" But they paid no heed to me and gave not
over smiting upon the egg, when behold, the day grew dark and dun
and the sun was hidden from us, as if some great cloud had passed over
the firmament. So we raised our eyes and saw that what we took for a
cloud was the roc poised between us and the sun, and it was his
wings that darkened the day. When he came and saw his egg broken, he
cried a loud cry, whereupon his mate came flying up and they both
began circling about the ship, crying out at us with voices louder
than thunder. I called to the rais and crew, "Put out to sea and
seek safety in flight, before we be all destroyed!" So the merchants
came on board and we cast off and made haste from the island to gain
the open sea.
When the rocs saw this, they flew off, and we crowded all sail on
the ship, thinking to get out of their country, but presently the
two reappeared and flew after us and stood over us, each carrying in
its claws a huge boulder which it had brought from the mountains. As
soon as the he-roc came up with us, he let fall upon us the rock he
held in his pounces, but the master put about ship, so that the rock
missed her by some small matter and plunged into the waves with such
violence that the ship pitched high and then sank into the trough of
the sea, and the bottom the ocean appeared to us.
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