《Falnen》


 Chapter One: Birth

    Warmth surrounded me. It enveloped me, along with darkness. The darkness could be forgiven, because it was so warm¡­too warm. I tried to move. My body struggled against the weight pushing down around me, and lost.


    The panic start to come, as I thrashed about with what minimal space I had, to no avail. I went still, exhausted from those few seconds, and pushed the panic down. I tried to think.


    First of all, where was I? No no no, more importantly, who am I? I searched my mind for an answer, and came up empty. Desperate, I tried to recall any clues about my identity and how I ended up in this damn furnace.


    Wait, what the hell is a ¡®furnace¡¯? And what is ¡®hell¡¯? I couldn¡¯t recall any details, but it felt right using the words in that way. Hmm¡­


    As much as I tried, nothing came, so I decided first order of business was to get out of this weird toaster oven of darkness. As I tried to recall these new mystery words, I felt my way slowly around the edges of my prison. Moving to the edges was difficult, and I realized that I was in fact partially covered in an oozing liquid.


    Pushing through this liquid, I traced my arm around the edges, and realized that I was in a sphere of some sort, or at least something close. Reaching the apex of the sphere, my left arm-which I now gathered didn¡¯t feel quite right-felt a slight incline. I tried pushing against the top, but nothing happened.


    Frustration and the panic from earlier set in once again, as I tried to push upwards. Anger flowed into me and I head butted the wall of my confines.


    *craack*


    I gazed in astonishment as slits of light shone through the crack I had just made with what I assumed to be my nose. I quickly smashed my face into the opening until the side of the oval gave out, and the liquid poured out. I could now see that it was clear, not that I cared about the color, I was much more concerned with the light.


    I followed the streams of light and came upon a peculiar sight: nettles. Well, mostly nettles. I was standing on a mix of branches, nettles, and pebbles. I looked up to see a wall of the same, curving around me.


    I spun around to see something even more worrying; three dark grey ovals resting on the needles. Panicking, I turned to look back to where I had come from, to see exactly what I feared: a dark grey oval, identical except cracked and in pieces.


    As my mind raced, I was brought back to attention by cracking sounds from the other ovals, as one by one, three tiny, black-haired heads emerged, covered in clear ooze.


    Frozen out of shock, I didn¡¯t dare move as one of the baby creatures turned to me, and let out a single, strangled ¡°kaak¡±.


    As I stood staring at the three noisy individuals, a word sprung forth in my mind: bird.


    Oh no Oh why please no¡­


    I quickly stumbled around my own oval, hiding from the creatures, collapsed on the soft branches. How could this have happened??? Does this mean that I¡¯m a... nonononono! I am not a bird, and this oval is not an egg! Those are just¡­giant baby birds¡­ and I¡¯m a¡­a¡­


    I thought a moment, trying to grasp what I was, and again came up empty. An odd feeling washed over me; I felt like I wasn¡¯t supposed to be a bird, but I couldn¡¯t quite place what my true being was.


    Snapped out of my daze by a chorus of ¡°kaaks¡±, I looked down at my own body. Alright, two feet, two arms, everything¡¯s all there! Or not.


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    My stomach was fuzzy, albeit damp, and a dark grey color. My ¡®feet¡¯ were talons consisting of three small toes in the front and one on the heel, all ending in miniscule sharpened points. My ¡®arms¡¯, were in fact two fuzzy wings, lacking anything that could make me fly, again the same color of my stomach.


    I tried gazing at my left ¡®arm¡¯, only to realize I could not bring it all the way up. I frantically looked back and forth between my two¡­ appendages, let¡¯s call them, and quickly comprehended that the left was clearly shorter and stubbier than the right.


    I slowly peered around the edge of my previous prison cell, checking to see if the annoying ¡®kaak¡¯ birds were still in their cells, only to realize that they had all gone silent. All three were staring over the edge of our needle platform, mesmerized. I tried to tiptoe near the side to see over, but to no avail.


    I attempted to climb up the side using my left and right appendages, and my nose, which I still wasn¡¯t ready to admit was probably a beak, and was nearing the top when a dark form swept past me, followed by a gust of wind that blew me headfirst into the center of the nest.


    Struggling upright, I looked towards the looming figure that had stopped my assumed siblings from making their gurgling noises.


    Resting on the edge of a rock bordering the nest, were two enormous talons, with edges designed for efficient killing. Attached these two weapons was a slim yet powerful body, coved by feathers black as night that still glimmered with the sun. Each individual feather reflected a faint purple or blue hue that dazzled the eyes, yet instilled a sense that they were crafted for soaring through the sky at unimaginable speeds.


    My gaze finally reached the head of this magnificent creature, seeing a dark beak and more of those dazzling feathers. As I reached the beast¡¯s eyes, my heart stopped. Glaring back at me were two piercing bright yellow eyes, which seemed to capture me and freeze my body. They searched me, and seemed to understand everything about me, even if I couldn¡¯t.


