The next day, after breakfast, Paley inspected the sword he bought beside the fireplace. He'd just put on his battle clothes, a simple white shirt, and black pants. Bacha approached him with three wooden containers holding Lesser Healing Potions.
"Here you go." She gave him the potions.
"Thank you very much," He replied and stashed them away in a bag.
"Hey, can I come with you?" She asked with puppy eyes.
"No, sorry. It's too dangerous." Paley put the sword up against the wall.
"Please?" She strengthened the puppy eyes and even clasped her hands together.
"Don't do this to me," Paley hesitated, clutching at his heart jokingly, "Mom wouldn't let you come with me anyway." He said.
"Mother said I can go," Bacha seemed to be lying, but it turned out she was telling the truth.
"Mom?" Paley shouted up the stairs, "Did you tell Bacha she can come with me?" He expected a confused reaction from Madella but got the opposite.
"Yeah, be sure to take care of her!" Madella shouted from the bathroom where she was cleaning. Paley sighed and turned to Bacha, "I'm not letting you come. What if you get hurt?" He asked.
"I wanna go! What are you even hunting anyway? It can't be that dangerous." She crossed her arms, frustrated with Paley.
"A Weynsoo." Bacha's eyes seemed to light up at the monster's name, "It's a big Wind-type bird monster with red and dark blue feathers and a-"
"Sharp-feathered tail," She finished his sentence.
"You know it?" He asked.
"Mhm," She nodded enthusiastically, "You can use its eyes to make a sight-enhancing potion. And its blood for Wind Magic enhancing potions. I have to go with you! Please?" She held his hands.
"Alright, fine. But you better stay as far away as possible, got it?" He asked sternly, and she nodded, "Good girl," He ruffled her hair and stood up, "Okay, we're going out now!" He called out to Madella.
"Wait!" Madella rushed down the stairs, "If it gets too dangerous- no, even if it gets a little dangerous, retreat, okay?"
"Don't worry. I'll be fine." Paley tried to get away from the conversation, but Madella continued to tell him to be safe for about ten minutes before letting them go.
They arrived at the forest mana zone and walked for a while. Weynsoos nest at the centre of forest mana zones, where enormous trees are abundant, so Paley and Bacha were heading in the general direction of the forest's centre.
It often goes out to scavenge - for longer if it has children. However, although it can fly a great distance, it is only for a short time, so it has to take small breaks on the ground. It has large wings, yet it needs to jump off the ground to take flight.
"How are we going to find it?" Bacha asked as they walked.
"There." Paley pointed to a clearing they were approaching. It wasn't a natural clearing; the trees had been broken and or scratched. A Weynsoo had jumped off this area to gain flight.
"What happened here?" She asked.
"One of them probably took a break here." He examined the scratches and mess of bark on the ground.
"So..."
"It's both good news and bad news. Either it's heading back home with a haul, or it's heading somewhere else to look for prey. If it's the second option, then that means that we'll probably be here for a while. Let's head this way," Paley pointed to the direction the scratches indicated the Weynsoo flew.
As they walked, Bacha's stomach began rumbling. She often snacked between meals, and it was nearly lunchtime, so she was starving. Paley picked a scarlet apple off a tree, made sure it wasn't poisonous - instead of licking it, he scanned it with Healing Magic - and gave it to her.
She found it delicious and made him let her feed him a bite too. The mana zone was full of fruit and vegetables that would be delicious to cook, so he decided to come back sometime to take as many as he could find.
They walked in that direction for about five minutes before finding more tracks. The Weynsoo probably didn't take flight this time and just walked because of the fresh footprints on the ground. They were close.
The footprints led them to a waterfall embedded in a wide cliff that had all sorts of vibrant flowers sprouting on it. Sunlight was struggling to light the area because of the enormous trees. There was a small cave entrance underneath the waterfall, and Paley rolled up his pants and walked through the shallow lake to get to it. Bacha followed him, not bothering to take off her socks or roll up her pants.
They walked through the waterfall and entered the cave, getting drenched in the process. It was less of a cave and more of a room since it didn't lead anywhere. Paley put the sword up against the cave walls and turned to her.
"Alright, this should be a safe place for you to stay. Take this in case anything happens." He gave her a Fire runestone. Compared to the one he first gave Jurie, this one could shoot out about twelve Firebolts before running out of mana; he'd spent three days putting Fire Magic into it.
"I want to come with you. I want to see the Weynsoo." She bobbed up and down.
"What're you going to do if it attacks us and I can't protect you?" Paley asked.
"But you will protect me." She grinned naively.
"Alright," Paley said and took the potions out of the bag, putting them in his pocket, "But you're coming back here after you see it." He stepped out of the cave and through the waterfall.
"Roger that!" She followed him out. They flew up to the top of the cliff, where they found more footprints that were much fresher than before. The Weynsoo was really close. There was a hill just above the waterfall which had dense woodland on it; they traversed it and found themselves at the foot of an even bigger tree.
It was nearly 200 meters tall and twenty meters thick. At the very top, they could see a dark red, sharp-feathered tail sticking out.
"Come on," Paley wrapped his arm around her hip and flew them up slowly. They could hear that the Weynsoo was snoring, but it sounded more like laboured breathing than a snore. It took them about two minutes to get to the top of the tree since they were flying slowly and quietly.
At the top, they saw it resting on a nest made of crushed wood and dead grass. Bacha stared in awe at the massive bird. It had bright red feathers on its main body that became sharper as they reached the tail and transitioned to dark blue feathers towards the tips of the wings, legs, and head. Its closed eyes were large, about the size of Paley's chest.
It had giant black talons to shred its prey and a small black beak to eat them. Paley saw broken knight armour sticking out from under its wings and remains of crushed bone.
"So that's where they ended up." He mumbled to himself.
"Who?" Bacha was still staring in awe at the Weynsoo.
"You remember those knights that tried to fight the Fulguron? That's them. They died to her, and this guy ate them." Paley pointed to the remains, "Alright, I'm going to take you back to that cave, okay?" He flew back down with her.
"I can go by myself," She said.
"There's a cliff."
"I'll climb down the vines next to it. Don't worry about me. You just do your hunt. I can't wait to have those eyes." Bacha pranced away once they reached the ground. Paley shrugged it off and flew back up to the Weynsoo.
As Bacha walked through the dense forest, she spotted a strange firefly floating through the air. It had a soft white glow and seemed to be heading somewhere. She watched it scurry past her and to her left, following it out of curiosity.
"What are you?" She talked to it. She began seeing more fireflies - about ten of them - heading to the same place. They bought her back to the giant tree where Paley left her, but to one of the smaller trees next to it. About fifty fireflies all converged at that tree and flew up.
She watched them spin around something that glowed white and then saw pure white hair flowing into view, though the rest was hidden by the branch it was on. They lost their glow as they transferred a strange bright essence to whatever was up there.
"Hello? Is someone up there?" She called out. The fireflies suddenly became agitated, and whoever was up there vanished.
"Bacha? Are you still here?" Paley asked from atop that tree.
"Oh, was that you?" She saw him looking down at her.
"What was me?"
"There was someone up there with some fireflies around them. It was really weird." Bacha explained.
"Fireflies?" Paley furrowed his eyebrows, "We'll talk more about this later. Go back to the cave." He left her, and she made her way back to it, climbing down some vines next to the waterfall and sitting down in the cave, listening to the gentle waterfall. Then, she heard the screeching roar of the Weynsoo.