As Arad kept flying up following the tree's trunk, he met another of the tree's horrors. It looked like a featherless bird chick, rotten and eaten by mold and fungus. Five of them lunged at Arad from the bark, and each of them was at least ninety meters long.
"Ah, shit, Rot Chicks." Arad dodged the mad frenzy of the chicks and flew around them.
Those were the chicks of the Terror Bird from before. There is a type of fungus here on the tree that spreads from one living being to another, controlling them like zombies. It first infects small worms and larvae that the Terror Bird catches and brings to its chicks. Those chicks eat the infected food and catch the rot, killing them.
When the mother Terror Bird noticed that her chicks had died, she wouldn't be happy. She throws them out of the nest. But before they could hit the ground, the mold takes control over them, forcibly awakens their wind magic, and causes them to start flying without feathers or flapping their wings.
