Farah kicked up a cloud of dust when she leapt over the Manor's fence and landed heavily in the yard in a half-kneeling position. Clearly having pushed herself to her limits to arrive even a moment faster, Farah was breathing hard as she stared forward at the giant beast, her brow furrowed deeply.
At the same time, the giant beast was also now fully focused on this newcomer that it could keenly sense was far more powerful than any of the other two-legged creatures around it.
Up until this point, the bird had been fairly calm and relaxed. It was injured and hungry, so when it smelt a large amount of food at the Town Lord's Manor, it had swooped down to sate itself, not caring about the large number of small creatures which were scurrying about nearby.
As far as it was concerned, these two-legged monkeys posed no threat to it whatsoever. Of all of these monkeys, only one stood out as mildly interesting, a youngling that had a strangely powerful Soul.
Now, however, a new funny-looking monkey had arrived, and this one was much, much stronger than the others.
Although it still wasn't a real threat, the giant bird could sense that this newcomer at least had the ability to wound it, something it would rather avoid in its current condition.
Silence fell across the courtyard as Farah and the giant bird stared each other down, neither one of them making any sudden moves, as if they were sizing each other up. A not-so-subtle tension began filling the air as the crowd of onlookers held their breath and waited, too scared to move, but also unable to look away.
After her breathing calmed down, Farah slowly got to her feet and began lifting her oversized sabre, holding it out to her side.
A light flashed across the giant bird's eyes when it saw this, and it began releasing a threatening aura, one that caused several of the weaker willed humans nearby to faint directly.
"Aunty Farah, wait!" Eris' scream cut through the silence. She was familiar with the kind of aura the giant beast was emitting as she had felt her father releasing something similar when he sparred with the Town Guard, though the sense of dread which radiated from the brown-feathered bird was orders of magnitude stronger.
The young girl was nearly hysterical right now, desperate to do something to stop a battle from breaking out, and the reason for her panic was obvious; Lucas, who had been standing between Farah and the beast a moment ago, had collapsed to the ground, probably from the intense pressure, and would surely perish if a fight started.
"Shut her up!" Farah snapped loudly, taking a tone she would normally never use against a child. The town's oldest butcher always had a soft spot for children, but right now, she couldn't afford even the slightest distraction.
Farah understood why Eris was panicking as she was also quite anxious, but any lapse in her concentration right now could prove fatal for everyone here, so the old butcher didn't hold back.
Seemingly understanding, Helen clasped her hand over Eris' mouth, muffling the young girls voice while whispering, "Eris! You know your Aunt Farah would never abandon Lucas! Let her handle this!"
Although Eris was reluctant, she was well acquainted with Butcher Farah and understood just how well she treated all the children in Redwood Town. Eris also knew that now was not the time to cause a fuss as it would only make matters worse.
With no other choice, she could only place her trust in Farah and weakly nod through her tears.
As silence fell over the yard again, Farah tried her best to compose herself and come up with a plan.
The instant she had sensed this giant bird flying towards Redwood Town, Farah realized that even if she had been at her peak, she wouldn't have been a match for it. She could only hope it didn't find anything worthy of its interest and bypassed the town entirely.
When Farah saw the giant bird swoop down from the sky and head towards the Town Lord's Manor, she loudly cursed the Heavens, wondering just how many calamities it was planning to throw at them today.
Farah knew she would die if she challenged this beast, but she also knew she couldn't just stand back and do nothing.
It wasn't a stretch to say that over the past 50 years, Farah had witnessed the birth of almost all of the current inhabitants of Redwood Town. She had watched many of them as toddlers, then children, then youths, then adults, making her connection to them quite profound.
In a certain sense, she saw all of those who lived in Redwood Town as children in need of her protection.
Dashing off, Farah had pushed herself hard, hoping to arrive at the Town Lord's Manor before a slaughter occurred; but when she arrived, she was greeted by an unexpected sight.
No one was dead.
No one was even hurt.
The only one who seemed to be in any kind of real danger was Lucas, who for some reason Farah could not currently fathom, was lying face-down in the dirt right in front of the giant bird.
What circumstances had led to this strange sight, Farah didn't know, but she did understand that her next actions would determine whether the strange little boy she had grown fond of over the past few months would live or die.
The tension grew stronger and stronger as Farah gradually brought her blade up.
In response, the beast began spreading its enormous wings.
The two sides seemed like they were about to engage in battle, but then, completely unexpectedly, Farah actually released her grip on her weapon, allowing it to drop to the ground with a loud clatter.
Eris was stunned by this scene, the crowd of onlookers was stunned by this scene, even the giant bird seemed to be stunned by this scene as it released a short chirp that could only be described as a note of confusion.
When she heard this chirp, Farah actually smiled slightly and called out, "I'm not your enemy. I just want to help that boy."
This was the second time today that the crowd had witnessed someone talking to this giant beast, but it still stunned them greatly.
*Chirp chirp. Chirp chirp chirp.*
In response to Farah's words, the giant bird again answered back, slowly folding its wings and withdrawing its aura.
It then took a couple steps forward and lowered its head towards Lucas.
"NO! DON'T EAT HIM!" Eris ripped Helen's hand away from her mouth and screamed when she saw this, terrified that her little brother was about to be swallowed whole by this wicked creature.
Everyone present thought the same, with many turning their eyes away, unable to watch what was about to happen. The only exception was Farah, who calmly called out, "Don't worry. Everything's alright."
Sure enough, the giant bird only leaned down and nudged Lucas, poking him gently with its beak.
A moment later, Lucas groaned and rolled over onto his back.
Opening his eyes, the boy looked up and saw the giant bird's face literally right on top of him and couldn't help crying out, "Holy crap!"
Suffice-it-to-say, Lucas was now wide awake and leapt to his feet, backing away a few steps from the giant beast. He might have made 'friends' with it just now, but that didn't mean he wasn't still afraid of it.
"You alright, Lucas?" Farah asked, having at some point arrived beside him.
"Wha? Huh?" Lucas, still a little disoriented, was having trouble understanding what was going on and just stared up at Farah in a daze.
Seeing this, Farah scratched her head awkwardly and explained, "You were subjected to the full force of this fellow's aura pressure. It caused you to pass out."
"Oh," Lucas muttered, glancing around and noticing the giant sabre lying on the ground about 100 metres away.
Lucas was smart, and once the fog lifted from his head, he soon put all the pieces together, turning to Farah and summarizing, "You arrived, Senior, and the big guy felt threatened, so he assumed an aggressive posture. After that, you somehow realized what this big guy was and dropped your weapon to prove you weren't a threat?"
"Impressive deductions as always," Farah nodded, feeling bad that her arrival had nearly caused Lucas to die.
In fact, had it not been for Lucas' constant training and abnormally powerful Soul, he really might have been crushed by the beast's pressure just now, instead of simply passing out.
"You're damn lucky, little brat," Farah said to Lucas before turning her head up towards the big bird and nodding to it. A gesture it surprisingly returned.
Taking a deep breath, Lucas nodded as he replied, "This guy didn't want to hurt me. He just wanted to find something to eat."
"En," Farah nodded, "The moment I got close enough to see his species, I realized that things weren't as bad as I had feared."
"You've seen one of his kind before?" Lucas asked curiously.
Sweeping her gaze over the majestic creature before her, Farah smiled lightly but shook her head, "Before today, I had never seen a Great Oriyan, but I've seen records and drawings of them before."