Since we were on the edge of the giants' territory there was no ruckus throughout the night. We resumed our travel after a short, early morning breakfast, and traveled for few hours before we even saw any of the monsters.

They had to appear eventually. A few figures on the horizon. Tall enough to spot us without much trouble.

They started charging our way so Martin, Hailwic, Nil, Andy, Nadzieja, Alice, and Ki'rai all moved to protect the caravan.

- Give me the cichken - I hissed to Tihana.

- No way! Get lost!

- Trust me, this will be epic!

- Fuck no! I'm lot letting you kill Tam! - she wasn't backing down.

- Look at him. He is smoking! Look! Have you ever seen a smoking chicken like this? This is half chicken half... phoenix! - I tried my best to quickly come up with some bullshit.

- Phoenix is burning, not smoking! - she argued.

- He is half, that's why he is smoking!

- That's a lie!

All the researchers didn't know if they should look at the battle that was about to start, or us, arguing like two kids.

- Just trust me on this! It's gonna be fine.

- He will die - she said with tears in her eyes. - I'm not letting you kill tam.

It was so stupid. She just had no idea how strong the chicken was and grew so fond of him, that she didn't want to let him get hurt.

- Hey... Don't cry ok? - I could barely hold my laughter, which wasn't helping.

- It's not funny! You want to kill him!

- No. Trust me, he will be fine. Tam, you will be fine, won't you?

- Bawk! - he confirmed strongly.

- See? He said it himself.

- If he gets hurt, I'm never forgiving you - she said with lips twisted by sadness, as tears escaped her eyes, and ran down the cheeks.

She gave me the chicken and wiped them off with the back of her hand. She kept doing so, as more kept coming out.

With Tam in my hand, a mustered my resolve. The whole joke did a one-eighty on me and turned into something sad, so I really didn't know if doing what I planed was appropriate.

The hunters already clashed with the group of giants few dozens of meters from us. The researchers watched closely, thrilled by the scene progressing in front of their eyes. Martin broke one leg of the monster, forcing him to fell down, then leaped into the air, and landed heavy, smashing the skull with a powerful blow.

It was a perfect moment.

- Fire in the hole! - I shouted on top of my lungs and then threw the chicken with one hand as hard as I could, still under seal, obviously.

He cried out loudly, spreading his wings, and dropping a cloud of feathers as he flew through the air, and then, all of a sudden transformed into his giant version spreading his winds widely, and covering the sun.

Just as Tihana gasped with panic mixed with sadness, thinking he just died, but then she realized that he actually changed the form.

Defining bird cry scared the shit out of everybody, but that was just the beginning of mindblowing, awesome chaos that was to unreveal in front of me. Tam flapped his wings with incredible force, and a powerful wave of wind hit us, moving the carts and the people.

In a blink of an eye, he was above the giants. My friends dispersed, and he landed heavily on one of the monsters and pecked his head off. One giant tried to smash him with the tree trunk he was carrying, but the wood shattered on the bird's body, enhanced by the 'Shadow fusion'. Splinters shoot everywhere, and Tam jumped in the air and retaliate with his sharp claws, tearing the monster face-off, and killing it. With a flap of his wing, he knocked down the last one, and pierced his chest, tearing his heart out.

Then he turned back into his chicken form, and ran back to Tihana, spreading his wings all proud of himself.

- What the fuck? - I heard Sudarshana Patel speaking, as she picked herself from the ground.

- Yeah, what the fuck?! - asked Tihana turning to face me, then she punched me. - You could have told me!

- I did!historical

She was still crying, but there was a smile on her face. I, moved by the moment and emotions, grabbed her, pulled closer, and gave her a tight hug, as she broke down completely, wailing in my arms.

It was a nice moment, as I really felt how close we grew together. Then Tam joined us, wrapping his wings around our legs, and I finally let her go, so she could put herself together, and pick up the chicken.

Meanwhile, the group of my friends returned. Ki'rai seemed upset, Andy a bit shocked, and martin was simply laughing.

- That was a good one! - he said, and have me a thumbs up.

- Can somebody explain what just happened? - asked Mika Sawamura.

- Peter here played a little prank - said the giant, like that, was explaining everything.

- That wasn't a little prank! I almost died out of a heart attack!

- Well, get used to it - replied Hailwic.

They both returned to their positions at the front of the caravan. The rest followed them, quickly getting over what happened. Only the researchers seemed to still be taken aback. Even Tihana somehow dealt with this emotional rollercoaster.

- In this place, you have to get used to things like this - explained Nadzieja.

Alice behind her nodded quickly to her words. Razzle on the other hand was closely watching Tam in Tihana's arms. For him, the chicken was probably feeling like a hell of a threat.

There was a bit of complaining from the researchers, but we restarted our journey anyway, and fortunately didn't have any more encounters. Mainly because we stuck to the edge of the hunting ground.

When the night came we set up a camp, still in the territory of giants. I declared that I'm gonna keep watch, and the rest went to sleep. They needed the rest more than me.

The day came to an end with 24 330 290 points remaining on my account, and 21 class points.