Land of the Giants, page 27
“Yeah, yeah. Help me get this thing out of the way, Bipp!” Logan hurriedly harnessed his weapon and motioned for the gnome to grab a section of the large tree, while across the gap, one of the birds shot out of the temporary trap, shaking leaves out of its feathers. Logan’s face turned as red as the sky where the daystar had dipped behind a wall of trees, straining under the exertion of trying to move the dead tree. Bipp told him to stop and advised they count it down to three, which seemed to help shift the log’s weight only a fraction of an inch.
“Master Logan, the cassowaries are free, sir,” Nero calmly informed them, holding the large speckled egg like a baby.
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Logan grunted, slipping in the dirt and slamming his shoulder into the tree, which refused to budge.
“Wait wait wait,” Bipp howled in frustration, “the damned thing is connected!” Logan did not follow his meaning until he saw Bipp begin slamming his hammer down on a thick green vine that stretched from the grass to wrap around the trunk.
“Master Logan, the cassowaries are preparing to cross, sir,” Nero updated.
Logan looked up to see one of the large birds tentatively feeling for a foothold on the tree on the other side of the ravine. Cursing to himself, he fumbled for his boomerang. Keeping it closed, he battered the vine Bipp was working on. The black-feathered bird called to its companion, who followed it onto the tree. Both friends worked that much harder to cut the vine loose.
When the vine finally snapped in half, the entire tree groaned and rolled two feet sideways before shuddering to a stop. Looking up, Logan was sorely disappointed to see the larger bird still on the log, shifting its long orange legs and digging six-inch talons into the mossy bark. Once the cassowary steadied itself, it lifted its head with definite determination, flexing its long neck and giving a long squawk.
“Master Logan, the—”
“Would you shut the hell up for five filthy seconds so I can think?” Logan snapped, cutting off the android’s warning.
Bipp motioned for him to come over to where he had found another vine and leaned over the edge of the cliff to awkwardly strike at it. Logan scurried across the dirt, shoving his friend out of the way as he went to work furiously hacking at the vine.
The large bird stopped to answer the cries of its squawking companion, which had jumped off on the other side when the tree shifted. If he did not know any better, Logan would think it was telling the smaller bird to hurry up and join it. It turned to face them again, and Logan locked eyes with the cassowary. It squawked loudly and ran full speed across the log.
“There!” Logan announced triumphantly as the vine snapped free with a loud pop. “Throw your back into it!” he ordered the gnome, throwing his weight into rolling the fallen tree off the edge. Both friends fell on their bellies, with dirt in their faces, as the entire log rolled away from them with a loud splintering racket. The last of its dead roots pulled free from the other side of the gap, where the other cassowary quickly hopped back off, flapping its tiny wings to balance itself. Logan clenched his fist in victory as the larger black-feathered beast fell away, down the long, deep ravine along with the mossy log.
“Ha!” He jumped in the air, celebrating while Bipp hopped up to do a little dance of his own. “Thought you were going to get us, didn’t you?” Logan called across the ravine, taunting the lone remaining bird.
“What is happening here?” Tiko asked in astonishment, returning from his scouting to find them dancing at the edge of the cliff.
Looking a little embarrassed at being taken out of context, Logan gave one more awkward giggle and put Gandiva away. “Oh, hey, Tiko…didn’t see you come back. When did you get here?”
“Only a moment ago did I return,” Tiko answered, still taking in the strange scene. When his eyes settled on their pursuer, he stiffened, pupils suddenly dilating. “What the…is that a cassowary?”
“A casso-what-are-we now?” Bipp repeated, rubbing the dirt off his bulbous nose.
“Relax, Tiko, ain’t nothing to worry about. The buzzard can’t even fly,” Logan said, trying to quell the lizardman’s sudden anxiety.
“We must flee the area straight away, Logan Walker!” Tiko warned in a sudden, inexplicable state of panic.
Unfortunately for the party, it was already too late. Themis’ rays completely disappeared far to the east, and the silky blue, ringed moon Clotho already peeked over the tree line to the west, where the jungle wrapped around the cliffs of the mountainous landscape. At that moment, the source of Tiko’s cryptic fear became apparent.
