After the harpy attack, no one felt like the mountain was threat free after all. Deku was shaken up by how human-like they were. Like the Nomu monster in a way. It wasn't any help that Shoto explained it by saying "The Dark Lord's worst monsters are often hybrids, they say he mixes the blood of humans with that of monsters or animals, but they also may just be their own entities that he recruits, or has common cause with, no one knows." "That is disgusting and creepy," Denki said. "Harpies are not the worst of it," Shoto was further helpful in saying. "They are just pests, really. Some hybrids are more intelligent." "Thank you Mr. Sunshine." Denki said sarcastically. Kyoka shook her head. "It's better to be prepared." "How does him saying that prepare us?" Denki said a little testily. "Please, let's not start getting snippy," Momo spoke. "We're all shaken from what just happened, but we need to stay calm. There may be other creatures about, and we can't afford to lose our heads." That wasn't much better, but they were silent. "That was another good plan, Deku," Ochako changed the subject. "You're definitely the man with a plan on this quest." She smiled encouragingly. Deku blushed "Oh--uh-- no , it wasn't really that good, I just thought it might help. I mean, it wasn't even really a plan." "It's not like it took a genius to come up with that," Bakugo said flatly. "Then why didn't you say it?" Mina said slyly. "Because it was obvious!" Bakugo thundered. No one believed him. "Well, anyway, it worked," Denki said. "Yeah, Ei's the man--uh, dragon." Mina did a fist pump. Ei reddened. "I just growled a little."
They climbed for maybe another hour, the wind was biting cold, and cut through their clothes like a knife. Momo and Kyoka donned their cloaks, Mina hid in one of the saddle bags for warmth. Deku tirelessly consulted his map. They reached a point where they got a clear view of the valley behind them, it looked dark and menacing even from here, and Fay Forest was not even visible, but then, Fay Forest was rarely visible at all until you were in it. It was as if the whole world was dark, bleak, and barren. They were not around the mountain enough to see what lay on the other side, and if it was anymore cheerful. On top of that, the air was beginning to get thinner, and they were feeling the difference. Ochako sighed with weariness. "I'm beginning to think I can't get to the top... are we going to camp here?" Pause as everyone realized that would be a lethal error. "We can't," Shoto stated the obvious, "we should have waited longer to start this climb, but now we have to finish it." "Maybe we could find a cave and catch a few hours..." Deku said. "It's the mountain of monsters, what makes you think the cave would be empty?" Shoto said. "We don't need rest!" Bakugo declared. "We're warriors! Come on weaklings!" He began marching. "I really hate him right now," Denki said. "Mina is lucky, she can ride without any rouble." "So get on your alpaca," Kyoka said grumply. "Then I look like a wimp for riding while the rest of you walk," Denki said. Mina peeked out of the bag. "You calling me a wimp?" "No," Denki said. Tibult bleated and began hopping along again. She seemed to have recovered from the scare before. Sight flew around curves and came back, checking for more threats. But what he couldn't warn them of was an unexpected drop off into a ravine...luckily, there was a bridge. Unluckily, it was guarded. A large troll was sitting in front of it. Trolls were ugly, famously brutish, and usually stupid. But this one seemed a little more clever, as it didn't bother trying to attack such a large party. It just said "Pay the toll." "Right... you all see that too?" Denki said. "That's not just my brain going out after using my lightning?"
"Pay the toll?" Camie looked up. "I thought you had to answer 3 questions to cross." "That's my cousin," the troll said. "I want gold." "How much?" Momo said. The troll looked at her narrowly. "10 pounds." Momo produced this amount after a short time of effort. "Why are we going along with this?" Shoto asked. "Dude, you know trolls can curse you if you don't follow their rules, right?" Denki hissed. "Not all of them, but this one seems powerful, why else would he risk holding us up? It's better to just give him what he wants."
But the troll was not so judicious, after seeing the ease with which they fulfilled his demand, he got sour and wanted to cause more mischief. "Well, it so happens, that unlike my cousin, I require you to both pay a toll, and answer my questions." "What? What kind of malarkey is that?" Kyoka said. The troll smiled evilly. "And if you don't, I'll cast you off the mountain with my magic." They all exchanged looks. "What kind of questions?" Deku asked.
