IV

Freefield Hunting

The stark, expansive plane of Freefield cast its mighty shadow on the land below it. Its wavering shape and density could block the sun for hours should a Land District city sit below it at the wrong time of day. Upon it, though, Freefield offered miles upon miles of soft yet stable ground, where hunters, wild birds, and dragons would spend their waking hours taking part in the evergoing game of survival. For an Aarakocra, while your most structured years of military training were spent on the Sunset Isles, it was Freefield where you really learned how to handle your body as your weapon, and what it meant to fight for your life.

Men Za-Hel had loved Freefield practically since he was hatched. He had always adored the sport of combat- as damn near every Aarakocra had to. But compared to the Coliseum matches in Blüdtak, Freefield had this sort of unstructured, non-malicious unpredictability to it. Whereas the Coliseum was almost hand-crafted to be as cruel and brutal as possible, hunting or sparring in Freefield allowed you to be as merciless- or as playful- as you wanted to be.

For that reason, he often found himself practicing catch-and-release with the wyverns and pegasi that wandered the clouds. Restraining them with his chain whip, he'd wrestle them down until he knew he was able to land a killing blow, before promptly retrieving his weapon and letting the bested animal scurry away to safety.

It was an incredibly common pastime in the Sky District, and was essentially identical to how tamers caught wild dragon wyrmlings (dragons were also similarly hunted for sport.) It was so common that, fairly often, an Aarakocra would begin hunting a creature without realizing another Aarakocra was already pursuing it, in which case a three-way fight would take place. The victor typically jested that they'd be eating twice as well that night. Unless, of course, the beast came out on top, in which case the victor likely would be eating twice their regular share. But that was a blue-moon occurrence.

Men Za-Hel took part in this pastime, enjoying the heat of the sun while he gave chase to a particularly skittish peryton, which seemed intent on keeping a more-than-safe distance between them, no matter how many times he tried to snag its legs with his chain.

Nimble as it was though, it was squaring off against the Soldier Prince, maybe the most capable young mind the district had to offer; so it was only a matter of time that his aim proved true enough to close the gap between them. Again, he thrust his chain by the blade towards the peryton, and again, it hopped out of the way just before it could wrap around its back leg. Men grunted, retracted the weapon, and prepared to swing again.

But just before he did, he caught something out of the corner of his eye. He stopped pursuing the peryton, and treaded air for a moment to get a better look at the dip in the clouds about a mile away. Through the merit of his eagle eye, he was able to confirm what he had thought he had seen. There was an Aarakocra fighting with a gryphon! One of the rarest and most beautiful creatures native to the district. And it wasn't just any soldier hunting this beast, it was Kim! By the looks of it, she had her hands full- not that he couldn't understand why.

Men Za-Hel turned his attention back to the peryton, who had burrowed his way through a gap in the clouds while he was distracted.

"Damn." He trilled. If he pursued it through a gap that small, it'd be so cramped that he'd be practically inviting the steed's antlers to skewer. That wasn't the first time one of them had escaped from him this way- how did they keep doing that? They're so big and graceless, and it's not like they can dig to save their lives. Or… so he thought.

Oh, well. It was just a peryton. Besides, he had a much more interesting target now. Men Za-Hel gathered as much air as he could beneath his wings, and blasted off towards Kim and the gryphon, reaching them in less than a minute. He threw the blade of his chain to the space between Kim and the gryphon, just as she was preparing to ensnare the beast herself. The tips of their weapons clashed, shooting off sparks with a massive clang as both weapons dropped to the ground, much to the surprise of both Kim and her prey.

Kim halted, and turned to look at her attacker. She hardly had time to register what had happened before Men Za-Hel tackled the Gryphon, tumbling with it across the cloudy floor as the startled beast began clawing and biting at him.

"Wh- hey!" Kim scoffed, before flying over to kick Men off of the gryphon.

Men dug his claws into the clouds to keep from falling over, and leapt at Kim, the two of them grabbing each other by the hands to try to push through the other.

"You are such a dick." Kim chuckled.

"I missed you, too. Did you get this for me?" Men grinned, as he slowly began to force Kim's shaking arms downward.

"The gryphon? Dream on!"

Kim pulled her left hand out from Men's, and promptly sucker punched him in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. She spun around and kicked him again, proudly standing over him as he picked himself off the ground.

Kim held her hands on her hips, and tried to finish her taunt, saying something like "he's all mine," but before she could get those words out, she was swiftly pounced upon by that same gryphon, who pinned Kim on top of Men, knocking their heads together and dazing them so intensely that they didn't notice the clouds briefly rumbling below them.

Disoriented, but not about to have the back of her neck torn out by a half-lion, Kim took out a dagger sheathed against her ankle, swung it back into the gryphon's chest, and pushed the beast off of her by the handle of that dagger, forcing it back from the pain alone.

When the gryphon finally jumped back and set the two birds free, they scrambled to their feet, and took their chain whips back out. Men tried to pay Kim's punch back in kind, but only managed to graze his fist across her face. Holding onto his arm and leaning against him, she spun around Men, and used the momentum to send her chain flying towards the fleeing gryphon, successfully wrapping it around the same leg that was currently housing her dagger.

