39 - Cockatrices (Patreon)

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Carrying a large plastic box, Ryan trotted down the well-used dirt road toward the large coop that Rose had pointed out to him. Modak was following while carrying a hay bale, and Silvia was already waiting with two large water buckets by the coop's entrance.

"Alright, now, you guys wear these," Rose said, quickly walking up to each of them with sunglasses in her hands.

Ryan put down the plastic box confused, "Eh... Why do we need these? What are we doing here?"

"Why does it matter? They're cute," Silvia pointed out smugly, placing the sunglasses onto her face and peering over them with a grin. Ryan glanced at her with a slight laugh. Ryan didn't expect her to be able to do much in the short time she had to alter the outfit, but it was surprisingly effective. She cut off the sleeves and added a belt, which she carried with her for some reason, onto her waist. She then cut a strip out of one of the sleeves and used it to tie up her hair into a bun. It wasn't a lot, but she definitely looked a lot more fashionable than Ryan and Modak did.

"How they look really doesn't matter, please just keep wearing them properly and never look out from beyond the glasses directly. Periphery is... fine, but should also be avoided if possible," Rose explained, carefully stepping up to the fenced gate. There were thick blackout sheets surrounding the whole thing, as if they were trying to hide what was in here.

"Oh, and they're a bit rowdy, but they're not dangerous or anything. As long as you keep the sunglasses on. Seriously, do not... please do not take them off," Rose reiterated, as she slowly opened the gate, stepping through and waiting for Ryan, Silvia and Modak to do the same. In front of them was another gate to make sure that the ones in here couldn't get out as easily, and once more, there were blackout curtains to ensure that nobody caught a glance of them as the gates were opened and closed.

Ryan swallowed nervously as Rose closed the first gate, and then opened the second. They all stepped through, and Ryan's eyes widened. The fenced-in coop was completely filled with what at first looked to be just overly large chickens. They had white or brown or black feathers on their backs, but their belly and throat were covered in scales instead. Similar to those of a wyvern, something still freshly in Ryan's mind after seeing the forge elemental earlier, they had clawed wings and large, sharp talons. They had long tails that were carefully slithering around on the ground behind them, ending in a few small feathers.

 "Wait, these are just... cockatrices?" Ryan let out confused.

Rose quickly shook her head, holding her arms in front of her body to form an 'X', "They are not just cockatrices! These are the cockatrices!"

"... What?" Ryan asked, turning around toward his friends who seemed just as confused as him.

"The ones that you see out in zoos or at farms are a specific breed of domesticated cockatrices; they're basically blind because they've been bred to weaken their eyesight. These here are wild cockatrices. Their habitat was being encroached on so we rescued, and we're trying to find a good place to relocate them to right now," Rose explained, and Modak shivered. His realization was boldly written on his face even with those thick sunglasses.

"Wait, so... that's real? Can cockatrices petrify people?"

Rose hesitated for a few moments, but finally nodded her head, "Yes, they can. Though it's not 'petrification', it's a very powerful paralysis, and it's strong enough to usually lead to cardiac arrest in most animals and people," she explained, squatting down. One of the cockatrices came up to her, rubbing its head against her leg, "But it needs eye-contact to activate. Sunglasses seem to block it somehow. And it's not something they can really control either. They're very calm and affectionate otherwise."

Silvia was the first to squat down to get closer to the cockatrices, holding out her hand carefully to let herself be approached. They carefully approached her, though keeping their distance in general. Rose stood back up, her focus lingering on Silvia for a little while longer, before she spoke up.

"Okay, we've got a ton of other places to go, so let's get started! We've got to replace some of the hay on the ground, feed them, and give them some fresh water," Rose explained, walking up to side of the coop's hut where the cockatrices' nests seemed to be. At its side was a small door that she opened up, pulling out two pitchforks, holding one herself and giving another to Modak after he placed down the hay bale.

"Ryan, you fill everything from the box into the trough, and Silvia, you fill up the water bowl. Modak and I will start shovelling the hay while the cockatrices are eating."