"Oh, it's simple enough," The troll said. "You have to tell me 1: What is my favorite color? 2. What did I have for breakfast? and 3: Where are you going?"
They stared at him. "But how would we know the first two, we don't know you." Mina said. "That sounds like it's your problem, not mine," the troll sat back, barring the bridge. "You have 5 minutes."
The team exchanged a look. "How can we possibly guess that?" Kyoka hissed. "I've heard of this, I don't think you get a second chance if you guess wrong." "Isn't there supposed to be some trick to it?" Shoto said. "Some key." "I say, we just blow the blaggard up!" Bakugo said. "We might be cursed if we do that..." Momo worried. "Maybe there's some kind of mathematical way to do this." "Then we really are screwed!" Denki said. "Guys, we can't fail now!" Deku said. "There must be a way."
Camie tilted her head. "I say, aren't you all taking this a bit too seriously? That ogre there is just trying to have one over on you." "I am a troll!" The troll said, insulted. Camie looked over at him. "Oh sorry, you look more like an ogre." "I do not!" the troll said. "I could swear you're an ogre," Camie said, as if this was an important point. "Or maybe an orc." "I'm a troll you little snippet of a human wench!" The troll shouted. "All right, all right, easy, brother, I wasn't trying to offend." Camie held up her hands. "You know, it's just that, trolls like you don't usually have such a good sense of fashion." The troll was wearing a loincloth that looked to be made of animal hide. The others gave Camie a look like she'd lost her mind. "Fashion?" The troll was puzzled. "Yeah, yeah, that's a real nice outfit," Camie said. "I prefer leopard skin myself, but hey, what is that, boar?" "No! It's the skin of a Minotaur!" The troll said. "Right, right, Minotaur. But you know, I don't like the color," Camie put a hand on her chin critically. "I always say, you should lean into your strengths. I think green would be a much better color for you." "Green?! I hate green!" The troll said. Item: He was green. "Oh, really? But that would suit you better, don't you think?" Camie said. "I mean, why would you pick that ugly brownish black when you could do a nice mint?" "I like brown! And I'll wear it if I want, you ignorant strumpet!" the Troll raged. Camie frowned. "Well, there's no need to yell, like, your breath is bad, you know." The troll looked furious. "What?" "Seriously, what did you eat today? Rotting flesh?" Camie made a face. "Trolls don't eat dead stuff, don't you know anything" The troll said angrily. "I think you did," Camie said. "I'm sure of it. Gasp* wait, are you a cannibal, have you been eating other trolls for breakfast?" "What! Of course not--" began the troll. "It was your cousin, wasn't it?" Camie said suspiciously. The others wanted to strangle her. Was she trying to get them killed or cursed? "I never ate another troll!" the troll said. "But can you prove it?" Camie said. "I mean, it's pretty suspicious, the way you're denying it, and not telling me anything to the contrary. I don't know, you could've eaten anything." "I only ate toadstools!" the troll said. "I am on a diet! You clueless moron!" "Oh, really, huh?" Camie looked doubtful. "Well, anyway, you wanted to know where we were going right?" "Yes, after you answer the first two questions," the troll said. "Anyone other than this pest, please." Bakugo smirked. "I'll tell you where we're going, we're going right past you onto that d---bridge." "Come to think of it, I could have flown us over," Ei said. "Nah, there's probably a spell or something to keep you from doing that, you can never shortcut these things," Mina said. "What makes you think that?" The troll said. "You haven't told me what my favorite color is or what I had for..." he stopped. "Your favorite color is brown, right?" Camie said. "And, you had toadstools didn't you say? Yeah, and we are going right past you, apparently, so if you don't mind..." "What... that's... That's not fair, you tricked me!" The troll said. "Those were unfair questions," Shoto said. "How else would they answer?" "That's the point, you're supposed to not answer, and then I eat you!" The troll raged. Camie blew a cloud of smoke at him. "Eh! What's this?! Confound magic!" They all slipped around the troll and across the bridge, but in passing, Camie kicked the chunk of gold out of his hand and it went plummeting into the ravine. "My gold!" The troll cried. "Don't ever call me a strumpet," Camie said, scarily. "Siagnara, sucker!" She darted across the bridge. The troll was too busy trying to go after the gold to stop her, then it looked up and shook its fist at them. "Come back here!" But they kept going. "He didn't curse us!" Mina said excitedly. "He couldn't do it once we answered the questions," Momo said. "That's how it works... Camie, that was... impressive... I don't know what to say." "Oh no need to say anything, I already know I'm awesome," Camie waved nonchalantly. "Like I was going to let a little old troll stop me, ugh, please. That riddle thing is so played anyway. Like, hello, are we still in the Dark Ages? Just take the toll." "All the rest of us were worried, and you acted like it was nothing," Deku said. "You're amazing, Camie." Bakugo glared at him. "Hey, you want to die, wimp?" "What? No--" "Then back the heck off!" Bakugo looked crazy. Deku backed away. "Right, sorry... What did I say?" "If anyone's going to say that, it sure as heck isn't going to be a moron like you," Bakugo said warningly. "He's just being a nice party member," Camie said. "It wouldn't hurt you to compliment someone once in a while, you know." "Like heck I would!" Bakugo scoffed. "Man, you should show your girl some appreciation," Ei said. "You don't want her leaving you for someone else." Bakugo shoved him into the wall of the mountain.
