Chapter 5: Magical longbows and where to find them

"You humans are the worst! The worst, I dare say! Always taking everything without giving any back!"

"Watch your mouth you long-eared bow-shooting lyre-playing poem-writing sack of potato! You wouldn't be sitting here without the invitation of a human! The Guild literally was founded by a human!"

"Now now guys… please don't fight! There's enough for everyone."

Three adventurers caused a commotion in the corner of the restaurant, but no one batted an eye to the sight. It was because they too were too familiar with this kind of light-hearted friendly bickering between members of an adventuring party. It's almost like a specialty of adventurers.

The elf archer stood up on her chair and thrusted her fork towards the center of the round oak table. Her target: a mahogany golden brown piece of chicken, her opponent: a human warrior with metal plates for armor. As she expected, her fork was parried with a spoon, and the cocky human warrior reached his left hand toward the large wooden bowl. 

Not so fast you greedy bum!

Elves were usually praised for their unmatched accuracy and mastery for the art of using bows. And this elf archer wasn't an exception. She propped up a piece of chicken wing bone on her curled index finger and her thumb, aiming it directly at the human warrior face. A flick of the thumb, and the human warrior instinctively winced and raised his arm to block the projectile.

That was just what the elf archer needed. With a lightning quick movement, she snatched the crunchy piece of wild chicken with her bare hand and laughed out loud in a victorious manner. 

"You cheating, flat-assed twig! Urggg!"

The elf didn't retort. She was busy savoring the aromatic and unbelievably moist piece of chicken thigh. 

They're loud. Charlie smiled, pushing the kitchen door with his shoulder. Both of his hands were holding large clay dishes with piping hot just baked pie. He went to the reception counter and laid one dish down before his receptionist - the guild observer who provided him with quests and provisional items from time to time. It's been a few days since the guild's bistro head chef left for his own adventure, which also meant it's been a few days that the guild receptionists had no lunch.

"This is your portion. It's enough for 5, so don't hold back!" 

His receptionist and the other two smiled brightly and unreservedly despite still being on shift, which caused the adventurers in the hall to look at the pie with curiosity. That weirdly made Charlie inexplicably happy.

Charlie went to his party table and saw Harrison the human warrior pulling the ears of Elluin the elf archer while she was frantically chewing on her chicken, completely devoid of the elegancy aura of an elf. Roselie the cleric girl tried to intervene, but what could a frail cleric like her do to stop the troublemaking pair?

"You've had five pieces! While I and Roselie only had 3! How's that fair?"

Elluin, not caring about her appearance at the moment, retorted while her mouth was full of chicken "I provided the meat!"

"You wouldn't have if not for Charleston!" the warrior cried, twisting the elf's ears "You would have left it to rot to 'return them to the cycle' or whatever!"

It was true that if Charlie hadn't asked to collect the wild chickens Elluin culled, she would've left them to nature. The meat could be consumed by predators, the scraps will be consumed by maggots and worms and fungi, that was the cycle of nature. The cycle giveth life, and the cycle taketh life.

A week had passed since their party successfully slayed the horde of orcs and saved the rest of the hostages. Most of them took this time to rest and fully recover while preparing their equipment for the next quest they would take on. But Elluin's longbow was broken beyond repair when she used it to block an orc's attack on Harrison, so she had to find a replacement. She refused to use any longbow with a non-elf origin, stating that her elder master had forbidden her to do so, so the party got themselves in a dire predicament: Their elf archer wouldn't be an archer without her longbow and there were no elven bow artisan in the town. So they would've to, sooner or later, set out for Elluin's hometown, an elven village built on the Helis river bank called Nitiunthon. But the party was still battered and exhausted from the last expedition, so Elluin had to manage by using her set of silver throwing knives for day to day elven duties of culling overpopulated animals.

It was a beginner's quest on the guild's quest board that caught her attention. A farmer was calling for help from hunters and adventurers, the requirement was to hunt as many wild chickens as possible as they were destroying his crop of oats. Wild chickens were usually timid and scared of humanoid's settlements and would try to avoid any, if all. So if wild chickens are invading the land of a farmer, that means they were probably overpopulated and there was not enough food for them in the forest. Normally, predators in the forest would take care of the chickens, but if the situation was this severe, an elf must act immediately.

Elluin setted out to the farm of the quest giver on the outskirts of Serepike to evaluate the situation, tagged along with her was Charlie, who was a Ranger. He said that he had nothing better to do, and that he was curious about elven duties. The elf archer was pleased when Charlie made clear attempts to learn from her knowledge of nature, she guided him through the many types of useful herb in the forest and how to distinguish edible berries from poisonous ones. She pointed out the damage done to the surrounding areas where the wild chickens rampaged through: the ragged leaves of the vegetation, half eaten mushrooms and wild root vegetables, scratched tree barks where the male sharpen their spurs. The farmer showed them the destroyed crops, and it was clear that no other animals than the wild chickens were on the fields: their claw marks and the characteristic cut on the oats body. Decisions were made, Elluin must cull the wild chickens number immediately to restore balance to the forest.

Charlie and the elf ranger wandered into the forest, picking off any chicken they could find. Usually, Elluin would have left her targets where she slain them to return them to nature, but Charlie had a different idea. With a thick canvas, ropes and a few long sticks, he crafted a makeshift basket and hoisted the chickens with him. At the end of the day, his basket was filled with a dozen chickens, all plump with meat, and at least 20 eggs. He couldn't gather anymore even if he wanted to, and Elluin insisted that some should be left in the forest for other animals to feast on. The farmer was ecstatic when Charlie and Elluin reported that the chickens would probably stay away from the farm for a good while. The elf archer even promised him to return if the chickens came back. Her reward for a job well done was, to her surprise, a big wheel of cheese, aged from last winter. She wanted to refuse, but Charlie stopped her, promising to make something amazing for the party later. So how could she say no to that? Elven food was vastly different from the food of other races and cultures, yet Charlie's food was even more extraordinary to Elluin. 

Elluin found Charlie's food amazing, it was his style of seasoning, of how he incorporated all kinds of different ingredients into his food that made her crave more. Of course, she loved the cooking of her own people, but his food was different. 

Charlie also bought a barrel of clarified butter, a bag of flour and potatoes from the farm so that he could borrow a cart to wheel all the ingredients back to the guild. He and his party could never finish 12 chickens, no matter how hard they tried. But Charlie wanted to recuperate the money spent on other ingredients, so he decided to sell some to the adventurers in the hall.

First, he boiled water inside the biggest cauldron he could get his hands on. Chickens were drained of blood and then dipped in the boiling waters to help get rid them of their feathers. Next, he butchered them, pulling out the innards and cleaning the chickens. He chopped them into palm-sized pieces and marinated them with buttermilk and herbs. He dipped the chicken into a bowl of flour mixed with salt and pepper while waiting for the clarified butter to heat up inside a giant pan. When the heat was just right, he deep fried the prepped chicken. His party was overjoyed with the result. The crunchy outer layer of flour locked the juicy, aromatic, tender meat inside. Keeping 5 chickens for his party and the receptionists, he sold the other 7 chickens in a record time. It took him an hour and a half to finish frying, but everything sold out in under 10 minutes when words got out. Some adventurers even threatened the lower ranked to hoard the food for themselves, but unluckily, Charlie would have none of that and only sold them a piece to fairly distribute his "invention".  Some were skeptical at first, as avians such as chickens tend to dry out while cooking, but after trying a bite and discovering the fantastic function of the batter layer, they praised Charlie as the greatest human chef of the frontier. In the end, he made a whopping 20 gold profit after ingredients cost.

But of course he wouldn't stop there. He promised Elluin the elf archer a decent meal, so he made pie with the flour, eggs, potatoes, chicken organs and salted pork. That was the dish he placed on the table just then.

"Sit down Harrison. Let's eat." Charlie said, scrapping a knife on the surface of the pie. A hard, satisfactory sound of crunch was what he expected and got. 