    As the towering creature turned its attention to the three babies, I shrunk back into the floor, trying to hide myself in the mottled nettles and branches.


    Well, it seems my time had come. A bird of death had arrived to kill and feast upon myself and the three helpless younglings. Well, not that I was any more capable than them; I could barely climb the edge of the nest.


    I turned back to the predator and its next meal, ready to face death with honor and whatnot, regretting the short life I had lived in this foreign body, and morose over the unanswered questions I still held.


    What I saw was not quite right: the demon of the night hellspawn creature (I still didn¡¯t understand what it meant, but it felt like a good way to describe the beast) was choking on something. Maybe my poor siblings had been eaten, and had taken the winged beast out as well? I quickly checked to see that no, the babies were still all there, now with their beaks spread open straight up.


    The beast gagged once more, and a substance fell out of its beak into the waiting jaws of one of my siblings, who proceeded to swallow it and ¡°kaak¡± happily.


    The realization dawned on me.


    Mom was home.

 Chapter Two: Play

    My mother proceeded to cough up the questionable substance for my other two siblings, each of whom happily complied.


    When the three small birds were satisfied, my mother, (who really could have been my father, I didn¡¯t know the difference), turned to glare at me. Once again, I cowered deep into the nest and tried to avoid the yellow gaze, but it found me nonetheless.


    As it stalked over towards me, I started to panic again, I mean there was no way I was eating that thing¡¯s regurgitated lunch! My parent seemed to understand my intentions of avoiding mealtime, and fixed a glare on me that sent shivers up my spine.


    I tried to turn to scramble away, but I found that none of my tiny limbs would coordinate, or even move at all. Trapped by the stare, I faintly trembled as it coerced me into lifting my head and opening my beak to the sky. Still meeting my eyes, my parent started to gag and dropped the meat into my waiting jaws.


    However, it wasn¡¯t over, as good ol¡¯ bird-parent watched me swallow the meal, and only set me free of his stare once he was sure that I had eaten it. The moment he turned away, I collapsed shaking on the floor, unable to keep strength in my legs.


    The thoughts raced through my head; what in the world was that? I was completely immobilized by a simple stare. A terrifying stare, of course, but still just a stare. Also what slop was I just forced to eat? From the texture I could make out, it was most likely chewed meat. If so, I should look into vegetarian options for birds.


    As the trembling stopped, the food settled in my stomach and I could finally appreciate the taste, as I nearly gagged it all back out. I glanced over to the rest of my siblings, to see if they had found the meal any less disgusting, to see them all out of their eggs and frolicking about, unaware of the nature of the food they had been fed.


    As I looked more closely, it seemed that all three had darker fur than mine, and the same yellow eyes as our parent. Speaking of the devil, he was perched on the side of the nest, back on the rock he had landed on. He alternated looking over the frolicking younglings and out over the side of the nest.


    Before he came back to focus on me, I decided to hobble over to the opposite side of the nest. I started the climb the nettles, using my beak as leverage to pull myself up. As I neared the top, the soft sound of wind whistled around me getting louder the closer I reached. When I finally reached the edge, I quickly glanced back to see my parent watching me very intently with his burning yellow eyes.


    Turning back before I had a repeat performance full of force-feeding and trembling, I looked out over the edge of the nest and nearly fell back into it as I saw our surroundings.


    The air seemed to fight its way toward me, leaving behind an endless expanse of snowcapped trees, all far below the nest. The forest stretched all the way to the horizon, reaching the curve of the world, where it melded with a grey-blue sky clear of clouds. To my left and right the trees stood together, seeming to support and shield each other from the harsh elements, and behind me a great mountain rose higher than I could see, its peak reaching into the heavens.


    As I gazed over the beautiful scene laid out before me, I felt a firm grip around my neck, and I was pulled back into the nest. Shocked, I looked up to meet my parent¡¯s eyes for a brief moment, where they almost seemed to laugh at my reaction. I quickly scrambled back up, only to be tackled to the ground by one of my black-furred siblings.


    All three of my siblings began to tackle each other and use their stubby wings to wrestle around the nest. I tried to sneak back up and out of their grasp, but I felt the shadow of my parent over me and thought better of my foolish actions.


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    Fine. If I had to play with them, then I¡¯ll go all out. I¡¯ll take them down quickly so they get discouraged from playing with me again. I set my targets on the smallest of my siblings, who was distracted by the others, and tried to ram into him.


    I made contact, using my right wing and shoulder to hit him with as much force as possible. He went down, and my momentum carried me over him, and we rolled into a heap on the nettles. He immediately sprang up, seemingly both angry and elated at my attack. I attempted to stand up as well, but couldn¡¯t get leverage in time with my stunted wing. He retaliated, pushing me back on the ground and falling on top of me.


    I struggled under his tiny weight, but found that it was still enough to keep me down. My sibling found out that by putting weight on my good wing, I couldn¡¯t get even halfway up. After struggling for a while, our two other siblings stopped playing and noticed us, immediately charging the smaller sibling on top of me.


