Reina's Amazing Plan

There was a moment of peace for Marco as he sat and leaned against the trunk of the Elder Tree. The last few beams of sunlight peeked out from the crest of the Gramt Mountains and the moon had already come out to officially signal the end of evening and the beginning of night. Reina was sewing her last hasty stitches as Marco found himself nodding off.

After the torturous climb, Reina made him gather several of the surrounding leaves for her plan. The leaves of the giant tree were, as one might expect, huge. There were also all different kinds. Squat round ones, long ones that ended in a point, even ones that looked like maple leaves despite the fact that the Elder Tree was not a maple tree. Reina specifically requested the long ones, and so Marco cut at least ten of them off the tree. He found that they were actually quite tough. Perhaps it was the tree's magic of life at work, but the leaves did not rip or pluck as easily as ones from ordinary trees.

At least Reina had trusted him to use her knife for that. She even had him hold onto it "for the struggle ahead." Which sounded ominous, but Marco decided to trust her. They were actually being civil to each other and, at this point, it was her plan or bust.

"Finished!"

Reina's proclamation brought Marco back from the edge of sleep. His eyes snapped open to take in the fruits of Reina's labor.

"...What...is it?" he asked after a long stare.

"It's a snake, obviously!" Reina exclaimed.

The thing Reina was holding up was not a snake. Marco even tried to give her the benefit of the doubt by getting up and taking a closer look at it. Maybe he missed it at first because the last bits of sunlight were fading away. But upon closer inspection, it was still not a snake. What it was was several of the long leaves sewn together into a floppy green tube.

When Marco made no comment, Reina huffed and said "Look! Obviously that's the body. And here are the eyes and the fangs."

She indicated several points at the end of the floppy mess, where she had fastened two of the metal pots she brought for cooking and two sticks from the tree. And even "fastened" was too generous a word. These "eyes" and "teeth" were sloppily tied on with the rope. It looked less like a snake and more like a sad sock puppet.

"You try and do better!" she yelled when Marco still offered nothing but a screwed-up face. "It was enough work just to sew through these stupidly strong leaves. And with night approaching I had no time to whittle down the sticks into more believable fangs."

Marco made the wise decision to avoid the topic of craftsmanship altogether and ask a different question. "Why a snake?"

"I got the idea from you," she said, avoiding eye contact for a moment. "You took advantage of the fact that Elder Hawks prey upon Gramtese Dragons. So I'm using a hawk's natural predator."

"Snakes steal bird eggs. So the baby hawks should naturally fear snakes. I see," said Marco with a nod.

Still…

Marco gave the snake puppet another look. It really did not give the impression of a deadly predator. But then he looked to the sky. It was already a darker blue and soon to be black. They didn't exactly have time to come up with something else.

"Alright, let's put this snake puppet into action."

"What?" Reina said as she gave him a funny look. Then she looked at her puppet and chuckled. "Oh no, this is no puppet. This is a costume. I'm going to wear this and go scare the baby hawks. While I do that, you will cut the head off the lizard. You still have my knife?"

Several thoughts filled Marco's head at once. He tried to verbalize them and came out with "Yes...but...hold on! It can be a puppet, right? Dangle it from the branch here, wiggle it around. You'd be safer that way."

Reina looked at him as though he said the most foolish thing imaginable. "No Marco, that would just look silly."

Without elaborating, she opened up a slit in the snake's belly, put it over her, and waddled along. Marco followed, taking care to not step on the tail of leaves that dragged on the branch.

Below them, the giant baby hawks were munching on the carcass of the Gramtese Dragon. They had picked it mostly apart by this point, with the entire bottom half being mostly bone and mush.

"I'll draw their attention away from the corpse. Stay here until they are definitely focused on me. Once you're sure they won't see you, drop down and get the head," Reina whispered.

Then, she went down into the nest.

Before enacting her plan, she had measured out a section of rope and tied it to the branch. She made it just long enough for them to climb down and safely drop into the nest, but not so long that the baby hawks could get a hold of it.

Reina was actually quite organized in her planning. She left a pile of leaves draped over the tree "just in case." Marco wasn't sure what that meant, but it did at least indicate that she had a plan B. Which was more than he could say about his plans.

But just as he was reflecting on how impressed he was with Reina, she instantly erased her credibility. As he climbed down the rope, she shimmied in a rather dramatic fashion. Marco guessed it was supposed to be slithering.

It didn't stop there. When she finally touched down on the nest, she crouched very low in an attempt to hide her legs that were poking out of the costume.

There she sat as the baby birds were enjoying their meal, oblivious to the intruder. When she realized she wasn't being noticed, Reina started hissing. She hissed so loudly that even Marco heard it from his branch some twenty feet above.

When he saw Reina there, wiggling and hissing, he did everything in his power not to burst out laughing. This was a better show than anything the acting troupes put on during festivals. And only he had a front row seat to the proud Second Princess of Irelios' ridiculous performance.

Alas, it was a show that ended too soon.

Reina's act finally caught the attention of one of the baby hawks. It turned its head in the direction of the sounds, and looked at Reina curiously. Then, it started yelping. This alerted its siblings. Soon, all three of the six-foot-tall fuzzy hawk babies were cautiously approaching Reina.

