63 – A Bountiful Haul
Monkeys fighting a bird.
Gort quickly described the scene in detail. As a matter of fact, a group of fruit stealing monkeys had attacked a falcon: “The bird nested on the fragrant coconut tree. There seems to be an egg in the bird’s nest, and the fruit stealing monkeys are not out for fruit but instead out for the egg.”
He treated this as an amusing story.
Yet Liszt mounted his mount, promptly declaring: “Today’s logging work ends here. Everyone is to leave the Thorns Ridge. Teacher Marcus, come to the oyster settlement with me.” There was no doubt in Liszt’s mind that the bird was the Wind Peregrine Falcon and that in the nest was a chick about to be hatched.
In other words, it was his mission reward.
Once the lord issued his command, the logging team immediately stopped working and returned to the town along the half constructed gravel road. Liszt took Marcus and the four retainer knight and rushed ahead to the oyster settlement. When they arrived at the East Coast, they saw a patrol surrounding a fragrant coconut tree.
There were a lot of monkey bodies lying under the tree.
“Sir Lord!” Saluted the members of the patrol.
Liszt raised his head and looked at the canopy of the fragrant coconut tree. Trees of this type were tens of meters tall, with the shortest and tallest being as tall as four-story-tall and twenty-story-tall buildings respectively.
The particular tree before his eyes was the tallest, growing at a 60-degree angle facing the sea. Looking at it from below, the canopy had nearly turned into a small point.
The canopy was quite lively at this moment. Occasionally, monkeys would fall down. Whether they died or not, they would be covered in wounds. These wounds looked is if they were cut open by a blade.
“There is a magic beast above. The wounds look like they were brought about by Windblades.” Marcus became vigilant after inspecting the body of a fruit stealing monkey.
Liszt pointed out: “Those are from a Wind Peregrine Falcon. This group of fruit stealing monkeys is attacking the Wind Peregrine Falcon’s nest, so there should be an egg inside. The fight is quite intense. Teacher Marcus, is there any way to get the egg? It is quite likely that it will hatch into a new Wind Peregrine Falcon.”
“It turned out to be a Wind Peregrine Falcon.” Marcus suddenly nodded and then frowned. “It is quite easy to climbing the tree, but there are a group of fruit stealing monkeys and a Wind Peregrine Falcon atop the tree, which makes it quite a dangerous endeavor. Magic beasts are the fiercest when protecting their nests, while the fruit stealing monkeys themselves are a group of fierce beasts.”
“Then let’s first wait for a moment. If we are lucky, both sides will exhaust themselves.” Said Liszt with uncertainty.
Since it was a mission reward, it should not be difficult to acquire. Otherwise, if the group of fruit stealing monkeys or the Wind Peregrine Falcon had their fighting strength intact, then taking the egg from either of them would be an impossible to accomplish task.
After waiting for about a quarter of an hour.
There were more and more monkey bodies below the tree. The patrol members felt delighted while collecting the bodies, which were first-rate game. Even though they could not eat them as everything in the fief belonged to the castle, to Liszt, but the lord would certainly reward them with some benefits.
Liszt thought it through and then told the patrol: “Collect the bodies of the dead fruit stealing monkeys. Give the heavily injured ones the finishing blow and tie up the ones that are not heavily injured; I want them alive.”
He did not forget his previous idea – to train the fruit stealing monkeys to pluck fragrant coconuts from trees.
“Yes, Sir Lord!”
Marcus suddenly said: “Sir, be careful, the remaining monkeys want to flee!”
He had just spoken, when Liszt saw more than a dozen fruit stealing monkeys quickly fleeing downwards along the trunk of the fragrant coconut tree. Behind them, a bird gave chase as it flapped its wings with, its feathers falling off.
“Teacher Marcus, follow me, we will intercept the Wind Peregrine Falcon! The patrol is to intercept the fruit stealing monkeys; don’t let them run away! Try as much a possible to catch them alive!”
When the snipe and the clam quarrel, the fisherman benefits.
It was a golden opportunity, so Liszt made a prompt decision.
“Yes.” The patrol members were very excited when presented with the opportunity to ‘beat a drowning dog’ as they took out their weapons and blocked the monkeys’ paths of escape.
