Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-One - Fortune Seeker

“Where are you thinking of sending us?” Amaryllis asked. She sounded suspicious, which I supposed was only fair.

Mayor Cody rubbed at his cheek, then made a vague gesture off to one side. I assumed that he was pointing more in the general direction than to the back wall of his forge. “Northwards. North and west a ways. That’s the direction Deiter probably headed off in.”

“What’s that way?” I asked.

“Honestly, not very much. Most of the time, there’s nothing at all up North until you reach the badlands. Past that you’re in the Snowlandia. But every year there are big hunter gatherer groups that pass by chasing after the cockatrice herds.”

“The what?” I asked. I’d never heard of a cockatrice before.

The mayor shook his head. “Cockatrice. They’re these birds; though I’ve been told they’re related to dragons somehow. Big ugly things, usually covered in skin and nasty as sin. About as tall as any of you girls to boot.”

That sounded like a lot of trouble. “Are they an issue?” Amaryllis asked.

“Not usually. They avoid folk for the most part. They’ll fight if you get close to their nests, and you’ll want to avoid being anywhere near them during mating season. The males will pick a fight with anything that time of year.”

“Deiter went to see the cockatrice?” I asked, confused. “I didn’t get that impression about him.”

Cody snorted. “Nay, he likely went to see the harvester’s caravan. Cockatrice have all sorts of useful things to them. Feathers and the like. Well ... so I hear. It's not my line of business. People say you can't ranch them; can’t keep them on a farm. So, every year, the harvesters follow after them and grab what they can. It’s hard work, but it pays; from what I hear.”

“Oh,” I said. “Do you think he joined them for work then?”

“Possibly. A caravan stopped by here about three days ago. They needed the forge to whip up some new axle fittings for one of their wagons and they bought up a few supplies. I suspect Deiter got to talking to them and saw an opportunity to leave.”

I nodded along. It made some sense, I imagined. “Alright. And you want us to go meet these harvesters?”

“That’s up to you. I’d appreciate it though if someone checked on Deiter. Besides, you said you were looking for something out in the plains, weren’t you? No one better than the harvesters to ask. They range across the entire prarie chasing after the cockatrice.”

“That’s... actually reasonable,” Amaryllis said. “If we do find Deiter though, how are we going to tell you about it?”

“Honestly, just guilt him into sending his mother a letter. I understand his wanting to run off, trust me, but he owes her that much, I imagine,” Cody said.

I considered things while Amaryllis asked Cody a few more questions, mostly about the area and if he’d seen any passing airships lately. It didn’t look like she’d find the answers she was looking for, but that was okay.

We were heading to Fort Middlesfaire to find out if anyone had seen the diplomatic convoy of airships. From what I remembered of its trajectory, it was supposed to pass far to the north of the fort, not over it. It was unlikely anyone at Fort Middlesfaire could have spotted the ships, but we were assuming that others might have and that they'd have told people at the fort.

On the other hand, these harvesters were to the north, where the ships likely had passed.

“How far north are the harvesters?” I asked.

Cody shrugged. “I can’t rightly say. They were here two days ago, but that wasn’t the main group of them, just a few that came down for supplies. Maybe a day’s trot to the north? A little more, perhaps.”

I glanced at my friends and didn’t see a consensus there. “Well, I’m down to try it,” I said. “It’s in the direction we’re supposed to be looking in anyway, and they might have seen something. How long do the harvesters stick around for?”

“Two, maybe three weeks,” Cody said. “That’s how long it takes them to scout their surroundings and grab what they can. Mostly it’s cockatrice feathers from right after their moult, some meat from hunting and there are usually a good number of herbalists along too.”

If they had been there for a week already, then they might have seen the airships! “If we run into Deiter I promise we’ll tell him to send a letter back, or maybe he can come back himself,” I said.

“Thank you,” the mayor said. “Now, you said you were heading off towards the Fort. Do you need any supplies for the route?”

“We have some things,” I said.

“Bah, come, we have fresh bread and you’ll want to refill your canteens for the road. We have well-water here that’s less likely to sicken you than water from the river. Not that the river’s water is bad.”

Cody led us into the little general store which, while it had a high ceiling, wasn’t all that spacious. They had a few essentials though, and we did end up picking a few things. There was indeed bread which smelled much nicer than anything in our sylph food packs and little bags of nuts and locally-picked berries which Cody explained were pretty commonly found along shaded riverbanks in the plains.

We paid for everything, and I suspected that the price was much lighter than it should have been. Was Cody repaying us for the kerfuffle with Miss Myrtle earlier?

With everything packed away, we slipped out of Riverstart just as easily as we’d entered the little town. We still got a few stares, but they were more curious than hostile now that we were escorted by the mayor. “Have safe travels,” he called to us.