"Gah, clever bitch!" Men said, trying to grab her arm and keep her from pursuing the beast before him. While she struggled against his grip, he slammed his elbow into her side, forcing a small caw of pain out of her. Eager to use both hands against the much more present threat than the gryphon, she pulled her right hand back, releasing the chain whip from the animal's leg, but dragging the blade across its already wounded joint in the process. The gryphon yelped as Kim and Men continued wrestling each other.

The two lovers beat each other near senseless for about a minute, until their breath had all but failed them both. They stood there, panting, Men holding Kim's wrist in the air.

"Gh… you're- you're persistent today." Men admitted.

"Ya tried to steal my hunt, p-prick! I'm not back- hah- backing down to you of all people!"

Kim swept her leg into Men's ankles, the quiet klink their bird appendages made highlighting that she did not strike Men with nearly enough force to knock him down. Exhausted, Men laughed, rolled his eyes, and dropped to the floor.

"Ha!" Kim pumped her hands in the air. "I fucking got you!"

"Yeah, yeah. I concede, you maniac." Men chuckled to himself.

He stopped laughing, however, when he heard a faint whimper sounding from a short distance away. He leaned up and looked around, quickly finding the gryphon- which they had completely forgotten about- laying a good distance away from them, and trying to tend itself.

"Oh, Kim, you injured the poor thing!" Said Men.

"Huh?" Kim said, quickly turning to look at the Gryphon as well. "Oh. Yeah, I guess it's weird that it stopped attacking us so quickly."

"Looks like it wanted to get just far enough to avoid us." Men said, standing up. "I didn't realize it was still nearby."

"I've been told I can be quite distracting." Kim said, jokingly strutting herself out.

Men took flight, and began approaching the gryphon.

"Hm? Men?" Kim asked, confused. She followed him from a short distance.

As soon as they got within about fifty feet of the gryphon, it stood back up, clearly pained, and hissed at them, slowly and shakily backing away. Men kept flying until he was about ten feet away, and dropped to his feet.

"I don't think he wants to talk to you, Men." Kim said.

"Shh." Men hushed, not breaking eye contact with the gryphon. He stuck his hand out, outstretching his fingers and facing his palm towards the beast.

The gryphon continued to growl and hiss, backing away just barely slower than Men was approaching. As he inched closer, Men began trilling his voice, making light, calming sounds similar to how the gryphon itself sounds.

Kim watched in awe as Men, arm held out, soothed the beast enough to get face to face with it without a sudden move from either side. Men's eyes darted, only for a moment, to the dagger still stuck in the pit of the gryphon's left arm. Still holding his left hand out, he used his right to slowly, carefully, reach for the handle of the dagger, while Kim tried her hardest not to breathe.

The gryphon did not react as Men, staring into the creature's eyes, grabbed hold of the blade's handle. It was only when he pulled it out of the wound that it roared, stood on its hind legs, and swung its paw into Men's left side, digging its claws deep into his forearm. Men Za-Hel winced, dug his talons into the clouds, and put all of his strength into holding his left arm up, despite the piercing claws and considerable weight of the beast pushing against him. When the gryphon's eyes came back down to look at Men's, he made sure his gaze was fixed to exactly the same spot that it was before.

The gryphon stood there, leaning its weight against Men Za-Hel's arm, and stared at him intently, having expected the bird to have already scrambled away from it as soon as its claws broke his flesh. But he remained completely still, which confused the creature, and somehow calmed it somewhat.

Men Za-Hel slowly pocketed the dagger, and from a small container beneath his skirt, pulled out a long, white sheet of cloth. Trying his hardest not to let either arm shake, he wrapped the cloth around the gryphon's shoulder with his right hand, unable to see what he was doing without breaking eye contact. Then, using the fingers of his stiff, bleeding left arm only as much as absolutely necessary, tied the cloth into a knot, and pulled it tightly around the gryphon's shoulder, hoping that he covered enough of the wound to make a difference.

The gryphon's focus broke as it felt the pressure of the cloth on about half of its wound, and it began growling again, digging its claws further down Men's arm. As soon as the cloth was secure, Men pushed himself off of the gryphon, dashed back to Kim's side, and equipped his chain.

"You're out of your fucking mind!" Kim bewilderedly shouted, taking her own chain whip out. "What the hell is wrong with you!?"

"Fun party trick, innit?" Men said through gritted teeth. "Yet another talent of your perfect boyfriend…Don't make me do it again though, my arm is screaming."

Kim laughed, and stood in front of Men to protect him, neither sure whether the gryphon was even going to attack or not. They stood there, waiting for an answer- but an answer would not come. As before the gryphon even had a chance to charge, the ground around them began rumbling, frightening the gryphon into finally taking flight and fleeing.

Men and Kim looked around, taking flight as well to avoid being knocked off their feet, frantically trying to figure out what was happening. As the clouds nearby were torn apart, giving way to a bright red gleam, both soldiers realized what exactly they had just stumbled across- moments before it would burst through the air, block out the sun, and make itself known.