Chapter 33: Conqueror of the Skies (Part 1)
Thestrals have an extraordinary sensitivity to death.
Much like sharks in the sea, which can smell blood from kilometers away, Thestrals can sense a death from over ten kilometers away. They eat grass, meat, and also carrion, making them a very easy magical creature to raise. And in the Forbidden Forest, a place with no natural predators where no one would actively harm them, Thestrals are very curious.
Ezio, somewhat out of practice, skinned the deer. He rarely did this sort of thing, only occasionally helping Giovanni when they roasted a whole lamb at home. Fortunately, his cuts were fast and steady, and he had the deer skinned in no time.
A skinned carcass like this was a Thestral's favorite. They loved pure meat and organs, and they adored the smell of blood.
They were only two or three hundred meters from the Thestral's camp, and there were no other fierce predators nearby.
A series of very, very light footsteps approached. Ezio looked up and saw a dozen pairs of deep, dark eyes, even in the night.
"Come on. This is a gift for you."
Ezio beckoned towards the Thestrals, and these highly intelligent winged horses quickened their pace.
Each Thestral was gaunt and skeletal, as if a layer of black skin had been stretched over a horse's skeleton. But their heads resembled a dragon's, looking exceptionally fierce, like a fusion of a small undead dragon and an undead horse. However, this world had no necromancers; the best the dark wizards could manage were small things like Inferi. The Dark Arts had much room for improvement; the dark wizards were too lazy.
The herd of Thestrals walked over without hesitation. They sniffed at Ezio's clothes, then lowered their heads and began to feast. If someone who had not personally witnessed death were present, what they would see would be a rather horrifying scene.
Fresh venison was being torn apart by some invisible presence, then easily pulled away. It was as if a dozen greedy mouths existed in the air, silently and rapidly dismembering and devouring the carcass. Not even the scraps of meat clinging to the bones were spared. A Thestral's barbed tongue was like a sharp file, scraping the bones clean and revealing their pale, slightly pinkish color.
In less than ten minutes, the entire deer was consumed by the Thestrals. After their delicious meal, the herd of black winged horses' fondness for Ezio had increased significantly.
Ezio reached out and stroked a Thestral's skin, which was as smooth and taut as high-quality leather. Their wings were leathery, like a bat's, with a wingspan even wider than a Hippogriff's.
"Can you take me to a place?" Ezio asked a Thestral that was relatively sturdier and slightly larger. The highly intelligent winged horse rubbed its head against Ezio's arm, as if inviting him to ride on its back.
"I don't know exactly where it is. I only know it's 'the place where the twelve moons rise'. A very important family member of mine died there. I want to find him."
The Thestral's dark eyes stared at Ezio. It seemed to understand his words, but it also seemed that it didn't comprehend what "the place where the twelve moons rise" meant.
Ezio swung himself onto the Thestral's back. The winged horse beneath him silently spread its wings. With just a single beat, the Thestral instantly shot into the air, leaving Neil, who was circling above, behind. Its speed was incredible, almost four or five times that of the Nimbus 2000's climbing speed.
Neil, momentarily stunned by the black thing that had just flashed past, quickly changed direction and gave chase. The Thestral was flying at a leisurely pace in the sky, but it still took Neil some time to catch up. The flight of magical creatures didn't really obey the laws of physics. Their wondrous magic provided them with immense lift, enough to allow massive dragons weighing several or even dozens of tons to fly easily into the sky, and at a considerable speed.
The Thestral turned its head to look at the little fellow who was flapping its wings frantically to catch up. It smelled the exact same scent on Neil as on Ezio, so it slowed down a bit, allowing Neil to land on its back with relative ease for a ride.
After its second little passenger was seated securely, the Thestral, which had been flying slowly, suddenly accelerated. This was faster than Neil's maximum diving speed. In just a few breaths, Hogwarts Castle had shrunk to a small dot. It carried Ezio rapidly upward, breaking through the cloud layer in a spiral trajectory, allowing the moon hanging in the night sky to cast its infinite reflected light upon Ezio.
"You don't know where the place of the twelve moons is either, do you?"
Ezio looked at the moon high above, a hint of regret in his voice. The Thestral's navigational magic wasn't omnipotent. The vague description made it impossible for it to access the global magical network for navigation. After all, this was an unknown location not recorded on any map.
In the wizarding world, names held power. The omnipresent magic wove an invisible web, passively storing and recording everything, including the names of people and places. When a creature like a Thestral or an owl, which had the ability to connect to this magical network, needed to navigate, the network would provide them with precise coordinates. This was the secret behind how owls could deliver letters accurately to their recipients. Wizards had explored this long ago, but only superficially.
Adhering to the principle of "good enough," wizards rarely got to the bottom of anything. Perhaps it was because of the mysterious nature of magic, or perhaps because research was too complex with no clear reward. Wizards only dabbled in many things. They couldn't even explain why magic worked.
The Thestral turned its head to look at Ezio, its large eyes filled with a hint of innocence, as if to say, "I can only bring you up here to see the moon. I really don't know where the twelve moons are."
"Then please fly a little higher, and a little higher still. To the highest point you can reach, please."
The Thestral understood Ezio's words. It then gave a little shake, dislodging Neil. A baffled Neil flapped his wings to stabilize himself in the air, only to see the mischievous black horse shoot straight up, ascending at a ninety-degree angle towards the full moon!