    They catapulted over me, launching my enemy onto the floor, allowing me to scurry back to an upright position.


    As I stood up, I realized suddenly that my breathing was heavy, and my wings and legs were growing tired. A quick look at the wrestling birds showed that they were starting to slow down as well. Soon the three were done playing, and proceeding to collapse next to me, panting and letting out tired ¡°kaaks¡±. I gladly joined them, feeling that I had run a marathon, whatever that was, and needed to recuperate my strength. I glanced around for my parent, and spotted him looking over in satisfaction, with gleaming yellow eyes that didn¡¯t seem as frightening as at first.


    Just as I was falling asleep on the bed of nettles under me, I heard flapping sounds from beyond our nest. My three siblings and I all shot up with varying degrees of interest and fear, but our black feathered parent moved past us to meet this new arrival.


    A dark grey bird landed in the nest in a flurry of feathers. At first glance this creature was slightly smaller than my black-feathered parent, but it more than made up for this in its gracefulness. The dark grey feathers, which I now realized were similar in color to my fur, shone elegantly in the sunlight, and its razor-sharp talons matched its counterpart¡¯s in both size and lethality.


    As it made its way toward my parent, the two large birds brushed up against each other¡¯s feathers in familiarity, as some sort of greeting. Well, I suppose that answers the question of parent number two. Parent number two then shifted its focus to the baby birds, including myself.


    What I saw were familiar yellow eyes, not unlike those of my first parent and siblings, but instead of the playfulness of the other babies or the kind authority of parent one, I saw disdain and scorn. This dislike, I realized, seemed to be mostly directed at me. For what reason, I had no idea, but the gaze that parent number two set on me froze me in my tracks regardless, along with my three siblings. It stalked up to me, ignoring the ¡°caaws¡± of its partner, and grabbed me in its beak, lifting me into the air.


    As I dangled above my siblings, who stared in fear at their monstrous grey parent, I heard calls from my black feathered parent that almost seemed pleading. Parent number two stopped, as if considering something, and then briskly walked to the end of the nest, hopping onto the edge.


    I hung over the same view of the trees as early, this time more confused and scared than the first.


    I was still just as confused when the beak holding onto my fuzz loosened, and I started falling.

 Chapter Three: Lost

    My tiny body picked up speed as I fell, and it took me several moments to realize what was happening.


    As I hurtled towards the ground, snowcapped treetops rushing towards me, my mind worked at a thousand miles an hour. Without even stopping to figure out what that saying meant, I tried to process what had just happened. Was I expected to start flying??? Surely I needed feathers for that, my fuzz was hardly doing anything to slow my descent.


    Quickly, I tried to spread my furry wings out to either side, like my black-feathered parent had done when landing. This seemed to work for a moment, slowing my fall briefly, until the imbalance between the lengths of my wings turned my body around, and I spun towards the snowy forest floor.


    As I closed my eyes, I let go of any control I had left over my movements, and felt the branches starting to whip up against me. Somehow, I missed any larger branches, only feeling the occasional slap of pain as I fell past the trees.


    For a moment, these slaps stopped, and then I hit the ground. Everything was black.


    I felt my eyes open. This didn¡¯t help much, as I still couldn¡¯t see anything. My body felt exhausted, and the stinging of the branches hurt like nothing I had felt before. My fur was damp, and I had trouble moving about. All of this, I could deal with. At least I was still alive. Or I thought I was. Maybe I was in some sort of place beyond my previous life?


    I felt weight against my two wings as I tried to bring them towards my body, and found that one was still shorter than the other. Either I was still alive, or someone had not felt it necessary to fix my stubby wing in the afterlife.


    As I finally got my wings back close to my chest, I felt the area around me. Due to the abnormal wetness of the material I was buried in, I guessed I was deep in some pile of snow. Directly above my head, the snow was less dense, so I started to push and dig with my wings. More snow tumbled down around my wings, but eventually I saw light through a thin layer of white. I started to climb, ignoring the strain on my limbs, and the snow continued to cascade back onto me as my talons clawed it loose.


    After some time climbing through falling snow and digging myself out of the hole, my head pooped out of the snow and into fresh air. I pulled the rest of my body onto the top layer of snow and collapsed onto my back, taking deep breaths. Just a moment ago, I was exhausted from a simple game with my siblings, but now I truly knew real fatigue.


    I continued to lay on the snow, trying to regain strength, and pondered my situation. Is it normal to be able to fly at this point? If not, was I supposed to fail and should I expect three more tiny bodies hurtling towards me? And finally, when will my parents come get me? It was starting to turn to evening, and as little as I knew about where I was or other animals, surely some large creature with sharpened teeth and an appetite for tiny, fuzzy birds would come along and find me.


    I finally decided to wait, partially in case my parents come to this spot, and mostly because it hurt to move. The torture the tree branches had put me through combined with the effort I had taken to get out of the snow left me unable to do anything except pant and think. I suppose that was better than being a bloody pool on the ground, incapable of anything, including panting or thinking.