Marcus took out bow and arrow, nocked two arrows, and pulled back the bowstring, ready to shoot at any moment. Liszt also took out the Redblood Sword he carried. The gem weapon made him confident.
In the blink of an eye.
Once the more than a dozen fruit stealing monkeys jumped off the tree, the patrol members rushed to fight them whilst screaming. The fruit stealing monkeys were already exhausted from the fight with the Wind Peregrine Falcon and could not put up any decent resistance. They just ran aimlessly alike headless chickens, taking a beating.
After taking a few strikes from the pikes, the monkeys crumpled to the ground, not moving.
On the other hand, the Wind Peregrine Falcon missing some feathers was chasing after a fruit stealing monkey, when suddenly, it was assaulted by Liszt on horseback. Raging flames adhered to the Redblood Sword as he used the [Fire Surge Fluctuations] secret manual’s ultimate meaning – Raging Conflagration Sever. Alike raindrops, a large tract of flames slammed down. Although the Wind Peregrine Falcon was quite agile, but it still got struck by the rain of flames, igniting the remaining feathers.
The Wind Peregrine Falcon sensed danger after suffering this attack. It gave a long cry, flapped its wings vigorously, and flew into the sky.
Liszt couldn’t let it run, so he shouted: “Teacher!”
Marcus was long since ready. He released the bowstring and shot the two side by side arrows. Following a brief, piercing whistle, the arrows ran through the Wind Peregrine Falcon and blood spilled into the air.
The Wind Peregrine Falcon swayed and fell onto the beach.
……
When the last fruit stealing monkey was smashed to the ground by a pike, the patrol members swarmed it and caught it. In the fight between the monkeys and the bird, there was ultimately no winner as the fisherman, Liszt, got everything.
After doing a count.
There was total of forty-six fruit stealing monkeys, among which a total of thirty-nine had either fallen to their deaths or been given the finishing blow after being seriously wounded. The remaining seven, which had not suffered serious injuries, were tied up.
The body of the Wind Peregrine Falcon was also retrieved. It was not big, about the same size as a dog.
An agile patrol member carefully climbed to the top of the fragrant coconut tree, found the nest, and fished out an egg a bit smaller than a pineapple.
“Sir Lord, there is indeed an egg!” With excitement and devotion, the patrol member presented Liszt the egg.
Liszt extended his hands and took the egg. Before he could appreciate it, the egg suddenly made a light cracking sounds.
“Sir, the egg hatched!” Marcus was taken aback.
Liszt was also taken aback, thinking that the smoke missions were indeed amazing. He had just touched the egg and it hatched. Cracking sounds rang incessantly. After a while, the shell was pecked open and a bald, ugly bird head was exposed. The chick opened its beak, issuing unpleasant to the ear ‘tweet’, ‘tweet’ cries.
The chick looked at Liszt with its huge eyes as it kept crying. It looked like it wanted to eat.
Liszt coughed lightly: “Teacher Marcus, what do Wind Peregrine Falcon chicks eat?”
“It should be… small fish and small shrimp?”
“Then, the patrol is to go to the oyster settlement and get some small fish and small shrimp. Remember, they have to be alive.” He indistinctly remembered seeing in [Human and Nature] (a Chinese Discovery Channel like program) that the small fish seabirds fed their chicks were still swaying – the fish were obviously alive.
However, he also remembered that some birds swallowed the small fish, then regurgitated them, and finally gave them to their chicks to eat.
Not getting ahead of himself, he first wanted to try feeding it live fish.
Today’s harvest was already huge, to the point that he didn’t care that much about the magic beast chick. Fruit stealing monkeys, this big problem, was finally settled. Now, the fruit of the fragrant coconut trees could be picked, and he even got fruit picking ‘workers’. The Wind Peregrine Falcon’s body was also worth plenty of Naldas (gold coins). Whether eaten or sold, it was a huge haul.
There was also the mission, that rewarded what the fief lacked the most – population – about to be completed.
“Such a wonderful day!” Looking at the Wind Peregrine Falcon chick greedily eating the small fish and small shrimp, Liszt felt particularly happy, “Teacher Marcus, let’s go back to the castle. Tonight, let’s hold a banquet… of roasted fruit stealing monkey!”