The human warrior released the elf's ears and took a seat. It was obvious that he was eager to try the new dish.

"Sir Charleston, what's this meal called?" Cleric girl asked, sipping her honey milk

"This is a pie," He said, using the knife to cut out a piping hot wedge of pie. The filling inside were plenty and oozed right out the dish "Inside is salted pork, fried in butter, sliced potatoes, chicken gizzards, cleaned and stirred through herbs and fat, and the most important ingredient" He pulled the piece of pie out from the bowl, making a long stretch of cheese. This prompted an excited glee from his party. "Cheese. Finely aged cheese from the farm."

He gave each of his friends a plate, and dug in his own portion. The pie crust was crunchy and had a delicious pastry taste, the pork was salty, but the potatoes balanced out the seasoning. And the wild card was the chicken gizzards: crunchy, chewy, basically, they gave the dish an exciting texture. Not mad over a piece of chicken anymore, Harrison downed the whole slice in three bites and took more.

Elluin chewed with a big smile on her face. "Mmmm thish ish sho good!"

Roselie also ate her slice of pie quicker than her normal refined eating pace. Seeing that made Charlie a little happy. Everyone enjoyed his food, he made a tidy sum for the day, and he got to try out a recipe from the other world that he always wanted to make.

Having chased down the food with a large horn of ale, Harrison let out a delightful yawn and smiled. "So, I guess we are all more or less recovered." He looked at Elluin before continuing "It's high time we get you a new bow."

"I agree." Elf archer nodded "I'm fed up with knives and slings."

Roselie turned to Charlie and gingerly tapped her index finger to her lips  "Are you coming with us, sir Charleston?"

Charlie did want to travel the world to learn and experience new things in the first place, so a trip to an elven village was a textbook adventure that he would take any day. He had trained to have at least some proficiency on his longbow and handgun, he had learned some useful spells from his Ranger class and he had enough funding to do what he wanted for a while. The last orc slaying quest had netted each of their party members 100 gold coins and some good connections at the Phaion frontier town. The widow merchant decided to continue to maintain her late husband's business and promise to give the party a magic item when they would travel through town. The other three adventurers stayed at Serepike and took on smaller quests to help develop the village and to raise some money to travel to the capital Niliphy.

"No way I'm missing out on an elven village."

"It is decided then! We're leaving tomorrow morning after breakfast."

The party, three humans and one elf, hitched a ride on a food transporting raft to a restocking outpost 2 hours upstream, about one third of the way to Phaion. It would have been better if they could rent horses or a wagon, however, the merchant's guild officer - a stout man with short stature, refused their offer much to the disappointment of the human warrior. Heavy metal plates were regarded as one of the best non-magical armor that a poor adventurer can buy, only outperformed by mithril or adamantine armor. However, to hike with a full set of them would be a kind of torture.

"I'm sorry mates, but we are currently short on carriages and men." The officer said with a slight in his voice "We've been a bit short staffed for a while now, thanks to the damn giant bird terrorizing us lately."

"Bird? What kind of bird?" Elluin asked, animals and beasts would be right up her alley "If it was a Giant Vulture, even we could eliminate or relocate them easily if they wandered here."

"No no no no!" The officer shook his head adamantly "It is not something you irons could handle, no disrespect, but the monster researcher person at the guild told us it was a Roc."

"A ROC?"

Practically screaming, Elluin's ears pressed tightly into her head. She was extremely agitated from hearing the identity of the giant bird monster.

"What the hell is a Roc doing here in the middle of a grassland?" 

"Don't ask me, elf girl, I dun know nothing 'bout giant birds. But there's something I know fo' sure, that thing keeps attacking my fish shipments."

Charlie and his companions hiked on the vast grassland. The spring breeze brought with it a faint floral smell from the wild flowers growing in patches. Charlie caught sight of a hare or two chewing on a bush of dandelions. The weather was clear and windy, perfect for the party's expedition. Leaving the Smyrcymenai river behind an hour on foot, the party found the ruin of a once tall stone tower. The stone building blocks of the ruin have been grinded down, melding into the natural boulders of the plain, suggesting Charlie of the anciency of the tower. Elluin even remarked that the tower might have been older than herself. How old is Elluin anyway? The three humans in the party promptly thought, but none raised the question to the elf archer.

The party decided to take a lunch break on a fairly flat yard in front of the tower's old doorway. Charlie took the blanket from his bedroll out and made a clean spot for the party to rest on and called Harrison to sit down to keep the blanket from flying away, while Roselie took four packages wrapped in parchment paper out of her waist bag and settled them down onto the blanket.

"Ahhh my poor feet!" Harrison laid down into an eagle spread position "How far is it till we reach the forest?"

"If we continue in 30 minutes of time at the same speed, we will reach the forest by dusk." Elf archer replied while darting around the stone pile to pick some chrysanthemum buds. "But y'know, I don't think our party can reach it today without completely exhausting ourselves."

The party joined the light but delightful lunch of thick cut bacon sandwiches and green tea steeped in freshly picked chrysanthemum buds. During the meal, Elluin randomly decided to ask Roselie about her recent trip to the church in the past week.

"Oh, I went back to the church to report my progress to Lady Lathander! About my new ranking and about our adventures" She said, happy to share her daily life to her friends. "There, I partook in a ritual of blessing to ask Lady Lathander for a new miracle."

"Ooh? Whatcha get?"

"I got bestowed two new spells and they're all very useful for our adventures. First is Mass Healing Word. With this, I can heal all of us in an instant, so in chaotic battles like the one with the orcs, we can be more bold with our strategies. The second is Revivify - I can ask the watcher of the great cycle to spare a dying soul to bring it back to live. This is an emergency spell for when one of us would unfortunately… fall in battle."

"Damn! That's great news actually!" Harrison gave a thumbs up and a beaming smile "With that miracle, we can take on more difficult quests!"

"I… I would rather not use it actually!" She exhaled, flabbergasted with the warrior's reaction "I don't want any of us to experience that! Moreover, asking Lady Lathander for that miracle puts me in a precarious position! I don't know if she would be displeased when I disturbed the cycle!"

Elluin put her arm around Roselie's hip and giggled.

"It's fine! I know for a fact that your goddess would be pleased when you put her miracles to good use! That is why she bestowed those spells on you!"

Of course, Charlie did feel relieved when knowing that someone in his party is a healer and can bring the dead back to life. But he also wondered how it would feel to die. That was a question he never thought he would ask himself. Dying in his old world meant the end, at least to his knowledge. But in this world, the dead can be spared, even after a long period of time. Magic was something so incredible to him, and this concreted that thought of Charlie. There were tales of advanced magic that could resurrect any creature with just a part of its body, insane as it was, Charlie understood that this world was nothing like his old world.

"I'm glad that you were looking after us, Roselie!" Charlie smiled at the upset cleric girl and she immediately softened her frown. "It's reassuring knowing that there's someone who would protect me and save me from certain doom."

She pouted "Honestly! Don't you guys go dying on me, okay?" But she wasn't angry. The reason why she did the ritual so perfectly, why her offering to the church took a sizable portion off of her coin pouch and why she poured her soul out to ask the goddess she so revered for such miracles, was to protect her friends. She didn't want to feel the hopeless and powerless feeling, not knowing what happened to her companions again. She wanted to get stronger and pray even harder to her goddess so that she can travel with her friends on adventures.

The party rested for an hour more to soften their stiff soles and calves before Elluin suddenly stood up, both hand grasping her knives. The elf's ears bobbed up and down, listening to sounds unheard by her human companions. Something was clearly amiss.

"What's wrong?" Charlie asked, also withdrawing his handgun and pulling the hammer back. Promptly after, Harrison and Roselie also got into position, ready for combat.

"There are … horses galloping. Three to be exact." Elluin said, pointing towards where the party would have continued their journey "But they sound very heavy, as if multiple men were riding each horse."