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    I lay still for a while, slowing my breathing back down to normal and collecting myself. As time passed, I started to worry more and more. Dusk was approaching, and the sun was beginning to be obscured by the trees more. After waiting for what felt like an eternity, I decided that no one was coming for me. I had considered the fact that I was supposed to get back to the nest myself, but how this would happen I had no idea. The mountain I had been thrown from seemed to be a straight vertical climb, with almost no ledges to rest on that I could see.


    As for why I was thrown down, I would have to think about later. For now, I had to find some sort of shelter for the night, in order to avoid any animals in the area. Food would come later; for now that previous meal seemed to be keeping me sated. With everything somewhat figured out, I set off along the ground parallel to the mountainside. If I was looking for shelter, a cave would be my best bet.


    I plodded along the snow, thankfully light enough to not sink down, as I slowly realized that the snow was several feet off the ground. Certain areas had less snow, dipping a fair distance and revealing dirt. I did my best to avoid these patches, as I dreaded the thought of making that climb once again.


    I started to wander further from the mountain¡¯s face, losing any hope of a cave or indent in the smooth surface. Deeper into the forest, I felt chills run up and down my body, as wind howled above the treetops.


    Weird. The trees are much, much higher than me, yet I can hear wind, but no rustling of leaves. Realizing this, I stopped walking, and listened. What I heard was suspicious. Or rather, what I didn¡¯t hear. The only sound I could make out was wind above me. No animal calls, no branches falling, and no wind blowing through the trees.


    I continued to walk, now acutely aware of everything around me, and still I was left only with my plodding and the distant wind.


    It was some time later when I saw the light. It was growing very dark, and there were still almost no sound. At one point, I had heard a large branch fall somewhere behind me, but nothing else. I approached the light, which cast a deep shadow on the trees around me, and I quickly saw that it was a small fire burning in a clearing.


    There was only one thing near the fire. A dark log laying on the snowy ground, and an even darker figure huddled on top of it. I carefully snuck towards the fire, now painfully aware of my own tiny footsteps and the crackling of the fire. As I neared, I could also make out faint breathing, not quite even.


    I neared the edge of the light, slowly making my way down the slight incline of the snow. I tried to make out what creature was on the log, but couldn¡¯t see much, even with the light dancing on its body.


    I took a step forward, and stepped on a patch of particularly closely packed snow. As my claw made a deafening *cruuuunch* sound, the figure shot up off of the log, turning towards me. It stood many times taller than me, and held out a pointy object that shone against the flames in my general direction.


    A gruff voice called out, ¡°Who¡¯s there?¡±

 Chapter Four: Meeting

    I sat completely still as the figure scanned the darkness above me. My attention rested on the long pointy thing in his hand. It was a¡­ a knife; the name popped into my head from somewhere in my mind, and I suddenly remembered that knives were used for stabbing things, and being stabbed did not seem to go well together with staying alive.


    As the tall figure finally located my unmoving body, it pointed the knife in my direction and its face was illuminated by the fire. Two beady dark eyes squinted at me, first in suspicion, and then disbelief.


    Hmm¡­ this creature seemed so familiar, yet I could not remember its name. One thing was for sure, it wasn¡¯t another bird, and it could use weapons. As it continued to lock eyes with me, seeming to be trying to figure out its next move, I decided to take action.


    I move my beak slightly upwards, and let out the only sound I was confident I could make. A weak ¡°kaak¡± left my mouth.


    The figure stared at me for a few moments, and then promptly put away its knife and let out a throaty laugh.


    ¡°This trip just gets stranger by the day!¡± it exclaimed, falling back onto the log, its face now fully shown by the fire¡¯s light. I could see it had a weathered face, with dark hair sporadically covering its chin and cheeks, and short cropped black hair on its head.


    ¡°I was beginning to think that there were no animals at all,¡± it continued, eyeing me from its position on the log.


    Hmm¡­ it seems that it wasn¡¯t just me who noticed the lack of life around here... Wait a second, what did he just say?? I can understand him?


    I stared at the creature, lost in thought. How could I understand it, but not understand the speech of my bird family? I tried to think hard about what this creature¡¯s species was, and finally came to the conclusion that it was probably a human. Vague memories of humans dressed in brightly colored clothing surfaced in my mind, but I could not tell where they came from. Could there be a connection between these memories and my ability to understand the human? I pondered this for a while, but no more memories came, and when I looked back at the man I found he was still staring at me. Now, however, he was chewing on some sort of dark brown substance.


    Seeing this, I knew there was one thing I had to do before anything else. I scampered over to the log the human was resting on, and climbed up under his watchful gaze. As I reached the top of the log, I looked at him and opened my beak.


    He seemed confused at first, but soon figured out what I wanted. Giving a grim laugh, he tore off a piece of the food and placed it in my mouth. The food was tough and chewy, but it settled better than my previous meal.


