“Um, what happens if they decide not to let us be Seekers anymore? The Council does everything by vote, and the older Seekers outnumber us. We might not have this job for long if they vote us out!”
“That’s not going to happen,” I say. “The Seekers rarely vote anyone out. They only did it to Agnar because he was a literal traitor selling magical objects to the Vondur and helping them take over the island. They’re not going to exile us just because we broke some arbitrary rules.”
“They also rarely appoint Seekers who didn’t win the competition,” Ari counters, “and they’ve never picked a girl before, either. They already broke precedent by giving you the job, so who’s to say they won’t decide to take it away?”
Admittedly, I hadn’t thought things through that far, but I still don’t think it’s likely to happen. “Well, then we’d better make this a successful outing so they won’t have any reason to kick us out, right?”
“Successful how? What’s the point of being here? We don’t even know where we are!”
“We’re Seekers, Ari. The point is to seek something. Let’s see if we can find some magical creatures and collect some items. Maybe we’ll find some sea-wolf fur or phoenix feathers or—” I spin around, suddenly realizing exactly where we should go. “Or gyrpuff nests!”
“What?” Ari asks, sliding down from Lilja’s back.
“Look, we’re on one of the southern cliffs! See how it drops off on the side there? This is exactly the kind of spot where gyrpuffs tend to make their nests. Imagine if we brought a whole gyrpuff egg back to the other Seekers! Then they’d see that we know what we’re doing.”
Ari gazes skeptically at the cliffside. “How do we know for sure we’ll find a nest? Seems awfully risky, Bryn.”
“What risk? Gyrpuffs are completely harmless, and one of the easiest creatures in the Realm to deal with. We could hardly get into any trouble tracking them. And if we don’t find anything, we’ll just go back to the village and the other Seekers won’t even know we were here. But if we do find something, then it’ll be proof that we’re ready to go out into the Realm on our own. No more training sessions or unnecessary supervision. Just us and the Realm!”
“And what happens if we fall off the cliff and die?”
I wave away his concern. “You worry too much. This is going to be great!”
* * *
I stand at the top of the cliff, certain death waiting below.
From a distance, the cliff didn’t seem nearly so scary. But standing at its edge, I’m starting to think Ari might have been right. At my feet, the ground drops away, revealing the sea churning far below, its white-capped waves frothing up as if threatening to consume anyone who dares to cling to the cliffside, which is so steep and rocky that I can’t imagine anyone has ever descended it before.
But that’s exactly what Ari and I are about to do.
It turns out that finding gyrpuff nests might be harder than I thought.
“Well,” Ari says from beside me, peering down at the sea below, “this looks tricky.” The wind blows a tuft of his wild curls back from his face.
“My thoughts exactly,” I mutter. Behind us, Lilja snorts loudly. She seemed interested in the landscape at first, just like she always is when we fly someplace new in the Realm, but it’s been only a few minutes since we landed here and she’s already lost interest. Any landscape that does not contain food for her is one that doesn’t hold her attention for long.
These rock walls are peppered with tiny ledges, crevasses, and pockets, perfect for the small gyrpuff birds to make their nests. The cliffs are so high that only creatures with wings can reach them, but the caves are so small that dragons like Lilja couldn’t possibly get to them. The only predators that stand a chance of accessing their nests are humans. Which is precisely what Ari and I plan to do, assuming we don’t fall hundreds of feet to our deaths.
We could, of course, just have Lilja fly level with the sides of the cliffs and try to reach them that way. But, aside from the tricky maneuvering required to get from her back to the smallest of rock ledges, Lilja’s presence would scare the gyrpuffs. Since they have the ability to disappear and reappear in another location (within a limited range), they’d just pop themselves and their nests deeper into the crevasses of the rock where we can’t possibly find them.
There’s only one way for a good Seeker to reach a gyrpuff nest: climbing straight down the side of the cliff.
“This is ridiculous,” Ari says, echoing my thoughts as we stand at the edge and look down. “This has to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”
“You just flew hundreds of feet into the air on a dragon’s back,” I remind him.