Stepping before Elluin and raising his greatsword, Harrison braced himself for impact, acting as the shield of the party. Roselie readied a chant, rhythmically tapped her staff on the ground. 

"Here they come!" Elf archer said, holding her knives by their blade.

3 horses with humans on them ran at full speed, leaving a dust trail behind them. However, Charlie felt something was wrong about the incoming strangers. He could not see the head of their horses, yet he can make out details on the humans. As if…

"Centaurs!" Elluin and Roselie both yelled at the same time

Centaurs were large creatures that lived in temperate forest, with the appearance of half man, half horse. They were well built, with their human portion fit for wielding any weapons while their horse portion can have a top speed rivaling that of a prime warhorse without passenger or cargo, making centaurs frighteningly efficient to be warriors. However, most centaurs were neutral towards other races so Charlie was reassured, yet his grip on the handgun hadn't loosen.

The incoming centaurs were equipped with hide armor while the leader's  - a female centaur had metal plating embedded into the left shoulder pad and torso. Charlie saw the longbow hung loose on her shoulder and a quiver at her side. The two male centaurs were trailing behind her, longswords and javelins could be seen on the side and sheathed on their back. They definitely were ready for combat, yet they haven't wielded their weapons.

"Are we taking the initiative?" Human warrior asked, shifting his sword diagonally, ready to strike at any given moment.

"... No. I think I know these centaurs." Elf archer said and took the frontline "Let me do the talking."

Elluin raised both of her knives into the air and crossed them as a signal to the other party to stop. And the centaurs' advance gradually slowed down into a trotting speed until they were within the proximity of the party. If they decided to attack then, Charlie would have no chance to dodge or shoot his gun. But none of that happened. The female leader nodded her head to Elluin and spoke in Elvish.

And Charlie could understand their conversation easily, unlike his other two companions who uncomfortably shifted behind the elf archer.

"Elven kind. What are you doing with these humans?"

"They're my companion. We are traveling to Nitiunthon."

"Is that so? Are they trustworthy? We do not take humans and dwarves lightly in our forest."

"Yes they are, I trust them with my life. However, what are you doing out here? I thought your tribe forbade any members to wander to the plains, exactly because of humans."

The centaur leader didn't answer, a complex emotion showed on her chiseled, battle-experienced face. The male centaur behind her spoke in a language Charlie didn't understand, but was similar in pronunciation of Elvish albeit much heavier in tone.

"And what's with the smelly packages?" Elluin cocked her head to the side, gazing at the leather wrapped packages on the back of the centaurs. Charlie sniffed and recognized the smell of something stinky but strangely familiar.

He has smelled it before in Serepike.

It was dried fish.

The centaur leader spoke to her party members before casting a judging look at Charlie and the gang. She frowned at Charlie's gun, which is currently pointed at the ground, as if she was wondering what it was. But for no more than 30 seconds, she spoke in common and addressed the rest of the party.

"Humans who travel with esteemed Elf, and you, Elf. I will speak frankly. We are conducting a dangerous mission for the forest, and unfortunately, we have caught you in danger since you traveled on these plains."

Her voice was stiff and serious, but Charlie could feel her sincerity in her words.

"We are luring the Ride of the Gods away from the forest and into the mountain range in the west of Phaion. I'm sure you know the mountain range that separates Sidia and Niliphian."

"Wait wait! Hang on! Ride of the Gods? Don't you tell me…" Elluin's face were devoid of blood.

"Yes, the giant bird that the gods used to ride on, Roc is its name, and it will soon reach us. So we must hurry, humans, this has never happened before, but since it was our fault to bring the beast straight towards you, we will give you a ride."

Centaurs were proud creatures. They would never allow any other kinds to mount them unless they were intimate or, similar to the current situation, they did something that would damage their pride and reputation. Elluin seemed surprised by the offer, but she nodded in agreement and turned to her party.

"Guys, we are in a very dangerous position, I dare say. The Roc, it is an extremely deadly creature, one swing of its claw would tear open Harrison's plate. I think our best course of action would be tagging along these centaurs to lure the Roc away to that direction." She pointed in the opposite direction from where the centaurs came from. "This would take us more time, but these kind centaurs agreed to give us a ride. No humans, at least in my knowledge, have ever had the chance to ride a centaur ever before."

Harrison sheathed his sword, but his face frowned in protest. He took a small step before the centaur leader and looked at her face, as she was much taller, he had to look up. "So what you meant was you brought that monstrosity from your forest towards the vicinity of the frontier villages and town?" 

His voice was filled with aggression and he spoke what Charlie was thinking. Elluin's face darken in fear of what would happen next, she attempted to voice her opinion but only met with the warrior's unwavering gaze. But Charlie was relieved when she stealthily set her hand on her knife, which indicated she would stick with them when the fight broke out.

"We are merely offering our help, nothing more, nothing less, human." the centaur leader said nonchalantly with an expressionless face. "We don't owe you anything, and we could just leave you and go on our way. If this is how you say thanks, I'm afraid humans still have thousands of years before we could ever see eye to eye."

"We have no more time," Elluin begged,"Harrison… I can hear its wings flap already. We can't fight it alone, and neither can we hide from it!"

Intimidated by the cold reply of the centaur and the urgency in Elluin's voice, the human warrior exhaled in defeat. "Alright, I… thank you for bringing the trouble and helping us, I guess."

"Watch your tone, human." The Centaur leader scowled but her face showed a slight vindication. "You, human girl, and esteemed elf, you ride with me. The other humans can ride on my soldiers. Let's get a move on before it comes."

It had been 5 hours since Charlie and his party joined the centaurs on their backs, the sun had begun to turn a deeper yellow over the hills in the west. Charlie's fingers were getting colder and colder the lower the sun set. 

The centaurs were fast and their stamina seemed endless. Seemed.

Their breath now ragged, their movement sluggish. Rapidly galloping at top speed with heavy passengers on their back probably not what these centaurs were used to. And faintly, but audibly in the distance, Charlie could hear the loud, rhythmic flapping of wings. The deep, reverberating sound suggested that Roc must have been a gargantuan creature - which explains why Elluin and the centaurs were so afraid of it. Yet, these centaurs were risking their lives to lure it away from the forest, from their and the elves' home.

"How far are we from the mountain?" Charlie gently tapped the centaur warrior he was riding on.

With a breathless voice, he exhaled "At least 5 vast fields of grains, or 4 hours further."

"We're not gonna make it!" Harrison yelled, "We should find a way to barricade and defend ourselves!"

"Fool!" The centaur leader barked "The Roc will obliterate any kind of structure you could build in such little time!" 

"Then… Can we just give it whatever in these packages? It is chasing the smell, isn't it?" Roselie asked

"We can't just give up! The Roc will return to the forest and nothing will change!"

Harrison and Roselie tried to reason with the centaur leader once more but got interrupted by a loud screech in the air. The screech was so loud, Charlie could feel its vibration deep inside him. Dread. Terror.

Charlie's eardrums numbed, his hands and legs shook uncontrollably.

The beast caught up to them, and it was furious. The centaurs all stopped in place as the fear setted in. 

Elluin was the first one to act while the other was still reeling from the ear-shattering shriek, she turned around and flung both of her silver knives as hard as she could. But with a great wing flap, both of the knives stopped mid air and fell to the ground. It was then Charlie realized how big the creature was. Its wingspan, from one end to the other, was 60 meters in length, which was as tall as the medieval castle of that world. Its feathers are colored in indigo and blue and white, its flight feathers green and red. The Roc's beak was so large it looked like two canoes stacked against each other, painted in brown and black.

The Roc dove down quicker than the eye could follow, and its target was the centaur leader with the cleric girl and elf archer in tow. Dodging was impossible for large creatures like the centaur leader and maybe the two girls on her back could jump down flat on the ground to avoid being crushed by the Roc's claws. Charlie looked in fear, expecting a bloody splatter to happen, but then a large metal object slammed into the giant bird's body with incredible speed.

