The Roc Attacks

Elin had to admit: she was not happy with the roc when it flew off with the crystal pendant.

She supposed that the bird probably thought that she was with Douglas and that she wasn't to be trusted as a result. But at the same time, she felt like the bird just didn't like her in general principle. Which she would freely say that she didn't like that bird for the same reason.

Yet, that still didn't make it any better with trying to get the other creature out. Elin already had enough worries about the serpent, but the roc was proving to be much more troublesome.

Even as Jonas left to get the pendant, Elin still couldn't stop fuming at the roc. The bird was worse than Ember was when it came to being troublesome to Elin.

"You're probably going to wear yourself out if you keep up like that," Ember remarked after a few minutes of Jonas having left.

"Ugh," Elin retorted. She didn't care to talk with others at the moment. Not when she had a lot of emotions rolling through her, keeping her from really being able to give an actual answer that it'd reflect most of her state of mind.

"Don't get like that with me," Ember snapped. "I warned you that it'd probably be difficult, though yeah, I didn't expect the roc to take the crystal with it. I mean, I seriously didn't expect that Douglas would have even let that bird know what was holding it."

"Yeah, well it certainly knew that, didn't it?" Elin returned, with all the frustration flowing through her at that moment. "Maybe we should have asked it if it'd go in to free the others before it left."

"If you want to be like that, don't worry about my family. Just leave them in there and I'll get them when I can."

Elin blinked, her emotions suddenly settling as what Ember just said sunk in. "That's your family in there?" she asked quietly, as if she was scared that Ember would run away if she wasn't.

Ember, however, seemed stunned and looked like she was trying to backpedal what had been spilled. "Uh, that is… They weren't…" Only after a loud cry from the roc that had just flown off sounded, echoing all around them in the mountains, did Ember finally settle down.

"Yeah, they're my family," Ember admitted. "My mother, my father, and baby sister."

Elin thought back to what she'd seen in the crystal. One seemed to be rather small, though she couldn't say that it had been a baby bird, since it still looked like it was capable of flight, but she also knew that it wasn't like she knew everything about the birds either.

Besides, she remembered one of the servants talking to a child older than she was at the time about how that child was that servant's baby.

So, she supposed that it was possible that it was something like that, though she wasn't completely sure. Just that it was merely a possibility in general.

"Don't tell anyone else, please," Ember said, sounding as if Elin had been beating her and trying to get her to submit. "I keep hoping that Douglas doesn't know that we're all related."

Elin felt like she was being asked to keep a secret that was life or death. She wasn't confident that she'd be able to keep the secret, but she also suspected that it wouldn't matter soon enough when all the creatures were freed from the crystal.

Which she hoped wouldn't be that much longer. As such, if that was the case, then she was certain she'd be able to keep it that long. Though, she hoped that her assumption of how long it'd take wouldn't be too much off the mark.

Although, regardless of anything else, they'd have to wait for Jonas to finish up retrieving the crystal, since Elin didn't have wings of her own to fly up to assist him and Ember just didn't seem to want to get that close to the giant bird.

Elin briefly looked upwards and felt surprised to see the roc flying in an almost disorganized manner.

It wasn't flying in any spiral pattern now. Instead it seemed to almost be searching for something. Which made Elin wonder if Jonas had gotten the pendant yet. If he had, then the roc had clearly become aware of it. Either that or something else had occurred that Elin just wasn't aware of right then.

"Should we find a place to stay out of the roc's view?" Elin asked Ember.

"Might be a good idea," Ember conceded. "I cant see what it's so upset about, so I'd assume Jonas got it somehow."

Then as Ember quickly flew beneath some cover, Elin thought she heard some rustling nearby, away from the trees that she was about to seek shelter from. Rustling that she wasn't sure what could be causing it. Rustling that she knew could be coming from something hostile towards them just as easily as something that was either friendly or indifferent to them, if not scared of them.

Elin opened her mouth to call out to whoever or whatever it was when Jonas came out of the brush.

He'd been clearly moving quickly and looked to be ready to collapse, but almost as soon as Elin saw him, she heard a loud shriek from the roc. She didn't look, but assumed that the roc had seem him. Which meant that it either saw the crystal pendant too, or somehow knew that he was the one who'd taken it.

"What'd you do?" Elin yelled at him as they both made a break for the trees.

"I got the pendant!" Jonas yelled in response. "Exactly what I was aiming for! It's not my fault this big guy has that kind of eye for detail."

"Maybe you should have tried replacing it with something!" Elin suggested.

"With what?!" Jonas cried indignantly. "I certainly don't have any spare pendants, crystals, or necklaces of any kind."

Elin sighed. There was always something that could be made to imitate one of those. Even if it wasn't a perfect copy. Yet, she had a feeling that Jonas wasn't going to listen to that point. Especially since they could hear the roc picking up speed at it got ready to charge them.

Elin didn't fear the roc catching them, as it was still too far away to catch them, even at the speed it was going. The worries she had was that she couldn't say what might happen to the trees as the roc's speed might just destroy those trees before they even had a chance to blink.

"Well, how do you plan on getting away from the roc at this point?" Ember called from the trees. "I don't think it's going to just let us go just because you chose to hide in some trees. Maybe if you try talking to it, it'll be open to dialogue?"

"It's simple!" Jonas called out. "Hope it loses interest sooner rather than later!"

Elin wasn't sure if that was a good method or not, but she had to admit that she couldn't think of a better option for dealing with the roc. Especially since it didn't seem like there was anything they could actually do without losing the crystal pendant.

Jonas dove to the ground as the roc barely flew over him, flying faster than Elin would have thought. Though, Elin wasn't completely certain that he'd fallen down by choice. Part of her thought that maybe it had looked like he'd tripped, but she couldn't be that sure. It happened too quickly.

Plus, the speed of the roc flying by, even though it clearly wasn't targeting her, had knocked her down as well. Just from the force of the wind, which also left her ears ringing.

"You know, I think you'll have to rescue the next creature tomorrow, " Jonas said. "I get the feeling we're not going to get the roc to leave us alone for a while at least. Maybe not until the sun goes down."

"Will it stop at night?" Elin asked, not entirely convinced.

Jonas merely shook his head. "Couldn't say. I'm not sure if it will or not, but I'm at least hoping it's not a nocturnal bird."

Elin nodded, not sure what else to say about the situation. Especially since it felt like Jonas knew more about rocs than she did, and even then not by much.

"Just get to the trees already!" Ember called out, sounding rather impatient. "You should at least be safer in here."

Elin wasn't sure if that's because that Ember felt safer in trees herself or if she actually knew something about the roc. Either way, she couldn't help but wonder if Ember's suggestion was the best method for them to use. As that way they'd be able to have something that the roc would have to knock over in order to get to them.

Elin looked to Jonas to suggest that they do that only to find that he'd already started running for the trees again, but this time was just about to enter them with the roc a good distance overhead as it had been preparing for another run.

Elin sighed as she started to jog to get to the trees. She wished that Jonas would have at least said something, even though it was clear that he was the main focus of the roc. So, while Elin wasn't in that much danger, she couldn't say that the roc wouldn't have changed it's mind and gone after her instead.

If only to force an exchange.

"You know, I think the roc looks a lot like an eagle," he remarked, which annoyed Elin. She wasn't sure what that had to do with anything. Or even why he was bringing that up in the first place.