After the troll, things continued quietly for a short while, the bridge over the ravine had led to a different part of the mountain, and it was empty at first. At least they thought it was empty, but the animals seemed uneasy, and Kyoka kept putting a hand to her ear, listening. She said she heard rustling, but couldn't tell where it was coming from. During this brief pause, Shoto decided to take the opportunity to pull Momo a little aside from the others and tell her she should take it easier. "Your ankle gave out in the forest, didn't it? That's why they made that brace. It's not safe for you to keep pushing yourself, you should ride Soba for a while, or Ei." Momo was a little embarrassed at this. "Thank you kindly but I'm fine, and no one else is riding, I won't ride either. It wouldn't be fair." "Why is it unfair, you're injured," Shoto said, a little crossly (he was very tired by now and not in the mood to argue). "I really don't feel anything, with this brace on," Momo said... which was not completely true, but the twinges she felt from time to time were small and she hardly noticed them. "Maybe, but a brace can't substitute for your actual leg, it'll give out eventually, or you will, if you don't take it easier for a while, be reasonable." Shoto said. That was the wrong word to use. "Reasonable? I am being reasonable," Momo said, a little put out. "I'm telling you, I'm fine. You just don't believe me. But I'm not that frail, you know, prin--I mean, Shoto. It's all right." "I didn't say you were, but you're not strong all the time," Shoto honestly didn't mean that to be rude, but he didn't think about how it would sound to someone else. Momo blinked. "I guess not... I guess no one is, but I hope I'm not so fragile as that... I don't want to argue, can we please stop talking about this?" Shoto frowned, he wasn't convinced, though if it had been something less important, he might have just dropped it, he didn't like arguing anyway. But in this case, he was convinced it was foolishness to keep walking, especially uphill and Momo should really just be more rational. Why was she being so unusually stubborn about this? Momo seemed to read that he was going to keep arguing in his face, because she said quickly "I'll just walk behind, then, please, just drop it. I can handle the trail." She fell back next to Kyoka. Who gave her a strange look, but her old habit of deferring to Momo as her ruler kept her from questioning her if she obviously didn't want to talk. Shoto was left to be sulkily dissatisfied with the results of trying to help someone who doesn't want it... as people who attempt that usually are.
They made their way around a corner of the crags and curves in the mountain, thinking it would just lead them to another place to climb over....
This sight met their eyes:
In front of them blocking their path were giant amphibians that had the bright color of venomous frogs, and the ugly warty skin of regular toads. Farther ahead, lying on the side of the mountain, were lion-bird creatures (griffins) that eyed them like vultures. Beyond that point, the whole rest of the mountain seemed to be moving. Writhing.... It took a second for them to realize that's because it was alive, there were hundreds of beasts, bugs, and humanoid horrors covering the whole thing. Like a wall. And all of them were now looking at the party like they'd just seen their lunch.
One can hardly blame them, if some of them lost their heads right then. Ochaco nearly choked on air, and Denki backed up really quickly. Mina ducked into the saddle bag with a yeep of terror. Ei sprouted scales, horns and fangs... Camie fell back onto the ground in shock. Bakugo even froze and just stared at it. Shoto had his hand on his wrist guard, Momo took some steps back, and looked behind them, could they run back...? Deku almost passed out. "Guys... What do we do?" No one answered. "C-can we go a different way, b-before they attack us?" Kyoka wasn't even moving, she was barely audible. "No-not according to the map." Deku said. " Confound the stupid map!" Bakugo said angrily. "We should get out of here before they decide to stop staring." "Uh... guys..." Denki looked back. They looked. Behind them, more monsters were closing off the path... this whole thing had been a trap.
