March Stryx Challenge- Archie: Chapter 1

“Look, I’m telling you, I see this guy flying day in and day out. Whatever he’s collecting, he’s got a lot of it.”

The two men had been tracking the Stryx for weeks, making a little headway each day up a treacherous mountain path to what would no doubt be his lair.

“Any dragon that goes this far out of their way to hide their hoard has got something good, it’s just a given.”

The younger of the two was more than a little hesitant as the days wore on. They were running out of rations, and had lost a pack mule on the way up, cutting their ability to haul any loot home by a quarter. His mentor however, was adamant they continue on at an even harder pace.

There was no turning back now. Both men now stood in front of the great, yawning mouth of the mountain cave, resting just on top of a field of clouds. They’d tied off their animals nearly a hundred feet below at the bottom of a sheer cliff, having reached the cave by the grace of extensive climbing equipment. It was with those metal spikes in the stone that they’d erected a pulley system that they could lower whatever riches they could find down to their pack animals below. 

They’d seen the stryx fly away earlier in the morning. They only had until the sun was at its highest point to work, as that was often when the creature would return before flying off again when the sun began to set. 

“Don’t dawdle boy, get moving.” The older man growled, shoving the younger lanky man into the darkness. He stumbled somewhat, nervously fumbling to light his oil lantern so that he could see ahead. When the light flickered to life, it showed a rather large set of rough-hewn steps just a step ahead. What would be an easy hop for a Stryx was a guaranteed broken ankle for a human. The gravity of his near-miss caused the young man’s face to fall, a nervous sweat beginning to prickle at the back of his neck despite the coolness of the cave.

Or perhaps that was the hot, rancid breath of his mentor, who hissed in his ear. “Get a move on, boy!” 

They proceeded slowly down the natural, oversized stairway, which winded down deeper into the mountain, narrowing more and more ominously until it was hardly believable that a Stryx would be able to worm his way in. Finally, the stairway ended and blossomed out into an impressive open space illuminated by glowing, magical gemstones. Amongst those nature-made, angular form however, was an even stranger sight. A glowing pile of spheres sat in a neat pile in the middle of the room as twice as high as the average man’s height. They all glowed with their own inner magic, a flickering of light swirling within. 

“There’s our money maker right there, eh? What do you reckon they are, spells? Collected wisps?” He older man cackled, rushing toward the sight to pick one of the orbs up. 

“I’m not sure we should touch them.” The young man said warily, taking a step back from the sight.

The elder would not listen, holding an orb up to his ear and frowning. “Wot… ‘who is a silly bird. You are?’  He repeated what he’d heard incredulously. “Wot are these cursed things?” He picked up another, and another “Handsome man… Archie’s such a trip… These are just a bunch of bloody talking orbs of compliments!”

There was a change in air pressure and the younger swung around with the lantern to illuminate the way they’d come. He found empty passageway. 

“Woah now, easy there, big man, I-.” The elder’s nervous words were cut short.

“Whoo-hoot.” A Tyto’s call echoed within the chamber, and the young man’s blood ran cold. Slowly, he turned, and a Tyto about as wide as he was tall with a dark, masked face stared back at him in the lamp and magic stonelights. 

“I.. I’m sorry. I think I should, probably leave?” He squeaked, his eyes frantically searching for his mentor. The man was nowhere to be found.

Slowly, strangely, the Tyto’s mouth began to open, the sheer enormousness of it most unreal. A bulge formed in the dragon’s gizzard and slowly made its way up the neck, the throat. The creature’s eyes bulged out even further as if to make way for whatever was sliding up the Tyto’s craw. 

A glowing red orb surfaced, and dropped with a heavy ‘plink’ onto the stone. However, it did not shatter. Within, the young man could just barely hear the elder’s last words echoing within. 

He stood there, unsure of what to do. The Tyto, Archie, also sat motionless where the elder once stood. Finally, he tilted his head just so slightly, letting both eyes blink at slightly different speeds before using his tail to slide something toward the young man’s feet.

Slowly, he crouched to retrieve it, picking up a simple, flat rock. “Uh… thank you?”

Archie chirped and gestured his head to the door. It seemed his welcome was worn out.

He’d never clambered out of a cave so quickly before, not even pausing to adjust to the light of the outside before sliding down the rope in such a hurry that he felt the burn of it on his palms.

Amongst the livestock however, stood someone he did not expect to see. His mentor, looking disheveled and traumatized, stood next to one of the donkeys with a hand on its back to steady himself.

“Master! What happened? I thought you had been devoured!” He exclaimed, looking the older man over who was pale as a ghost.

“He.. He sat on me, boy. Sat full on me. There was no light. No sound. Only feathers and darkness. Then I was.. outside of my body in the sky. An astral projection, if you will. Then darkness again. When.. when I came to, I was out here. Come boy, let us leave. Never will I dare try to steal from the hoard of Archie ever again!”