“That’s different. Lilja has wings. We don’t.”
“Oh, come on. You’re just scared I’m going to beat you to the nests, and then all the good eggs will be mine.”
“No, I just have a perfectly reasonable fear of plunging to my death.”
“A real Seeker wouldn’t be afraid.”
He sighs deeply. “I really hope I live long enough to regret this.”
With nothing left to say, we descend.
The jaggedness of the rock gives us plenty of handholds and footholds to work with as we cling to the side of the cliff and make our way down. But it’s also wet with sea spray and much more slippery than I would’ve liked. At one point I make the mistake of looking down, and the sea is so far below us that it makes me a little bit dizzy.
“You all right?” Ari calls as I stop for a moment, waiting for the world to quit spinning.
“Fine,” I say. “My eyes just decided to protest this height for a minute.”
“I have to agree with them,” Ari mutters, looking down at the raging sea. “Do you think Lilja will catch us if we fall?”
I glance at the top of the cliff, where Lilja is chomping nonchalantly on what looks like a clump of dandelions. “I wouldn’t count on it,” I say. “Just try not to die.”
“Working on it.”
Thanks to my dizziness, it’s Ari who finds a safe place to stand first. He lands carefully on a small ledge that’s only a few feet wide, and I scramble to follow him. As soon as my feet hit the stone, I look around the ledge for any sign of gyrpuffs.
“See anything?” Ari whispers.
“Not yet. Let’s walk a little farther,” I whisper back.
“Sure hope you’re right about there being gyrpuff nests here,” Ari mutters.
I roll my eyes. “Have I ever been wrong?”
Ari mutters something too low for me to hear.
We walk single file along the ledge, carefully placing one foot in front of the other and clinging to the rocks with our hands. “What are the three things we’re supposed to look for when tracking gyrpuffs?” I ask Ari, even though I know the answer. The other Seekers have been quizzing us so much that it’s become a habit.
“Any loose feathers, of course,” Ari says. “And three-pronged claw marks along the rocks. And… their poop.”
“Ew. If we see anything that looks like poop, I’m not stopping to examine it.”
Ari laughs. “All part of the glamorous life of being a Seeker.” He stops suddenly, bending down to study something on the ground. “Hey, do you think this looks like a claw—”
He takes a step closer, and abruptly the rocks shift underneath him, and he loses his footing. His feet slide off the ledge, and I leap forward, grabbing his arm. His other hand clings to the rock wall, but his feet are dangling off the side of the cliff.
“I’ve got you!” I shout. “Don’t move!”
Ari looks up at me, his eyes wide. I’m now precariously perched on the ledge, near the same spot where the loose rocks sent him tumbling. One wrong step, and I’ll be headed over the side of the cliff too. But I can’t haul Ari up by myself; I’m not strong enough to lift him.
“I’ll pull you up,” I lie, to calm his panic. “Just don’t make any sudden movements.”
“I can tell when you’re
lying, you know,” he says, his voice coming out in a shaky croak. “Empath, remember?”
“Yeah, well, I’m really wishing you were a warrior right about now. Then you could just move the rock and push yourself up.”
“But I’m not one, so I hope you’ve got a better idea.”
“I’m working on it!” My arms are straining to hold him, and his other hand is barely clinging to the rock. I have to think fast.
On instinct, I reach for my magic, letting it flow into the air, searching for something, for anything. But we’re surrounded by stone, and there’s nothing for me to latch on to….
There. Below Ari, and slightly to the right, I definitely feel something. There’s another ledge, or some kind of protrusion, and a bright spark of life is perched on it. Something small, but its energy is strong enough that it’s obviously magical. Which means…
“Ari,” I say slowly, “I’m going to have to let you drop.”
“What!”
“But first you need to move, like, a couple of inches to the right.”
“If this is some kind of joke, Bryn, it’s not the best time.”