Realizing that, the party was out of options. "We'll just have to fight our way through," Deku said, nervously. "Camie, can you give us some cover, to get past the toads? We probably shouldn't touch them... let's just try to avoid as many as we can and carve a path. Ei, you might be able to scare some of them away." Ei nodded. "Sure." None of the monsters were moving, it was like they were waiting for the party to make a move. Maybe, like many predators, they preferred to give chases rather than to attack a large group. "Stay close to each other," Momo said. "We might be able to protect each other that way, they will want us separated." Of course the odds of them actually succeeding at this were slim, but when you have no choice, fear can vanish into desperation, they all grabbed their weapons, even Deku. "Onward..." he said bravely. Camie blew them a cloud of cover and that worked out surprisingly well, they did get past the toads, who didn't seem particularly bright, they shot their tongues out at nothing, and the party dodged, but after that, the monsters weren't quite so gullible. The griffins squawked and flew at them much like the harpies had, but faster and deadlier. Ei roared at them, and they did back off a little, but they tried to swoop behind him after the others. And more monsters began to close around the party, trying to overwhelm them. Mina used her acid spit to keep some at bay and melt a few, so they became a little more cautious of her, but she couldn't be everywhere at once either. Snakes came at their feet, they had to watch where they were walking. There were those strange serpent human creatures too, things that would have been too horrifying to look at, had they had any time to think about it, but in the heat of the fight, they didn't, they just killed them because they had to. Even Denki had no time to focus on the grossness of most of the monsters, he started playing battle music to boost everyone's stamina and alertness, and it worked, they moved faster than before, and the monsters had a harder time hurting them... in fact, that was probably the only reason they began to actually carve a path through the horde. Some of the stupider monsters were intimidated by this and started to retreat, but the more intelligent ones must have seen that the odds were in their favor. They kept pressing closer, trying to drive the party toward the edge of the mountain--which wasn't hard, given that most of the rest of it was covered by the monsters themselves. Some ogres threw rocks at them that Ochako had to use all her strength to block with magic. Deku tried frantically to think of a plan, but, aside from jumping off the edge and trying to fly, he didn't have one, and there were plenty of monsters with wings who could just pick them out of the air then. Camie was still trying to give them cover from at least some, but she was getting tired...then she collapsed. A giant, ulgy spider sprang from under a rock, as if waiting for this chance, and grabbed her with a line of web, ready to drag her back. Ei used his tail to swat it away, Bakugo ran to guard her. Camie tried to get up, her arms were shaking. "So-sorry," she said, breathlessly, "I can't... I mean, I'll be fine.. Uh, I need sleep..." she went back down. "Hey! Don't you dare!" Bakugo shook her. She just gave him a dazed look. The attitude wasn't helping her recover any faster either. Bakugo didn't have much time to think of a way to help, the spider, not much deterred, was already coming back with all the speed of a normal sized spider, magnified by being 4 feet long. Bakugo glared at it. "You want a piece of this! You stupid bug!" He exploded at it. The spider lost 3 legs and seemed to be scared off by that. It scuttled away back to its rock. "Nice one!" Ei said. "Watch out for yourself you moron!" Bakugo shot back. Ei looked up barely in time to dodge another rock. "Thanks..." Speaking of rocks, a roc actually appeared, or perhaps it had been there the whole time, asleep. Maybe the other monsters had been around it, hiding it, but a huge bird shape just rose up out of nowhere, and began to eye the party like they were bugs. Shoto already had both dragons out, and he was getting tired, but the sight of this thing was enough to make even him hesitate. Ei snorted smoke in surprise. Mina looked "Ah!" She cried. "That thing... is that even possible?" Kyoka cried. Of course it was. The roc cawed loudly at them. Tibult, already panicking, panicked further and almost charged off the mountain with Denki in tow--Kyoka stopped her just in time. Then she said. "Denki, you're going to have to let Tibult go." "What?" Denki said, trying to both look at the roc, and at her. "Let her go, she can run down the mountain much faster without us, she might survive if we distract the monsters, they want people, not animals." A strange and uncanny fact about monsters was that they would eat animals if nothing