Felix stood before the basilisk queen, sucking up as much air as he could into his lungs to make his chest fuller — to appear bigger, more confident. After a short pause he spoke, the air slowly escaping.
'My queen, if I am to attempt such a thing — to break the balance of the kingdoms — I will be in need of help.'
The queen shifted, her posture growing more intense as the words formed from Felix's own conscience.
'Haven't you quite the nerve, little one. You come into my kingdom, speak of promises well above your capabilities, and then seek my help.'
The pressure shook the crown of the mother tree, making leaves fall all around Felix. His eyes shot from side to side, scanning his surroundings. The basilisks all around him didn't even look fazed — like it was something they were used to. Felix held on, trying his best not to lose his ground. He knew very well that if he took even one step, it could mean the end of his life.
Then it stopped.
'Very well. Explain yourself,' the queen commanded.
Felix coughed, taking a deep breath. 'My queen, I wasn't trying to imply that you help with my end of the promise — only that I'll need time to gather allies, form a plan, gather resources…'
Out of nowhere, his mind went blank. The queen had stopped him.
'Enough.' She smiled. 'You have a month. I will assign you seven of my underlings as your personal guard. If you do not come back within a month, you will be hunted for the rest of your life — that goes for not keeping your end of the promise as well.'
Felix lowered his head, not daring to challenge the queen's decision.
'Long live the queen,' he said, as he was escorted out into the lower levels of the mother tree.
The queen snickered in a low tone, watching him get dragged away.
'Allies, huh. What an interesting lie that cunning old beak came up with.'
*
Far above the plains, a lone magpie soared through the sky, closely followed by seven creatures covered in black leathery scales. Flying at the front of the basilisks was the queen's son, Tyranus. Behind him were two members of the queen's guard — Throy and Fresk — followed by four regular guards whom Felix didn't bother to name. He figured that if worst came to worst, he would be able to get rid of them.
Although he felt the queen had scammed him, he was also impressed that she had spared three of her most powerful subordinates even in such harsh times. His gaze caught Tyranus' for a moment. The basilisk's aloof appearance disappeared briefly, replaced by an intense look of what Felix thought was determination and anger. A shiver ran across his wings, making him sway.
'Sheesh, so intense.'
He returned his attention to the snowy forest of tall pine trees just ahead of them. Their first destination was the distant mountains at the edge of these lands, where the sun fell every day.
After following a river upstream for nearly two days, the exhausted team decided to take a break and recover their energy. Landing at an open clearing deep within the dense forest, the basilisks quickly chased away any remaining creatures that could disturb their rest.
'Even far from their territory, they were still formidable hunters,' Felix thought — though he already knew that.
Heavy footsteps crushed the snow beneath them as the basilisks approached.
'Would you care to explain why you dragged us all the way out here into this freezing dump.'
Tyranus' demanding words formed at the forefront of Felix's thoughts. Felix shook his head, still getting used to communicating this way.
'You know whose territory this is, right?'
Tyranus nodded his massive head. 'That's why I don't like it. The beardeer aren't exactly fun opponents.' He licked his lips. 'Although they do taste great,' he added with a grin.
'Well, the one we're here for isn't exactly a beardeer,' Felix responded, adding quietly in his mind, I'm looking for someone a little faster.
Tyranus tilted his head slightly, clearly confused.
Without so much as another moment to think, something whistled in the distance before crashing down, raising a wall of snow and disappearing between the trees. All the basilisks' attention turned toward the forest where the noise had vanished.
Silence.
The wall of snow quickly dispersed in the cold wind, revealing one of the unnamed basilisk guards lying dead in the snow — blood leaking from a narrow hole drilled into his chest.
Without so much as a nod, the basilisks spread out, hiding deep inside the woods and leaving Felix to fend for himself.
'So much for my guards.'
He darted to a nearby tree. In the distance, the whistling sound resounded once more, followed by an explosion and another wall of snow. With a thump, a second body fell onto the ground, sinking into the powdery snow.
Like a trained unit, the basilisks dashed into the sky, spinning in a tornado of black wings, while Felix watched from below. The whistling sound appeared again — this time from a completely different direction.
Were there multiple attackers? — a question Felix would have asked, if he didn't already know what they were dealing with. He had been hoping to get rid of at least one of the queen's guards, but even from so far away he knew the assailant had already lost the most important thing.