“Listen. There’s a gyrpuff nest down there. I bet you can sense it with your gift. It should be plushy enough to land in, and it’s not that far down. You just have to aim for it.”
“How am I supposed to do that? I’m falling off the side of a cliff, Bryn!”
I take a deep breath, trying to ignore his panic. My arm is shaking. “I’m going to move a little bit to the right,” I say, “and pull you in that direction. Then, on three, you need to let go of the rock. Okay?”
He shakes his head, looking down at the drop below.
“Ari. Use your gift. You can feel where the gyrpuff is. That’s what we’re aiming for. You feel it?”
“No!”
“Remember that thing you taught me? About finding the rhythm of things to sense them? You need to do that now. Close your eyes. Stop looking down.”
Mutely, he shuts his eyes. I wish I could give him more time, but my strength is gone. In a second, I’m going to drop him whether I want to or not.
“Okay,” I say, “I’m moving now.” I take a careful half step to the right. The rock shifts under my feet, but it holds. I move my other foot and pull on Ari’s arm, dragging him over.
“We’re letting go on three,” I say. “One.”
Ari opens his eyes.
“Two.”
He opens his mouth, but no words come out.
“Three.”
We both let go at the same time.
Ari plummets, and I squeeze my eyes shut, sensing his landing with my gift instead of my eyes. For a second his magic is everywhere, flying through the air all around, and then—
He lands. His life force is right next to the smaller one that I sensed just below me.
He made it.
I peer carefully over the side of the ledge, but I can’t see that far down in the shadows. “Ari?” I call.
Silence.
“Ari!”
“I’m here!” he croaks, and I exhale. “Bryn, you’ve got to see this! Just jump down.”
Jump. Right.
“Um, maybe I’ll look for a safer way. I’d really rather climb.” But as I examine the rocks surrounding me, it’s clear that our weight has disturbed them too much. The ledge under my feet is still trembling as I shift my footing, and I’m not sure if it will hold me much longer.
Jumping would be faster than climbing.
I don’t give myself more time to think it through. I step toward the edge, trying to position myself directly over the two life forces below. I don’t make the mistake of looking down again, keeping my eyes pressed tightly closed.
One. Two. Three.
I jump.
My heart hammers in my chest as the wind whooshes past me, my gift flying off in all directions, and—
I hit something soft with a little thump. It feels like a pillowy cushion is below me. I open my eyes.
“What took you so long?” Ari says with a grin.
I try to respond, but the fall has knocked all the air out of my lungs. “Ugh,” I moan.
But as far as falls go, this one wasn’t so bad. I am surrounded by super-soft black-and-white feathers, and the impact didn’t hurt much at all. I sit up, brushing the feathers off my arms. Ari has a whole clump of them sticking out of his hair, but he doesn’t notice. He’s looking around in awe.
The nest is larger than I’d imagined, made of thick twigs and lined with softer grasses and fairy clovers as well as the feathers. And inside the nest with us sits what is unmistakably a gyrpuff. It’s just under a foot tall, with a short orange beak and little webbed feet. Its primary feathers are jet-black, but there’s a tuft of white on its belly that gleams in the soft sunlight. Its tiny wings are tucked in at its sides, and it regards us with inquisitive black eyes.
One of a gyrpuff’s magical characteristics, aside from relocating in the blink of an eye, is the ability to imitate any sound they hear. It’s an impressive skill, but, given that they’re not the Realm’s most intelligent creatures, they mostly just use it to be annoying. They generally emit squawks, squeaks, and chirps of varying pitch and intensity with no real pattern and for no real reason. Unless, that is, they’re trying to scare predators away from their nests, at which point they can make any number of high-pitched screams, shrieks, or other horrible noises.
Which is exactly what happens to us now.
The gyrpuff begins to make a terrible, tremendously loud rumble, like a crash of thunder. Ari jumps at the unexpected sound, but when it doesn’t deter us, the gyrpuff changes tack. The boom of thunder is replaced with a high-pitched, horrifying shriek that sounds like an animal in pain. Ari and I both cover our ears, cringing away from the noise. The gyrpuff only gets louder, taking a little hop forward and aiming its awful screech right at us.
