A Reason to Return
"It's a gargoyle."
I stared at the enormous stone statue standing tall ahead of us — easily five meters high. Roughly twice the size of the ones we'd faced right before ending up like this.
"They used them as sentries in ancient fortresses, or so the story goes."
Ancient guardians with bodies so hard that ordinary attacks couldn't leave so much as a scratch. And hardness wasn't even the real problem — they weren't living things to begin with, which made them endlessly, unspeakably annoying.
"Why is something like that here?"
"What should we do? Shall we fight?"
If I could just hold a sword, I wouldn't have cared how many gargoyles came pouring out. But as things stood—
"I think we'd be better off not fighting if we can help it."
With our current strength, it was probably impossible. A gargoyle's movements were simple enough that with a proper means of attack they wouldn't be that difficult — the problem was that "proper means of attack" needed enough force to smash through a castle wall.
And on top of that—
"If we make a racket and that big one from earlier notices, we'll just be asking for trouble."
"Then let's do that."
"No — wait."
Huey stopped us just as we were about to turn and slip past the gargoyle.
"What's wrong?"
"That thing. Am I the only one thinking it'll move no matter how hard we try to avoid it?"
"…"
Honestly, I'd been thinking the same thing, so I chose silence over an answer.
"Then do you have some clever idea?"
"Ren. Where's its weak point?"
"The core in its chest."
He clearly had something in mind, so I lifted my right wing and tapped the center of my chest to show him roughly where.
"If it's going to move anyway, better to hit it first while it's still standing there, right?"
Huey pulled three talismans from his robes and scattered them around us. Watching them rise and float in the air, I put one last question to him.
"That thing's harder than you think, you know."
"Will you be all right, Master?"
Instead of answering, Huey drew out a single talisman that looked a little different from the ones before.
"Stay back a bit. It's dangerous."
With that, he pinched the talisman between the index and middle fingers of his right hand and focused.
A crackle of static — and then, floating above Huey's palm, a sphere of pure white lightning took shape.
"Hoo."
It seemed to take considerable concentration. Huey steadied his breathing, drew his sword with his left hand, and gripped it reverse.
"…You said the chest, right?"
"Yeah."
He raised the reverse-gripped sword in his left hand and brought the sphere in his right to the ring on the hilt. Then, like nocking an arrow to a bowstring, he slowly drew his right hand back and spoke.
"Manifest. Spear of Thunder."
A crackling surge — and what looked for all the world like a giant arrow of lightning locked onto the gargoyle's heart.
"Here goes."
The instant Huey released the talisman from his right hand, drawn back to its absolute limit—
A white beam of light, accompanied by a peal of thunder, punched a massive hole straight through the gargoyle's chest.
"Oh."
The body glowed red as if melting in an instant, then crumbled. Watching it fall, I decided this time to offer honest praise, admiration and all.
"Well look at that. You can do it when you try."
"Surprisingly useful, Master."
"…I get how you two usually see me now, so let's just move."
After a brief look at the collapsed gargoyle, we hurried toward the passage ahead.
What came after that was… well. Land where gravity ran sideways, forcing us to crawl along the walls in the most undignified fashion. Land with crushing high gravity above a certain height, so that a careless jump would slam you straight into the ground. Land that periodically generated waves from the center, shoving everything outward. We dealt with all of it, one way or another, until at last only two lands remained between us and the passage.
"Just two more to cross."
"I wonder if that one over there is relatively normal."
"Hey — are your eyes just for decoration? Does that look normal to you?"
"…Sorry."
I pointed at the land across with my wing and glared. Huey looked away. Looking at that black hole in the center and still thinking it would be fine was the real problem.
"Sigh. Let's just go."
"It might not be anything special, you know."
Watching Huey and Lucy cross first to the land beyond, I sighed again and threw myself after them. The moment I landed, I felt a weak gravity tugging at me.
…This time it's sucking inward?
"If we get pulled into that hole, I don't think we'll come out looking pretty."
Lucy spoke while watching a pebble turn to powder without leaving so much as a trace — when she'd thrown it, I had no idea.
"And the pull seems stronger the closer you get."
