WL: Ch 5: Chapter 1

Andriel hadn’t wanted to bring Bastien into such unfavorable conditions. They had tried to fight the order to pursue the fifth Rhakos, pointing out that Bastien could barely fit inside the entrances and pursuit would be extremely difficult in the narrower tunnels. All that had earned them was a few extra hands on smaller stryx, who had already gone ahead. At least Red and Harken were still with them, and Andriel glanced over at the anthro Drakiri and his partner Corva for reassurance. They had been quiet companions since they’d met at the Edge of the World, though Andriel still wondered what Red was like in a more relaxed setting- could they be friends when the Rhakos were dealt with? Their thoughts were interrupted when Bastien moved strangely beneath them. “Bas, what’s wrong?” Bastien had stopped trudging through the knee high water, hissing in disgust. He lifted one soaked leg out of the water, revealing leaves, twigs, and some things that did not bear close examination tangled in his seraph feathers. From the way he was standing and the water now up to his chest, it appeared he’d slipped into a hole hidden beneath the water. “Oh hell, I’m sorry, Bas.” “They’ll probably have to be cut or plucked after this, honestly.” Red sighed, gazing down at Harken who had more decorative feathers than Bastien. Harken keened in agreement, glancing down sadly at his bedraggled plumage. “I hope the captain was right about this place opening up and having some dry walkways.” Andriel growled. 

 

The hope was answered further down the tunnel, steps rising up on either side to dry pathways. “There you are! Hurry and get up here. We’ve found signs of the fifth Rhakos.” One of their extra hands called out. “You take left, I take right?” Andriel asked Red who nodded. Harken climbed the stairs only to stop on the dry stone walkway to start preening his feathers. Bastien did the same and Andriel jumped down to start helping pull what they could out of the ruined leg feathers. At least he had been able to hold his tail feathers up out of the water, so maybe he would still be able to fly when they got out. As Andriel pulled trash out of the feathers around his toes, Bastien stretched to his full height, opening both sets of wings straight up and fluttering them. He glanced over to see Harken doing the same, Red pulling out what he could from Harken’s heavy feathers. Once the stryx were as clean as they could be in the circumstances, the other members of their party joined them. They too had decided to split up on either side of the flowing water so neither Bastien or Harken were alone. 

 

“We’re going to have to split up from here, the tunnels go east to west up ahead.” Red and Andriel glanced across the water to wave at each other before their teams split. As it happened, the captain had been right about the space under Sol opening up. The paths went east to west because north was a vast reservoir reflecting the stalactites dripping down from the ceiling high above. Far on the other side Andriel could see others patrolling, including Red and Harken. As they continued to search through the Under Sol, they came to various branching tunnels. At each, one of their party would break off until it was Andriel and Bastien’s turn. Down their tunnel, they came to another branch. They decided to split up, Andriel taking the left and Bastien the right. On the opposite side of the cavern system, Harken and Red had decided to stay together, leaving some tunnels unexplored. It was down these that their quarry hid, slipping from one passage to another to catch their pursuit unawares in traps and ambushes. 

 

They heard what came next, the echoes of yelling humans and screeching stryx creating a confusing lead to follow, resulting in both getting lost as they tried to find their way back to help. Eventually, Bastien and Andriel were reunited after Andriel lost their footing trying to edge past a hole directly in their path. They landed in a tunnel below the one they’d been traversing, crashing in a heap right in front of Bastien. It had scared him bad enough he’d nearly cut his rider down thinking they were the enemy falling on him in ambush. After recognizing them, Bastien had pushed his horned head against Andriel’s chest, the swirling horns guarding on either side as they hugged the silky smooth head in return. “I take it you heard all that too? Can you find your way back?”

 

“I think I can.” Red answered directly behind them, causing Andriel to scream and Bastien to jerk his head up in alarm, his horns clattering against the ceiling. “Sorry!” Red cried out, stepping gingerly into their tunnel from a passage that had been hidden behind a fold of rock. “How did you find us?” Andriel asked as Bastien and Harken greeted each other with small preening pecks to each other’s necks. “When we heard the screams, we turned back and returned to the open chamber. We saw that Rhakos chasing our party but we didn’t see you so we flew across the water and tracked you as best we could. Did you not remember which path you took coming in? And why did you split up from your stryx?” Andriel blushed and ducked their head, “I thought that was what we were supposed to do.” “You’re lucky it didn’t sneak up behind you. Let’s get back.” Andriel climbed up to their saddle on Bastien’s back and the Harpia followed the older Corva, glad to not be alone. 

 

Before they found their way back to the open chamber, Red stopped Harken, jumped down, and knelt to examine some fresh tracks on the stone floor. Andriel cranned to look and blanched. Footprints… bloody footprints and bits of feathers. “Red-” They were cut off as Red held up a hand for silence. He quietly climbed back up onto Harken and backed the Corva up beside the Harpia. “We’re behind it.” He mouthed, voice just loud enough to be heard by Andriel but deep enough it didn’t carry like a whisper would have. Bastien bristled and took a step as if to give chase but Red hissed and Andriel pulled on his neck feathers to stop her mount. “We need to be careful so it doesn’t realize we’re stalking it. It’s probably headed toward another party to ambush them. If we do this right, we can save the next group and maybe lead it into a trap of our own.”

 

And so they planned it out. Andriel and Harken went ahead while Red and Bastien stayed behind. They had decided to switch pairs so that both greenhorns would have experienced partners. Harken stepped carefully so his talons wouldn’t click against the cold stone and Andriel kept their bow ready with an arrow nocked, watching their back trail. Beneath them, Harken stopped and lowered himself to the ground, wings on the ground so their taloned finger could grip the ground, tail raised. Andriel turned forward and saw the Rhakos just ahead at the edge of a pool of light, several pairs of eyes gleaming as it readied to pounce. Just before it could, Harken leaped at it screaming. The party that was almost ambushed whirled toward the sound and saw the Corva jump on the larger Rhakos, pecking at its neck and shoulders, pushing it out into the light. The party moved to join Harken and Andriel called out, “Follow us! We need to get it to chase us so we can lead it out into the open! Someone circle behind it and block its means of retreat!” 

 

There were enough people in the party that this was easy enough to do, though the noise they all made fighting and leading the Rhakos back toward Bastien and Red drew more lost soldiers to their group. As Harken drew alongside Bastien, Red and Andriel jumped to their respective mounts to continue drawing and herding the Rhakos back to the open chamber where they could try to subdue it. Someone in their party had split off at some point to run back to the reservoir and draw Kali and her direct support to the final confrontation. In the open space, flighted stryx took wing to harass the Rhakos by air while the runners nipped at its legs and tail while still blocking the tunnels. At some point a heavy net was thrown over it, though the ethereal heads could simply pass through the net. Most were unwilling to test if they could bite, not after what had happened to Grimm. But with so many stryx flying at the target, it was probably inevitable that Bastien was buffeted into the waiting maw of one of those heads. “BASTIEN!” They screamed, helplessly, as the young Harpia tumbled in midair. He caught himself before crashing on top of the Rhakos, but one of the heads lashed out like a snake and buried smoky fangs into his wing.