“Bye bye!” I shouted as I waved at him from some ways down the packed dirt road.

The midafternoon sun slanted down on us as we trekked down the path. After a few minutes of walking, Amaryllis spoke: "I'm inclined to veer north. The harvesters there might know something, but even if they don’t, we’ll at least intercept the route the airships took. We can likely swing around and follow their path for a while. If the ships crashed, we might be able to discover them,” Amaryllis said.

“I don’t mind wandering around aimlessly for a while,” I said. “It’s fun as long as you’re with friends.”

Amaryllis shook her head.

The break at Riverstart had been enough to recharge our batteries. Just not walking for an hour had been nice, though I could have used a sit. We continued vaguely northward, heading off the road with Awen occasionally pulling out her compass to point us back in the right direction.

It was hard to walk in a straight line once we were out of the little woods around the river. Sure, there wasn’t much around us, just sweeping hills and open plains, but somehow we always ended up going just a little bit off course.

I was sure that if we plotted out our trajectory on a map, it would look zig-zaggy the entire time.

When my tummy started to rumble later on, and I noticed that the sun was starting to dip towards the horizon, I asked my friends if we should find a place to relax and grab a bite to eat. Amaryllis pointed ahead to a small patch of trees on the down-wind side of a hill. Just four trees with wind-bent trunks and swept branches.

We made it there and sat down with our backs to a tree. Awen split apart a loaf of bread and we shared it between us with some cheese and a small jar of very sweet preserves from our sylph rations. “How much further do you think we can go today?” I asked.

“Not very,” Amaryllis said. “We have another two hours of sunlight. I’d rather not waste those. We’ll just need to keep an eye out for a good spot to set up camp.”

I nodded as I chewed.

“Ah, do you think there’s anything dangerous around here?” Awen asked.

“Cockatrices should be plenty dangerous,” Amaryllis said. “I suspect we could take one on with the three of us working together. If we see a group of them though, walking away might be the wisest course.”

“What’s a cockatrice anyway?” I finally asked.

Amaryllis entered lecturing mode. “A cockatrice is a large draconic bird. They’re primarily omnivorous and will mostly subsist on grains and grasses and seeds, though they’ll hunt down any small creature they come across too. Think rabbits and foxes and flying birds. They’re relatively large, with great talons and... strange beaks.”

“How strange?” Awen asked.

“They have teeth,” Amaryllis said. “At least, the females do. The males have sharper, longer beaks. At least, I believe that’s the case. We don’t have any in the Harpy Mountains, so what I’m saying is mostly coming from what I've read. Their main weapon though is their eyes. If a cockatrice locks eyes with you, you’ll freeze up. I believe the bigger, more powerful ones have more powerful gazes. Some can turn you to stone in an instant.”

“That’s terrifying,” I said.

“Fortunately, those have likely all been hunted down. Cockatrice parts are valuable alchemical reagents and their meat is supposed to be a delicacy, especially the older, bigger ones,” Amaryllis said. “The current wild herds have been trimmed and hunted year on year for decades now; I doubt they’re as formidable as they once were.”

I shook my head. “That doesn’t sound good. They’ll hunt them to extinction if they go on for too long.”

“I suppose,” Amaryllis said. She didn’t seem terribly bothered by the idea. “Anyway, it needed to be done. The cervid have large overland caravans that loop around the northern end of the Harpy Mountains towards their western frontier. They do some trade with the independent cities there and Snowlandia as well. The Cockatrice were a threat to those caravans, once.”

We finished up our late lunch, got up, then headed out once more.

The day was really nice for a walk. The skies were nearly empty of clouds except for a few white wisps far, far above, and the sun was warm on our faces. There was a brisk wind coming from the north that kept us cool despite the sunlight. It was very much appreciated.

Walking up hills all day was a chore, but it was wholesome exercise and it meant that the route down the hills would be all the easier later.

We chit-chatted about nothing with great enthusiasm until the hour grew late and we all grew quite tired. The hills had grown smaller and the grass taller as we headed north. We couldn’t find a spot with any trees or even a stream, so we ended up settling down in a spot where a few large boulders would cut the wind.

There was nothing to burn, so we didn’t get to build a fire, but Amaryllis was good with magic so she warmed things up for us while Awen and I struggled with the tent.

We ate with our backs to the boulder. Somehow, Awen convinced Amaryllis to tell stories about her sisters, then we talked about our schooling. Explaining how school worked back home was weird, but my friends had had very different sorts of education.

And then it was bedtime.

I took the first watch, sat atop the boulder, and watched the plains fade to utter darkness with only my one tiny magical light ball for illumination. In that breathtaking stillness, I lost myself in the glittering sea of stars until Amaryllis came to replace me.

So far, our trip had gone pretty well. I was looking forward to the next day!

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