Herald of Shalia 5

by Tamryn Tamer

  “This will take all day,” Frost grumbled as he watched a harpy try to decide between two small decorative canes. “You know what, I’ll just carry everything.”

  “What?” the priestess looked him up and down. “But that would be far too much, yes!”

  “It’ll be fine,” Frost said while cupping his hands together. “Everybody! If you can all just gather to the far side of the plateau, I can handle everything!”

  The harpies gave him confused looks but eventually did as they were told. Once he was sure that none of them were still in the village, he pulled out one of his enchanted bags and started walking from tent to tent using combinations of wind magic and barrier magic to blow and shove things into the bag. After about thirty minutes the shimmering plateau was completely empty.

  “Are our things okay?” a worried harpy asked as he attached the bag to his belt. “I had several shiny gems that I collected and…”

  “Everything is in the bag,” Frost answered while patting his pack several times. “It’s a magic bag. I’ll dump it all out when we arrive at the village but you’ll have to sort through things to figure out whose stuff is whose.”

  “You heard the herald,” Ka said while turning to face the other harpies. “He is being very kind in carrying all of your things. You should be grateful, yes.”

  “Thank you,” several harpies said politely.

  “How exactly is he going to carry everything to the village?” a slender rainbow feathered male asked. “He can’t fly.”

  “Right,” Frost grinned while staring up at the clear sky. He reached into one of his bags and pulled out several lightweight wooden rods and started connecting them. Once he was finished with the frame, he attached a sailcloth and after several minutes of double checking that everything was secure his glider was constructed. “Now, hopefully this works.”

  The glider was one of several designs that Frost started working on after realizing just how helpless his territory would be against even a small army. He had no intention of introducing modern weapons to the world since that could quickly get out of hand, but taking control of the sky could be just as effective at deterring their enemies. Additionally, there were other non-military applications such as exploration or transportation.

  Unfortunately, Frost was never really into science so the whole concept of aerodynamics wasn’t really in his wheelhouse. He knew that a glider required wind but he didn’t know exactly how the wind should hit it. He recalled some diagrams from textbooks depicting wind going both over and under the wings of a plane but that was about it.

  “What is that?” a harpy asked while staring curiously at the glider.

  “A glider. I’m hoping it’ll allow me to fly,” Frost said with a nervous grin. He had intended to do some test runs before trying it but something always came up. “I don’t have many opportunities to test things like this.”

  “What if you fall?” Fi asked while poking the sailcloth with one of her golden wings. “Or what if it breaks?”

  “How do you flap?” one of the men asked while flapping his wings to lift off the ground.

  “And how do you turn and stabilize it?” Bo asked while expanding and contracting his tail feathers.

  “We’ll find out,” Frost answered while double checking that the bars for his arms were secure. “And as for falling, I can catch myself with a barrier if I need to. I did get all the way up here after all.”

  “Why not just go back down the same way you came up?” Ka asked while glaring at the glider. “I do not like the idea of you attempting to fly with this. You should not do dangerous things. It would be very bad if you were harmed, yes.”

  “I won’t be harmed,” Frost said while gently stroking the feathers on her head. “I promise.”

  “Hmm…” Ki’s golden eyes narrowed as she continued staring at the glider. “We should carry you instead, yes.”

  “I appreciate the offer,” Frost chuckled while grabbing the bar and lifting the glider. It was extraordinarily lightweight due to the wood used in the construction. “But I’ll be fine.”

  “They will watch over you, yes,” Ka said while walking toward the large group of harpies preparing to leave. She began poking several large males and gestured toward the glider. “If you fall, they will be responsible for catching you, yes.”

  “Fine,” Frost answered while staring back at the large males she was casually assigning to his detail. “But like I said before, I can catch myself.”

  “They will catch you, yes,” Ka said in a tone that clearly meant it was not up for discussion. “Prepare to take off and be careful that Herald Frost is not harmed, yes!”

  Harpies began taking off and after a few minutes very few were left on the plateau. He looked up at them as they began forming small groups as they circled the plateau. The largest ones formed their own group and hovered lower than the others. They were clearly waiting for him to take off and making sure they remained in range of him.

  “Be careful, yes,” Ka said as she wrapped her large wings around him. The slender harpy pulled him close and pressed her head against his chest. Frost leaned down and pecked her forehead and the harpy released him and took off.

  Frost watched as the beautiful white harpy launched herself into the air faster than any of the others. The instant she entered the sky it was as if she became somebody completely different. Her massive wings stretched out and carried her into the clouds and she quickly began twisting and turning as the other harpies looked on. He was amazed by her insane speed as she tucked her massive wings to dive and spread them as she rode a current into the sky.

  Frost had noticed before that the harpies on the plateau looked different but he never really stopped to think of how their differences might impact their flying. Some of the males had short wings relative to the size of their bodies and he suddenly had visions of Peregrine Falcons diving for their prey. A few of the smaller females flapped rapidly while maintaining low altitudes relative to the others like hummingbirds and some of the slender larger-winged harpies seemed to be more focused on gliding than flapping.