As the moonglow of Clotho rested on the cassowary, its high-pitched squawk turned into a gurgling noise. Unable to move, Logan watched in horrified disgust as the giant bird’s bones cracked and contorted in unhealthy angles, popping sounds turning his stomach as the cassowary shifted shape into a different bird altogether. Within seconds, the flightless cassowary was changed into a demonic version of itself, one with red, webbed wings ending in talons at their tips. The cassowary stretched its wings and looked across the gap at the mammals that had just killed his female mate and let out a deep-throated caw from a razor sharp beak that protruded a good foot and was now lined with rows of teeth.
“Oh boy…I think you better give him back his egg,” Bipp mumbled, slowly walking backward away from the cliff’s edge. Logan gulped and absently reached for Gandiva.
With another gurgling caw, the demonic, man-sized bird leapt high into the air, opening its wings wide and swooping across the ravine. Logan readied his weapon to attack and was aiming for the swift-moving creature when Tiko’s spear whistled over the chasm, plunging straight through the monstrous cassowary’s long neck. The force of the blow flipped the bird head over heels in midair. Twirling in a downward spiral, the dead monster descended into the shadowy chasm.
Logan turned to regard the lizardman with both awe and esteem, clapping his shoulder in congratulations. “Well done, Tiko. Talk about perfect aim!”
Tiko regarded the careless human with a frown. “Tiko takes no pride in killing the cassowary. This one should be giving tribute to the proud bird’s sacrifice, given so that we may live.”
Logan shook his head, not comprehending the lizardman’s meaning. Tiko moved past them and knelt beside the edge of the cliff, giving prayer to his vanquished foe.
“Nero believes the Agma find all life sacred, giving the highest regard to death,” the android explained, handing over the purple, speckled egg to his temporary leader.
Logan looked back at his Agma companion, grimly nodding. He could see the robot was correct and felt more than a little guilt for forcing the lizardman to kill a bird that was only trying to defend its nest. Not one to dwell on matters such as these, he gave a helpless shrug and beckoned for the group to set up camp for the night. If they were going to rest for the evening, this was as good a spot as any.
The ringed moon Clotho was far overhead, while its sister Artopos slid behind it in a swirl of greens and creamy yellow, lighting up the night sky brighter than anything Logan had ever experienced in Vanidriell. For him, the nighttime was almost as bright as the Acadians experienced daylight. He relished these nights on the surface that were everything he had dreamt about as a child. They had made camp right on the cliffs, at the edge of the jungle, which was alive with a chorus of insects and animals waking for the evening. To him the racket sounded much like the jumbled voices of a village celebration. With so many different denizens trying to communicate, it was hard to pinpoint just one. Looking across the crackling fire they had started, he guessed that Tiko was still upset with him. With his bone dagger, the lizardman was sharpening a long branch he had scoured the nearby copse of jungle to find.
“What are you going to use for the spear’s tip?” Logan asked the Agma, attempting to alleviate the palpable tension and make conversation.
“Tiko will use this,” he replied curtly, pulling a sharpened stone from a heavy pouch hanging at his waist and presenting it to Logan.
Logan walked around the fire to inspect the object, pricking the skin of his thumb against its razor edge. Flinching, he shifted the finely carved stone to his other palm and sucked the blood off his thumb, leaving a copper taste in his mouth.
“This one must be careful when handling Tiko’s handiwork,” Tiko said, retrieving the pointed stone to store safely in his pouch until he was done carving the new spear shaft.
“That’s a pretty impressive trick to do with a stone,” Logan complimented, squatting down on the bare soil next to him.
“Tiko’s people are long practiced in the ways of survival, Logan Walker,” the Agma explained, pulling the blade of his bone dagger across the length of branch.
Logan nodded, biting his cheek. “Yes. I understand the Agma only take what they need from the world…right?”
