The Storks' Nest
You hear a disconcerting clattering sound as you pad into a swampy clearing. A tall yellow-barked acacia tree grows alongside a shallow pond, casting shade across the murky water. Craning your neck to look up, you glimpse the gangly shape of a saddle-billed stork standing on a large nest woven into the tree's highest bough. It stares back at you and clacks its beak again, further unnerving you.
Large white-and-black wings in your periphery catch your attention, drawing your startled gaze back to the ground. A second stork now glares at you with a round amber eye, its long, red, and dagger-like beak angled toward the tree beside you.
"We have things that lions like you seem to always want," the stork says, surprising you. "Don't think about how we got them."
You regard the strange bird very warily.
"Take a look," it says. "In the branches. We take beetles as payment. Nevermind why."
