Down south, guarding angel, and sadness

(A/N: I changed a matter of a payment in the last chapter as I agreed with one of the helpful readers that noticed that it didn't make sense that Luna-san made such arbitrary decision to cut the Kazuki's pay, or in the later version(edited) - tripled the reward for the same job. In the final version, Kazuki agreed to the guild's request to take care of all 3 of them with one trip worth of the reward. Sorry for the inconvenience.)

There were still a couple of hours before our team's appointed time to meet and from what I remembered an owl could fly with an average speed of 40 kilometers per hour so with no better plans I transformed in some alley and flew towards the most southward gate of the city. From there I followed the main road for some time until a branching path appeared, leading towards the marshland.

The pathway was clearly visible from the above going through the entire forest. Luna-san mentioned that the area was flooded a few years back and the road stopped appealing to caravans that previously had no problems scaling some mountain paths to save a hundred kilometers long journey around the mountain.

With a logistic part of the journey being taken care of, I started looking around in search of some animal forms to acquire. Besides the obvious Gators living in the marsh, the area around the occasional forest patches seemed to be teeming with wildlife but some of the creatures I wouldn't dare try to get close to by myself.

Like for example, I spotted a deer silently enjoying some patch of grass but one second later a giant wolf-like monster pounced with incredible speed and the deer disappeared in its maws.

A little bit later there was also a pack of goblins camping in the woods and as I was wondering about going for another "carpet toading" for some easy experience points I noticed a pitch-black ball of fur patiently lying in wait. It didn't seem to be interested in goblins themselves. Was that the infamous rookie killer?

As I was flying by, what I estimated to be half of the marshlands, I spotted an easy target. In the safety of tree branches, a single squirrel was munching on a piece of an acorn. With 'something better than nothing' mentality I swooped down without making any sounds with my wings.

I successfully managed to surprise the squirrel but since my owl form wasn't that much larger it started very quickly shaking me off. I couldn't just turn into a human to capture it as I did with a kitten because the branches weren't thick enough to support my weight, but, fortunately, the few seconds of struggle was enough for the characteristical *Ding* in my brain to sound.

After hearing my [Imitate] skill pick up squirrel's form I flew away while mentally apologizing for using my talons on the poor squirrel.

But before I could even finish that thought I heard a hiss and a thud coming from few centimeters away from me. I quickly flew up a couple of meters and turned around to see a giant snake's head exactly where I released the squirrel.

Holy-!

If I were a second too late to fly away I would be inside the snake's mouth alongside the squirrel! Its fangs were biting into the branch and soon it snapped from the snake jaw's power.

Scary!

Having witnessed two sudden animal demises with my owl eyes in a short span of 15 minutes I decided to thank goddess Eris for the lucky possibility of acquiring a single animal form without dying myself and I flew away towards the south.

Soon I was above the foot of the mountain. The road led directly to the wall of stone and I was stunned for a second, but soon I noticed some structures on the top of the mountain's wall. The caravans in the past seemed to use these, what looked like, elevators to scale this obstacle. Now they were broken down since the ropes have long been torn to shreds by the weather.

Without thinking too much I just flew higher and resumed my journey south.

With the change of environment the monsters that I could see also changed. There seemed to be a lot of gargantuan spiders who were almost as big as 10-year-old kids creating these occasional giant spiderwebs. Beside them, after a few minutes, I saw a tall yeti-like creature that also reminded me of the troll depictions in other fantasy I've read. It seemed to be in conflict with spiders since it tried to furiously destroy all the spiderwebs it could find.

Scratch that, the troll guy was in conflict with everything! I was just flying above him peacefully and as soon as he noticed me he grabbed a giant stone and lunged it at me! But I was fast enough to dodge the projectile and quickly flew up outside of the troll's range while it was roaring furiously in my direction.

Knowing better than to try to pick a fight with a creature that seemed to have more strength than Hulkness on buffs I made haste to leave the area.

Soon I was nearing the end of the mountain road and I could see another broken elevator in the distance. This one seemed completely devastated. Probably the handiwork of the berserker ape.

My wings were getting tired after flying around 45 minutes with high speed so I scanned the area for any threats and after circling around 5 times I sat down on some tree branch.

While being on guard against anything that might be near me I also looked at the forest at the foothill of the mountain and the plains beyond it. I could also discern fields with crops planted on them and some buildings further down the line.

I kinda already got pretty used to the beautiful sceneries from high above but every once in a while I was stunned at the beautiful greenery of this world. This was the reason why my owl form was the most favorite form I acquired. I saw some amazing sights in my previous life while on school trips but none of those could hold a handle to what I saw in those last few days while 'simply' flying around.

I rested like this for around ten minutes. Nothing seemed to be interested in gnawing onto me but I spotted multiple little rodents running about. It seemed that my owl form was getting hungry because for the first time in my life I described an animal similar to a mouse as "tasty-looking" in my mind.