Huey suggested circling around the outer edge would be wiser.
"Let's do that."
So we walked, keeping as close together as possible in case of anything unexpected — and then, without warning, a sense of weightlessness wrapped around my entire body.
I floated.
"…Huh?"
No time to react. My body lifted into the air and was gently drawn backward.
"Huh?"
"Ren?"
The scenery around me drifted past in slow motion. Huey and Lucy's faces — as blank as mine, not yet understanding what was happening — began to recede. A beat late, I grasped the situation.
"CHIIIIRP—!!"
I flapped my wings frantically, calling the wind — but no matter how I struggled, this light body only kept sliding toward the hole at my back.
"Ren!!"
"Reach for us with something — anything!!"
I stretched my wings toward Huey and Lucy as they came to their senses and ran for me. The moment their hands caught the tips, I breathed a sigh of relief — and at the same time—
A sickening crack.
"CHIRP!!"
I screamed at the pain lancing through both wings.
"Ugh! Sorry! But if we let go it'll be worse!"
"We have no choice — bear with it!"
I couldn't die like this. I clenched my beak and endured.
"Hah… hah…"
"Th-that was terrifying…"
"Ch-chirp…"
Barely free of the gravity that had been pulling me, I hung at the edge of the land and looked at my wings. Trying to move them sent pain shooting through.
"Ren. You okay?"
"That was a really bad sound."
Huey and Lucy's worried voices came from beside me. Holding back the tears that wanted to come, I stretched both arms forward.
"…I think they're broken."
Looking at the wings hanging limp from about where an elbow would be on a human, wincing at every attempt to move them, I muttered as if making a resolution.
"I feel like I've just gained more reasons to somehow get back to my original body."
This damn body. How had even the durability become that of a bird?
"Aargh — so annoying—!!"
I was still venting my frustration when a deep rumble rolled overhead.
"Hup."
"…Anyone want to tell me I'm wrong?"
"Stop escaping reality and run already!"
From above our heads — movement carrying clear, unmistakable hostility.
"Damn it, run!"
I had no idea what the gravity was like on the land right ahead, but at least it didn't look more dangerous than where we were standing now.
A massive shadow punched through the cliff above us. We sprinted full tilt to get clear of it.
The moment we crossed onto the next land, something enormous fell with a deafening roar, swallowing the ground we'd just left in a single gulp.
"Crazy. Even a mutant has to know its limits."
The instant I saw it, I forgot even to run and muttered in pure disbelief.
"Ren! What are you doing!"
"You'll die like that!"
The identity of the disaster-class monster — bulk enough to swallow an entire castle in one bite — was, astonishingly, a mutant sandworm.
"Aargh, it hurts like hell, seriously—!!"
Fortunately, the gravity on the land we'd crossed was normal. We barely made it into the passage of blue steel before the mutant sandworm could come after us.
"…Now I get why there were empty lands scattered around."
"More importantly — can someone do something about my arm? No, my wing?"
"Just wait a moment. I'll wrap a bandage for you."
Listening to the mutant sandworm thrashing outside, furious that it had failed to swallow us, I entrusted my wing to Lucy as she approached with bandages.
"Ugh… a little gentler…"
"You said you're a man. What's with 'gentler'? Just bear with it."
"Chirp!"
"Ah, sorry. My hand slipped because of the earthquake."
"CHIIIRP!"
By the time the thrashing outside had quieted down—
"…Hey. Is this the best you can do?"
I stared at my wing, wrapped haphazardly in bandages, and opened my mouth in disbelief.
"Something wrong with my perfect bandaging?"
"It might look like that, but it's probably fixed surprisingly well."
Lucy looked at me as if asking what the problem was. Huey laughed awkwardly and told me to check for myself.
"Oh — you're right?"
Moving the wing with full distrust and worry, I found it firmly fixed, contrary to every appearance. After offering Lucy a light word of thanks—
"Shall we look around first?"
"In that state? You sure you're okay?"
"Looking like that, you won't even manage a meal, let alone investigating."
Hearing Huey and Lucy's worried voices, I finally realized I'd forgotten one critical fact.
"…We're screwed."
The time for me to lay an egg was right around the corner.