Untitled Chicken Quest (3)
1467 Words
Morning comes.
I wake up, feeling refreshed, free from the sleep-interrupting honk that apparently comes from a goose.
Lorelei also feels refreshed. She looks pretty even with her glasses off.
But our stomachs grumble.
Alright then, it's time for a quick breakfast before we head off to Onocho Peak.
She hands me some sausage buns that she says she prepared beforehand because she knew she would be out on a quest like this.
“Mmm. This actually tastes good.”
“A far cry from your tasteless rations, mind you.”
“But still as nutritious, as far as I know. Judging from what I can taste of the bun, this contains chopped beef, chicken, and pork sausages, chopped broccoli, chopped chayote, and select herbs and spices.”
“How can you tell?”
“I'm a home cook myself. Most of the time, I emulate what's being served at eateries and bars, and also put my own spin on them. All to break the monotony. Also, I train myself not to become a horrible cook.”
“That's... kinda noble.”
We eventually finish our breakfast, and thus we are ready to continue our quest.
But first...
“Walter, I want to confess something to you.”
“Why to someone you've never met before?”
“It's because... I find you trustworthy. Those eyes of yours... they're filled with much experience and dedication as do mine.”
As she says that, her eyes are manifestly focused on mine.
Guess she knows that thing where the eyes serve as windows to the soul.
“I find you trustworthy and dedicated to your work, too, Lorelei. So I guess we're even. Now go and tell me what you wanna tell.”
“Ahem. All my life, I've been confined to the classrooms and the laboratories, trying to make a name for myself in the scientists' circle. But as you may know... this has made a negative impact on my love life. I try my best to look good, but no man ever approached me. Not even with my glasses, which some consider a turn-on. I wonder if I'll become a Winterfest cake with my current sorry state of romantic affairs...”
For those not in the know, a “Winterfest cake” is a colloquial term for any woman over 25 years old who has a zero love life. This comes from the belief that while an actual Winterfest cake is delicious, nobody wants it after the 25th of Oraclemonth, which is the actual date of Winterfest.
“That is why... Walter... I need to experience what... being in love is like. So... please...”
I can sense her heart beating faster than before, amidst the calmness of this grass field within the Melco Jungle.
“I... I wanna have unprotected hand holding!”
“W-WHAT?!”
Man, even this has spread outside the kingdom's capital.
Now for a little more context behind this.
Due to the many instances of public displays of affection in the capital, especially in the Poblation Central Park (and Belle and I have personally seen one such example – a torrid french kiss, no less!), a good number of people even joke that less... uh... lewd ways of expressing affection such as holding hands are considered more scandalous.
Man, do those jokesters know how to turn tables around and still give us, I dunno, good laughs.
Even the Royal Constabulary has given up on convincing steamy couples to quit their PDAs, knowing that no actual s****l acts beyond torrid kisses happened within what is unofficially called “PDA Central”.
“C-Come on! I should tell you that I have a girlfriend, and it's against my personal moral code to flirt with someone else!”
“Even for this moment only... please?”
I can still hear Belle's stern words ringing through my brain as I can still remember her tirade one day, when I was home from yet another completed quest, and she smelled women's perfume on my body!
“Walter... WHY?! Why'd you have to do this?! Even though I know all along that you were out on a quest, the fact that you smell... no, reek... of perfume I don't personally use... makes me think that you flirted with another girl as a reward for that quest! And what do you mean, 'I just escaped from that illegal chemical weapons factory disguised as a perfume factory'? I don't buy your words! Unless I can confirm for myself at the adventurer's guild that you indeed did not go out with another woman, we won't sleep together for now. Got it, Walter?!”
But, on the other hand... I don't want to amplify Lorelei's feelings of loneliness, which would later snowball into depression.
So, I have no choice but to bite the bullet.
Sorry, Belle. I have to help that poor little girl for now... by answering to her feelings.
I carefully motion my right hand... and then gently put it on top of her own right hand.
This should be enough, right?
“Your hand is... so warm, Walter. Thank you. You know what, behind the shell of a scientist, I'm just another woman in love, a kid out of school.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
We remain like this for roughly five minutes, and...
“Alright. I'm pumped with another dose of energy. Now for us to find that red chicken and give it the recognition it deserves.”
“Sure. Let's go.”
After disassembling the portable tent and packing up our things (and her putting on her glasses), we're ready to resume our quest for the elusive bird.
Like with many other quests I've completed, I have to see this to the very end.
From the open grass field, we then proceed through a narrow clearing consisting of tall bushes and grass.
And after all that trouble of crossing that dangerous jungle, we're finally at Onocho Peak.
Onocho Peak is a simple cone-shaped hill, with a sparse amount of trees and a wide-open grass field.
Legends say the peak was created when a giant had too much chocolate to eat but soon grew sick of it; and so he threw the excess away, leaving it behind for other giants to eat.
But alas, no one else came to claim the excess; and so, over time, the ginormous mound of chocolate developed into its own natural structure – trees and grass grew on its surface, and farmers would sometimes graze their cows in this place, for the soil underneath came from the throwaway chocolate, providing more than enough nutrition for the grass to grow.
Due to the open-ended structure of the hill, the path upwards isn't difficult for us to trudge.
There aren't any monsters that can ambush us, either.
The only annoyance we're encountering while climbing the hill...
...is that honk.
That same honk that annoyed us last night and forced us to plug our ears for a good night's sleep.
Again...
“Why that goose sound now? Like I said before, no one in Orion Cepheid raises geese! Only chickens!”
“Maybe... some inventive prankster, or a really good voice imitator, is making these geese honks to throw us off?”
“You've probably got a point there, Walter.”
Despite that annoyance, we push forward.
And here we are. The top of the peak.
It's mostly empty, except for the really loud honk that batters our eardrums.
And also... the red chicken.
“HONK!”
What's even strange is that once the chicken opens its mouth, it produces that ear-piercing honk.
“T-That can't be real, can it?”
Lorelei is obviously perplexed at this biological and aural dissonance.
“This is indeed real. Hey, you got a scanning spell or something?”
“Oh yeah, I forgot!”
With a simple motion of her Oracle's Staff...
“Myabel.”
A magical cross-hair briefly appears on the red chicken, and the resultant statistics are shown on a magical hologram that lasts for a minute.
“Error: Creature not yet recognized in the Royal Academy's Creature Taxonomic Database.”
“I knew it.”
Lorelei reacts with a hint of disappointment. But that disappointment fades away and is replaced by excitement.
The excitement aura then gives way to that of terror when...
The red chicken suddenly bares its huge sharp claws from its feet, and poises to trample us down and cut us up.
“This is not your ordinary chicken, Lorelei! We need to find a way to calm it down without killing it outright!”
“I know, I know!”
And as the bird belts out a distorted and ominous-sounding honk...
...we know we're in for a tough battle.
- Writer
