Violid poked his head from the tarpaulin covering the wagon to gaze at the magnificent natural beauty of the Torisval region. Passing travelers couldn’t help but gawk at the sight of the curious wolf, which brought another round of laughter to all inside, who were enjoying the ride. At a glance, the roads looked as peaceful as they always did. But then...
“There’s a little more commotion than usual,” Alec commented.
He was referring to the lakes and streams along the main road paths, upon which there seemed to be birds they’d never seen before.
“These birds at least look calmer than the ones we saw this morning...” said Shiori.
“Those? You’d usually find them in the giant trees in the forest at the border,” said Anika’s husband. “Vidopnirs are usually happy-go-lucky types that don’t scare easy. Looks to me like they wanted to get some distance. Pity, though; I’d love to get my hands on just one in the winter.”
His eyes were glued to the birds, which he’d identified from quite a distance. Vidopnirs made their homes in the large trees common in colder climates, and weren’t particularly comfortable in warmer areas. During the summer they lost a lot of their muscle mass, and the beautiful glow of their feathers dulled, which gave them almost no value as an item to be bought or sold. This hadn’t stopped a group of travelers from taking aim at the birds from the nearby shrubbery, lured in by the temptation of the bird being well-known as a luxury cuisine.
“Oh, come on,” said Anika’s husband, his gaze resting on the would-be hunters. “Vidopnirs taste awful in the summer.”
“Look at that!” added his son. “The birds are so big, and those people are all so close, and they still missed. Talk about horrible aim! Where do they keep their eyes?”
“They’ll hear you if you’re not careful,” said his father with a chuckle. A moment later, his brow furrowed, and he turned to Shiori and Alec. “That said, I reckon it’s best we get back home soon. I hope you don’t mind hopping off at the next village.”
Magical beasts venturing outside of their natural habitat often indicated something unusual. Anika’s family had decided it was best to head back home quickly, just in case it turned out to be something serious.
“If the vidopnirs are here, it means that whatever’s happening is happening near the border, so perhaps we’re worried about nothing at all. But all the same, I don’t like the look of it.”
The birds made their nests about a hundred shilometers north of Brovito. Even if a rampage were to occur, whether it would extend as far as Brovito was unlikely, though nothing was for certain. Still, the effects of the snow wolf attack still lingered, and Anika’s husband was anxious.
The adventurers would have to alight earlier than expected, but they were thankful to Anika’s husband and son all the same; the trip had saved them considerable time. Shiori and Alec both had a hunch that the villagers had offered them the wagon ride more out of generosity than anything, and for this they were grateful.
“Get home safe, you two,” said Alec.
“Thank you for bringing us this far,” said Shiori. “And please give our best to Anika and the others too. Next time we visit, it won’t be for work.”
“I’ll pass along the message,” said Anika’s husband. “And thank you for all the help. Be well!”
“See you later, old-timer! And you too, miss!”
The carriage took off.
“You get ‘miss’ and I get ‘old-timer’...?” muttered Alec, looking maimed by the boy’s words. “There’s only three years’ difference between the two of us...”
Shiori did her best to soothe her lover’s hurt feelings until he decided to change the subject.
“I feel like people would have gotten an idea of what’s going on by now.”
“Yeah.”
The larger birds seemed a little more comfortable, and those that had landed were happy just to rest. They had seemed to realize they were out of danger, and were largely relaxed. Rurii and Bla approached them to do some reconnaissance—and, Bla being Bla, to get a closer look at a rare bird. Upon their return, they came waving to indicate that they’d learned something.
Shiori and Alec asked their questions, to which the slimes replied with their wobbly gestures. Through this back-and-forth, they discovered that a large and unusual magical beast had appeared in the Forest of Giant Trees. It was this magical beast that the vidopnirs had fled from.
“A never-before-seen magical beast?” uttered Shiori.
“The forest they’re talking about is at the border to the Empire. I don’t want to believe that it might be another one of those leftover experiments of theirs.”
“The beasts don’t know it, but perhaps humans do. Perhaps there’s something like it in the bestiary?” asked Shiori.
Bla looked thoughtful for a moment, then reached into itself and pulled forth its pocket bestiary. It flipped through the pages with a feeler, then stopped at one page in particular. Rurii, who was looking on, wobbled excitedly: “This! It’s like this!”
“But that’s...” uttered Shiori in disbelief.
“If they’re right, then this is big,” added Alec.
The two adventurers gulped nervously. The slimes were pointing at a picture of a dragon. Curious about it, Violid and a nearby vidopnir peeked down at the bestiary. The bird chirped: “Yep, that’s it.”
“If it really is a dragon that appeared, then these stampede signs are anything but good,” said Alec. “We might be called upon to help. We have to hurry back.”
“Agreed.”
As thanks for the information, Shiori gave the vidopnir some of the Enandel familiar jerky she’d brought, then took off running with the rest of the party. It was then that a bird swooped down towards them: a messenger bird from the Tris branch of the Adventurers’ Guild. Shiori’s and Alec’s brows furrowed.
Though rare, the Adventurers’ Guild did sometimes send out messenger birds to adventurers in particular locations. Though the chances of such birds reaching their targets wasn’t guaranteed—an exact location was rarely easy to pin down—it was the most effective way to gather adventurers on a large scale.
In other words, the fact that a messenger bird had been sent was enough to impress upon Shiori and Alec that something very serious had happened.
The messenger bird—one of many that had been trained to circle a given location, arrive at a predetermined time, or return after delivering its message to a specified number of people—landed on Alec’s shoulder. He removed the tube from its leg with the ease of experience and took out the message from within. On it was written a call for an emergency gathering, signed by all who had seen it.
“Big sis, Linus, and...oh, Ludger and Marena too,” said Shiori.
“Yeah. This is serious.”
The message called for adventurers above C-rank.
It was a request for an emergency response to a dragon-type magical beast that had appeared at the border, and the magical beast stampede that was likely to follow in its wake.