Reina started hissing more fiercely in response. Then she grabbed the two halves of what was supposed to be the snake's mouth and waved them up and down.

Marco had to look away to stop the laughter from erupting out of him. Was...was that the snake baring its fangs!?

"Hey!"

Reina's shout of indignation brought Marco back. He found that the baby hawks were closing in on Reina.

"What are you doing? Fear me! Hisssss!"

Reina began darting around in her best impression of a snake slithering into attack position. But the baby hawks were not the slightest bit scared. They simply regarded this odd newcomer with curiosity and kept getting closer to investigate.

"You stupid hawks! Be afraid!" Reina actually stood up at this point in an effort to be a snake when it rears its head back. Her legs were clearly visible as they poked out of the snake costume's stomach.

Marco had to put his hand on his mouth as a snort escaped him. Then, he got up and prepared to climb down to Reina's rescue. As entertaining as this charade was, the plan clearly wasn't working.

Or was it?

When he looked more closely at the situation in the nest, he saw that Reina did indeed achieve her main goal. The baby hawks, in their fascination with her, had stepped away from the carcass.

It was time!

Marco quickly shimmied down the rope and dropped to the nest as quietly as he could. When he landed, he double-checked to make sure he was safe. Indeed, the birds were still occupied with Reina.

He dashed over to the Gramtese Dragon's corpse. When he got close to it, he was immediately overpowered by the smell. It made him gag. He was forced to turn away for a moment to regain his breath. When he did, he saw that the hawks were now hopping around and chirping at Reina while she wiggled around desperately.

"I will eat you!" she yelled, more in fear than aggression.

With that reminder of why he needed to hurry, Marco steeled himself, sucked in a huge gulp of air, and held his breath. He took out Reina's knife and knelt down next to the head of the lizard carcass.

As soon as he made the first cut, juices came squirting out. Marco winced but kept cutting.

"Stupid beast of Gramt Forest. If you hadn't been attacking travelers, neither of us would be here," he thought.

Of course the poor lizard was somewhat innocent. It was just stuck in unfamiliar territory and lashing out in self-preservation. But Marco was using these thoughts to keep himself distracted as he tore into the muscle.

"Come to think of it…what was it doing so far out here?"

That question entered his mind as muscle gave way to blade. Gramtese Dragons lived in the deserts of Gramt, areas that were far north and west of the forest he was currently in. Scientists believed that they once came as far down as Irelios, but the rise of Elder Hawks forced them to migrate. They migrated so far away that there was no way one could've just wandered into the forest.

"Aaah!"

Reina let out a high pitched scream. Marco snapped his head in her direction.

One of the baby hawks had gotten behind her and stepped on her tail. Reina tried to pull away but she was pinned down. And the hawk was starting to peck at her disguise…

Marco put his full attention back into the task at hand. Soon he had sawed through to the bone.

"Just a little longer…Hold on Reina."

Every moment mattered as he put all his strength into cutting the bone. Again he found himself amazed by the sharpness of Reina's knife. The tiny blade was stronger than most swords he used. He wondered for a moment if it was made from the legendary metal of Ebony Mountain, but then remembered that the blade would have to be black for that to be the case.

"Marco."

Reina's voice was right in his ear. It made him jump.

"Aah!"

"Aah!" Reina jumped back. "Why are you yelling?"

"Why are you here?"

Reina responded by gesturing behind her. The baby hawks had torn into her snake costume, leaving it a mess of leaves. Well, more of a mess of leaves than it was before. They seemed displeased to find that it had no meat inside. Now, they were turning towards Marco and Reina.

"You have to buy me time!" he said urgently.

"We're out of time!"

Marco's mind raced. He grabbed the helmet from his bag and tossed it to Reina along with his sword.

She looked surprised as she caught them. "You want me to fight them?"

"Bang them together! Animals hate loud noises!"

"Aaagh!" she yelled in frustration as she banged the sword against the helmet.

It seemed to make the baby hawks pause, but Marco didn't continue looking to see if it truly worked. Instead, he sawed and sawed and sawed.

Even though his arm felt like it was fall of, he hacked away at the lizard corpse to the beat of Reina banging on the helmet.

He was overjoyed when his knife finally severed the last bit of skin. He did it!

"I did it!" he yelled, holding the head up in the air.

"Great! To the rope!" she yelled over the banging.

She continued to make noise as they circled around the baby hawks. The birds didn't seem scared but they did hesitate to get closer. It was enough for Reina and Marco to get to the rope.

"Boost me up!" she commanded.

They hastily traded the lizard head for the sword and helmet. Then, Marco gave Reina a boost so she could jump up and grab the rope. As she climbed, he banged the sword against the helmet.

"Now what?" he yelled.

"Stay here!" she called back.

"What!?"

He actually stopped making noise to let that sink in. Was she leaving him behind?

"I have a plan!" she said.

"Shaw!"

A deafening screech came out of nowhere. Marco looked to the sky, to the source of the sound.

The Elder Hawk mother was home.

"I don't suppose that's part of your plan…"