Harrison braced from the impact, his whole left side twinges in recoil but he was not done. Steeling his nerves in an instance, not letting the Roc ascertain the situation, the human warrior brought his greatsword upward, almost defying physics from how he slammed into the Roc and attacked immediately again without any inertia. 

It was Action Surge, a technique fighters must master to control the flow of battles and act twice as fast in an instance. The sword slammed into the Roc, but could not cut through more than two of its giant feathers. However, the sheer force alone made the Roc back up, flapping its wings and gaining some height. Harrison's quick action saved both his friends and the centaur leader from certain death or grievous injuries. 

"We are going to die if we don't give whatever the hell it wants!" He shouted without looking back to the centaur leader, still keeping his stance in case the Roc came back down.

Charlie agreed with Harrison's sentiment. That thing is way too strong! One peck from its beak could rip my whole body apart!

He jumped down from the stunned centaur warrior and grabbed the package on his back. The Roc screeched in the air, seemingly observing its prey. 

"Hand the fish over!" Charlie shouted to the other centaur warrior, demanding him to hand over his fish package. He was about to rush over and snatched it as the centaur warrior hesitated.

But finally, maybe partly due to the fear of the creature, the centaur warrior threw his package to Charlie. 

"Roselie! Amplify my voice!"

Shaking her head twice to focus herself, the cleric girl chanted quickly and gently tapped Charlie's throat with her staff. He then turned to the gargantuan monster above and spoke with his heightened voice while simultaneously casting his Speak with Animal spell. 

"Oh giant bird, we meant you no harm, please listen to what we have to say!" 

Charlie had hoped that the Roc was going to listen to what he had to say.

But it seemed that the creature was enraged.

It was only going to be hostile to his party.

It screeched and dove down again, this time aiming for Charlie himself. He jumped to the ground below, a sudden pain spread through his upper torso almost knocked him out cold. His whole right arm was torn with a deep and long gash where the Roc's claw dug in, bone and muscle and arteries visible. 

The Roc changed its target to the centaur warrior behind Charlie, pushing him down to the ground and trying to grab him with its claw. Even though his whole body was shaking in pain and shock, Charlie raised his handgun with his left hand, casting Hunter's Mark on the Roc. 

He had no way to know that this action would cause a change in his status scroll, currently residing inside his backpack. His level went to 3, and next to his Ranger class, a title appeared 'Colossus Slayer'. 

The Roc dove down again, this time attacking with its beak. 

The strike would definitely kill the centaur, smashing him to bits.

But Charlie squeezed the trigger, and the metal bullet hit perfectly in the Roc's nasal aperture - a hollow part of the beak, causing a deep vibration inside its skull. No visible damage was done to its beak, but the Roc missed the pinned centaur and slammed on the ground.

Charlie tried his best to stand on his feet and yelled to the Roc

"Leave now, beast! We do not want to fight you! Don't make me do that to your head again!"

The Roc, rearing from the impact with the ground, fixed its gaze on Charlie. Its beak slightly opened, but then closed shut. And the gargantuan creature hopped once, then flapped its giant wings and took to the sky, leaving the disoriented group behind.

===

Roselie had to expend 2 spells and did basic surgery to heal the broken leg of the centaur warrior. The wound was fatal, if left without immediate treatment, as the broken front cannon bone of the centaur cut through the tendon and damaged multiple blood vessels. Roselie, with the guidance of the centaur leader, used a knife to cut through the centaur skin to fully expose the wound. Then, Harrison pulled the leg straight out to realign the bone while the other two centaurs pinned the patient down so that he would not injure the cleric girl while thrashing in pain. The first spell was a Prayer of Healing, Roselie healed the tendon and the blood vessels and mended the bone. Then she used Healing Word to close the wound. If a capable cleric hadn't been there, the centaur would have slowly drifted out of consciousness due to the blood loss and died in mere minutes if not seconds.

For Charlie's wound, Elluin took the healing herbs from Roselie pouch and applied them directly, after she had casted a Cure Wound spell on it. The party, more or less, was unharmed in the end. Disoriented, traumatized, but healed up. The night had fallen upon them, so the centaurs set out their large tall top tent to camp with intent to rest. All of them were warry and stayed cautious in case the Roc would return, but the night passed without much issues. Morning came, after a light meal with traveling provisions for the adventurers and berries, packed maize and dried boar for the centaurs, the merged party left straight for Nitiunthon to ask the elven conclave for advice on the Roc. 

The centaurs expressed their gratitude towards Charlie's party and apologized for their rude behavior towards humans. It came to Charlie's knowledge that centaurs didn't have great affinity with humans or dwarves, mainly due to their greedy nature. And the centaurs revealed that the gigantic monstrosity with the name of Roc moved to the forest a week ago due to unknown circumstances. It came from the south, so the centaur elders assumed that the Roc came from the mountainous range to the west of the frontier town Phaion, that is why they tried to lure the Roc back to its home with fermented fish. The Roc terrorized every living creature in the forest and caused a major disturbance to the balance of the land. The centaur leader told the party that elves from Nitiunthon had arrived at her tribe to collaborate and investigate on why the Roc left its nest and stayed in the forest. They figured out that the Roc built a new nest on a giant red oak and, according to the elf scout, there were broken eggshells inside the nest. 

"I think that's a very important bit of information." Elluin chimed in, "The Roc must have left its nest in the mountain due to some unknown danger and flew to the forest to lay eggs. But if there are broken eggshells in there, something must have destroyed the eggs and caused the Roc to enrage and terrorize the forest in search for the culprit. Roc eggs can take up to 8 or even 9 months to hatch."

"Would the Roc leave the forest if we catch the culprit?" Charlie asked

"That I don't know. Rocs are majestic but unpredictable creatures. I'm afraid we might have to kill it or the forest will continue to suffer." Elluin sighed, "But honestly, even with the help from my elder warriors and the finest centaurs, the Roc might still be too much for us to handle."

"Whatever will it be, it would be wise to first consult the elven conclave and our elders. Thinking back, if the Roc's eggs were destroyed, there would be no way that we could lure it away." Centaur leader sighed.

The journey to the forest was uneventful. With the speed of the centaurs, the party reached the treeline at noon, only stopping for break twice thanks to the stamina potions that Harrison and Roselie shared. The mahogany-brown forest was dead silent except for the crackling leaves and rustling foliage. There were no usual scurrying squirrels and scuttling rabbits, although the vegetation was plentiful, wild boars seemed to be missing, there were no tweets and no shriek of jays and tits. The party hurried and traversed the thick woodland, and after an hour or so, Charlie noticed the trees and bushes and foliage gradually grew closer and closer with vines and moss draping over every branch, almost as if the forest was entrapping them in with vegetation. But thanks to the natives of the area that were Elluin the elf archer and the centaurs, the party did get through the difficult terrain in the end. Charlie was fine thanks to his Ranger nature, but it was extremely difficult for Harrison and Roselie to catch up to the group.

Pushing and pulling and squeezing through the forest for what felt like an eternity, Charlie and the party reached a large forest opening, with giant, ancient trees growing far apart in the heart of the forest: The Elven village of Nitiunthon. On said trees were plenty of houses that looked like giant round wooden burls with windows carved out, decorated by all kinds of vine leaves and flowers. There were bridges from tree to tree, but it was completely made from vines, unlike those from the Serepike frontier village. The sun shone through the leaves and branches, creating multiple rays of sunlight, casting down onto the bustling village, forming a fairy-tale-esque view. Elves were everywhere as expected of an Elven village, some walking on bridges with baskets of goods, some were playing flutes and lyres to plants in a garden, which magically made them grow faster and bore more fruits, some practiced archery, shooting arrows at targets covered in animal hides. It was a sight to behold, and Charlie made sure to burn the image of the place to his memory. I might want to get an artist to draw these beautiful places for me, as a memento. However, after a brief moment of reading the atmosphere, everyone seemed to be in a tense mood. Elves were moving quickly, no unnecessary chatter and the like. The music played for the plants sounded more brisk than that of the elves settling in Serepike.

