artifact in its mouth.

Their eyes met.

Su, with the Silence-Stone still clamped in her beak, could only think one, very loud thought.

Oh, this looks bad.

The Commander’s face cycled through confusion, disbelief, and finally, sheer rage. “MY STONE!” he roared, drawing a sword that looked longer than Su was tall.

ABORT MISSION! ABORT! ABORT!

With the Silence-Stone still in her beak, she couldn’t squawk a retreat signal. She did the only thing she could think of. She launched herself off the map table, directly at the Commander’s face, a flailing tornado of feathers and panic.

He swatted her aside with a gauntleted hand. She tumbled into a corner, the wind knocked out of her, the stone clattering to the floor. The Commander advanced, his sword pointed at her heart.

“I’ll have your head for a helmet plume, you overgrown pigeon!”

This was it. She was going to be a war trophy. But as she stared up at the gleaming sword, her eyes, sharper than any human’s, caught a detail on the map she’d just been standing on. The troop placements. The enemy positions, marked with crude carvings of beast heads. And a massive, glaringly obvious flaw in the Elderwood army’s formation. Their left flank was completely exposed, relying on a “natural chokepoint” that, from her aerial view in the canyon, she knew was riddled with game trails.

The system, no longer silenced, screamed in her head.

SKILL ACTIVATED: ‘TACTICAL APPRAISAL’ (NEW!)

FLAW DETECTED IN BATTLE PLAN: ‘THE SERPENT’S PASS’. ENEMY CAN FLANK VIA WESTERN RAVINE. PROBABILITY OF ENCIRCLEMENT: 87%.

The Commander’s sword began its descent.

In a final, desperate act, Su didn’t try to dodge. She lunged—not at the Commander, but at the map table. Ignoring the sword, she used her beak to frantically stab at the “Serpent’s Pass,” then dragged it across the map to the western ravine, making a series of urgent, guttural clucks.

The Commander froze, his blade an inch from her neck. He stared at the map, then at the frantic, intelligent bird. “What in the…”

Just then, a young scout, breathless and bleeding, burst into the tent. “Commander! Sir! The Beast-Tribes! They’re not attacking the front! They’re… they’re pouring through the Western Ravine! They’re flanking us!”

The color drained from the Commander’s face. He looked from the scout to the map, to the peacock who had just pointed out the exact same tactical disaster.

Time seemed to stop. The rage in his eyes melted into stunned calculation. He slowly lowered his sword.

“You…” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “How…?”

Su, seeing her chance, gently nudged the Silence-Stone back towards him with her beak. A peace offering.

The Commander stared at her for a long, hard moment. Then, a grim smile spread across his face. He snatched the stone and tucked it into his belt. “Sergeant! Get the Lieutenants in here! NOW! And… somebody get this bird some grapes. The good ones.”

…Grapes? Did I just trade a divine artifact for FRUIT? I’m a woman, not a vineyard!

Twenty minutes later, Su was perched on a stool in the command tent, pecking at a bowl of surprisingly delicious purple grapes while a circle of stunned army officers stared at her. The Commander, a man named Asken, was redrawing the battle plan on the spot.

“Forget the Pass! We pull the third battalion back, form a pincer movement here… Lieutenant, your archers will take the high ground here, where the… the bird pointed.”

The Lieutenants looked deeply skeptical.

“Sir, with all due respect,” one began, “are we taking military advice from poultry?”

Asken slammed his fist on the table. “This ‘poultry’ just saved your hide from being turned into a wolves’ chew-toy! He stays. And he’s consulting.”

Over the next 48 hours, a legend was born in the Elderwood army: The Tactical Peacock. With her sharp eyes and the system’s cold, analytical prompts, Su became Asken’s secret weapon. She’d cluck twice to approve a troop movement, once to disapprove, and would peck furiously at the map to indicate hidden dangers or opportunities.

Her “harem” was put to work too. Their excellent hearing and ground-level perspective made them perfect for detecting enemy scouts. The army, once ready to turn her into stew, now looked at her with a mixture of awe and superstition. They started calling her “Lord Crestfall.”

LORD Crestfall. Of course. Because a ‘Lady’ couldn’t possibly be this strategically brilliant, could she? Just add it to the list of indignities.

The final battle was a chaotic mess of steel, fur, and feathers. Su was positioned on a platform next to Asken, watching the fray. Her system highlighted threats in real-time.

WARNING: WOLF-RIDER PACK APPROACHING FROM THE REAR.

Kraa! Kraa! (Behind us! Wolves!)

Asken barked orders, and a phalanx of pikemen wheeled around, impaling the charging wolves.

OPPORTUNITY: ENEMY SHAMAN IS CHANTING. LOCATION: LARGE OAK, NORTH-EAST. VULNERABLE.

Kreee! (Sniper! Big tree!)

A volley of arrows silenced the shaman.

She was winning the war for them. The EXP notifications were going crazy. She hit Level 8, then Level 9. The power surges were addictive. But amidst the chaos, she saw the true face of the “Unaffiliated Tribes.” They weren’t mindless beasts. They were desperate. Starving wolves, sickly-looking giant boars, and monkeys hurling rocks not out of malice, but to protect their homes from the encroaching humans.

The dragon was dead. The jungle was dying. This war was a fight over the scraps.

The tide turned decisively in Elderwood’s favor. The beast-tribes broke and began to retreat. Cheers erupted through the human ranks. Asken clapped a heavy hand on her back. “We did it, bird! You did it!”

But Su wasn’t cheering. Her eyes were locked on the retreating creatures, on the scorched and trampled jungle. She saw a small, injured wolf pup trying to keep up with its pack, limping badly.

We didn’t win. We just kicked someone who was already down. And I, a woman who just wanted a job, helped lead the charge. What is my life?

The system delivered its verdict.

WORLD EVENT COMPLETE: BORDER SKIRMISHES OF THE FALLING LEAF.

VICTORY: ELDERWOOD KINGDOM.

REWARD: +1500 EXP!

LEVEL UP! SPECKLESS PEACOCK IS NOW LEVEL 10!

TITLE UNLOCKED: ‘Savior of Elderwood’

‘Savior of Elderwood’: Grants significant reputation with human factions. You are now a Hero.

They were throwing a feast in her honor. But Su looked at the celebrating soldiers and the broken jungle.

Asken approached her, his face serious. “The King has heard of your deeds, Lord Crestfall. He requests your presence at the capital. There is a… larger threat. The true Lord of the Wood the legends speak of. It’s stirring. We need your unique talents.”

He offered her a small, golden medallion. An official seal of passage.

QUEST RECEIVED: AN AUDIENCE WITH THE KING.

OBJECTIVE: TRAVEL TO THE CAPITAL CITY OF ELDERWOOD.

REWARD: UNKNOWN.

She was a Level 10 Peacock, a wartime hero whom everyone saw as a male lord, and now a royal consultant. She had a harem she didn't want, a human army that revered the "man" they thought she was, and a clear path to more power.

But all Su could think about was the warning of a dying dragon, the desperate eyes of the beasts, and the chilling feeling that she had just helped the wrong side win a battle, only to be recruited for a much bigger war.

What the hell have I gotten myself into? And stop keep calling me ‘sir’!