With our hands covering our ears, we can’t direct our gifts, so I reluctantly lower mine, exposing my ears and bracing myself against the onslaught of sound. I send my gift toward the gyrpuff as quickly as possible, reaching for its life force much less gently than usual. The gyrpuff stops abruptly, trying to figure out what the sensation of my gift is. It tilts its head curiously, the last echo of its shriek fading away.
“I think my ears are bleeding,” Ari mutters.
“Don’t be such a baby,” I say. “If you hadn’t been too busy cowering, you could’ve used your empathy gift to make it stop.”
“I—” Ari starts, but I ignore him, climbing to my feet and taking a step closer to the bird.
“Hello there, pretty gyrpuff,” I say, winding my gift around its life source so that it will feel more comfortable. “Don’t mind us. Just go about your business.”
Ari snorts.
“You want to lend me a hand here?” I say. Too loudly. The gyrpuff startles, and in the blink of an eye, it vanishes.
“Oops,” Ari says.
“Well, at least it didn’t take its nest with it. There are eggs here—look.”
Ari and I crouch over the nest and examine our bounty. The gyrpuff feathers, of course, are a prize all on their own. They’re extra soft and insulating, and often used to make clothes and blankets that repel cold. But all the feathers in the world aren’t worth as much as the other objects lying in the nest. Two shiny eggs, both the size of my palm, are nestled in its center. And both of them have thick eggshells made of solid gold.
“How do we know if we can take them?” Ari whispers.
Much like chickens, gyrpuffs often lay eggs that don’t actually have babies inside. Seekers can take the empty eggs to trade but must never take an egg that actually contains a baby gyrpuff.
“With your gift, of course,” I reply. Even as I say it, I reach out with my own, searching for a life spark within each golden sphere.
The egg closest to me has a spark, albeit a small and feeble one. There’s definitely something inside. But the one closer to Ari is hollow, with no spark at all.
>
“Guess this is it,” Ari says. He unties the satchel from around his shoulder and carefully tucks the hollow egg inside.
“We should look around some more,” I say. I don’t know if it will be enough to impress the other Seekers if we return from our great gyrpuff-tracking mission with only one egg, especially considering how many of their rules we’re breaking. Besides, it took a lot of effort to get all the way down this cliff. We need something more to show for it.
Ari glances around, the yellow glow of his gift dancing around his fingertips and providing illumination to the darker corners of this crevasse. “Is it just me,” he says after a moment, “or is that another nest back there?”
I follow his gaze and call on my gift, feeling it rushing in my veins and flowing through me. Green sparks dance around my hands as I step closer to Ari. Sure enough, the twigs of a second nest are tucked on a rocky ledge about a foot over our heads, barely visible in the recesses of the rock.
“More climbing,” Ari says with a sigh, but I’m already in motion. I latch on to a jagged edge and haul myself up, my boots finding traction against the rough stone. Within moments, I’m scrambling into the small nest, Ari right behind me.
“Careful,” I say. “These twigs are pretty loose.”
Ari’s foot nearly slips as he steps into the nest, and he grimaces. “Noted.”
“How many times am I going to have to save you from falling today?” I ask with a grin.
“Depends. How many more cliffs are you planning on climbing?”
I start to reply, but then a flicker of movement catches my eye, and I freeze. “Did you see that?” I whisper.
“Is that…?” Ari doesn’t finish his sentence. He doesn’t need to.
As we both step forward, our gifts alight on a huddled figure at the back of the nest. It’s a tiny gyrpuff, lying alone, and I know immediately that something is wrong.
Gyrpuffs usually sleep curled up in little balls, but this one is stretched on its side, and it’s barely responding at all as Ari and I approach. One of its wings flickers feebly, and I exhale in relief—at least that means it’s alive.
“Maybe it’s injured?” Ari asks softly.
Legend of the Realm Page 3
