Lament of the Slave

Chapter 136: Pathetic Chick

"Lowly crawler won't tell me what to do!" Zeew screeched back at the mother mossbear, pissed off at her demand for her to leave. The mighty eagle didn't try to send down another attack, though. Either she managed to keep her temper in check, or she considered it pointless. "I demand the one who killed my kin!"

"You demand nothing. Leave!" bellowed mother mossbear so loud it made my ears ring.

"My right to kill, to avenge!"

"You come. Our woods!"

"One who killed not hand over...I Zeew turn this sea of trees back to grassland!"

"Dare, you dead!"

The eagle let out a singing laugh. "Try to touch me here, mud-wading weasel!"

I don't know why I thought this beautiful creature wouldn't stoop so low as to use the same insults as a northern eagle. After all, I was pretty sure it was the same kind as them. Zeew called the fallen beast her kin. Yet I couldn't shake the feeling that she was far more different from them than just her looks. My instincts were telling me she was much more than a mere northern eagle as they made me hold her in awe.

Some rare variant? Lightfeather recognized the beast and called her Miros the moment she saw her. So, not so rare? Was she a mere variant? That notion didn't sit well with my instincts. Zeew was more. But what? What, besides awe, could earn her my respect?

Then I remembered Squad Four and how envious they were of my class evolution. I immediately knew that was it. Zeew, or Miros, were some kind of evolution of northern eagles.

"Dare come down!" growled back the mother mossbear in their ongoing standoff. It sounded like some kind of bar squabble down here. Up there, behind a shield of leaves and branches, their presences clashed. Every now and then, I saw ripples in the air where they ground against each other.

"I am not weasel to crawl among worms!"

Yeah, Zeew surely came from the same roots as the northern eagles and shared the same view of creatures walking the earth. Her insults were not too far off from the ones I had heard before from her kin at my expense.

Of course, the words weren't that important. I don't think mossbears mind being compared to weasels or being looked down upon for wading in the mud. What was important was the meaning behind the words, the intent they carried. Well, the one that Zeew put in was an absolute disdain. I've never felt so much contempt for someone else in my life.

Anger and a desire for revenge, yes. Dungreen evoked these feelings in me. Just thinking about him made my blood boil, as well as did the mention of Fae. But even though they were both creatures I loathed and would hardly put Dungren on a par with humans, I didn't feel such contempt for either of them as Zeew held for those to whom nature has not given wings.

Or, if I should be exact, she felt contempt for those who were unable to reach the sky and were condemned to a life of wading through the mud.

"When you dead, worms crawl all over you," mother mossbear basically mocked her insult.

That didn't go over well with mighty Miros up there. "Give up the one who killed my kin!" She paused and addressed the adult mossbear directly. "Dare me to fight, weasel!" Zeew followed up her challenge with a simple attack, an air blast sent into the woods outside this destroyed area and out of the reach of the mother mossbear's defense.

It landed in the woods with a force that shook the ground beneath my feet, even at that distance. I didn't need to be there and see the aftermath to know that the force behind that air blast was far greater than the ones the northern eagle was trying to dispose of me with.