7 Golden Crows Return (1/2)
The shiny bird spread his wings and looked himself all over, ”Gold feathers... a general feeling of power... a minor desire to spit fire for no reason... is this what I think it is?”
Seran pulled up Storm's new status window before sending it to the bird's vision, ”This is your new information.”
--
Name: Storm
Species: Golden Crow
Level: 20 (^9)
Grade: Divine (New!)
Bloodline(s): Golden Crow (100%)
--
The little crow looked through the floating information box and screeched in surprise upon reading his species, ”I'm a Golden Crow now!?”
The boy nodded, ”The first Golden Crow in more than a million years. After purifying your bloodline, your grade went up from Rare to Divine, which is a good 4 or 5 grades difference. You also went up 9 levels, and you will gain levels much faster than before. You should also be capable of changing your size.”
Etienne was dumbstruck once again as he watched the newly reborn Golden Crow wiggle before swiftly growing to become the size of an adult elephant. ”Holy shit, this is incredible... More than incredible, this is insane! A new Golden Crow!”
Seran smiled and turned around to head towards the wagons and carriage, ”Come on, chief, let's check and see if there's anything important here. Storm, you can go fly around the area, get used to your new power.” The big bird cawed with joy as he immediately took off, buffeting the area with his wings.
Etienne took a minute to watch the gleeful bird with a wondrous grin before shaking his head to clear it. He quickly caught up with Seran, who had just reached the carriage which had led the two wagons. The boy opened the carriage doors and looked inside. ”I don't see anyone, chief... Looks completely empty. They likely killed everyone earlier.”
The chief nodded solemnly, ”I'd have to say the same. The battle marks on the outside attest it as well... Look for any secret compartments. Merchant caravans often have such things, just in case.”
While Etienne searched the outside of the carriage for any oddities, Seran did likewise on the inside. Two or three compartments were uncovered, within which were small coin purses, the contents of which totaled just over 300 gold coins. After storing them in his Inventory, the boy continued looking around. Out of a spontaneous hunch, he knocked on the floorboards a few times. He heard a hollow sound when he rapped against the front side of the carriage seat's frame, ”Hmm...”
Etienne came back as Seran was fiddling around with the frame, his clothes very dusty, ”Under the carriage, I found a key and a seal that I don't recognize. Might be important, so we'll have to find out at the fortress... what are you doing?”
”This seat sounds hollow, and I'm certain that something is in here. Help me find a way to open it. I can't find a latch or anything, but there has to be something to open it... A hidden switch, a button, something around here...” Seran continued twiddling around the carriage in an attempt to locate anything that could open it. As he was doing so, his right knee nudged a spot on the door-jam, which made a clicking sound that alerted the two, especially when half of the seat's frame popped out, like a modern sliding door design.
Upon pulling the wooden plank out, Seran and Etienne found, hidden under the seat, a child much younger than Seran. A little boy, maybe 4 or 5 years old, with blonde brown-highlighted hair, lay on his side, either asleep or unconscious from a lack of air. Seran immediately said, ”Chief, come up here. I don't know anything about medical things, but you should be able to tell how he is.” He moved out of the way quickly for the adult male to check on the smaller child.