    I sat down on the log after eating a few more pieces of food, belly full and content. This human didn¡¯t seem to bear any ill intentions, so I seemed to be safe for now. I looked back to him once again to see him gazing at me with curiosity. Then, he held out his hand in front of me, gesturing for me to climb onto it. Carefully, I stepped onto his hand, and he lifted me up to his face, staring intently.


    His rough features inspected me once over, and then he said, ¡°The real question is, what kind of bird are you¡­¡±


    I let out a ¡°kaak¡± back at him, unsure of what else to do, and he once again gave me that quick, grim smile. Thinking about it even more, he eventually seemed to decide on what kind of bird I was.


    ¡°I¡¯d be inclined to say you are a Falnen Black hatchling, but those haven¡¯t been seen around these parts for years. I suppose stranger things have happened, and it would explain your eyes and why you walked right up to me.¡±


    He appeared to recede back into his thoughts, so I ¡°kaaked¡± at him loudly. He chuckled, and put me back on the log.


    ¡°Well, no matter. It¡¯s late, and maybe I¡¯m dreaming this whole thing.¡± He gave out a quick laugh and slumped onto the log, settling in for the night. I stared at his coat for a second before deciding what to do. This human didn¡¯t seem to want to cause me any harm, and he could be a source of food and protection. I wasn¡¯t so ready to believe that there were no other animals out there. Parent one had brought back some meat, and that had to have come from something.


    I hopped onto the human¡¯s arm, feeling him go completely still as he watched me from the corner of his eye. I used my beak and talons to climb my way up his coat, finally reaching his shoulder. I turned to locate my destination: a large pocket on the front of his clothing that seemed to be empty. I Jumped off of his shoulder into the pocket. I landed in the pocket, with the brim rising just below my beak, and squirmed until I was comfortably warm.


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    As I settled, I felt the human¡¯s chest rumble as he gave out a loud roar of a laugh, one that lasted quite a while.


    ¡°Dethen take me, you¡¯re a cheeky one, aren¡¯t you?¡± he said as his laughter died down, and repositioned himself on the log. Soon, the steady rise and fall of his chest told me that he was asleep. Exhausted by the day¡¯s events, I promptly followed suit.


    I still couldn¡¯t see the sun when I woke up again, and the even swells of the human¡¯s chest told me he was still sound asleep.


    As for why I had woken up, let¡¯s just say I was feeling an urge, one that I hadn¡¯t felt before in this body. It seems that the two meals I had eaten had finally gotten to me, and I needed to relieve myself. Once I had carefully climbed out of the pocket and back onto the log, I proceeded to let everything go. Acutely aware of the noise I was making, I tried to be as silent as possible. Once I had finished, I started to stealthily climb back up. Pausing, fearing that I had woken the human up, I listened to the few sounds around me.


    The steady breathing of the human, the crackling of the fire, the quiet footsteps¡­ I went deathly still, listening for any sound outside the range of the fire¡¯s radius. Eventually, I heard near silent footsteps, growing louder by the second. The noise was coming from the right of myself and the sleeping human, and I peered into the dark to make out any figures.


    I saw a wisp of movement, and then two glowing green eyes, set at about the same level I was. I froze for a moment, and then immediately started making as much sound as my little body could. The eyes seemed to stare at me as I frantically tried to wake the human. The eyes started to approach faster and neared the edge of the light. Panicking, I reared back my head and slammed my beak as hard as I could into the human¡¯s arm and he shot up, wide awake.


    ¡°What in the¡­¡± his voice drifted off as he saw our new visitor. The two green eyes prowled closer to the fire, as the body they rested in was revealed. Silver fur, mottled and dirty, lined a gaunt and sickly looking body. The creature stood on four skinny legs, each one ending in a paw with claws extending out. The creature opened its mouth, showing a wide row of yellow jagged teeth, as drool fell from its lips onto the snowy ground. Finally, a torn up tail hovered low over the ground, blood and dirt lining the cuts in it.


    I glanced to my side to see the human crouched low, hand on his knife, ready to defend himself. I edged on the log to be more behind him, as far away as possible from the feral beast. As I neared the edge of the log, the wolf shot forward towards the human. My protector quickly unsheathed his knife, aiming it into the beast¡¯s chest in one stroke. As the knife shot forward, the beast twisted its torso to avoid being gutted, and the slash only cut a superficial wound into its shoulder.


    With that the beast was on the human, clawing at his face and neck. Falling, the human sacrificed his left arm in order to block the beast¡¯s wild attacks, but dropped the knife onto the ground. As I watched the two wrestling on the ground, the beast sinking its teeth into the man¡¯s arm, I came to a decision. If the human died, I didn¡¯t think I could live either. This rabid creature would surely find me and eat me at some point. I took a deep breath, going over what I had to do, as the human was slammed into the side of the log and I nearly lost my balance.


    Gathering my courage, I jumped. Well, dived. Ok, I launched myself off the log, beak first, aiming at the wolf. Whether it was luck, skill, or something entirely different, I managed to connect my beak with the side of the beast¡¯s face. I bounced off of the beast, falling onto the ground, and scrambled back up to prepare myself for retaliation. The beast had been briefly stunned by my attack, and had released its grip on the human¡¯s arm long enough for the human to retrieve the knife and attack back.