else served but preferred people, and would attack people first, so she might be right. Denki realized it was true, Tibult would only be torn to shreds here, it was miraculous that it hadn't already happened, and trying to protect her was taking too much focus... He nodded finally. Kyoka cut Tibult free from the cart in a few swift strokes and smacked her rear. The alpaca took off down the slope of the mountain where people couldn't go, at an impressive speed. Denki had no time to be sad about losing Tibult for the second time, he had to face the real problem--- more monsters were attacking, but then the roc took one step towards them and most of the smaller monsters cleared away. The Alpha was clearly here, perhaps it would kill them and then they all would be a banquet for the rest of the horde... or it would eat them itself, it didn't really matter for the party. But then, maybe if they killed it, the others would be too scared to attack. How hard could it be? It was just against a bird. Deku thought all this to himself in just a few seconds. "Guys we have to kill this thing!" he yelled. The roc screeched and the other monsters closed around them from behind to prevent an escape, then it pecked at them with a beak the size of a door. They scattered out of the way, Momo had to jump--she landed on her bad ankle wrong and her leg buckled, a searing pain shot all the way up her body. She bit her lip. The roc eyed her like it had just found its first snack. Then it moved, Momo couldn't possibly have dodged--but Ei slammed into the bird full force. Even as a dragon, he was smaller than it. But not by much, and he was much heavier, the roc went off balance, but then it flapped its wings, and the feathers were like iron, it swatted Ei with them and the force of it sent him tumbling, though his hide was not pierced. "Momo go!" Kyoka yelled at her. Sending some sonic waves at the monsters blocking their way. Momo nodded, and started to get up--but to her dismay, as soon as she put weight on her bad foot, it gave way and the pain just got worse. Examining the brace, she was horrified to see that being knocked around had bent some of the metal, it was light metal unfortunately. Not meant for slamming. It wasn't holding her up properly now. In fact, it might just make her trip. She started to take it off. Bakugo tried to blow the roc up from underneath, and while there was the smell of burnt feathers, it didn't seem to do much real damage to it. Denki kept furiously playing his lute, but it wasn't helping enough. The ice and fire dragons attacked, but they were already tired and the roc was just too big, it stamped at them with its talons and nearly squashed the ice one, it shrunk back to a wrist guard. Shoto panted, and tried to summon more fire, but the fire dragon only lit a weak flame. Ochako tried to make an explosion spell at the roc, and it just snapped at her with its beak. Deku yanked her out of the way in the nick of time and ducked behind a stone. "Deku, please tell me you have a plan," Ochako gasped once she could speak. "I'm trying, but I can't think of anything we haven't tried!" Deku cried. "It's just too big... and there's not enough room to hide from it."
Momo frowned. Then she began creating something as quickly as she could, setting it up. Kyoka came up to guard her, warding off the small monsters like more griffins and some other things that were unidentifiable but looked like toadstools mixed with trolls. "What are you doing?" "Something that might work, but I need Shoto or Bakugo. Can you call one of them?" Momo said quickly, putting the finishing touches on what appeared to be a catapult. Bakugo was a little busy keeping ogres at bay from Camie, who was still unable to get up. And some other creatures were trying to pick her off too. They appeared to be giant dogs. So, Kyoka hit Shoto with a pebble and motioned him over. He came quickly enough, the fire dragon following him. "Of course I'll need it to be distracted so I get a clear shot," Momo was talking to herself. "What is it?" Shoto asked Kyoka crossly. "Momo has an idea," Kyoka said. "I don't know what it is, looks like tar to me, but whatever it is, she needs help." "Now she does, huh?" Shoto said flatly. "What is it?" "Can you light this on fire?" Momo didn't even look up. She was taking aim. Shoto lit what was in the catapult on fire. The Roc was getting tired of fighting Ei, it pecked him in the front and he flapped back wildly, almost careening off the mountain. Then it turned towards where Deku and Ochako were trying to hide, Ochako cast a shield to block it, and it stumbled back, and eyed Denki who was using the cart as cover. It stomped at him, Kyoka dashed forward and knocked him out of the way at the last second, but the foot came down on her instead... thanks to her armor, she was not crushed, but her face was slammed into the dirt hard enough to knock the wind out of her. "Kyoka!" Denki