Book 3: Chapter 27
A/N: Hi guys! Sorry my uploads are slow, but I’m working on Tyson’s book. I almost have enough ready to post. I really hope y’all like it. I didn’t go anywhere. Maybe I Should keep social media. I don’t because I find it toxic and taxing… I’m also kind of scared of some random person doxing or canceling me for my unhinged horse shit. >.< I’m just a little unicorn! If I were in my book series, I’d be Just as fucked as the rest of my characters lol.
Tiffany
A month passed, and while my husband took time to teach the new witches, I spent time with my father in law. My mother in law was here too, though she was busy readying the ingredients for their next major ritual and feast. Tonight she was going to basically do maintenance on the grounds today.
“Do you know why I asked you to come?” Asked Alteer. I handed him my yellow diamond, and he put it in his office drawer. He also locked it with a key he summoned.
“The diamond has a staff… All I need to do is to attach them together.” I said holding the book of Elkteer. I don’t know why I was so attached to this book, but I read cover to cover. I even read his journal entries.
“Zayde does a mundane job, but you little Yoltier have work to do.” Said Alteer.
“Is that why you and Lady Hekki tasked him to teach the new Jekels?” I asked.
“That and he put his own foot in his mouth, now follow me. This lesson is one not made for castle grounds.” He disappeared.
“Be careful dear. Oh, and if you can, fetch about 2 live deer and get me the heart of an alligator.” She said summoning her blue spellbook. I recognized that… In the storage bag mom gave me was one like it, in Theophania’s handwriting. She was preparing a bite spell.
Well, that’s the nickname of them. Bite spells aren’t curses, but they’re close. It’s a protection spell that only activates if someone trips it. With those kinds of ingredients, it should have a literal bite to it too… An example would be an enchanted chest. Inside it would be secrets. Should the wrong person open it carelessly, the chest should bite their hand off, rip off flesh, or even gore the individual with deer antlers. That kind of thing…
“Aren’t you leaving?” Asked Hekki.
“… How?” I asked sheepishly.
“I forgot you don’t remember your first life. You didn’t know it at the time, but there are some things you will have to rediscover, like this.” She said pulling out her phone to text him to come back. It seemed that there was magic that I really didn’t remember… that it was tied into Theophania’s secrets… Ones she kept from herself. “Don’t stress about it though. As a Yoltier, you have access to the archives. I thought Zayde sent you the PDF’s.”
I didn’t… I don’t know where he went or what I was supposed to do. I knew the theory of teleportation, but I don’t think I could-
“What are you doing Tiffany? Oh right, this is a kind of a family secret.” He said impatiently. “You’re going to miss it.” He snatched my hand and teleported while I screamed from the sudden jerk. He didn’t hurt me or anything, but I was being fairied away. He sounded almost excited about all this, like we were going to an amusement park.
“Where are we?!” I asked feeling the humidity hit me in the face. It was Hot here, and lush.
“Shhh…. Watch.” He pointed.
Above our heads flew a creature I don’t recall ever seeing… They had a yellow macaw’s head and their torso feathers faded to a golden orange. However, stripes of other colors lined their wings, with the tips of the wings being blue. Their tails were a vibrant red, and they held a long neck like a swan. Its body was a lean dog’s with legs like one too.
The front feet were macaw’s feet, while their back feet were like an eagle’s. The tail was long like a cat’s but lined with long parrot’s feathers along the sides. It seemed that most of them had a combination of red and yellow plumage, though the other colors made stripes down their wings…. I watched them fly into some dilapidated stone structures. There had to be thousands of them in number.
“It’s a temple.” I whispered. “If they’re so smart… why do they stay in such a broken place?” I asked. They had guards standing on two legs, using their spears as canes to hold themselves in a bipedal fashion. It was clear that they were meant to stand on 4, and hold a stance like a gryphon, but they were too proud to… interesting.
“You’ll see… I’ve been watching this place for two days.” Said Alteer.
They’d made the temple their home. The stone structures were worn, but carved to look like a feathered serpent…. It was being defeated by a man wearing a feather headdress. Who that was I wouldn’t know, and I wondered was that a form Elkteer could take? I didn’t see anything in the journals, but that’s something you’d keep to yourself…. This place looked reclaimed by the Jungle. The vines and trees made it too hard to recognize anything else distinct about this place.
“Aye.” He whispered back. “These creatures were made by the Beast Prince, but they hold no allegiance to anyone. Their front paws have apposable thumbs, and they’re about as intelligent as a 10-year-old… So far, all I’ve seen them do is live here.”