    The knife ripped into the stomach of the beast, and blood spilled onto the white snow as a pained howl was forced from the creature¡¯s mouth. It tried to escape, but the human continued the attack, stabbing again in the beast¡¯s stomach, and then once into its neck. Blood exploded from between its teeth, and it struggled a brief moment before falling to the ground twitching in its death throes.


    The creature finally stopped moving, and the human collapsed backwards against the log. He sat still, trying to get his breathing under control, and then turned his head to me.


    He chuckled, obviously in pain. ¡°Real cheeky, huh.¡±

 Chapter Five: Crab

    As the human was taking care of the bite marks in his arm, I crept forward to take a look at the fallen beast. Seeing past the blood, which didn¡¯t make me gag as much as my first meal had, I could tell that the creature had been starving. Its ribs protruded in an almost skeletal manner, and the skin on its face was pulled tight against its skull.


    I turned as I heard the human pull himself onto the log, getting into a sitting position. He made some final checks on the bandages on his arm, slipped his now cleaned knife into its sheath, and shifted his gaze to me.


    He squinted at me for a moment, before speaking, ¡°Well, I guess I should thank you for saving my life.¡± He reached into one of his inside pockets, retrieving a something yellow and smelly. Hmm¡­ cheese, I think it was called. The smell was distinct, even in my memories, and my stomach started growling at the prospect of devouring it. The human held it in his hand for a moment, before reaching out to me, letting me swallow the morsel whole.


    Once I had finished, I let out a short ¡°kaak¡± in satisfaction, and looked back to the human, who hadn¡¯t moved. He seemed to be deep in thought, so I tilted my head in my best attempt to look inquisitive. Eyeing me for a moment, he finally spoke, ¡°So, you need a name don¡¯t you? ¡­I think I¡¯ll call you Senya, after an old friend. She also saved my life, way back when.¡± He gave a grim smile, and looked at me expectantly.


    A name, huh¡­ I hadn¡¯t really thought of that before. I doubted my bird family used names, these names seemed to be a custom only humans used. I searched my memories for a brief moment, but couldn¡¯t find much regarding this.


    Senya. I suppose it didn¡¯t sound too bad, as far as names went. Not that I had any experience with what good names sounded like. For all I knew, the human could be making fun of me! However, when I looked back into his eyes, the hint of melancholy convinced me that it was no joke.


    I quickly clambered back onto the log, hopped into his lap, and gave him an affirmative ¡°kaak¡±.


    ¡°It¡¯s settled then. From this day forward, you shall be known as Senya!¡± the human stated with fake grandiose. He chuckled, scooped me up into his hand, and dumped me into his large pocket on his coat. Well, as far as I was concerned, this was my warm cozy pocket now.


    The sun was already rising through the trees as he gathered his few supplies and buried the burnt cinders of the fire. Interrupting him, I ¡°kaaked¡± loudly and squirmed against his chest. He stopped and drew me from the pocket, cupping me in his uninjured hand. As I was faced by that same squinting expression, I tilted my head once again and stared into his eyes.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ The legends say that the Falnen possess intelligence rivalling that of humans, but how much of that is actually true¡­ Well, what do you want? More food? Water?¡±


    I shook my head in response to both queries. He seemed to understand the gesture I was making, affirming another miniscule piece of information I had in my memory about humans. Moving your head left and right meant no, up and down meant yes.


    The human still seemed clueless about my line of questioning, so I used my good wing to point at me, accompanied by a ¡°kaak¡±, and then at him with silence. He mulled over this for a moment, before realization spread across his face.


    ¡°You want my name? Is that it?¡±


    I nodded and let out a triumphant ¡°kaak¡±. Communication complete!


    He laughed, exclaiming, ¡°Dethen be saved! You really are a smart one! Well, the name¡¯s Crab.¡± He carefully watched me to see if I understood. I ¡°kaaked¡± a final time, and hopped back into my new home. I felt my home shake as the laughter rumbled through his chest, and Crab finished clearing the campsite.


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    ¡°It seems you can understand me, at least partially. I suppose it¡¯s good to have a traveling companion again, even though you don¡¯t speak Common. It¡¯s been ages since I had someone guarding my back.¡± Crab chuckled, and then set out in a direction parallel to the looming mountain in the distance, the mountain where I was born.


    I took one last look at the towering spires of rock, and the sheer drops created by the natural formations. For a brief moment, I thought I saw a black form soar around a ledge, but at this distance I couldn¡¯t be sure. I sighed internally, and settled into my warm home to get ready for the trip to wherever Crab was headed.


    I had drowsed off a bit when I felt a rumble in Crab¡¯s chest. I popped my head up out of the pocket, and saw that we were completely surrounded by trees, late morning light streaming through the thin branches. Looking ahead, I saw that we were on a small, winding trail that seemed to have been created by many years of someone taking the same footsteps through this forest.