And so, they quickly did as told. Ryan brought the box over to the side of the fodder trough and opened up the lid. Some of the cockatrices were already closing in, knowing what was about to happen. Inside the box was a mixture of mealworms and chunks of meat, all mixed together with some sort of pellets. Ryan placed the box onto the side of the trough and carefully filled it up. The moment he was done and pulled the box away, the cockatrices came rushing over and immediately started to eat.

Ryan took a step back, inwardly looking at Maximus. He had decided to stay inside the domain and train himself. Since last night, he seemed to be deep in thought, and training looked like the best way for Maximus to clear his thoughts. Ryan was a bit worried, and he did ask Maximus if he wanted to join earlier, but he wanted to focus on his training for the time being.

"H-Hey, stay back!" Modak's anxious voice sounded out from across the coop. It seemed like not all the cockatrices had decided to eat right away, and one of them was standing right in front of Modak. The cockatrice was building itself up in front of him, pushing forward its chest while hissing.

Rose carefully walked up toward him, "Calm down, sometimes they can be a little tense, but as long as you don't back down, they won't do anything. Just stand strong, and show her you're not scared of her." 

"But I am scared of her!"

"Then try to act like you're not! It's all about confidence," Rose reassured him, "They're really not dangerous, so you-"

Just as she was saying so, the cockatrice lunged at Modak. Startled, he took a step back, the pitchfork in his hand digging into the ground behind him. He tripped over it, twisting his body to catch himself. But as he did, the sunglasses fell off his face. Rose immediately rushed over to him, trying to pull the cockatrice away, but once more she was too late.

Ryan's heart skipped a beat as he ran forward to Modak, as the cockatrice stared into his eyes. However, instead of being paralysed, Modak jumped up from the ground, pressing himself against the fence behind him while keeping his eyes shut, "Shit, shit, shit- I- What am I supposed to do, I-"

Ryan slowed down as he noticed Rose standing there in clear disbelief, dropping her arms confused, "You didn't... You weren't paralysed?"

And even more than that, the cockatrice that had only just jumped at him in an attempted attack, was now tightly rubbing its body against his leg, almost affectionately.

"Wh-What's happening?" Modak asked as he pressed his hand onto his chest, scared of the cardiac arrest that Rose mentioned earlier.

"Did you... you locked eyes with her, right?" Rose asked, stepping up closer to Modak, who slowly nodded his head.

"Y-Yeah... I definitely did... When is this supposed to happen?"

"Instantly... it's usually instant. It's their way to hunt, if animals could keep moving after locking eyes with them, that would be really dangerous... you should be affected, what's going on? I don't even know why it attacked, you, I'm... I'm so sorry!" Rose pointed out, carefully trying to pull the cockatrice away from Modak's leg. However, it seemed like she didn't want to leave him alone any more, and was rather hissing at Rose for trying to pull her away.

"I think... Modak is it because of your MRD?" Ryan asked, and Modak turned toward him, his eyes still closed.

"What do you mean?"

"It's like a... magic thing, right? Like, the paralysing 'curse' or whatever it is. That kind of thing uses mana as a conduit, and you don't have any. So it wouldn't work," Ryan suggested, and Rose looked back and forth between Ryan and Modak.

"Is that what you were talking about earlier? You have no mana at all? None?"

"... Yeah... not an ounce. Usually people with MRD have a tiny, tiny bit, but I was a special case because I have none," Modak explained, and Rose took a step closer toward him. She seemed to, for just a moment, lift her helmet up ever so slightly, and closed it down just a moment later, just to let out a long sigh of relief.

"Oh, thanks the gods... yeah, you have none at all, you're fine! You're totally fine! You can open your eyes!" Rose replied, and Modak carefully opened just one of his eyes.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, definitely! Trust me, I know more about these babies than anyone else in the world!" 

Nervously, Modak opened both of his eyes, glancing down at the cockatrice below him. They once more locked eyes, but Modak felt nothing at all. As if happy, the cockatrice started loudly purring.

"That also explains why she likes you so much all of a sudden!" Rose added, "She thinks you're a giant cockatrice rooster!"

Modak immediately stared at Rose, "Excuse me?"

"Yeah! The only ones that don't get petrified by cockatrices are other cockatrices, and since these hens love a large rooster, that must be what's going on here!"

