The trees that lined the troupe’s path became increasingly threatening, their branches reaching to the sky in sharp claws, bare of leaves even this late in spring. The trees weren’t dead, that much they could tell from the mana that circulated through them. In fact, by magical standards, these trees were fairly overflowing with life. It’s just that, rather than growing leaves, blooming flowers, and setting fruit, these trees seem to have chosen something quite a bit different.

Many of the spiky trees had corpses impaled on them, in various stages of decay. Some had been eaten down to the bones, while others were left simply to rot. Grandma had the macabre thought that perhaps those ones didn’t taste as good to whatever had impaled them on the trees, then shook her head, dismissing the horrid notion.

There was movement around them, but it was impossible to catch a clear view of the creatures through the clacking branches. They caught flashes of gray and white, a suggestion of dark tail, a flash of black wingtips. Chattering calls assaulted them from all directions, short, dissonant chromatic runs warning of intruders. 

The soldiers kept flinching every time they caught a glimpse of movement out of the corners of their eyes. The raucous jeering of the unknown creatures sawed through their collective patience and calm, setting everyone on edge. The corpses stank, and every now and again, someone broke rank to empty the contents of their stomach. All in all, it turned into an extraordinarily unnerving trek through the woods.

[All right, I hate to say it, but I think I jinxed us,] Grandma informed Mina and Tanner grimly. [I wasn’t much of a birder in my past life, but I’m pretty sure there are shrikes here. A lot of shrikes.]

[What’s a shrike?] Mina asked, staring at the latest oozing corpse dangling from a tree spike high up in the air.

[Where I come from, a shrike is a cute, fluffy little murder bird that eats mice and stores extra food on thorns. Here, we seem to be dealing with nightmare shrikes of unusual size.] Grandma sounded sulky. [I really hope I’m wrong, but it’s starting to seem less and less likely.]

[So they’re birds?] asked Tanner, eyeing the treeline to either side of them, as if expecting a shrike to divebomb him.

[Yes, they are birds. And if they’re big enough to pick up weasels as big as that, then they’re probably just about big enough to carry off one of you. Maybe even the soldiers too.] Grandma scanned the sky as well, alert to the possibility of an aerial abduction.

The soldiers’ nerves were frayed to the snapping point, archers preemptively stringing their bows and fingering their arrows, spearmen anxiously shifting their polearms from hand to hand. Everyone craned their heads up, peering through the branches, glancing at the sky. Still, for all their alertness, only the mages reacted to the attack fast enough.

A pair of birds dove out of the sky, impossibly huge wings blotting out the meager sunlight, dropping with terrifying speed toward Mina and Tanner, the smallest and most exposed figures in the troupe. Mina sensed them coming and lashed out with a whirling blade of water, and Tanner heaved a column of fire into the sky, singeing the tips of their flight feathers. This disoriented the attacking birds long enough for Donovan to bellow at the archers, who quickly turned the monsters into pin cushions.

“I think we should bunker down for the day,” Mina said. The sun was setting and the light was fading rapidly anyway, and everyone was exhausted by a day spent on high alert, heads swiveling to catch glimpses of they knew not what. “At least now we know what we’re dealing with,” the girl muttered as she stared at the dead birds.

[Yep. Shrikes.] Grandma started to launch into an explanation of field markings, but Mina forestalled her.

[Bunker first please, Grandma. I’m really scared,] Mina whispered, for Grandma alone to hear.

[You got it, love.]

Grandma worked with Fariel to build a large earthen dome, big enough for even Tanner’s menagerie. The boy had been worrying about his bonded animals, but also didn’t want to make the soldiers uncomfortable. Grandma made an earthen lattice that screened the animals from view and carved out their own door so that everyone could be safe and comfortable for the night. Even Ember and Spark, recognizing that discretion was the better part of valor, decided to cozy up with the crowd in order to hide from the shrikes.

Fariel and Tanner worked together to butcher the shrikes they had downed. After scanning the carcasses and declaring the meat safe for consumption, the court mage sought out Grandma, leaving the cooking to Tanner, Mina, and a pair of volunteers from amongst the soldiers.

“What are we dealing with here?” he asked the golem, his voice low so as not to alarm the others.

Grandma eyed Fariel, then extended a mana link. [Do imperial scholars not know about local fauna? These appear to be shrikes, or something very similar. Only, they’re enormous, and can kill a person.] She considered the season, the location, and the birds’ behavior. [I wonder if they’re mating right now.]