Roselie and Harrison both were also speechless before the elven village, standing dumbfoundedly at the edge of the treeline with open mouth before Elluin beckon the party to follow her to meet the conclave - the council of wise and knowledgeable elder elves that had lived for centuries and witnessed a great many things. The council meeting chamber was located on top of a giant ancient tree where one could overlook the entire forest. The branches themselves continued to grow even higher than the painstakingly detailed whitestone floor where the meeting was held, creating a green roof of leaves blocking out the sun, only letting some rays of light through to illuminate the chamber.

There were 10 elves in similar outfit: a white robe with golden threads sewn into illustration of nature: leaves, vines and flowers, all over the robe. They were the elders, members of the Elven Conclave - the council. Although some elves presented seemed younger than the others, their respectability and their position was undeniable when all sat in the half-crescent table, observing Charlie and the party.

It was Elluin who spoke up first. She took a step forward into the half-crescent table, bowed with a respectful manner, so deep that even her nape should be visible to the conclave members. Then she introduced.

"Elluin Xilwynn, student of master Aerendyl Xyrgeiros, the third daughter of Corym Xilwynn. Today I stand before the Conclave with my party, my adventuring companions." She gestured with har arm towards Charlie.

Charlie took a half-step, placed his right hand on his chest and gave a simple but lingering bow - the same bow that he saw Liam the Guildmaster give to Eltoar the first time he met him.

"I'm Charleston Fogsorrow, adventurer. Friend of Elluin Xilwynn."

"Harrison Gondorbrand. Fourth of the Gondorbrand family."

"I… I'm Tressel Roselie,  cleric of the Great Cycle, worshiper of Lady Lathander."

After their introduction, an old elf who sat near the middle of the table voiced, his voice definitely resembled that of the elves - high and beautiful, yet there was a deep undertone that came with age. Charlie would describe it as the sound of an oak mallet on a wood surface. "Welcome adventurers, human friends of Elluin, to the humble abode of the forest elves, the Nitiunthon village. It came to our knowledge that your adventuring party and the centaurs of Troyriantos came into close battle with the Roc."

A female elf spoke up "It is a miracle that none of you forfeited your lives to the beast. That particular Roc has been known to viciously attack all those who approach it or be approached by it."

"And that is why the Conclave would like your party to join our effort to extinguish the terrorizing Roc."

There is no way we could kill that thing. Charlie thought, and according to Elluin's sudden jump, he knew that she was thinking the same.

Before Elluin could speak up, the elder elf raised his palm and continued: "Of course, we are not asking you to march blindly unto your death. We have had scouts and druids investigate the nest of the Roc while it was busy trying to kill all of you, and we found out some interesting information."

"First thing first" The female elf said "The Roc will always leave its nest soon after the sun has risen to hunt down carriages from the river outpost of the merchant guild. It does not hunt for food, only targeting fish cargo, strangely enough. And it will not return to the nest until the moon and the stars have taken over."

"So your party would be safe investigating while the beast is gone."

"And some additional information we have gathered over the past few days. Our druid elves have borrowed the power of the land to scry and scried they did. The Roc's old nest was destroyed and set on fire by a tribe of dwarves dwelling inside the mountain range. This is … normal and to be expected, as the dwarves do not have a well and good relationship with the creature, nor do they respect nature's creation."

Charlie could detect a slight change of tone, but it could have been his imagination.

"So this female Roc has to flee the mountain range and rebuild its nest here in our forest, on an ancient Red Oak tree, to lay its eggs."

"Red Oak?" Elluin chimed in "Is it… Naru Oeak?"

"It is Naru Oeak. The magic essence of the tree might have attracted the Roc."

"Let's continue, our scouts have found a broken Roc egg in the nest, with the inside content drained, not spilt. So we can assume that some kind of creature ate it. Additionally, on the edge of the nest, there were some… gnarly objects. A full suit made of a female human flesh, rotten, as well as some bodily fluids that could be discerned that they belong to some undead."

"We believe that if we catch the culprit and present them to the Roc alongside with our beastmaster care, the beast will stop wreaking havoc to the local area."

  And then the elder elf in the middle of the table spoke in elvish, intently looking at Elluin

"This shall serve as your welcoming quest, Xilwynn. Or… more formally, adventurer Silverwind?"

Then back to common, addressing Charlie's whole party:

"Now, go on. You can ask any villager to provide help and support. Go on and catch the culprit for us, for the forest, and for the settlements of the rivers."

Before any of the party could voice their thoughts, they were quite literally pushed down the stairs and off of the tree by the guard elves. Confused, but with a purpose, the party set out with Elluin as the guide, to the Red Oak tree where the Roc had made its nest. The party marched in silence, mostly because every member needed time to process the sudden dump of information, as well as the importance of their mission.

"So… Elluin." Charlie awkwardly said, "Do you want to talk about the last remark your respected elder said or should I be quiet?"

"The elvish line?" Harrison asked "You knew Elvish, Charleston?"

"Well… yes?"

"That's amazing, sir! Elvish is such a beautiful language. Oh I wish one day I could learn how to speak it!"

"Well, what did he say?" the warrior asked, not slowing his steps "Secrets between elves? Did they not trust us adventurers to do their bidding?"

"No… no. It's not like that" 

Elluin sighed, her face frowned and seemed to be deep in thought. But then her brows straightened and a smile appeared on her face.

"It's fine. Really. The elder said that handling this Roc will be my… personal quest."

"Why yours? The Roc is way too strong for any of us to handle." Charlie said

"When an elf wants to leave the village to travel somewhere else, she must complete a compulsory task for the village. This task can be delayed until the Conclave decides it is time. And well… I guess it is my time."

"That's just mean." Roselie pouted  "Can't you just go and… don't do the task?"

"Well I still want to come back to the village, y'know. My whole family is here."

Quietly walking over a small stream, Elluin suddenly stopped mid-track and added "Moreover, it's a tradition for our village. All those who wish to traverse the world out there and go on adventures must take on the quest. You guys don't have to come with me…"

Harrison snorted loudly "Do you even hear yourself talking, you dumb elf. No way I, no, there is no way we're leaving you to your own device out here."

At once, Charlie and Roselie chimed in at the same time. "That's true." "We're coming with you, sister Elluin."

After moving for a while, the party noticed the soil was abruptly replaced with mud and water, effectively turning the forest into a swamp. Trees and foliages alike were in the progress of rotting from the excess amount of water while swamp-dwelling creatures such as frogs and leeches thrived.

"This is odd." Elluin exclaimed while scratching a thin tree "This part of the forest never has been a swamp. These trees are still slowly suffocating from their roots, which means that the swamp mustn't have been here for longer than 1 or 2 weeks." The elf archer held up a piece of tree bark.

"Could the Roc have caused this?" Roselie asked, hands holding her long train of the white vestment from touching the mud. She seemed uncomfortable when her feet got submerged under the muddy water.

"I don't think so… The Roc don't have any kind of magic that would terraform an area. They don't usually set up a lair area around their nest either."

Stomping down on a bush of reeds, Harrison smiled confidently "So a monster must have done this. Which kind of monsters would enjoy a swampy habitat?"

Roselie tapped her finger to her lips, thinking out loud "Swampy… crocodile, hag, or the blood sucking giant bats. But I don't think any of them have the kind of magic that would turn a forest into a swamp."

"Don't forget the other information those old geezer gave us" Harrison said "The Roc would deliberately target fish cargos and any kind of fermented fish. Any monster that smells fishy? Moreover,..."

"Moreover" Elluin took over "There was the skin of a female human found inside the nest. The Roc would never collect such things, the beast itself had no way to extract the skin anyway with its claws."

"Fishy… Skin… rotting… swamp!" Roselie excitedly clapped, forgetting to hold her vestment. It limply landed on the mud and the cleric girl immediately regretted it. With a rejected tone, she pouted "There is a kind of monster that lives in swamp and dresses itself in human skin! I read about it once in the Monster Manual I borrowed from another adventurer."