tried to reach for her hand, The roc lifted its foot with Kyoka in it, it seemed thrilled to finally have caught one. "Hey! Drop her you big pigeon!" Denki cried. The rock ignored him. "Oh no!" Momo gasped. "I can't fire while it has her, she could be killed..." "D--- it!" Shoto didn't think his dragon was going to be able to stop it. But someone had an idea--actually, something. Sight, seeing his mistress captured, did what any falcon of any courage would do, and went scratching at the roc's eye. It was quite a sight, seeing a small little bird attacking a bigger one--- the rock was too big, in fact, to possibly dodge a falcon's speed, and in seconds, it was blinded in one eye. It screeched in anger so loudly they thought their ears would split, and Kyoka was slammed back into the ground as it snapped at Sight, who wheeled out of its way quite easily. "I love that bird!" Ochako said happily. The feeling was not shared by the monsters. They didn't like to see their champion being defeated by a tiny little falcon. Normally, one might expect they'd be delighted to be rid of such a threat, but they were going to lose their dinner at this rate. Some griffins flew into the air and started swarming Sight. Who dodged, but of course, was driven away from the Roc. Mina, however, took inspiration from the falcon. She flew up and shot acid at the roc's other eye before it could dodge. Now it was blinded completely. Denki snatched Kyoka out of its claw before it could remember to pick her up again, and Momo now had her shot. She released the catapult, and flaming tar shot right at the Roc's face, just as it was screeching that time. It was a lucky shot, it went right into its mouth. The Roc began to choke. Unluckily, the tar didn't quite finish going down and it spat it back out before it could stick in its craw, nearly hitting Soba, who had to jump over a toad to get out of the way. The Roc was now on fire, and stomping furiously to put it out. It flapped its wings and created a big gust of wind, which sent some of them flying and skidding over the ground. Denki, and Kyoka both tumbled into the cart. Momo was less fortunate, the wind knocked her back, right over the edge of the mountain. She caught hand holds of dirt and broke her fall... hanging over the edge, struggling to climb back over, but her bad foot wasn't taking any weight. To make matters worse, the catapult got knocked over the edge too and almost hit her on its way down, she swung out of the way, and her hand began to slip-- then Shoto grabbed her arm. "Hang on!" he said. Momo wasn't going to do anything else...but her armor was weighing her down, could he actually pull her up? But Shoto was ahead of her on that, his fire dragon grabbed his clothes and pulled back. Momo was up over the lip of the cliff in one swift movement and Shoto had his arms around her to make sure she was stable. It took a second to process what happened. Then she looked back at the Roc, it was getting attacked by Mina and Ei, and it was still choking. But it was flapping about too much, and they weren't hitting it enough to kill it... Then it sent Ei flying again, and Mina went into a tailspin from the wings flapping and hit the ground hard. Shoto's fire dragon turned back into a wrist guard, great timing. Even Bakugo seemed exhausted... just when it looked like it couldn't get any worse, another dark shape rose up out of the mountain. A second roc? What, did this one have a mate? At that point, everyone in the party silently gave up. They'd never fight off two of those things. "I'm sorry about earlier," Momo said faintly. "And... thank you. I don't think this is going to ..." but she didn't like to say it even now. "There has to be a way---" Shoto looked around desperately for any escape route, but he didn't see one. Even Ei wasn't trying to move now. They all just watched as the second roc stepped up to the first one, the first one couldn't see it, but it seemed to sense something was there, it cocked its head. Then, the second rock suddenly attacked the first one, claws out, and sent it flying off the mountain. The other monsters stared, the first roc started flying and blindly circling back, the second one screeched a warning. Sight screeched also, flying at the first roc's face again. The first roc snapped at him angrily--this time he didn't miss completely: Sight's right wing got clipped, and he spun towards the ground. The griffons dived after him in fury-- "No!" Momo and Kyoka both yelled. Mina shot acid at the griffins and grabbed the falcon out of the air-- the Second roc either took this offense as a challenge, or as permission, because it jabbed the first one again, this time with its beak, and the fist roc went tumbling down the side of the mountain, probably dead, but out of sight...the other monsters looked at the newcomer, and then they scattered, leaving the party alone finally, except for the giant bird.