"Easy now…"
Seeing how the beast behind those metal bars was already feasting on the only thing it could reach with its beak from within its confinement, I didn't want to risk it gathering the last bits of its energy to once again blast me outside of the cave. When I noticed two, dark red points glaring at me from the darkness behind the bars, I made sure to step to the side, grab the tray and start putting the scattered pieces of food back on it.
Maybe sensing my intent or at least seeing that I wasn't going to infringe on its meal, the enormous goose inside the cage continued to happily chomp away on its dinner, while I gathered more and more of the scraps scattered all over the place.
By the time the first platter was already full, the goose already finished its appetizer and continued to trace every single movement of mine with those fiery red eyes of its. Seeing that I was unable to fit even a single piece of strange mass more on the tray, I slowly approached the cage, making sure that not only my entropy coating but all sorts of the barriers surrounded my entire body.
"Easy… Don't go wild on me…"
Seeing how slowly I was approaching its home, the goose showed its first sign of intelligence and backed out from the outermost part of its enclosure, sensing that I wasn't willing to risk my own health by getting closer while it was still near enough to catch me with its beak.
After all, from the shine in its pupils, I could tell that when compared to this unidentifiable mass that it usually had for its dinner, energy-packed flesh of the cultivators was far more delicious and appealing to it!
"Okay… here you go…"
Pushing the tray through the special opening in the side of the wall, I made sure to retract my steps as soon as the food started sliding down the special ramp towards the insides of the cage.
And just like that, the moment I moved away from the iron bars, the goose came over once again, only to instantly bury its beak into the awful mass of something that I didn't even want to know what it was, flapping its wings in joy as if this was the greatest feast it could ever have!
But with this monster placated, at least for the current moment, it was finally time for me to do my job here. Even if I knew that it was this goose that was responsible for the pressure that gave me slightly hard time when I attempted to reach this place, I still didn't see any reason in keeping such a powerful animal, capable of throwing even me off balance, in such a secluded location.
As for the most obvious reason, I doubted that it could be the protector beast of the entire sect. While it was a fact that I didn't see the holy goose back on the parade, it went without saying that if anyone dared to treat their divine protector in this way, then such protection wouldn't be worth all that much!
But there was no point in me trying to figure out this strange place and why it worked the way it did. Even with one of the disciples that were initially attempting to feed this damned honker, there were still two more that albeit unconscious, was still alive and kicking!
Moving to the body of the man tightly pressed into the corner between one of the walls and the floor, I kicked him right in his guts without any reservation. While I didn't mind doing the same to the female disciple, as far as I could stop myself from doing so and letting Eve experience such a sorry attitude of mine, later on, I wouldn't mind turning brutal with this poorass man.
"Wakey wakey!"
With yet another burying my leg into his stomach, the male disciple finally opened his eyes only to take a huge breath, move on all fours and puke his soul out.
"Just to make things clear. Lie to me, hesitate with your answer or try to hide something from me, and I will feed the goose bit by bit with your body. Is that clear?"
As if this honker heard and understood what I meant, it approached the metal bars at such speed that it failed to cancel its momentum before them and slammed right into the tough poles. With its long neck decorated with its beak at its end funnily stretched between the bars as its entire body was momentarily glued to this gate, it only lacked few centimetres from reaching the toe of this poor disciple.
"I… I will… BLURHG."
Maybe due to fear or due to my earlier kicking, his throat, rather than allowing him to speak what was on his mind, cheated him into once again returning the insides of his stomach to the outside world.
Ignoring the stench from the already two pools of foul matter, I straightened this man to the upright position with a gentle kick to his chest, shattering only two of his ribs in the process.
"What is this place, and what is this animal."
There was no point in hiding my interest in those matters. No matter what this guy answers would be, there was a huge chance that I would end up feeding him to the goose anyway, so I decided to go with the faster route…
Or at least, thats what I would do if not for the intervention of Eve that recently filled the hole in my soul that I used to patch with coldness towards the worth of others life.
"YES SIR!"
Instantly shouting from the bottom of his crushed lungs, the male disciple coughed a few times to clear his throat before raising his face again, unwilling to even hide the stream of tears of pains flowing from his eyes through his cheek all the way to his chin.
"This is our sect divine guardian mate!"