***
Late into the everlasting night, the Roc finally gently shifted into a troll. It was Annabelle. Clarice's friends were asleep, but she was not. She had a sour look on her face as she looked at Annabelle. She didn't want to speak with Annabelle, she wanted to speak with the Roc's true human form--the ivory man.
Clarice said to his Annabelle form gently, "there you are... I have some things to ask you."
"I don't want to talk to you!" He said with tears in his eyes. "I won't talk to any of the creatures of Dru ever again!"
Clarice glowered angrily. "Look at the sky! It has been night for decades while you cower here and abandon the people who loved and worshipped you! You owe us an explanation and a talk!"
Clarice's friends woke up with all of her yelling. Jonathan wiped the sleep out of his eyes and smiled. He sat up and said to the Roc, "you're a troll again... I have so many things to ask you about... I've been cracking eggs on your altars for twenty years, and I finally get to meet you."
The Roc glanced over at Jonathan, but said nothing. He tried to dash off in his Annabelle form, but Nana grabbed his arm. "You're not running away! Tell us why you abandoned us and left us at the mercy of the Wicked Goddess and her night beasts! I lost a sibling to that horror!"
The Roc looked at Nana angrily. "You should have taken better care of your sibling. I am not here to babysit you people. You have always asked too much of me and depended on me far too much--and when I ask for something in return, you deny me! I am done being your tool to give affections to when you feel like and take them away at a moment's notice!"
Nana growled, shoved the Roc to the ground and pinned him there with one of her bird legs. "You will battle the Goddess for us, or else!"
Asha was aghast at how Nana was treating their god. She shoved Nana off of him and yelled, "what is wrong with you? You think he will help us if you threaten him?"
Jonathan was also disgusted by Nana's actions, but he tried to calm the situation down. "You two need to be good and kind, we must show the Roc..."
"Quiet Jonathan! You pretend to be good and kind but we know you've killed more individuals than both of us have combined in that war you fought in! You came here to throw yourself at the Roc's mercy and beg him to let you into the Warm and Good Place with your wife when you die!" Asha said contemptuously.
The Roc crossed his arms and clinked his eyes with a shake of his head and a frown on his face. "Disgusting."
Clarice watched her group break out into a fight with horror in her eyes. They were always such a good team. She thought when they met the Roc, it would bring them even closer together, not break them apart. She yelled above the din of fighting, "everyone settle down! We're here to convince the Roc to help!"
Everyone was quiet for a moment. Clarice took a deep breath and approached the Annabelle-Roc meaningfully. "What will it take to convince you to fight with us against the Wicked Goddess?"
The Roc breathed deeply with tears stinging his eyes and a dark expression on his face. "Prove you're worthy!"
Clarice asked calmly, "how?"
"Show me the progress you have made without me! Show me that you are different than you were when I closed my heart!" The Roc challenged. "Do something kind for me that no one else can do!"
Clarice raised a blond eyebrow. "Like what?"
The Roc crossed his arms and thought. "Tell me a story about the peoples of Dru that makes them worth saving."
"You tell me!" Clarice retorted, confronting the Roc angrily. "You take the form of Annabelle, a girl you loved! Tell me why she's so special to you? What was it about her that made her worth immortalizing in your form and your heart forever!"
The Roc looked panicked. "Don't bring her up! How did you know about her?"
"We read Annabelle's diary--we just met you in her form hours ago!"
The Roc shook his head. "I don't remember that... I've been in the egg the entire time."
Nana yelled, "no you haven't! Stop being a coward and help us!"
The Roc covered his face in his hands and lost control of his Annabelle form. He shifted back into his gigantic bird form.
He cawed ferociously and snapped wildly at anything in sight. Clarice tried to quell him again, but this time, he flew off--almost losing balance as he went. He disappeared behind dark clouds in the distance.
Clarice clapped a hand to her mouth with tears in her eyes. She turned to Nana. "What is wrong with you! We have to get him to help us!"
Nana was shocked at Clarice's tears. She had never made her friend cry before. Clarice was their well-respected leader who they thought was made of iron. Nana never wanted to make her friend cry. "I'm sorry."
Clarice wiped her eyes. "It's okay... I was so excited to finally meet him and this is how he reacts. This isn't how I imagined him."
Jonathan put a hand on her shoulder. "He's in a bad spot right now. It's unfair to expect him to be perfect and kind all the time. We need to be kind and patient with him."
***
The Roc had flown off with madness enveloping his heart. War was in his eyes, the girl, Annabelle, was in his heart. Neither of which he could forget.
***
Clarice told her friends to go back to sleep. She stayed up, waiting for the Roc to come back. She told her friends that it would be better for her to try and calm the Roc by herself--so he wouldn't be so overwhelmed. She remembered he was very shy. She remembered he often needed to be treated kindly from what she had read about him.
Clarice was exhausted. But she made a fire and let her arms dangle off her knees while she waited for the Roc to come back--if he came back at all.
And, he did come back. He clumsily landed near Clarice, moaning softly. Once the Roc settled down, she asked him, "what happened to your trueform? The boy?"
The Roc was listening, but did not shift back into a form that could respond.
