Chapter 268 - Hollow Ember

Nilya’s entire body tensed up, his pupils dilated. He let out a shout of surprise as the huge hawk sped toward him from above. He quickly turned to run back up the stairs, but he only made it up three steps before he was suddenly constricted by scaly talons that were as thick as his torso. 

There was a flurry of wind and movement as the hawk launched off the staircase, taking off into the sky. 

Nilya struggled with his arms pinned at his side, letting out a cry of exertion as he tried to resist the claws, even activating his Exalted strength, but the hawk had an unmovable vice grip on him.

His hair flung wildly in the wind as the rocky cliffs and dimly lit valley below zoomed by. The hawk flapped its majestic wings, each stroke thrusting them higher and higher as the whole of the crescent shaped cliff came into view.

For a brief moment, Nilya saw the world in its entirety, a pillar-like mountain jutting out of a deep, black valley. A tiny, forgotten monastery hidden within the embrace of a cliffside. The horizon did not extend out the same way it did in the plains of his homeland, but seemed to curve prematurely. The sky met the ground in a dome with the mountain at its center, as if the whole world was encapsulated in a globe.

The crescent cliffside quickly fell away from view as the hawk flew above the misty forest, its wingtips grazing the swirling fog beyond which the black tips of evergreen trees could be seen.

By this point Nilya had stopped struggling, his eyes peering ahead to try to discern their destination. The aftermath of the struggle between the rat beast and the hawk kept replaying in his mind, seeing the giant rat’s still carcass on the crumbled stone platform, half-eaten entrails still steaming. He recalled the wet smacks of its whip-like tail against the stone during its death throes.

The hawk hadn’t decided to eat him on the spot, but it could easily lean down and snap him in half with its beak. It could crush him into a paste with its talons too, but at the moment was just maintaining a tight grip on him.

Nilya took a deep breath, steeling his mind. The flight across the mountain had given him time to relax, taking the edge off the adrenaline and panic. Struggling at this moment in time was useless, he was completely helpless. However the fact that he was still alive gave him hope. He kept his mind alert, waiting for even the slightest opportunity to escape his predicament.

A moment later they passed the foggy landscape and a jagged rocky terrain rushed down and away from them.

The far side of the mountain appeared below him, and the hawk quickly started spiralling down. This part of the terrain was completely inaccessible from the rest of the mountain - sheer cliffs and misty forest acted as natural barriers. There were no plateaus or rocky outcrops to support foot travel. Likewise, there didn’t seem to be any crystal nests on this side of the mountain either.

And then he saw it - a sharp break in the cliff, not visible from above, forming an overhang that concealed a shallow recess in the cliff, which had been consumed by a nest made of black prismatic crystals. 

A second hawk was roosted in the center of the nest, but more than that Nilya sensed the presence of two smaller creatures underneath the hawk’s wings.

As the hawk carrying Nilya made a wide circle to approach the nest, the female hawk shifted in her place, revealing the bulbous heads of fluffy hawklings, their eyes black and beady, grey beaks open wide to the sky as they quivered from being exposed.

At the center of the hawkling group Nilya spotted one more thing - A round, black egg that was half Nilya’s height. Its cracked surface looked like it was made of smouldering charcoal as it glowed with a fiery light from within.

A hollow ember! Nilya realized in an epiphany. The hollow embers are the eggs of the grand basalt hawks!

Nilya suddenly understood what was happening. The hawk in the nest was the mother, taking care of its young, and the father had gone out hunting for food. Similar to how the hawks around his village hunted, the mother would then tear up the prey and feed it to her young.

Why were the other hawks on the mountain aggravated? Because their eggs had all recently been destroyed by the previous oji, in order to prevent future candidates from passing the trial.

Only this nest hidden far out of sight had survived the massacre. The trial was still passable!

A momentary feeling of hope welled up inside Nilya, until his thoughts caught up with his current situation. 

That is, he was currently about to be deposited onto a narrow nest with no place to run, to be torn apart by the mother hawk and fed to its young. He had to contend with not just two hawks, but even if he survived he had to find a way to bring the egg back up the mountain as well.

“No- no wait!” He yelled as the hawk carrying him veered sharply to descend to the nest, “I don’t want to be food!”

The veins on his neck bulged out from exertion as he struggled. He felt a sudden jolt as he hawk opened its wings and landed on the nest with a heavy gust of wind. 

His pupils dilated as he saw the female hawk tilt its neck and hop toward him aggressively.

“Help!”

From her sanctuary, Yuzu’s hands were off the strings as she smirked at what was to come.

The hawk retained its grip on Nilya, even squeezing tighter as it didn’t give him any room to escape. He felt his body being crushed in the talons, his blood rushing to his head as he screamed in desperation.

The female hawk raised its razor sharp beak above Nilya like a guillotine primed to fall.

Stab!

Nilya’s head was crushed into the rock below by the force of the peck. Dust flew into the air as a crack sounded out into the night air. The male hawk released its grip, giving more access to Nilya’s body to its partner.

As soon as the grip was released, Nilya instinctively rolled out of the way, scrambling to the back of the nest with a scream as he just barely evaded a second peck.

He ran to the far wall, his legs quivering as he pressed his back against the black prism wall. His hand reached up to feel his head which no doubt had a huge gaping wound in it.

Stone! Rough stone! 

His fingers ran along his uninjured head, even up to his face, feeling like he was touching the bust of a statue.

The two adult hawks flanked him on each side, their heads bobbing and tilting as they examined him with intelligent, curious eyes.

“H-how am I-“ Nilya felt his stone lips move smoothly with his fingers, as he looked down and saw that his hands and arms had gained the texture of coarse sedimentary stone.

“Keh-heh-heh.” A familiar old voice chuckled from behind his ears, “Didn’t I say that an oji of mine has never failed this trial?”

The guru-chi’s voice brimmed with confidence as it dawned on Nilya that the stone transformation was a blessing from his mentor.

“Th-then, what should I do?” He asked.

“That is up to you, my prince. I cannot give any guidance or instruction, after all.” The guru-chi replied.

This offered no consolation to Nilya. He swallowed hard as the two massive hawks hopped forward, the larger female looking ready to strike at him again. Even though his head had taken a direct hit from the hawk, he did not feel the need to test the boundaries of this protection.

His eyes flickered to the smouldering egg that was circled by the hawklings.  The mother hawk didn’t miss this tiny gesture as she screeched at him and lunged forward.

He dodged to the side but was clipped in the shoulder by the beak and spun in the air several times. He landed on his arm with a crunch, but felt no pain, quickly scrambling forward between the mother hawk’s legs.

He avoided the sweeping tail as the mother turned around, and flung himself into the center of the nest.

The hawklings which were the same height as Nilya stared at him with their beady eyes, their beaks held wide open as they seemed to be screaming voicelessly at him. He dashed between them, shoving them to the side.

“Sorry! Pardon me!” He said as he grabbed hold of the egg. His arms lit into flames as he lifted the black egg into the air. It was so big that he had to cradle it with both arms.

He turned around, facing the two adults who screeched at him, bounding toward him in fury as they rushed to protect their young.

“Okay I have the ember… Now what?!”