"What is it?" Charlie asked, carefully sidestepping a deep spot under the mud

"Bog Hag. It might be a Bog Hag. A chaotic evil creature which dwells in swamps that steals the skin of a human it kills to disguise."

Elluin nodded "That's plausible. Bog Hag huh… a particularly old one can even cast greater magic that could turn the forest into a swamp to accommodate its habitat."

Before too long, the party reached the large oak tree. However, the tree was devoid of life. Its bark blackened by mud up to torso height, all branches bare of leaves and dried up, buckling under the weight of the giant Roc nest. The red oak tree, once might have been an impressive work of nature, now stands deserted in the middle of the swamp. The nest was constructed neatly from a plethora of long tree branches, dried patches of mud and even brick walls, knitted into a ginormous bowl shape. The party covered the area directly around the nest to find some clue and found some fruitful evidence that strongly implied who the culprit was.

"I found a leg… very rotten." Harrison said, using his metal grieves to flip the decomposed leg "The wound looks crushed, probably by the Roc. However, it doesn't look like the leg came from a living creature, the blood all dried up already."

"Undead?" Roselie chimed "Bog Hag sometimes takes in minions to order around. Undead, animals and even wisps."

"I found some footprints over here" Elluin said "The walking gait is dragged unnaturally, however, no blood or any other kind of living creature sign can be found. Moreover, some humanoid ribs were submerged under the mud. Probably ghouls and skeletons."

"Let's follow the prints then" Charlie said, hand squeezing on the gun.

Traversing the swamp was difficult. Stepping through the thick layer of mud, Charlie tried his best to press onward. The cold swampy water dampened his boots and trousers, making his legs heavier and more difficult to move around in. How is Harrison dealing with this? He thought and gazed over at the human warrior. Harrison had to raise his legs up waist height to escape the mud and plant his next step deep in it. Leeches quickly joined the feast that is the humans and elf wandering around their habitats, causing the cleric girl to whimper and desperately try to pry off the mischievous blood suckers latching on her slim calves. The elf archer exclaimed that she would've prepared some limestone dust and lemongrass incense if she had known the party would be traveling in a swamp. 

After 30 minutes of struggling, Roselie hollered at the party to stop with a tired voice as she felt something pulled on her mind. This was not any kind of sixth sense that the cleric girl possessed, this was a divine ability that she consciously concentrated on since the party decided that there would be undead creatures wandering the swamp. Roselie prayed to her revered deity to detect any undead in the surrounding area and now the foul aura of the living dead had reached her. 

"At least 5 undead, straight ahead of us." Roselie closed her eyes to focus on the location of her enemies. "And… I can feel a very foul essence, some sort of evil necromancy magic emanating from a creature."

"Get ready for combat then." Harrison said, popping the cork his last stamina potion and downing the bitter yellow liquid in one gulp.

Charlie held his gun taut, ready to retort any surprise attack with a quick shot. HIs left hand clenched 5 metal bullets for quick reloading. In the recovery week, he had trained to load bullets and gunpowder quickly in multiple situations to increase his combat efficiency. He could load a readied bullet from his left hand and tip the gunpowder horn behind his back to the right to fill the gun ignition chamber in less than 3 seconds and take a fairly accurate shot immediately after. 

The party pushed onward, with both the elf archer and Charlie the ranger on the lookout for any hidden enemies behind the dead trees. And it was Elluin who called out first. "A ghoul, 2 o'clock direction! I'll take care of it." She held up her silver knife and winced her eyes, ready to throw the weapon into the creature's cranium. However, Elluin suddenly lost her footing on the slippery mud surface.

"Oh fuck!" the elf archer swore when a grayish hand with elongated fingered and sharp claws grabbed her ankle from the puddle below "The hag!"

She struggled to no avail, due to the surprise and the impact with the ground causing the air to escape her lung while the bony arm continued to pull Elluin toward the muddy opening. At this point, a cacophony of screams and moans erupted from the treeline ahead when multiple zombies, ghouls and skeletons appeared and quickly traversed the terrain to approach the party.

"Help sister Elluin! I'll take care of the undead!" Roselie yelled when she realized Harrison froze due to not knowing what to do. If he rushed to help Elluin, the undead horde would overrun Charlie and Roselie immediately. But if he stayed to push the horde back, his elf companion would be pulled under water - the advantageous habitat of the hag. Thanks to Roselie's assurance, he leapt with all his strength to the side of his fallen comrade and struck down on the arm. As if sensing his attack, the arm suddenly released Elluin's ankle to escape down the opening, but Harrison still managed to hack a chunk of flesh off the monster.

At this moment, Roselie the cleric snapped her necklace and tightly grasped the pendant - the holy symbol of Lathander, the goddess of Birth and renewal and chanted

"O' the great protector of the Reborn cycle, my revered goddess Lathander, please grant me the strength to keep at bay these creatures who strayed from the path."

The holy symbol of Lathander glowed with a physically warm light, transferring the divine power the deity bestowed to her devout worshiper. Roselie clutched and raised her staff, releasing a burst of light shining on the horde of undead. Immediate effect, the rushing monsters all stopped dead in their place when their opaque eyes caught the divine energy released from the staff of the cleric girl. In their simple, mindless thought, a giant figure made of light appeared before their horde and threatened to turn all of them into ash and dust. Without any more delay, the undead turned tail and fled from the frail cleric girl who just channeled a divine spell - Turn Undead. 

"Sir Charleston! Take them down while they run!"

"But of course!"

Charlie stepped up and stood shoulder to shoulder with Roselie, raising his gun and pulled the trigger. The metal bullet pierced the weathered skull of a skeleton from behind and shattered its whole mandible jaw, popping the entire thing off of the body, but the animated bones continue to run forward. Quick reloading and pulling out shots at moving targets was much harder than Charlie first thought, but he managed to down a ghoul and a zombie before Elluin and Harrison rejoined him and Roselie.

"Sorry, I didn't think the Hag would come from below." The elf archer regained her composure and took a low stance with knives in both hands "Man I would love to have a bow right now."

"I'm assuming mine isn't of elven origin?" Charlie asked while taking a chance shot at a retreating undead

"It's not," Elluin said disappointedly, feeling terrible for the handicap that she had to put upon herself. "I'm sorry"

"Well, let's finish the job and get you a new one then" Harrison confidently scoffed "Where is the damn hag now? Careful of the watery puddles, she might be hiding below waiting to pull your legs."

But the hag didn't hide any more. It pulled itself up from the mud in front of the party, its toothy maw spitting and cursing terrible gurgling sounds. The hag posture slumped, weeds and mud clung on its body. Its arms were abnormally long, claws sharp and constantly twitching. And it was not alone either, behind it from the muddy pond, two humanoid figures climbed onto the surface, their skins were not that of man or elf, but slick and moist, their faces disfigured, eyes bulging to the side, mouth wide with serrated teeth and fins for ears. They were some sort of fish-man, at least to Charlie.

The party quickly got into position with Harrison at the lead, followed by Elluin and Roselie and Charlie bringing up the rear. Without any communication, each member knew what they had to do. The cleric girl raised her staff and gently tapped the ground, faintly chanting until a warm white light streamed out of the staff and embraced her allies, granting them protection. Charlie covertly observed the party's back, making sure no creatures would be sneaking up to flank them, but it seemed the hag and the two fish-man creatures were their only opponents, besides the undead that were turned by Roselie. 

The two fish-man rushed up with surprising speed for the amphibian after the hag growled in its distorted language, holding long spears with serrated blades. With a trained movement, Harrison parried one, entrusting his back to the elf archer who blocked the other with her knives held in a cross formation. 

"Careful! The hag's coming!" Roselie shouted at the hag sudden movement. It slumped down and crawled with ease on the muddy terrain with all of its appendages towards the heavy armored human warrior while growling nonsense, drooling and foaming at its mouth. Charlie quickly took a shot, but unfortunately the metal bullet found no purchase on the erratic moving target. Curses! He contemplated entering melee combat with the hag to stop the hag advance before it could claw at Harrison who was busy handling the fish-man. 

