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You would lose if you fought us, landed Beast, a female raptor communicated with lofty disdain.
This is our mountain, our sky. You would never win against us here.
“Good thing I’m not attempting to find out,” Sin growled with a hint of impatience, but trying his best to keep his tone neutral.
“It is of the utmost importance that I see Sol,” Ben spoke up.
“His Destiny, hislife, is at stake.”
The raptors were silent at that, approaching fast. Suddenly, the sun was overcast by the spread of their massive wings.
Three raptors descended upon them at once, leading with echoing shrieks.
A golden eagle snatched Sin up in human form, gigantic claws hooking around each shoulder. A black and white condor took Ben next, and a white-chested eagle came for Zai.
One moment his feet were on solid ground, and the next he was airborne, the sudden change in altitude making his stomach drop, and his head light.
The raptors climbed rapidly to the peak of the mountain, hovered for a moment at the top, before folding their wings in a death fall directly into a small opening in the middle of the plateau.
Zai took the sudden ascent and dive much better than he expected, but one look at Sin, and it was obvious the liger struggled mightily, his face turning varying shades of white and gray.
The human boy, however, whooped with excitement as they dropped like stones into the narrow pit of the mountain, like an endlessly deep, dark well that seemed to have no bottom.
The human was…special. Just as Zai sensed from the first moment he laid eyes on Ben.
No mortal or even Immortal being who was not born with wings should find this lightning-fast descent exhilarating.
It was a long,longway down. Zai counted the seconds to take his mind off the fall.
Eleven…Twelve…Thirteen…
Then, as suddenly as they’d been snatched from the side of the mountain, taken to the top and dropped back down, the raptors opened their wings at the last possible second and dropped Sin, Ben and Zai from their claws.
Zai braced for impact by tucking his body into a ball, flipping and rolling in the air a couple of times before landing in a crouch on unyielding rock. He rolled his shoulders and neck as he stood, reorienting himself to gravity.
Hmm. Flying wasn’t so bad. He wouldn’t mind having a pair of wings.
Sin landed solidly on his feet as well, but promptly emptied his stomach on the ground at his feet, coughing as he slowly straightened to a stance. Ben seemed to suffer no ill effects. He tilted his head back to look at the enormous cavern that surrounded them.
They were so deep within the mountain, the opening at the top was but a small white speck in the distance, as high up as a star in the sky. The cavern walls were covered with rock and crystal formations that throbbed with their own light, illuminating the lightless space with an eerie, soft glow.
Zai could see that fifty feet above them, the walls of the cavern narrowed steadily into the narrow hole they’d dropped through. The sides got smoother the higher they went.
It would have been impossible for them to climb down on their own from such a height. As the Tiger King said, their only way in would have been through the hidden entrance in the side of the mountain, which the sentry raptors hadn’t allowed them to find.
Their carriers had disappeared behind a rock wall when they landed, and they now walked forth in human form wearing tunics made of leather, beads and feathers.
The female threw a set of clothes to Sin and arched a brow, clearly indicating for him to put them on.
While Sin dressed, the female spoke.
“I will allow you to keep your weapons, Dark One and human. Know that, if you dare to use them against any of us, you will not live to regret it.”
Zai inclined his head in acknowledgement.
She cocked her head at Ben and narrowed her eyes slightly, considering.
“You do not fear flying, human,” she stated the observation.