“It is good Logan embraces an understanding of Tiko’s way of life,” the Agma replied, continuing to whittle away at the knotty branch. “Tiko’s people know that we are one with the jungle and every breath taken has a meaning.”
“Sure, I get that…but there is no shame in killing that cassowary monster before it attacked us,” Logan said. Bipp overheard and slapped his own forehead at his friend’s mistake.
“The cassowary is no more evil than a flower,” Tiko replied calmly.
“Hmm…you mean no less evil than that monstrous crab that killed our friends? Or maybe you meant the dire wolves that ate Erol and chased us to the White Tree?” Logan countered.
“Tiko cannot fault the dire wolves for hunting prey. It is their nature, much as it was the cassowary’s nature to defend their nest,” Tiko coolly explained, determined to help the mammal understand the ways of the jungle.
Logan thought on it, almost seeing the perspective in its entirety as he stared up at the mighty ringed Clotho floating in the sea of stars above. He spoke in a low voice. “And what of the Agmawor? Are they too just living out their nature?”
Tiko’s knife jerked, snapping the branch he had been carving in half. The lizardman set the two pieces aside. “No. Agmawor are pure evil,” he said with gritted razor-sharp teeth, leveling his vertical eye slits with Logan’s. Tiko regarded him with all the seriousness he could muster. “It is Tiko’s nature to be one with the jungle. The Agmawor have made a choice , a way of being, to kill their kin and eat their flesh. This is not only most unholy, but pure evil…much like the jotnar and human struggle.”
“Tiko…I am sorry,” Logan apologized. “It was never my intention to offend you.”
Tiko reached over, and for a moment Logan thought the lizardman meant to attack him, but instead he pointed a scaly finger in the center of Logan’s forehead. “Tiko will never fault this one for opening what is here.”
Bipp smiled warmly across the fire, happy to see the lizardman forgiving their ignorance of his culture. Logan reached over and placed a hand on Tiko’s forearm, shaking it and smiling to show he understood and agreed.
“Dinner is ready, Master Logan,” the android announced, breaking up their bonding moment. Two of the folding frying pans he kept in his pack were filled with cooked egg.
“Nero, you really have to stop speaking so formally. It’s just…creepy,” Logan said. He looked at the Agma he had just made amends with. “You too, Tiko. You don’t need to say your name every time you talk to us.”
Bipp agreed with a silent nod, getting his small plate ready for dinner.
“Tiko needs to understand how Logan Walker will know we are referring to ourselves if not by stating our given titles,” the Agma asked, while Nero spooned a large helping of the omelet onto the drooling gnome’s dish.
“I don’t know, what do normal people say? I, me, we…” Logan stood, brushing an ant off his pants while Bipp snatched the spoon from the distracted android to get a larger portion. Tiko rose as well, heading to the fire. “You’re going to eat dinner with us?” Logan asked, puzzled to think the Agma would eat the egg after everything that had happened.
Tiko gave him an odd look, showing a bit too many of his sharp teeth for Logan’s comfort. “This one…I would not want to dishonor the kill by wasting the bounty,” he said, throwing Logan a wink before skirting past him to a place beside the fire.
Logan stood silently for a moment, realizing the lizardman had just smiled for the first time since they met, ghastly as it was to behold, and let out a hearty laugh then joined his friends for dinner. After filling their bellies with the bountiful amount of cassowary egg, they told tales for a while until deciding it was time to get some rest.
Logan agreed to take the first watch, settling against a large, cool boulder within the crackling firelight of the camp. Bipp was already snoring as soon as his head hit the bedroll, and Nero placed himself into a hibernating mode that he said recharged his core reactor, whatever that meant.
Looking once more to the starry heavens above, Logan saw the third moon had risen, resting in the sky far away from its sisters. Decima was in the shape of a crescent tonight, and he noticed that if he pinched his eyes almost shut, she looked like the great crystal that floated above his homeland.