"Foul hag, stop where you are right now!" Roselie yelled, throwing a long piece of metal from her material satchel into the air and casted a spell when a purple band of magical essence shot out from her finger tip and flew straight into the hag. The magical light coalesced into a thin layer of purple light and seized the creature immediately, causing it to hack and cough, dropping on its face dragging quite a distance on the mud.

"GUH GAHHH GUHHH" 

Charlie quickly reloaded and this time, aimed at the fish-man Elluin was fighting. The monster got multiple deep gashes on its arm and bare torso, but it was still posing a threat toward the elf archer as she had to dodge the nimbly thrusts of the spear. One hit and the serrated blade will cause heavy bleeding, rendering her incapacitated. Charlie exhaled and squeezed the trigger, this time with more accuracy. The shot blew off its left shoulder blade, exposing bones and sinew, deep red blood gushed out covering its slimy skin. The hybrid creature roared in pain, dropping its spear to cover its wound, but its frantic eyes quickly turned dull when Elluin thrusted her knife from its gill deep into is head.

"Go!" Charlie said as he tipped the horn to fill his gun "I'll help Harrison!" 

The human warrior had extreme difficulties handling the fish-man. His metal grieves were deep in mud preventing him from utilizing the fighter's quick movement to dodge and attack. His heavy blade couldn't catch the slippery creature, bouncing off its slimy shield twice before being caught in the mud when Harrison tried to launch an upward slash. The creature opened its mouth wide and from its toothy mouth a gurgle came out, as if it was laughing and mocking him. It reached behind its loincloth and threw a net made from hemp with metal weights tied on the outer rim onto the warrior.

"Fuck! A little help here!" He shouted as the fish-man creature charged him with the spear. Even with his metal plate, a full on attack of that metal spear would pierce the plate and bite onto his flesh.

But the creature immediately stumbled and took a step back when the tree ahead of it exploded into splinters and sawdust. Inside the smoking crater on the tree was a metal bullet. Roselie rushed behind Harrison, stabbed her staff into the ground to free both her hands and raised into the air, in her left palm laid a common piece of cork, which could be found on wine bottles and potions alike.

"I don't know if this would work! And this is my last big spell for the day!" The cleric girl shouted out and chanted the verbal spell "Mud, water, snow, sand, coalesce and help us through as if you were land!" 

The piece of cork bursted into flame, and Roselie alongside with her party immediately got ejected from the mud onto its surface, standing straight as if the moist swamp land was cold hard granite. This was vital at that moment as Elluin borrowed the power of the spell to barrel roll backward, nimbly dodging the hag's claw slashes. Roselie Hold spell couldn't incapacitate the hag for too long as it focused its necromantic energy to break out of the restraining purple magic. 

Charlie reloaded, glancing at Harrison who now got the net off and raised his greatsword. Without the mud, the human warrior can, and will take on the fish-man easily. Nodded to Roselie, he ran over behind Elluin and aimed his gun. The hag swung its arms wide to both sides and roared, hanging its disgustingly long tongue out of its sharp toothy maw before launching into a lightning quick dash towards him.

He reacted and shot, the hag slashed its claw and a burst of fire splintered off to the side when the bullet hitted the hag's sharp claw, snapping one off entirely. But the hag didn't even flinch or slow down, continuing its forward dash. 

"Hiyah!" Elluin ran for a short distance when she suddenly dropped down into a slide on her knee, avoiding the wide slash of the hag and successfully stabbed both knives into the creature's ribcage. The hag howled in pain, jumped off to the side and hugged its wound. But Elluin didn't stop there, she pulled out her last knife and kept the pressure up for the monster. The hag eyes redden with rage and blood vessels, baring its sharp teeth out with a screech. And then it pried both knives off before swinging both arms into a horizontal slice, the claws bit deep into the charging Elluin and caused her to be knocked back, lying prone on her back. The hag cackled maddeningly and lept toward the fallen elf with the intention to plunge its claws deep inside the skull of her.

Little bitch! I'll rip her throat apart and bite into her ears! I'll enjoy pulling her organs out and feeding them to my ghouls! I'll pull off her skin and wear them while hanging the rest of the body at the entrance of the elven village in the south!

But the hag's chaotic and evil thought immediately went dark when a shining marble, almost too quick to even react, accompanied with a loud explosion and a pungent smell, entered its forehead. The metal bullet easily pierced the hag's frontal skull, frying off brain matter on the way to the back of the skull, snapping the creature's head to the back and killing it instantly as the hag body got carried with momentum and slammed into the elf archer, who was attempting to guard herself with both her legs up. In that instance, Harrison spun into a full circle, using the momentum and weight of his sword to precisely lobe the head of the fish-man, leaving a stump of a neck and a fountain of blood. 

===

"We would like to express our deepest thanks for your service to Nitiunthon, adventurers, friends of Elluin Xilwynn and of course, a congratulation for Xilwynn for completing the welcoming task." The female elf, one of the conclaves, spoke to Charlie's group. "Our beastmaster had successfully reasoned with the great Roc, especially easy with the remaining egg you found."

"Mmm, we didn't think the hag would keep the egg. What was it thinking, keeping food or trying to raise a baby Roc?" Harrison scoffed 

"A hag that could command a Roc, that would be devastating. Although I don't think a baby Roc would listen to a hag. They are… sophisticated creatures, see?" Elluin chimed in

"Well, all well that ends well!" Charlie smiled and asked the conclaves representative "What will you guys do to the swamp?"

"We have sent out our mages and druids to revert the landscape back to what it once was and to try and save as many trees as possible. Thank you for your concern. Oh and I would like to remind you that our village will put a good word to the adventurer's guild for your good deed. Thank you again."

The lady elf bowed and left.

The party, finally done with their unprecedented task, went to Elluin's private alcove - a modest living space under the roots of a giant tree. The elf archer brought out the food of her village - the delicacies of elves, if you will, to share with her companions. Quickly scouring through the cupboards, five tea cups made from polished husks of some kind of fruit were placed on the wooden table and a green-ish yellow tea poured, in the center of the table placed a plate. 

"Don't be shy! Dig in! I must repay all of you for helping me complete my homecoming quest, y'know. Moreover, I want to give all of yous a taste of our food so that Charleston could open up his recipe repertoire and integrate some of the elven ingredients into his cooking!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

To be honest, if words could describe the expression on the three human adventurers' faces, it would be a combination of disgusted, concerned and frightened. The platter presented before them contains a pile of fat and plump worm-ish creatures, golden white in color and smooth as an egg. Charlie slowly moved his eyes from the plate to Elluin's and forced a smile on his lips when he saw her expecting expression. 

What the hell.

Charlie slowly reached out for a slightly small worm in the horror of Harrison and Roselie. Its skin was smooth and weirdly cold, which caused a sickly sensation to rise inside Charlie's stomach. Charlie had tried some exotic food back in his homework before, insects such as crickets and palm weevils he had tried on a tour to some Asian countries. But this time, trying out an unknown worm in a fantasy land - it was too much for him. However, not wanting to disappoint Elluin, he exhaled.

"Before I eat this… delicacy of your people, I want to give a condition to all of you guys."

"Mm-hm?" the elf archer nodded excitedly while the other two humans in the party looked at him with a wide eye

"From now on, I want you to call me Charlie. Charlie is the name I use with my friends, is that okay?"

"OF COURSE, CHARLIE! NOW TRY IT!" Elluin yelled, both hand clasped in thrill

"Eh… yes sir, Charlie!" Roselie nodded

Harrison said nothing, still focusing on the immobile worm in Charlie's hand.

"Well… Down the hatch!"