Ryan scoffed involuntarily, "So... the cockatrice wants to give his cock-a-try?"

As Silvia laughed in the background, Modak intensely stared at his friend, "I... I hate you with a passion."

"No, you don't," Ryan grinned broadly, "But hey, at least you're popular with some animals now."

"... Whatever," Modak grumbled lightly, carefully squatting down. He was still hesitant; his whole life, animals had either avoided him or had been aggressive toward him. Cats would hiss and scratch at him, dogs would bark when he walked past. The reason his family wasn't able to have any pets was because they were all scared of Modak, and he was scared of them in turn.

He carefully held his hand out to the affectionate cockatrice, who pressed her head against his palm, "Well... I guess it's not all bad."

Rose pulled at Modak's arm to get him to stand up again, excitement flowing through her whole body, "If you don't have any mana at all, there is another beast that I would like you to meet! I wasn't going to introduce you all to him just yet, but we've been having quite a lot of trouble with him... Do you mind?"

Not sure what to say, Modak looked over at Ryan and Silvia, "What do you guys think? Should we?"

"I don't see why not, we're here to learn about this place anyway, right?" Ryan pointed out, and Modak carefully nodded his head.

"Alright... as long as it's safe."

"Yes! It should be totally safe for you!" Rose exclaimed, still holding onto Modak's arm. He slowly pulled away to pick up the pitchfork that he dropped.

"Sure... And I think maybe you should invest in sunglasses that can't fall off... Like those swimming goggles or something..."

Rose immediately nodded her head, "Yes, yes, of course! I will look into it and order some!"

And with that, they continued to clean up the coop to replace the old hay. Ryan ended up taking over for Modak as he was being surrounded by all the other cockatrice hens once they realized that they weren't able to paralyse him.

Especially since Rose seemed even more motivated than before, the four of them were able to finish this task pretty quickly. After that, they continued on to finish all the other tasks, which really mostly consisted feeding all the different animals and cleaning them up a bit.

Common animals that had been cursed or simply had some sort of disease with magical origins, a couple elementals beside the forge elemental, and they even met a few of the other people living down here on the way. Everyone seemed happy to meet them. They were kind, laughing, smiling... but Ryan still felt that something was off.

Everyone that lived down here had the same air surrounding them. An air that Ryan knew well. He felt similar in his hometown, though obviously for different reasons than all of these people. They felt stuck in this small place. They wanted to leave and live their lives, not be stuck in a place, hiding themselves from the world. 

But they were trying their best to figure out how to make this work for them. Some of them seemed like they were only down here temporarily, and would either leave to some places where it was easier for them to live, or try to hide themselves in New Riverside. But there were also plenty of people that had no other choice but to stay here. The geodes or dryads? They would never be able to hide, and just starting to walk around amongst other people without the ability to properly communicate with others wasn't going to just work either.

It wasn't just people that had to hide because their species was staying hidden either, though. Some of them, similar to the animals, were here because they were suffering from certain types of curses or magical diseases. Regular hospitals were only equipped to handle the most basic curses at the level of regular illnesses, and not the kind of thing they were dealing with here.

Forced, painful mutations of limbs, out of control magic, and even things like lycanthropy. This whole organization was doing their best to help all of these people, and Ryan wanted to do whatever he could to help that. Maybe taking care of animals wasn't the way for him to do that, and he most certainly didn't have the organizational and political skills needed to help whole species of people integrate. But helping out individuals was something he could do. Something he had to do.

And so, before long, Ryan, Silvia, and most importantly Modak, followed Rose to the place where that 'troubled child' stayed. They made their way to the edge of the cave, walking up some stairs that climbed up to one of the buildings carved into the walls. Before they reached the top, Rose turned around and looked at the three behind her.

"Okay, you've got to stay calm now. He's not dangerous, he has never attacked anyone... we just can't get close to him. But still, we should try not to scare him."

Modak nervously clenched his fist. He had no idea what he was about to see, but if he was the only one that could really help, then he had to do this. Rose pushed open the wooden door on the balcony at the end of the steps. And as they walked inside, what the group saw was not a wounded animal that wouldn't let others get close, which is what this all sounded like all along. 

No, the only thing in this room was a single wardrobe.

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