Logan sighed, thinking of his village deep inside the core of Acadia, leagues beneath their feet. He thought back on the days when he would hide behind hay bales, daydreaming of adventures in the kingdom of Malbec, where brave explorers went to find their fortunes. How he had longed for a life of excitement outside the dull confines of his small farming village. He thought about how naïve he was then, when the idea of living in the capitol city of Fal was something he was sure he was bred for. How quickly those dreams had shattered, like a splintered chalice under the foot of a stomping troll, when he finally went to the capitol only to find it was filled with corruption and lies. Thinking of everyone down there right now, living under the deception of those Elders, filled him with rage.
The fuzzy crescent moon above blurred as the warmth of the campfire danced across his closed lids, and he settled into the rock.
A shrill cry broke through the night as a swarm of skex rushed past him in a flutter of insect wings. Logan popped his eyes wide open, looking half-crazed as he was startled awake. Confused, he shivered, feeling the prick of the frigid night air on his skin. The campfire had burned down to nothing but glowing embers, bogging down his jumbled thoughts.
“Help me, you bastards!” Bipp howled again from somewhere in the camp.
Logan hopped to his feet as his companions stirred from their slumber, and Tiko soon appeared at his side. The gnome was not in his bedroll, and the strange shuffling sounds of wings shifted his attention to the air. The only moon left in the sky was Atropos, its tiny twinkling celestial body too far away to give any real light to the landscape. Logan’s heart pounded like a drum in his ears as he searched around the dark area in vain.
“Get off me, you damned rodents!” Bipp howled again, a little farther away. Logan snapped his head in the direction of his friend’s voice and made out multiple shadowy forms with flapping wings flying into the jungle.
“Bipp!” he shouted, hopelessly reaching out for the gnome. Nero was also on his feet, readying an arrow.
The gnome managed to twist around enough to face them, scowling at Logan. “You fell asleep during watch again!” he managed to accuse before being hauled into the canopy of trees and out of sight. One after the other, Nero’s arrows whistled into the leaves only moments too late.
“No!” Logan howled in despair, moving to give pursuit.
Tiko grabbed his arm, spinning him about. “There is naught we can do for the little man, Logan. He belongs to the jungle now,” he said with remorse.
Logan roughly shook the Agma off him. “Shut your damned mouth! We are going in there after our friend. Bipp does not belong to those things!” He knew the lizardman was referring more to the fact that finding Bipp was almost certainly impossible in the dense jungle, but his adrenaline was pumping hard and he felt entirely irrational.
“Nero agrees with Logan. We must give pursuit. Let this one gather our things,” the android agreed, snatching Bipp’s bedroll off the ground and moving for his boots.
Logan snatched up his own pack. “Forget the rest of it, we leave now,” he brusquely ordered, leaving no room for debate and heading into the jungle. His companions looked at each other helplessly and quickly followed suit.
As soon as they entered the thick tangle of trees and vines, the air grew thick and musty again. Tiko ran right past the limp, winged body lying on the ground, but even through Isaac’s dweomer, Logan’s Falian eyesight could see it clear as day. “Hold!” he called, moving to flip over the slick red body in the tall grass. An arrow shaft had lodged straight through the dead imp’s throat, scoring a sure kill by Nero.
“Little bloody monsters. How did they find us?” Logan growled, seeing it was one of the devious creatures he and Corbin had hunted with Isaac.
Tiko leaned forward on his newly carved spear to regard the plump monster. “Tiko doubts this is from the same pack Logan hunted. These creatures are known for staying close to their nests, and we were leagues from here when you went out to practice.”
Logan raised his head. “Wait…that means they’re still close-by?”
Tiko nodded, looking around the trees for some sign. “Yes, the imps must be within five or six miles of this place to be hunting for food.”
“Five or six miles? That’s not close at all!” Logan said, feeling his sudden surge of hope crushed by the thought of aimlessly wandering through the dangerous jungle for days, searching for Bipp. Not that it mattered, because he would search for months if it came to that.
“Master Logan, I have found a trail,” Nero announced, motioning for him to come see. Across the ground, the grass was wet with spatters of blood.
“You must have hit two of them!” Logan remarked, excited to have a lead. “If we follow this, we should be able to track them!”
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