The element of surprise.
As the explosion resounded in the air, the basilisks had already shifted their positions to receive the attack. In a split second, one of the two remaining regular guards lost half of its mouth trying to catch the attacker. Seeing this, Tyranus could no longer stand by and watch. Filled with rage, he roared at the top of his lungs, shaking the entire forest and causing the attacker to miss his next strike.
Just as the attacker was turning around and preparing to strike again, Tyranus appeared in his flight path. He tried catching the attacker in his jaws — but it dove down, instantly gathering more speed and disappearing.
From then on, the unknown attacker seemed to focus entirely on Tyranus. They exchanged blow after blow — or rather, Tyranus received blow after blow. Even without fatal hits, the speeding attacker was accumulating injury after injury on his opponent with almost no blowback. It was all happening so fast that nobody could follow what was even happening. They could only hear the whistle, and the blow.
Tyranus looked like he was about to explode — his blood seemingly boiling even from a distance.
Then, as the attacker bolted toward him, his presence grew.
Suddenly it felt like there was no forest. There was no snow. There was no attacker.
There was only Tyranus — and Tyranus felt like the cold touch of death.
With a swipe of his claws, he caught the speeding attacker, dragged by momentum toward the ground. With a heavy impact they landed in the snow, sliding along for a while before coming to a stop. Tyranus roared, shaking the forest one final time.
Soon the remaining basilisks landed beside him, surrounding the pinned assailant.
Worried, Felix quickly made his way toward them.
'Stop! Don't kill him!'
The basilisks turned their heads toward the small magpie.
'He killed two of ours,' Tyranus practically hissed. 'What will mothe— the queen think if we don't at least avenge them?'
Felix shook his head. 'He's the one we came here for.'
All the basilisks turned to Felix — but he ignored them, focusing instead on the falcon gripped tightly, half-buried in the snow, still fighting for his life.
'Long time no see, Sagitta.'
The falcon turned its head, responding flawlessly — unlike the basilisks.
'Who are you?'
Felix mumbled, stunned. 'It's me. Don't you recognize me?'
Sagitta stared at him in silence.
'I suppose you wouldn't,' Felix continued after a moment. 'The last time we crossed paths was… short-lived.'
'What do you want from me?' Sagitta struggled to say.
Felix turned to Tyranus and asked him to ease his claws a little. Tyranus did so, reluctantly, after a moment.
'I want you to help me.' He paused. 'Oh — I apologize for my bad manners. I am Felix, a corvid of the central plains, and the one responsible for spreading language through the kingdoms.'
As soon as he said that, he saw Sagitta's eyes widen. He also stopped struggling.
'You knew the Scholar?'
Felix nodded, practically singing of his greatness. 'Ah, I am glad you ask. I was practically Vincent's right hand. He always relied on me to help him, and every single time he rewarded me with more knowledge. He always used to seek me out to consult any ideas he had.'
Immediately, he saw Sagitta frown.
'You? Pfft. As if.'
Felix was stumped. 'Of course I was — after all, I was the one he first taught the language of the mind to.'
Sagitta laughed. 'You must have that all wrong. I was the first. You were maybe an afterthought because he pitied you.' He looked Felix up and down as he said it.
Felix covered himself with his wings and shot back. 'You're nothing more than a fast, mindless hunter. I am the one true disciple of the Scholar.'
Sagitta laughed again. 'I was the one he told his deepest secrets to.'
'Oho?' Felix asked, intrigued. 'And what would those be? The fact that he survived something called the Second World War? That he was studying how to help others?'
Before he could continue, Sagitta cut him off.
'I know all about that — and even how he shared the rest of his food to help other children, even when he was just a hungry child himself.'
For a while they continued arguing, until Tyranus finally stepped in — his presence expanding once more, sharp with irritation.
'Are you done? Can we go now?'
They both looked at Tyranus and apologized in unison.
Felix turned his attention back to Sagitta. 'Will you help me? As a fellow friend of Vincent, I can promise you a good fight.'
Sagitta was silent for a while before responding.
'All right. But only because I want to make you stop spreading lies about being his right hand.'
Felix nodded, and with a smile said, 'That's never going to happen.'