“Is there any way to discourage them? Can we negotiate with them the way you did with the weasels?”

[Maybe if we had large pieces of cloth, we could create a canopy that would confuse and deter the birds from diving at us?] Grandma scratched her head. [This isn’t exactly my wheelhouse,] she added. [I’ve only ever used premade netting to fend off hawks and keep my chickens safe. These guys are much bigger, and arguably meaner too.]

“I’ll mention it to Donovan. Maybe we can use the sheets covering the supplies.” Fariel nodded his thanks and pushed to his feet, then slowly made his way across the bunker to speak with the Captain.

The next morning, Donovan assigned several soldiers to repurpose every scrap of spare fabric they could find, in order to make a canopy that was large enough to cover all of them. They even used bandages and cut strips from their shirt hems, knotting them carefully to make a net that would foul a bird’s wings and feet if it came at them.

They hurried on, the awning held up over them by spears, which they took turns holding up. The canopy worked, or else the shrikes learned of the deaths of the two who had tried previously and decided not to bother, because no more attacks came for them. The soldiers marched on in nervous silence, nearly breaking into a cheer of relief when their destination finally came into sight.

The small town was covered with colorful pennants snapping and flapping from every tall object. Nothing sharp protruded into the sky, only flowing cloth wavering in the wind. [Looks like the townsfolk have had a rough time of it,] Grandma sighed. [See how there’s nothing for the shrikes to impale corpses on, and all the streamers?]

[I wonder what it looked like before,] Mina mused.

[Festooned with corpses impaled on pointy weathervanes?] Tanner joked, then had to clear his throat as his stomach clenched. [Sorry, my mouth ran away from me.]

[You’re probably right though,] Grandma told them, somber.

Donovan met the mayor in the little town square, and the soldiers set up distribution stations for the relief supplies they had brought, mostly food and medicine. The townsfolk crowded around, clamoring and disorderly, until Jiyon shouted them into some semblance of a line, his soldiers physically corralling them until the citizens complied.

Mina sent her awareness out into the area around them, sensing the fine shifts in the flow of magic to try and determine the location and distance of the dungeon that had to be nearby. It was roughly equidistant to this and the next town, west of both. Should they head into the dungeon next then? 

They held a strategy meeting that evening after everyone had eaten their fill. “It makes sense to clear that dungeon first,” Donovan said thoughtfully. “There’s no point in doubling back, after all, and the sooner we take care of the source of the monsters, the better for everyone.”

“That makes sense to me,” Fariel concurred. “How many should come this time? Last time I think the extra bodies just got in your way, Mina.”

[Let’s limit it to a small group of magically gifted soldiers this time,] Grandma suggested. [If push comes to shove, at least we’ll be able to keep them healthy with dungeon mana easier.]

Mina paraphrased Grandma’s suggestion, and asked Fariel and Donovan to select a small team of strong, fast soldiers who were capable of using a large amount of mana. Fariel flicked a glance at the golem, and Grandma sent him a sliver of mana, explaining, [Look for people who have high mana flow rate, even if they don’t have great mana capacity. Like yourself.]

The higher a person’s mana flow rate, the more mana they could pull from their environment for their use, which meant it would be easier to force mana into their bodies to keep them healthy if they needed to run another ultramarathon to flee the dungeon. Grandma sincerely hoped that this time, such extreme measures wouldn’t be necessary, but she kept silent about it to avoid any potential jinxes.

With a plan in place, they set out the next day. Fariel and Donovan chose six soldiers, a pair of archers, three spearmen, and Jiyon. Mina, Tanner, and Grandma all stared at Jiyon in naked disbelief, but Fariel held up his hands in a placating gesture, palms out, and said, “He met your criteria for magic.” The court mage sounded deeply apologetic.

Donovan added, “He’s got grit, and he’s been improving too. Plus he volunteered.”

[Is he trying to impress me?] Mina scoffed.

[Either that or he has some foolish notion of protecting you,] Grandma pointed out, resigned and annoyed by this turn of events. [Either way, it seems we can’t exactly get rid of him, so we’ll just have to do our best to keep him alive but away from you.]

[Ugh. Thanks, I hate it.] Mina was saying that a lot these days. She missed her quiet, peaceful, and fulfilling life back in the little house in Bow Harbor. [I want to go home.]

Tanner scrubbed his face with one hand and heaved a sigh worthy of an ancient sage. “Do as you’re told, and stay out of the way, all right?” he said to the Crown Prince.

“I’ll do my best,” Jiyon answered with a straight face.