"Why don't you tell me about why you shut your heart? Tell me why the people of Dru have done you wrong? You said we only love you when you are giving us gifts; that love is conditional. It was never conditional for me. It has always been unconditional. I was in love with that ivory man. I still am. I can't take that love away--I never have been able to. I've been alone this whole time. I have rejected the affections of men because they could never compare to you. Is the ivory man your true heart? Is it the Roc? Or is it this Annabelle girl?"
The Roc slowly shifted into Annabelle again and he said to Clarice, "everyone thinks the ivory man is my trueform--that it belongs to me--it does not. I was just a bird before he came along. An intelligent bird, but a bird nonetheless. One who lived with a master who hatched me."
***
Long, long ago, when there were hardly any individuals inhabiting the Land of Dru, an old, bearded, obsidian wizard was exploring incredibly long grass of Yab. Somewhere deep in the grass, he found a humongous glass egg which contained a gigantic baby bird inside. The wizard looked upon it curiously. He had never seen such a thing in his life.
He took his walking stick and tapped the glass egg with it. He didn't want to hurt the creature, but he also wanted to meet it. It certainly seemed to be done forming.
He slammed his walking stick into the ground and thunder sprang forth and cracked the egg which shattered around the bird who flopped out and began hopping around.
The bird was about the size of the wizard, but with a much thicker width. It's ivory feathers shone and sparkled, and its big red eyes were captivating. The obsidian wizard calmed the hopping bird by putting his hands on the bird's cheeks. "There, there... My, you are special, aren't you?"
The bird twitched its head to the side, looking around wildly. The wizard smiled. "I shall keep you safe. You are more powerful than any creature in the entire world and people will hurt you to get that power. Come along with me, and I will be your father. You shall have all the love in the world. You shall be called Roc."
The wizard warped both he and the Roc to a large stone cave opening in the side of a stony mountain. A boy--perhaps six or seven--ran up to Roc who had just appeared in the cave and asked his father, "daddy, who's this?"
"This is your new brother, Roc. Be good to him while I'm gone, boy." The wizard said.
The boy looked at his new brother with wide eyes. The boy was ivory like the Roc was. "So your name is Roc? My name is Connie."
The Roc understood very little at this point. He listened to his new brother while hopping around the small cave space and looking around wildly at his surroundings.
Connie smiled. "You're all cramped up in here! Lets go outside."
Connie walked outside of the cave opening in the mountain and walked down the soft incline to the soft grass awaiting them below. Clouds were covering the blue sky, and it was threatening to rain. Connie was excited. "I love it when it rains! Come on!"
Soon, rain was coming down pretty hard. Connie and the Roc dashed out under the rainy sky and ran around in the puddles of rain that were forming.
Connie said to his brother, "hey! Let's play a game! I'll tag you, and then you tag me, okay?"
The Roc didn't know what he meant at first, but after a few repetitions of Connie showing him, he understood. They played together in the rain for what felt like hours.
Eventually, the obsidian wizard found them and shook his head with a disappointed expression. "Come now children. Let's get you washed up for dinner."
The wizard led his children to the opposite side of the mountain in which there was a circular indentation in the ground large enough for both the Roc and the boy to submerge themselves. The wizard slowly dumped a vat of hot water into the indentation until it was filled.
The wizard read a book as Connie scrubbed the Roc's feathers clean with a brush. The Roc playfully splashed his new brother with warm water and Connie giggled and splashed him back.
Eventually, they accidentally splashed the obsidian wizard with hot water. The wizard shook with anger, but said nothing.
Connie hung his head. "Sorry, daddy."
"You shall receive your punishment after this, Connie."
***
They grew up together. Connie was the Roc's best and only friend. There was no one he loved more in the world.
Connie learned everything from his father--how to cook, clean, read, and how to solve mathematical problems. Connie then passed that information to the Roc when the obsidian wizard wasn't looking. Above all else, the obsidian wizard never wanted the Roc to learn things that made him smarter. He gave the Roc plenty of love and affection, but never would he teach him anything.
If Connie got caught doing anything bad, he would be severely punished for it. The Roc would never be punished. Connie often had bruises on his arms or legs or would often have a black eye if he were caught teaching the Roc something. If his chores and homework were not done by the time the obsidian wizard came home, he would pay the price threefold. One such incident happened when Connie was fourteen.
"Does this floor look clean to you?" He asked Connie threateningly.
"I'm sorry, I lost track of the time while playing with Roc and..."
"You spilled sauce all over the ground here!" The wizard grabbed Connie's arm and slapped his face.
Connie didn't cry. He looked down at his feet with two blinks and a frown and then began cleaning up the mess. The Roc attempted to help him by using his tail feathers to sweep and picking up the noodles left on the cave floor with his beak but Connie said to him with a smile, "you'll get me into more trouble."
The Roc frowned and nestled down, feeling overwhelming sadness for his brother.
***
Everyday, the obsidian wizard would disappear for hours at a time. The Roc and his brother had no idea what he might be doing. When he had gone that day, the adolescent Roc found his big brother sitting in the grass and nestled down next to him.
Connie was crying bitterly. "He likes you a lot more than me..."
The Roc wrapped his brother in a wing and Connie embraced the big bird's neck. "I don't know where I'd be without you... Do you want to run away with me?"
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