Beauty and the Beasts

Muir left the nest very early to hunt for food for the children.

Animals rarely moved in and out of the rock forest. Even flying animals rarely passed by. This meant that Muir had to fly a distance in order to hunt for prey, despite only needing very little of it.

The baby eagles hid in the boulder gap and pecked at their feathers. At the thought of their gentle Mommy, they ignored their Daddy’s warnings and squirmed out of the gap one by one, running back to where the shelter was built.

They’d grown three sizes bigger compared to when they were just born. They now had majestic coats of feathers, and their claws and beaks were now harder and stronger.

The awkward thing was that because they were currently molting, their feathers were a messy mix of yellow and black, and their beaks had spots on them. Even sparrows looked better than them.

“Screech screech screech~”

They paced up and down and looked around, seemingly confused that their shelter was nowhere to be found.

Clank clank clank—

With their firm beaks, they pecked at the stones that used to be upright on the ground and now lay haphazardly in a heap on the side.

“Gah gah gah~”

A large black bird flew by. Upon seeing the two eaglets on the stone cliff, it immediately looked around warily.

This was a necrophagous eagle. It was relatively smaller in size compared to other eagles. An adult necrophagous eagle would only be as large as a month-old eaglet. It couldn’t fly fast either, which made it difficult to hunt for prey. As such, it relied on carrion for food.

They ate food in the woods that hadn’t been finished by predators. They were somewhat like the janitors of the woods, except that they stole most of their food.

Hunting was no easy feat, and most animals would eat any large prey over several meals. As a result, necrophagous eagles were despised.

They only ate carrion because they weren’t able to hunt, and definitely preferred fresh food if it was available. Defenseless children were their best choice.

Seeing that there wasn’t any large eagle around, it boldly flew down and landed four to five meters away from the baby eagles.

“Screech screech screech~”

The two little fellows noticed it and turned to stare back at it. “Screech screech screech!”

“Gah gah!” The necrophagous eagle took two steps towards the baby eagles with legs that had lumps all over from eating carrion, then looked around again.

“Screech screech screech!” Left and Right stuck out their necks and cried out.

Given that there still weren’t any large eagles in sight, the necrophagous eagle’s heart was finally at ease, and it pecked at Right.

“Screech!” Right winced and immediately pecked with his curved beak, which was more suitable for ripping prey apart. The force delivered was substantial as the baby eagles could already peck at their food.

“Gah!” The necrophagous eagle stepped back and shook its head. Seeing that they were mere eaglets, it mustered the courage to pounce with even more ferocity.

Screech screech screech!

Left joined in the fight and, together with Right, attacked the enemy bird on both sides, causing the ground to be littered with black feathers.

The necrophagous eagle was annoyed. They were all black eagles, but they lived vastly different lives. One species enjoyed the most delicious food, while the other had to forage for scraps.

It couldn’t defeat adult eagle beastmen, and now, it couldn’t defeat mere eaglets. It was maddening.

Then, the gears in its dull head suddenly began to slowly turn as it came up with an idea.

The necrophagous eagle began flying to avoid the baby eagles’ deceptively weak pecking. When they weren’t looking, it used its ugly and short claws to grab onto the eaglet that pecked it the hardest, then continued flying as the eaglet struggled haphazardly.

“Screech screech screech~”

Left raised his head and flapped his wings at the sight of Right being captured. Despite the flapping sounds and the flurry of dust he created, his body was as heavy as a fat chicken drenched from the rain, and he did not move an inch.