The Guardian

Giant bald eagle man

For the past 16 years that I've been alive, I've spent ten years working to keep my family running. My dad taught me about hunting, my mom taught me about farming, and they both taught me trading and marketing. I always felt like I had it easy even though I worked hard to help put food on the table.

So when a giant bald eagle man saved me from certain death by a hundred bloodthirsty Hawks, I didn't expect to be called the hero. I wasn't even the one that saved Rosslyn. That was him.
So, like any logical person I asked,
"Are you sure I'm the hero?"

The eagle man gave a hardy laugh that made the corners of my mouth confused on whether to smile or go slack jaw.
He walked up to me and reached his large hand down to me, offering to pick me up. I was still in shock from everything that happened, so it took me a minute to process. Rosslyn jumped on the eagle man's bald head and looked me dead in the eyes.

"Don't be a jerk! Put your hand in his hand... wow! Your head is smooth... and shiny." While Rosslyn massaged her hands on his shiny head, I slowly reached my hand out and grabbed his large paw. He gripped my hand and pulled me up. His hand was easily big enough to palm my entire face, so feeling it gently grab my hand felt so strange. He pulled me to my feet and put his hand on my shoulder, covering it entirely.

"What might your name be, brave one?"

Brave?! Me?! I just got attacked by a group of oversized forest pigeons cus I was too slow to hit one of them with a rock or an axe! If that was brave, then my parents were war heroes. I felt myself shudder as I tried to deliver my name nonchalantly, like this happened every day. "H-harlen... I-I mean not H-harlen just... Harlen... you know."

Rosslyn snapped out of her state of memorization from the bald man's head to laugh at me before continuing to play with his scalp. The eagle man smiled the most pure smile I've seen in all my years, then snapped his fingers.

All the Eagles surrounding us grabbed the Hawks they were pinning down and flew away. Within seconds, we were alone. "Well, Harlen, my name is Samson. I'm king of the mighty Eagles.
I see you've met Rosslyn."

By now, Rosslyn was spinning around on top of Samson's head like it was merry-go-round. She slowed to a stop upon hearing her name, and when she stopped, she was facing away from me, so she awkwardly scooted around to look at me with a big smile. "That's me!"

Samson continued on as if there wasn't just a spinning rat on his head a minute ago. "She needs your help. Fate chose you to be the hero of Roslantica, so you must rise to the occasion and be the man the world needs you to be "

...me? Once again... ME?! The most impressive thing I've ever done was curd cheese once. I didn't even make the cheese, just the curds. "Uh... unless being the hero means running her off to someone who will actually save the world, I think you might wanna get fate to choose a better hero."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a scroll. Upon opening it, it showed the map of Roslantica as well as its two neighboring kingdoms, each ruled by dragons.

"You must create an alliance strong enough to take on the great pirate, Zyloff. That would include rallying the people of the land, the hunters, the warlocks, the soldiers, and the dragons to fight against the army of monsters, pirates and anyone darting for the bounty on Rosslyn's head."

Rosslyn nearly slipped off the curvature of Samson's head in surprise. "Wait, bounty?!" The man gave me the map then reached into his pocket for a very small bounty poster, showing it to me. It read,

"WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE.
Rosslyn the Rat. Payment: Power beyond what you need. I'll know if you killed her or not. Scammers will be flayed alive. For any additional info, send a bird and letter to the great volcano of Zyloff (formerly known as the great volcano of Rosslyn.), and we will get back to you in nine to twelve business days."