“I have a feeling you’re whispering too because they’re vicious.” I said hiding in some bushes with him.
“They eat mostly like parrots, but they see man and beast alike as a threat. They know that they are a sideshow attraction, or money in poacher’s pockets.” He began to take off his boots. “Take off your shoes as well.”
“What am I supposed to do after that?!” I whisper yelled.
“Just watch.” He smiled. The nearly endless see of them trickled down to one or two. The swarm passed. Before I could say anything, he became a shadow. “Now you.” He encouraged.
“…I don’t know how to do *that*!” I whisper yelled.
“…. Well fuck.” He said as a shadow… It was cloudy and misty here. The Jungle floor was dark. There were plenty of places to hide, since the colorful creatures didn’t see us. “Then I can hide you, but you have to take every step I take.” He said taking off his cloak. “I’ll hold onto it. Put it over your head.” He said low. I could only assume these things were hyper-aggressive.
“Sorry.” I said vanishing. I became a see-through shadow.
“Don’t worry about it; I forgot you don’t remember the family secrets. I’ll teach you tomorrow. Now I’m going to walk slowly inside, down the stairs, and hopefully we won’t have to swim.” He said taking small, deliberate steps.
This place was massive… imposing… The guards didn’t see us… but they did look Right at us… I think they could sense the magic, but since we were invisible, they sounded no alarms…
Inside was surprisingly clean… They had bonfires inside to keep the place dry and warm, while bucket-like pails were carried in their back talons. Any attempt of the jungle to reclaim the inside of the ruins was thwarted by the fully feathered bird-dogs… They had cleaners cleaning, and the males wore loin-cloths. The females did too, but their garments were draped under their tails, holding the appearance of a skirt.
They squawked in rhythm while a parrot with gray feathers was on his hind legs… It had the bottom of the staff… I knew it. It glowed yellow as they raised their parrot ‘hands’ in the air around him.
That one gave a speech, but I didn’t understand a word of it… until I could make it out… That was Spanish. I had to listen hard to catch his words, since the squawks were loud and thick.
“I remember when the master made me.” He said slamming the staff on the ground, and the others squawked in unison. “I was a chick… and they did not want us.” He slammed it again. “They cast us out…. They gave us to the Witches… how Cruel they were when we built their temple… We thought the humans were good, but they are *worse* than the masters…. After the witches were cast out…. We were treated *worse*… ”
They hissed like geese… Why did the Beast Prince use goose blood? Swans are aggressive too… but geese are monsters in their own right…
“We told them of the temple they made, thinking they would help…. The humans did… but they put us in cages and fed us rotted food. They made us *pets* and belittled our smartness. Then we built *their* temple too…. We TOOK our freedom after I stole this…Sometimes I think the Great Dark One let me take it… We got our vengeance because of him.” He pointed his ‘finger’ at the statue. “He is silent… but powerful…”
They’d maintained it, but I couldn’t make out what god that was…Then I became suspicious… If this was a human temple, I hoped my assumption was wrong….They spread out their wings as they stood on two legs.
“All Hail Huitzilopochtli!” He yelled. “May the Lord of Light Shine on our feathers.”
They cawed in honor of the Sun God… “Shit.” I whispered.
“Huah!” They roared.
“Fuck.” Whispered Alteer. “I wondered who that was, but today must be a holiday or something.”
“May the darkness be driven away by the Sun Staff!”
“Huah!”
“Whoever holds the staff holds our lives… Who is strong enough to take it!” He raised it in the air. “Who will hold this?”
“One stronger than we.” They chanted…
“It is our only protection… The day it is taken is the day we will be rejected again… Trash again… .Tossed into darkness, and taken in chains…Our feathers clipped… Our mates killed.”
“Double fuck.” Whispered Alteer….
“Curse the Great Dark One, he who holds the other half!” He cawed. “Is there any now who wish to lead? Any who wish to take this staff, and guide my people now that I am old, and broken… The wind no longer carries this old bird…. The sun barely kisses my feathers down here.”
They were silent… but I knew what I had to do.
“What are you standing for, you’ll get caught.” Growled Alteer.
“I know. Wish me luck.” I said with a smile. He caught on now.
“I hope this works. I’ll stay back in case I need to make a portal… but also to let you shine. This is your land… rule it.” He said like a proud father would…
I didn’t hesitate.
My first executive decision as the *new* coven leader, would be to correct whatever horrors Elkteer did here.
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