Bird of Many Feathers (The World of Mythcron)

Chapter 23

Felix pov~

The sun was shining in my eyes when I finally opened them. I moved, pushing myself up with my arms, and leaned on my elbows. I groaned at the stiffness in my back from sleeping on the ground. I looked to the sun that had just risen. It was between two small mountains. There were clouds in the sky, meaning it would probably start raining in a few hours. I breathed in the air. It was not too humid. 

I looked to the side at Steven and Aurora, laying side by side. Once she woke up, I would definitely ask what she had done. I got up the rest of the way and popped my back, sighing in relief.

"Wake up, you two," I called over to them as I picked up my bag and slung it over my shoulder. They both yawned and sat up slowly. Steven blinked tiredly, then saw that Aurora was awake and smiled.

"What happened? What did you do," Steven immediately began questioning her. She.. blushed? And turned away.

"I-" she started then stopped at her own voice, surprised. Steven and I looked at her in shock.

"You.. you can talk now," I stampered out, surprised. She looked between us and then continued.

"I guess so," she said in a tiny, high-pitched voice. She smiled at the sound. "I.. in a way... connected me and Steven together to save his life," she slowly explained and glanced at Steven. "Which in turn transformed me similar to you..um taller," she finished and then looked into Steven's eyes. He pulled her into a hug. She was stiff at first, then hugged him back.

"Thank you so much, I do not know what you sacrificed for me, but thank you," he sincerely told her and pulled away. They smiled at each other, and I just looked between them suspiciously. I wonder what changed..

"Well, we can talk more while walking," I said, interrupting their moment with a smirk. Steven groaned but dragged himself up. Then he turned to Aurora and held out a hand for her. She took it and got pulled up. The height difference between them was very noticeable when she had to nearly break her neck to look up at him.

"Sorry you can not relax on my shoulder anymore," Steven chuckled as he looked down at her. She giggled and turned around, walking forward. Steven quickly snatched up his pack and went to walk beside her. We casually walked past the charred corpse of the dead basilisk.

We asked Aurora many different questions since communication was much easier. Even though she refused to tell us her age.

The clouds began to grow thicker, and we knew the rain was soon to come. Ahead of us was a somewhat thicker forest with tall trees. We sped up our walk to get under them.

As we walked, I noticed that there were lots of cut down trees. "I wonder what creature is here cutting all these trees," I wondered aloud, and Steven and Aurora glanced at the big stumps.

"Must be something big to be able to move those big trees... maybe a giant," Steven put out there with a shrug of his shoulders.

I thought for a moment, and it seemed to be a decent idea. Good thing giants only bother you if you bother them. We continued walking without much thought of the trees as more of the stumps appeared. It soon started to sprinkle and then poured down on us.

I was not happy, none of us were. Especially when we were looking at a huge river that we couldn't fly over because of the rain.

"Great, just great," I muttered as I swiped more water from my face. "How are we going to cross this now," I hissed in annoyance, and some of the water on me began to evaporate.

"We just need to think for a moment, I am sure something will come to us," Steven said hopefully and smiled at me. I frowned at him.

"What is going to help us right now," I asked in an angrily tone. Before he could respond, I felt the ground shake from heavy feet. Steven smiled at me and turned toward the heavy feet. In the distance was a large creature pulling a large tree behind him. I sighed, and we ran over to it.

"Excuse me, hellooo, HEY," Steven called out to the creature. It turned to us and looked down. It glared at us.. with its one eye.

A cyclops, one-eyed creature that was 20 feet tall. They had amazing hearing but poor eyesight because of their one eye. And they were not the brightest.

"Can you please help us cross that river, we can not because of this storm," Steven slowly yelled up to the cyclops. It growled and shook its head.

"No, must build home," it growled out and turned back to what it was doing. Steven quickly called back out to it, and it huffed and looked back down.

"Can we help you with anything so that you would help us," Steven questioned it slowly. It was about to say no but then stopped. It nodded its head and crouched down to us.

"Yes. Home has pixie overrun. That  why build new home. You kill pixies, I help you," the cyclops stated with a huff.

You're telling me this cyclops was about to build a whole new home because he did not want to deal with pixies. Pixies are the worst, even worse than cockroaches. They will do anything to annoy anything. They only live for 10 or so years, but breed faster than flies. They may be the same size as fairies, but that is where the similarities end. They are absolutely hideous looking.

I shook my thoughts away and walked forward. "Ok, we will help you get rid of the pixies," I answered for us, and the cyclops smiled for the first time.

"Good, follow," the cyclops said as it stood up and began to walk away. We ran after it, trying not to slip in all the puddles.

It stopped after a while on top of a hill and pointed to a huge house with the door slightly left open at the bottom. "There home, kill pest, help cross river," it rumbled out and looked down at us. "Go no more, no like Pixie," it growled and seemed to shake at the thought of them.

We nodded and headed down the hill, toward the house at the bottom.