//------------------------------//
// Oiseau Grand 
// Story: Quete 
// by Comrade Bagel Muffin 
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Escutcheon pulled the bottle to his mouth, and started chugging down the bile tasting potion, which slowly went down his throat. He gagged trying to keep the healing potion down. He swallowed down again and again trying to keep the disgusting liquid down, as it slowly worked its magic. He winced as pain shot through his chest as his ribs slowly fused back together. His vision began to cloud as the pain intensified, which caused him to lose the battle with his stomach, and what was left of the healing potion came racing back up his throat, tears streaked down his face as he choked on it. He coughed several times trying to regain his breath his throat burning. He rushed to his canteen and guzzled down the rest of his water.
He gasped for breath and tossed his empty canteen away. It hit something in the darkness the thud was followed by a soft low moan. His ears perked up as he cautiously made his way to the source of the sound. His horn lit up slightly barely piercing the near all consuming darkness that filled the cave. Lying on the ground was the large bird from earlier.
"Hey there, how are you doing?" Escutcheon put a little more energy into his horn. The golden light filled a bit more of the cave. The bird let out a low and pained cry. One of the large bird's legs was broken as were both of its wings. "That doesn't look good." He cautiously stepped closer to the large bird. It tried to push away from him. "It's okay I'm not going to hurt you." He tried to calm the creature down. "It's okay, it's okay." He moved closer. "Woah!" He jumped back s the bird's long neck shot out toward him. Its sharp beak missing him by just a hair.
It started moaning again. "Yeah you shouldn't have done that." he looked over the creature's neck. It didn't look good. "Yeah, you really should have done that." He frowned as he examined the bird's neck, it was cut badly in several places. He started sushing it again trying to calm it down, as he began advancing toward it again. "It's okay. It's okay." He said looking the large bird over.
It had a curved beak and sharp talons. Its wings were small. It was unlike anything that he had ever seen an any of mother's books. Still he knew enough about animals to know that this was a bird of prey, and he could easily be considered prey, just like the giant shrimps. If he let it die it would be one less predator in the forest one less thing that could hurt Dusk. It let out another low moan. He looked down at it. Stared in its larger yellow eyes, just like Dusk's. He sighed.
"If I help you you're not allowed to eat me or any other ponies or any of the bat ponies." He floated a bottle over to him. "I now this taste nasty, but-" The bird grabbed the bottle in its beak as soon as it was in range and started greedily guzzling the potion down. "Never mind." He watched as the bird's wounds healed and the feathers grew back. It jumped up and stood tall and proud at its full height. It looked down fixing its gaze on Escutcheon, who just stood in awe transfixed at the majesty of the bird. "You remember our deal right?" It let out a soft moan, and leaning its head down started nuzzling the side of his face. "That's a relief." He sighed. "I wonder why they took us down here?" He let his magic flow out further filling the cave room with his golden light. "What the?" All over the walls were transparent eggs. Inside was a baby shrimp monster.