NOVEL NEXT Eating Magical Beasts
"Now the only way out of the city is for Feliciana to fly us out one by one," Alfreed said, looking at me hopefully. I suddenly felt pressured.
"I disagree," Adrian said. "Since they already know there's an angel in the city, they'll surely be on high alert and won't let anyone fly out. They may even start increasing guards on the walls day and night."
"Then what should we do?" Blanche asked anxiously.
"Doesn't this mean all our escape routes are blocked?"
"Maybe we should wait for things to die down before trying again..." Adrian suggested conservatively.
"But do we have enough supplies to last?" Hayden raised a question I had overlooked - how long could we last without food and water?
"How much food does everyone still have in their storage rings?" Alfreed asked Blanche, who seemed to be in charge of our provisions.
"Not much left..." Blanche calculated. "We packed extra at the start anticipating emergencies, but we've been here quite a while."
"We can find food in the city. Most magical beasts here eat too," Adrian quickly proposed a solution.
"Wasn't that our plan from the start?"
"But with the city on high alert, won't it be risky to go out frequently?" Eleanora voiced her thoughts.
"...I see." Adrian fell silent, unable to counter that point. I also kept my opinions to myself, not wanting to cause more trouble.
It dawned on me that I had indeed brought them much hardship.
"If there are guards on the walls, why not just fly over them from a high vantage point and escape that way?" Blanche suggested.
"Surely an angel can fly higher than the city walls?"
"Too dangerous!" Adrian objected. "The skies here are likely under constant surveillance... We don't fully understand the purpose of those towers, but they may be used to detect threats and sound alarms. With guards on high alert, taking to the air virtually guarantees getting spotted and surrounded with no way out, especially by other flying enemies. And we still don't know what those towers can do..."
Those towers - the first thing Selene and I noticed when viewing the city from afar were its tall, slender spires. I wondered if they were some kind of weapon.
"What do you know about those towers?" Alfreed looked concerned. It seemed they had taken notice of them too.
"Nothing concrete," Adrian admitted. "We suspect they serve some monitoring or early warning function, but aren't sure of their capabilities."
"Even the magical beasts living here don't know their exact purpose," Hayden added.
Their unknown, potentially dangerous nature made me uneasy about attempting an aerial escape.
"I cannot consent to taking such a risk with so many uncertainties," Adrian concluded firmly. "We should play it safe for now and wait for an opening to slip out more covertly later."
Alfreed sighed, clearly valuing Adrian's input. "Let's rest for today and reassess tomorrow."
I was exhausted too, having looked forward to sleeping earlier. But with tensions high, rest would have to wait.
"I'll take first watch," Alfreed said, drawing the curtain aside leading downstairs where he would keep lookout, leaving us to uneasy dreams.
"You should rest too, no more staying up all night," Alfreed suddenly turned and ordered Adrian, who had moved to follow him downstairs.
"Alright..."
Seeing no choice, Adrian glumly retreated back up the stairs and threw himself down in a dark corner, not making another sound.
The next day...
With daylight the streets emptied as before. Still, we remained indoors, anxiously awaiting Adrian and Blanche's reconnaissance report.
Three sharp knocks signaled their return.
"Well? Did you find a way?" Selene opened the door urgently.
All eyes turned to them.
"No use," Adrian panted, gulping down water Eleanora offered. "The walls are heavily guarded, sentries posted everywhere."
"What about food?" Alfreed asked the other pressing question.
"We found some, but not much," Blanche said, producing unrecognizable meat from her ring's storage space.
"This is probably all we can scavenge. No guarantee we'll find any tomorrow."
"Are those magical beast meats?" Selene examined them distastefully before discarding them in disgust.
"We've no choice," Blanche said resignedly. "The beasts here seem to eat their own kind - wasn't expecting such savagery!"
"To the sapient ones, mindless magical beasts are no different than wild animals to humans," Adrian mused. "The guards slaughtered those undead outside the gates much the same way."
That actually made sense, explaining their earlier actions.
"What if a sentient lizardman encountered a mindless one?" I hypothesized wildly. "Would he unhesitatingly eat his own kind?"
"Not sure..." Adrian scratched his head. "Kinship should stay his hand. But hunger and savagery may prevail."
"Is it really safe eating those meats?" Hayden asked pragmatically.
"Ordinary people risk corruption, especially below second-tier," Selene opined frankly. "But we should be fine."
"You'll likely be more sensitive, Feliciana. Don't eat them if you can't tolerate the dark taint. You need little sustenance anyway."
"I still get hungry if I don't manifest my wings..." I clarified. In truth, I was curious how the tainted meats tasted, though the malevolent aura gave me pause.
"Best try a little first," I decided reluctantly.
The oppressive miasma here already choked me with its fetid stench. Eating such corrupted fare would be a true test of fortitude.
"That settles the food issue for now," Alfreed said, stowing away the meats. "Any other ideas for escaping this city?"
Blanche began suggesting flying over the walls again but Adrian firmly vetoed it, ending the discussion.
Alfreed looked between Adrian and Blanche, then to me and the others. With no further input, he declared:
"We will go with Adrian's more prudent proposal and bide our time, waiting for a chance to sneak out later undetected."
"But what if they close off the spatial swap point while we delay?" Blanche asked anxiously.
"That just returns us to our original situation before Feliciana arrived, no real loss," Alfreed answered resignedly. Having said his piece, he turned and headed upstairs.
...
I managed one bite of the cooked magical beast meat before violently expelling it outside, unable to withstand the sheer foulness pervading it. The rancid flavor matched the swirling malevolence in the air - like some hellish Kroket of the Damned.
"Told you that you couldn't handle it. But you just had to try," Selene mocked as she defiantly took her own bite, then immediately turned green.
"Blech! What IS this??" She spit it out in revulsion. "It's revolting!"
"( ̄~ ̄) Probably the dark essence we sensed..." Adrian grimaced, somehow still swallowing it down with effort. The men fared decently enough, though eating very reluctantly.
Eleanora and Blanche struggled through a few morsels before abandoning the attempt in distress.
"You all should really eat more," urged Alfreed. "This is all we'll have. Best get used to it fast."
"But the taste... I can't!" wailed Eleanora pitifully, on the verge of tears. My heart went out to her plight.