Owl's instincts were affecting me much less than Crimson Demon's weird tendencies but I still decided to depart before I started drooling.

Just as I was about to take flight a loud screech followed by an even louder roar resounded from below the mountain. I almost immediately transformed into a squirrel to be able to scale the tree quickly without alerting anything with my owl wings' flapping and after finding suitable hiding spot I transformed into the smallest form I had - a mouse.

Before I changed from my owl form I could see a giant monster fly up from a clearing inside the forest. It was followed closely by another, much smaller version of the same creature.

My instincts were right to tell me to hide quickly. The two monsters were headed directly in my direction and while they were getting closer I saw another small bird, that was flying around, getting quickly hunted down and eaten by the smaller flying monster.

When they got closer I finally understood what exactly were they. Their Heads, wings and front feet were that of an eagle and the rest of their bodies looked like lions'.

Griffins.

I cursed at myself for not reading through the booklet about monster species that I received from Luna-san before flying on the quest. There might've been some clues about what one can expect from them.

I only took a quick peek and then hid away trying to not be noticed. I couldn't see anything but I clearly felt the earth shake when the bigger one landed 100 meters away from me, near the elevator device.

I had no idea what they were doing there until the smaller griffin entered my vision by running around after the rodents I was eyeing previously. It mercilessly hunted each and every one of them so my only option was to stay on the tree branch as motionlessly as possible.

Besides the little Griffin - that would probably be as tall as Darkness - running around, the only thing I could hear were creaks of metal coming from the cliffside.

Was the bigger one, by any chance, scratching itself on the metal parts of the elevator?

Soon there was no prey left on the ground and the little Griffin started looking around for more. But fortunately, it didn't think of looking high above the ground.

I noticed that although this little Griffin seemed very energetic it was also pretty hurt. There were some fresh scars alongside its ribcage and some on its face as well. There seemed to be something wrong with its front left leg as well since he kept limping lightly while running.

I seriously started to believe in my theory about being lucky after praying to goddess Eris because I wasn't spotted at all during the next five minutes until the 'mother' Griffin finally was done with her 'scratching', flapped her wings and flew away and the 'kid' Griffin followed the suit right after her.

It felt as if I were constantly holding my breath since they arrived so when I could finally breathe normally I slumped on the tree branch.

This 'sudden encounter' tired me more than an entire night of 'poltergeist' attack. But I didn't want to overstay my welcome and after making sure that no other mythical creature was waiting to snatch me from the sky I flew down the mountain, immediately trying to stay near the treeline for camouflage.

The curiosity took better of me though and I made a little bend in the straight line towards my target to take a peek into that forest clearing those two Griffons flew out from.

The area was eerily silent. Not a single animal was using the pond located there to drink and even the fishes inside seemed to be crowding quietly on one side of the body of water.

I was stunned for a few seconds after seeing another 'kid' Griffin lying motionlessly near the pond. I landed on the nearby try and started wondering what had happened there. This didn't look like a result of a normal monster-family dispute. Though this one's bloodied talons had proved that the two 'kids' had a fight with each other and the 'mother' didn't stop them until one of them was dead.

No, it wasn't dead yet but dying. I could see its ribcage moving up and down sporadically so it still was breathing but otherwise it looked like it was done for.

My animal instincts were screaming at me to not get close to it until I was sure it was dead but my mind was telling me that this was one in a lifetime chance. I quickly got off the tree in my squirrel form and against my brain telling me to go the other way I got closer to the dying griffin.

My heart was beating like crazy but soon I was close enough to touch. Although I was moving as silent as possible the dying griffin seemed to notice me and moved its head a little bit. This almost scared me to death but afterward, it didn't move any further.

In my mouse form, I used the tail to touch Griffin's feathers as lightly as possible and used [List] to check if it was enough of a 'physical contact' for it.

It was enough.

>Young Griffin(14:53)

I just had to spend another fifteen minutes touching it.

I honestly felt horrible for wishing it another fifteen minutes of torment but there was nothing else I could do. Even if I knew how to use Healing I wouldn't use it since it was a monster. It was capable of growing into the size of a house and he could threaten the entire towns if my knowledge was correct. But it was still a sad sight.

…

Without the wind moving the trees, the area was entirely silent and the only sound I could hear was a laborious breath of the Young Griffin. Not even one bird flew by. The forest just seemed dead.

Although I didn't think it was possible, the Griffin lived through the time I needed to acquire the form and I could hear *Ding* going in my head. I breathed a sigh of relief but immediately after I tensed up.

I had been thinking for those fifteen minutes about what to do after I was done. It was the best thing I could do.

I just simply walked away.

Only 10 meters away though.

I transformed back into my human form.

The Griffin reacted to this and moved its head to look at me and then just closed its eyes slowly.

It definitely saw me pull on a bowstring with an arrow already in place.

Seeing the unmoving Young Griffon I wished for a lucky shot and released the arrow.

...

One's fortune is sometimes another one's misfortune.