    The rumbling continued as I realized Crab had started to talk to himself, or rather me.


    ¡°This whole situation is out of the ordinary. Just running into you would have been enough to warrant sending back a report, seeing as no one has spotted your kind in these parts for over forty years. On top of that, however, the lack of animals was very disturbing, and the Silver Wolf shouldn¡¯t have been down this far south. It was obviously starving, I¡¯d say that it hadn¡¯t eaten in days!¡±


    As Crab finished his musing, I pondered my first day on this world. One day, yet so exhausting. I¡¯d been born, dropped off a mountain and almost eaten by this so-called ¡®Silver Wolf¡¯. I¡¯d been lucky to find a human such a as Crab, and even luckier that he had taken a liking to me, but what would happen if he were to disappear? What if he were to throw me away, or a beast stronger than the Silver Wolf found us? I had to get stronger, and fast. This world was hostile and dangerous, and I had practically no weapons at my disposal.


    On top of that¡­ I squirmed in the pocket and stared at my stubby left wing. This would definitely cause a problem one day in the future. If I couldn¡¯t fly like my black-feathered parent, my options for survival would be limited to almost nothing.


    A hand suddenly scooped me out of my cozy home and I was once again face-to-face with Crab. As always, his eyes were shrunk into a perpetual squint. He quickly glanced to my stubby wing, seeing that I was holding it close to my chest, and sighed.


    ¡°You¡¯re gonna have a tough life ahead of you, that¡¯s for sure¡± he stated with a certain resignation, ¡°But now you¡¯ve got me. I¡¯ll feed you and protect you until you can do both by yourself, it¡¯s the least I can do after those heroics.¡±


    He gave a small smile, apparently not intending to repay me with that one piece of cheese, instead choosing to supply much more future cheese.


    ¡°The way you hit the wolf, I couldn¡¯t believe it!¡± he laughed out loud, returning to his usual demeanor. ¡°I thought for sure that Dethen had sent that beast to take my life, but apparently my time has yet to come.¡±


    He stroked my back with his thumb, smiling as he placed me back into the pocket. However, as joyful as he seemed to be, his chest betrayed a slight sigh as we continued down the trail to our destination.

 Chapter Six: Arrival

    It was just past noon when the trail started to widen and become more defined. As I gazed around at the trees, the first thing to strike me was the invasion of noises surrounding us. Made even more noticeable by the previous silence, chirps, rustles, and other sounds seemed glaringly loud.


    Crab didn¡¯t seem too fazed by the presence of animals, which seemed to indicate that this was normal. On the other hand, I was curious to see what other animals lived around. Looking into the trees, I managed to spot several fluttering birds making their way through the thin leaves.


    As the sun started descending through the sky, we finally reached what I assumed was our destination; a small, snow covered village surrounded by a wooden wall. As we entered through a gate, two men dressed in dark brown garb nodded lazily at Crab before returning to their own conversation. My attention rested on their weapons, which were propped up against the wall, well out of their immediate reach.


    The two weapons seemed to be large versions of Crab¡¯s knife, but I couldn¡¯t remember their name.


    We received several glances from other humans, but no one looked at us for longer than a moment until we reached a large wooden building. As Crab strode towards the door, a young brown haired human saw us and starting running towards us. He also had a large knife, but Crab didn¡¯t seem worried and simply turned his way and stopped.


    The young human reached us, a wide smile spreading over his face, and he began speaking as he reached out his arm.


    ¡°You¡¯re finally back!¡± the boy exclaimed with his hand held out.


    Gripping the younger man¡¯s arm Crab replied jokingly, ¡°What¡¯s this? No hug?¡±


    Despite himself, the younger man blushed slightly before going on, ¡°I¡¯m a man this year! The Chief finally let me join the defense, I¡¯ve got to act like an adult now.¡± As if to prove his point, he gestured towards his weapon.


    ¡°Is that so, Donnie? Looks like the village will be safe this year as well!¡± Crab joked, as Donnie bristled visibly.


    ¡°And no more calling me Donnie, either. It¡¯s Donnel from now on.¡±


    Then, noticing my head peeking out of Crab¡¯s coat pocket, he asked, ¡°Who¡¯s this? A new pet?¡±


    I froze, latching onto the inside of my home as Crab tried to drag me out. I stared in horror at this new human called ¡®Donnie¡¯ and wondered what he possibly could want. I had gotten comfortable with Crab, out of necessity. That didn¡¯t mean I was ready to be stared at by more humans.


    Crab finally wrenched me free of my refuge and said, ¡°This is Senya, a Falnen Black chick. I found her on my way here.¡±


    Donnie¡¯s eyes widen with surprise as he stared at me for a few seconds. Thankfully, Crab broke Donnie¡¯s trance by dropping me back into my home and turning to the door.