Charlie said, threw the whole worm inside his mouth and bit down, not allowing himself even a second to feel the movement of the worm. A sickly sweet juice bursted out, immediately covering his tongue and teeth with a viscous texture. The taste was more pleasant than what Charlie thought - fruity, sweet, almost taste like coconut candy. His eyes went from a sorrowful state into a surprised one, making Roselie and Harrison gasp.

"Well?" the elf archer asked

"Very delicious. Sweet. Fruity. I… like it?" Charlie swallowed the gooey substance down, eyeing the other two. "You guys try it too."

"Actually… I just remembered my goddess teaching… I'm not supposed to eat critters and MMMHHH!!!"

Before the cleric girl could finish her sentence, Harrison took two worms in each of his hands and shoved them at the same time into his and her mouths. Their eyes tensed for a moment, but before long, the pair actually gradually enjoyed the bizarre insect, which made Elluin more than happy. Apparently, elves generally don't eat the games they hunt from the forest due to their 'return to the cycle' policy, however, insects and grubs and fruits reproduce quickly, so that became their choice of sustenance. The worm Elluin fed her friends was called Ballam Weevil, a kind of weevil that feeds on the Ballam fruit - a toxic fruit to humanoid in general but a preferred feed to the weevils. Their stomach metabolism turns the toxicity into sugar, which explains their sickly sweetness. Some worms also feed on unripe Ballam fruits and taste extremely sour, which the elves utilize for energizing drinks and soup.

After the meal and a well deserved rest, the party finally follow Elluin's lead to the village bow craftsman. His workshop was located high up on an ancient tree, and now the party knew that the older and the more important an elf is, the higher their abode will be. 

The bow craftsman was a very old elf, his hair long and was completely silver in color, braided and tied with a golden ribbon. He wore a baggy garb and loose vestment while walking barefooted, hand holding a metal chisel and hammer, splitting a long wooden branch. 

Elluin approached the bow craftsman with an unexpected playful tone of voice and a slightly disrespectful word choice.

"Heya, old geezer! I'm back!"

But it seemed that the bow maker and Elluin were on good terms with each other as he turned and had a big grin on his face and spoke in common. "Oh dear oh dear! You're back, Xilwynn! It's been so long since you last visited this old fart! How's your adventure going? How has my bow been treating you, child?"

"Well, first of all… I would like to introduce you to my fellow adventurer friends! Guys, this is Vishi, one of the greatest bow craftsman in the continent! He was the one who crafted my late longbow!"

"Late?" Vishi frowned, only glancing at Charlie and the gang only for a second before staring at Elluin. He placed his tools down onto the bench and grabbed his knees as if he was bracing for some extremely bad news. "What do you mean by late, young Xilwynn?"

Elluin smiled apologetically, her hands weaved into each other as she bowed "I'm sorry! Erin Mídh saved me and my allies in close combat! I'm really sorry! I swear I have buried it under a patch of tulips like your advice! It served me well, but I had to, I had to, I promise!"

Visha the bow craftsman exhaled, his forehead beaded with sweat. A minute, two minutes of silence, Elluin still kept her bow deep, unmoving and Visha frowned, looking at the confessing elf girl. Charlie and the party quietly observed the two elves, wondering if Elluin would be punished for destroying the work of a master craftsman.

"Well… I guess it is time for good ol' Erin Mídh to retire. It served its purpose and protected you. That is important."

"Yes! It was the best longbow I have ever used!" Elluin nodded "I wish I could've saved it, but the stave's core was splitted lengthwise, if mending was possible, the bow's strength would be diminished drastically."

"I see. Oh well. So, the reason you're here today is because you need another bow. Well, too bad! I'm out of branches."

"Wha… what do you mean?"

"Well, the Roc you just handled literally sapped the Red Oak out of its living essence. The branches I collected this morning were too dry and brittle, unsuitable for bow making my dear Xilwynn. This branch here is the last Red Oak branch I saved for young Hamir, he came of age last week and asked me for one. It would be at least a month longer for the druids to bring the Red Oak back, if at all possible, so right now, I can't make you a bow, young Xilwynn. I'm sorry."

It was the first time Charlie saw the elf archer's face express such sorrow. Her eyes brimmed with tears, her long leaf-shaped ears drooped low to the side and her cheek puffed out.

"I… I don't… hic… I can't continue… my adventure …. hic … without a bow… old geezer… hic…"

Turning away from the pouty Elluin, Visha picked up his tools and continued chiseling away the bark of a long branch. "I can't make a half-hearted bow, you know that. And without the right ingredients, making a good bow is impossible! A faulty bow will get you killed, young Elluin, you know that better than anyone."

"Wahhh… where can I find… another red oak tree… hic…"

"No other red oak can be as flexible and sturdy as Naru Oeak, the Red Oak of the forest. No other ingredients can replace Naru Oeak branches for me."

It was at this moment when the shy and reserved cleric girl, Roselie, spoke up. "Ahh uhmm… sir Visha… I don't know if this could be used to make a bow, but I think this is quite sturdy and flexible too."

The cleric girl took out two gigantic feathers from her material satchel. Those were the Roc feathers Harrison chopped off in the night encounter. Looking at them now, Charlie realized that the length of the two feathers actually looked viable for a bow. 

"This is…" Visha lifted the feather from Roselie's hands "So light, yet so hard. This is the feather of the legendary Roc?"

"Roselie?!" Elluin yelped "You wanted those feathers to make armor didn't you? Why would you give them away?"

"Oh… it's okay! I think it's more important that you have a great bow! Our party needs you to be our elf archer, sister Elluin!"

Under the flowing tears and … runny nose, Elluin suddenly gave Roselie a big hug when Visha announced the feathers were malleable enough and appropriate for a bow. It looked like Visha the bow maker will pour all of his talent into making a unique bow from the special ingredient that is the Roc's feather.

The bow crafting process took 3 days so the party had to take sometimes off at the Nitiunthon village, but no one complained as Elluin was ecstatic and guided them through her homeland, showing her friends off to her family and relatives, feeding them all kind of fruits and mushrooms and insects (although it was tough for the humans to chew on the latter) and taught them how to play a simple song on the harp - the song of growth, used for encouraging plants to grow quicker and bear more fruits. It was a well deserved vacation, Charlie thought, fully enjoying himself in a brand new, fantasy culture of another world.

Visha took the feather and carefully separated the barbs from the quill shaft, trying his best to keep the vane intact. Then he used a metal dagger to scrape the surface of the quill to reduce its thickness to allow a more flexible body for the bow's stave. Visha then conjoined the two feathers by a spell, casting a root through the drilled holes and knotting the feathers together. Then it was time for heat treating the quill, paired with tillering and more scraping until the staves were symmetrical and satisfactory to the eyes of the master craftsman. Then Visha steamed the staves in a special liquid for an hour to loosen up the bow, allowing him to bend the tips into a slight curve as he decided this unique bow should be a special one, for his young Elluin. He decided the first bow ever made with a Roc's feather will be a recurve bow - light yet pack a punch. After bending the bow in shape, he mended two pieces of ox horn to the staves and chiseled them into appropriate shape - the nocks of the bow. The basic construction was finished, but it would not be a mastercraft bow if Visha didn't add his touch to it. With a long metal rod, Visha carved many sophisticated engraving onto the bow, deep enough for him to pour molten metal into it and permanently engrave the bow with gold and silver - the necessary component to harness the magic Visha was about to imbue the bow with. A beautiful red ruby adorned right at the center of the bow, imbued with fire magic. And finally, spider silk woven into a long bowstring, completing the bow.

A legendary recurve bow, Visha was sure of that. Nocking an arrow into the bow, Visha shot it straight into the sky. As the arrow left the bow, a flick of fire covered it and propelled the arrow forward even faster, defying the physics of the world. The magic arrow flew straight into the sky, piercing the silver clouds until it burned to ash. 

Anór. Visha named the bow Anór - The sun. A fitting name for such a fiery weapon. A legendary bow of the elves, wielded by one of the best elven archers in the Nitiunthon village on her quest to travel the Walled world of Lumea.