  “Herald Frost, do you wish to get going?” Bo asked as he approached him with the other males.

  “I suppose I better,” Frost said while sifting through his internal grimoire for wind spells. He’d attempted to learn some spells from Brynn to better control the wind but magic created by a bard’s playing didn’t translate to magic created by primal runes. He would have needed to create a design where he could sit and play the instrument as the wind guided him. “Okay. Here I go.”

  Frost started channeling mental strength to cast Vertical Gust Lvl. 6 while running with the glider. He needed to make sure he had enough power in the spell to launch him but not so much he broke the glider, which was difficult. He primarily used the vertical gust ability to disorient flying monsters so it probably wasn’t the best ability to use but his options were limited.

  He cast the spell and a powerful current of air blasted from below him, launching him and the glider into the sky before he reached the end of the plateau. Despite significantly limiting the power he used, the launch was difficult to control and he felt the glider's wings flex nearly to the point of breaking.

  “Whoa,” Frost laughed as he rose much higher than anticipated. He waited to stabilize and hooked his legs into the straps hanging from the rear. Once comfortable, he accessed his abilities and began sifting through them for anything new and found a newly unlocked gliding ability along with several other abilities related to reading wind currents. He watched the ability and was surprised by how quickly the experience points in the ability rose. Because the points were accumulating nicely, he opted to wait until he earned restricted ability points to level gliding instead of allocating free ability points to level it quickly. He closed out of his personal menus and took in the view. “Wow, this is pretty nice.”

  “I can’t believe you really did it,” Bo said from above him. “It is impressive.”

  “Ver
y impressive,” another said while flying around him, careful to keep his distance from the glider. “It seems to sort of ride the wind currents. But it seems like it would be difficult to control without a tail.”

  “How does it turn and twist and climb and dive?” a tall slender female asked while gliding next to him. While she wasn’t part of the group of males designated to him, she came over to look at the strange invention. She circled him several times and then gestured in front of them. “How does it rise above the mountains without flapping?”

  “Right, I use magic to push myself upward,” Frost grimaced as he stared at the mountains. He was gliding lower and lower on the wind currents and wouldn’t be able to clear the mountain without an additional gust. He envisioned his energy pulsing through his primal runes as he prepared for another vertical gust spell, this time being even more careful to limit the power. “This looks like I just need a little boost.”

  Frost cast the spell causing a blast of wind to rise up beneath him and push the glider upward, a mistake he quickly regretted. While the vertical wind coming from beneath him pushed him higher, it also caused the wings to push against the wind above him. He also never considered that the initial takeoff might have decreased the durability of the glider. The moment the spell landed, one of the wings cracked under the pressure and moments after that the wooden frame was dangling from a flapping piece of cloth as he plummeted.

  “Fucking hell,” Frost grunted as he felt himself being dragged downward. He also never anticipated the leather loop holding his feet would allow the falling glider to pull him around making casting a spell trickier than it should have been. Although he could still cast his spells, it was hard to cast them while tumbling through the air.

  “We got you,” Bo said as he swooped down and snagged the leather strap in his talons, stopping Frost’s descent. “No need to worry.”

  “Definitely no need to worry,” another said as he gripped Frost’s arms. “The priestess would be very upset if we let you fall.”

  “Very upset,” the tall female harpy that had been watching said as she took a position in front of him, cutting the wind with her wings as they flew through the sky. “I will make things easier for your escorts by leading.”

  “Thanks,” Frost said as one of the other male harpies disconnected the leather strap from the rest of the glider.

  “Would you like us to go fetch your wings?” one of the males asked.

  “No,” Frost sighed as he watched the wings fall into the mountains. “I can always make more and I probably need to rethink my design a bit.”

  “Don’t look so sad,” Bo said. “They were very nice wings before they fell apart.”

  “Very nice,” two other males agreed simultaneously. “You made it a very good distance before they fell apart.”

  “You should be very proud,” the smallest male in the group said. “You were able to fly very high for a great many seconds!”

  Frost couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed as the harpies carried him. Having his glider fall apart within minutes of his first flight was humiliating enough but not being able to catch himself like he’d planned made it even more shameful. Although his feelings of humiliation quickly vanished as he looked forward.

  He found himself thankful that one of the female harpies was leading the way instead of one of the males. Her tunic flapped in the wind leaving everything completely exposed to him. She tilted her tail feathers and turned gracefully toward a valley between a pair of mountain peaks and a gust of cold air crashed against his face as the males carrying him followed her.

  “Ah,” Frost groaned as he realized his mistake. “I needed the wind to come from the front or at an angle.”

  “What was that?” the female asked while poking her head down to stare at him. “Am I allowing too much wind?”

  “Not at all,” Frost said reassuringly. “It’s great.”

