Chapter 40: Ignis Shoebill

’Something is wrong.’ Kanan could feel something following them, something large and dangerous. It stalked them like prey and would escape his senses briefly, then reappear moments later high in the trees.

A bird of some kind is what Kanan assumed the creature was. He couldn’t see it, could barely sense it, but knew it was there. When it took off into the air, Kanan lost sight of it, but since the trees were extremely tall, he couldn’t even see the bird overhead.

He looked at his teammates, and they didn’t seem to notice what he had, so he looked at Selin. She was calm, too calm. Her guard was down, her body was relaxed, and her weapon was still sheathed.

’She knows.’ Kanan concluded. ’If she knows, then she’s expecting us to handle it.’

Once again, the bird landed on a tree branch and entered Kanan’s senses once more.

"Stop!" He demanded, and everyone paused to look at him.

"Kanan, what are you doing?" Selin feigned ignorance, but she was proud that Kanan realized what was going on.

"We’re being stalked by a predator. A bird, in the trees. It’s big, but I can’t see it. Lopis, use your shadows and see if you can—" He reacted fast, faster than he expected himself to.

Two razor-sharp feathers whistled through the air and tore through the trees, narrowly missing Kanan and Fera. No, they would have struck Fera if it weren’t for her activating her barrier at the last moment.

"Everyone! Form up around me!" Fera shouted. She extended her hands outward and created a force field around her team.

"Your mission is to kill that bird. Unless your life is in danger, I won’t be helping you, so good luck." Selin leaped into the trees and then disappeared.

"What do we do?" Terrin asked, "This is completely different from hunting that Spirit Tiger!"

"Kanan?" Reda turned to him for answers as if he were their team leader or something.

"Hold on, when did I become the team leader?"

"You are the Village Shaman," Lopis said with a shrug

"That doesn’t mean that I’m the team leader."

Two more feathers slammed into the invisible force field, creaks appearing along its round surface.

"K-Kanan! I can’t hold this forever!" Fera shouted. Sweat started to drip from her face, and she began to pant.

"Okay, okay. Fera, keep this force field up. We need it to stay safe." Kanan started to formulate a plan

"I-I can’t for—" Her energy started to rise as she felt a warm power envelop her body. It was soothing, like a nice bath after an intense workout. She turned to Kanan and saw that he was the one doing this to her, making her stronger.

"Woah! Is that your power?" Terin asked.

"Yes. Now, here’s what the plan is. Lopis, I want you to figure out where the bird is. Based on where the feathers struck, it should be somewhere in front of us. Reda, once Lopis finds the monster, teleport to her location, antagonize the bird, then teleport back to us. Alue, keep the bird out of the trees. And Terin, keep the bird out of the skies."

"Sounds good." Lopis melted into the shadows, moving like water toward the trees. She couldn’t be heard or seen, but the moment she spotted the bird, a loud sound, akin to a person knocking on a hard surface, echoed through the forest.

"Reda!" Kanan shouted

She took off out of the force field and ran toward the sound. As she approached the monster’s location, Alue commanded the trees, and they started to sway as if it were a windy day.

Kanan knew that the monster wouldn’t be able to stay in the trees while it swayed like that, and as he expected, the monster took to the skies, appearing in everyone’s line of sight.

Kanan was in awe. "T-That’s an Ignis Shoebill!" A massive bird the size of a grown man, with a large beak, razor-sharp feathers, and it could produce flames out of its mouth. To top it all off, it could camouflage itself.

"What’s that monster doing out in the day? Isn’t it nocturnal?!" Reda asked, turning around as the monster dove for her head. She quickly teleported back to her allies, only to slam into the force field. Feris had to let her inside once again.

"No, it hunts whenever it feels like it. That’s what makes it so dangerous. But they should live deeper into the mountains, not so close to this area where the mountain and forest meet." Kanan answered.

"Terin!" Lopis shouted. "You’re up!"

"Here I go!" A strong vortex of wind conflicted with the Shoebill’s ability to fly, causing it to fall onto the ground. When it got up, it fired four sharp feathers from its wings, but Terin redirected them to the side.

Seeing as it was being cornered, the shoebill opened its beak, and a white flame began to build up in its mouth.

"K-Kanan! It’s going to shoot fire at us!"

"I got it!" With his staff in hand, Kanan poured his spirit energy into it and shaped it into a blade. Then, with one powerful throw, he threw the staff into the shoebill’s mouth, piercing right through its head.

Just like that, the monster died.

"T-That could have been a lot worse." But Kanan was thankful to be alive. They were lucky that the shoebill decided to make them its prey, because if it were another creature, like a land predator or a more dangerous air predator, they could have been seriously injured.

"We killed it! We freaking killed it!" Terin shouted with glee. He couldn’t wait to tell his father about today’s accomplishments.

"My heart is beating fast." Reda chuckled. "I-I thought I was a goner, especially when I couldn’t teleport into Feris’s force field.

"Sorry about that." Feris didn’t even know that Reda wouldn’t be able to teleport back inside.

"I’m just happy no one was hurt," Alue said with a look of relief on his face.

"Guys. Don’t be so excited about this. We barely managed to beat that thing properly. We wouldn’t have found out about it if it weren’t for Kanan, and even he wasn’t prepared to take on the role of a leader."

They all turned to Lopis and became silent. She was telling the truth, though it did hurt to hear.

"I agree." Kanan wasn’t prepared for a random encounter, but that would only spell disaster. He had to be ready, had to be on guard at all times, and had to not rely on others to protect him, even when working as a team.

"We’re lucky that none of us were hurt. On top of that, our teamwork was very bad. I know it’s our first time being in a situation like this, but if we handle every encounter like this from now on, we’ll die."

"I’m glad you were able to figure that out on your own," Selin spoke as she returned from watching. "You six have a lot to work on before you can become fully fledged warriors."