  Frost’s mind gravitated back to textbooks and classrooms as he vaguely recalled discussions about thrust, weight, lift, and drag. He couldn’t remember exactly how it worked but he understood that his mistake was having a high velocity wind coming from directly beneath him. He might have been fine with a stronger frame but that would add to the weight which would probably impact things as well. It was all a balancing act.

  In hindsight, the leather strap for his feet wasn’t the smartest idea either. A small bar like the one he held onto at the front of the glider would have been much better. A parachute was also a necessity and he could probably make a very small one by utilizing enchanted pouches.

  Frost continued to think about his various mistakes and how best to avoid repeating them throughout the rest of the flight.

  “Ahem,” Ka cleared her throat as she floated down next to him and the others. The white-feathered harpy flashed him a smug grin while glancing at the harpies carrying him. “I see you’ve finally arrived, yes.”

  “Yes,” Frost chuckled, somewhat thankful that she didn’t say she told him so.

  “Where should we land Herald Frost?” Ka asked while hovering next to him. “We can land anywhere you’d like, yes.”

  “The center of the village is fine,” Frost answered. “The square in the center is large enough for everybody.”

  “Very well,” Ka said cheerfully. “We’ll land in the center of the village, yes.”

  The priestess vanished and moments later he watched Fi, Vee, Sha, and La dive toward the village in front of him. Several more harpies followed in formation and then he felt the ones carrying him tighten their grips while lifting him closer to their bodies.

  “Ah, shit,” Frost mumbled as the harpies dove behind the others.

  CHAPTER 7

  The ground approached surprisingly quickly as they headed directly toward the center of the village. The ones in front of him spread their wings to slow their descent and they landed on the various buildings surrounding the village as the ones carrying him seemed to be aiming for the ground.

  Frost barely had time to notice Priscilla and Mawth’s priest rushing into the square along with villagers and the demihumans from his hunting party as he rapidly approached the ground.

  “Whoa,” Frost grunted as the harpies carrying him spread their wings to slow their descent. The one carrying him from the rear released the leather strap first leaving the one holding his arms responsible for getting him the rest of the way down. The landing was surprisingly soft as the harpy dropped him an inch above the concrete before flying to a nearby rooftop to join the other harpies.

  “Herald Frost,” Priscilla laughed as she rushed toward him. “I knew you would handle it but I can’t say that I was expecting this!”

  “I had no idea there would be so many,” the priest said, clearly irritated with the large number of harpies perched on the rooftops.

  “Why isn’t that one coming down?” Shael asked, pointing at Ka as she approached Frost. “Is she scared?”

  “She might be waiting for a signal,” Frost said as he stared up at the priestess.

  The harpies on the rooftops spread their wings and began slowly flapping them in unison while staring up at the priestess. After a few seconds the harpy males began chanting like Gregorian monks and about twenty seconds into their chant the women joined in.

  “That’s so beautiful,” Fayeth said as she walked into the square.

  “It really is,” Erissa said while staring at the harpies.

  “I take it that the white one is their leader,” Priscilla said quietly.

  “Their high priestess,” Frost whispered back to her.

  “To which god or goddess?” Priscilla asked as the chant ceased.

  Ka came barreling down at high speed and at the last second the beautiful white harpy spread her massive wings, coming to nearly a complete stop right before landing in a gap her handmaidens left on the center of the tallest building, which just so happened to be the priest’s residence.

  “Behold humans,” Ka announced loudly as she spread her w
ings. “I am Ka, The Sun Chaser, The Moon Hunter, The Storm Racer, and High Priestess of the Goddess Twi! I have come to make peace, yes!”

  “If you want to make peace then you need to reimburse us for the items you stole,” a disgruntled villager said as several others grunted in agreement. “Thieving vermin.”

  “I don’t see why a harpy is acting all high and mighty,” a young boy said. “Flying rat.”

  “Yeah,” another villager agreed. “Give us back what you stole then we can talk about peace.”

  “These are guests of Herald Frost!” Ena snapped at one of the humans while stomping over to the group. “If you have something to say to them then I’m going to have something to say to you!”

  “I like them,” Renna said while climbing onto one of the rooftops. The nimble elf rushed over to one of the small harpy females and began introducing herself. “I’m Renna, future wife of Herald Frost, I hope I can count on your support!”

  “Why are you always campaigning!” Ena snapped. “You already have enough supporters!”

  “You can never have enough supporters,” Renna said as she pulled out a handful of small gemstones. “I have some gifts for all of you!”

  “Gifts?”

  “We like gifts!”

  “What the hell is going on?” a village shouted. “What happened to making them pay us back for what they stole?”

  “You want to handle this, or should I?” Priscilla asked while glaring at the priest. She gripped the pommel of her sword to indicate just how serious she was being.

  Frost noticed that the people in Mawth with the worst manners seemed to only respond to the priest and the priest only told them to calm down when he had to. He wondered if the priest was attempting to maintain his power in the village by showing Frost that he was the only one that could control the villagers.

  “Their questions are fair,” the priest said while glaring at Priscilla. “Do you wish to punish them for being the victims of theft?”