    ¡°I better talk to the Chief then, don¡¯t you think?¡±


    Donnie left my vision as we entered the building, but I could hear his footsteps as he followed behind. Inside the large building was an equally large hall, stretching down fairly far with tables lining each side. At intervals along the wall were doors that led to other rooms. As Crab passed by some, I saw what seemed to be beds for humans and shelves holding scrolls and books. The few other humans inside the building greeted Crab and Donnie warmly before quickly retreating into whatever they were doing.


    As Crab finally reached the far end of the hall, I saw several humans dressed in mottled grey and brown outfits sitting around a circular table. Most of the humans were older, with long beards and wrinkled skin.


    Crab reached the table and addressed the oldest man sitting across the table.


    ¡°Chief,¡± Crab said curtly, waiting for the ancient man to look up from a pile of scrolls.


    The Chief slowly brought his wizened face up to gaze at Crab, and his features were still a moment before breaking into a toothy smile. He pulled himself up and approached Crab, arm outstretched. The two men grasped arms and Crab spoke.


    ¡°There are a few things I need to tell you. Prepare a raven to Caramill as well.¡±


    The Chief¡¯s smile faded quickly as he motioned for Crab to sit down.


    ¡°Well then, let¡¯s hear it. Donnie, tell Erik to prepare a raven as well.¡±


    The Chief glared at Donnie before he could get a complaint out, and he turned and strode back down the hall.


    ¡°First of all, there were almost no animals near the mountains, I only ran into two. There was a starving Silver Wolf that attacked me, and her.¡± Without a warning, I was yanked out of my home and dumped onto the table. Startled, I gawked up at the Chief¡¯s sagging face in confusion.


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    The Chief¡¯s eyebrows raised as he stared at me.


    ¡°Is that what I think it is?¡±


    Crab affirmed and the Chief put his hand over his mouth and mumbled something I couldn¡¯t understand. The other humans looked at the Chief in confusion, before he told them, ¡°This is a female Falnen chick.¡±


    Chaos erupted from the four or so other humans at the table. One burly man with short cropped dark hair raised his voice, saying, ¡°That¡¯s impossible! When was the last time someone saw one? Aren¡¯t they all dead?¡±


    As two other men mumbled to themselves as the Chief had, the Chief replied, ¡°We thought they were. But this is undoubtedly a Falnen. I saw one as a young man, and I remember those eyes.¡±


    He continued to lock eyes with me, before I finally recovered and turned to Crab. He was looking at me with concern, but then I promptly jumped onto his arm and grasped onto the fabric for dear life. Understanding my intentions, Crab picked me up and placed me back into my home. I curled up in warmth, and refused to poke my head out again.


    As I sat in safety, I heard the Chief¡¯s rasping voice say something about the number of creatures around the village, but I covered my head with my wings and shut out all the noise. I stayed like that until I felt Crab standing up and walking again.


    I gathered my courage and poked my head out once again, only to see that we were back outside in the snow. The Chief was walking next to Crab, speaking to him about something I couldn¡¯t make sense of.


    We neared a small cabin on the outskirts of the village, separated from most of the other buildings as the Chief spoke, ¡°Watch out for Captain, he¡¯s been in one of his moods lately. He nearly killed Donnie last time we came out here.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, Captain will get over it eventually.¡±


    Crab opened the door of the cabin, revealing a musty interior with a small bed, a table, a chair and not much else. Light shown in from the one window overlooking the desk, and the back wall seemed to be using the village¡¯s perimeter wall as support.


    I looked around inside in search of this ¡®Captain¡¯, but the cabin seemed to be empty from what I could tell. Crab sat down on the cot as the Chief exited and left us in silence. It was only then that Crab started speaking to me.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for doing that, but it had to be done.¡±


    He pulled me out and set me down on the cot next to him.


    ¡°The villagers here treat the Falnen as some sort of a god. Your kind always drove out a lot of the other predators, and let the people hunt in peace. I assume that the news will travel quickly though, and that you¡¯ll be the talk of the village come tomorrow.¡±


    I felt a sinking feeling in my tiny gut, as the prospect of being watched by hundreds of people didn¡¯t exactly appeal to me.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry one bit,¡± Crab said lightly, ¡°They¡¯ll pamper you and feed you the best of their food, once they come to terms with what you are.¡±


    As Crab laid down on the cot and shifted away from me, I thought about my predicament. While the idea of free food sounded great, dealing with that many other humans seemed absolutely terrible. With Crab, I figured I was safe and that he wouldn¡¯t hurt me. With strangers, I had no idea.


    The light grew dimmer as the sun settled, and soon Crab was fast asleep on his bed. I sat with my back to him, and stared out the window. Tomorrow, I decided, I would try to get Crab to teach me to hunt. With this, I could try to become self-sufficient; and, if I was lucky, I would avoid all those villagers.


    As I was lulling off, a shadow slipped through the window and into the room. I instantly went into alarm mode and pecked Crab¡¯s back repeatedly. Crab shot up, hand reaching for the dagger that was still hanging on his waist, and the shadow leapt onto the table.


    In the late afternoon¡¯s light, the four-legged creature stood proudly, staring at us. It was a few times bigger than me, and covered in black fur. Two small ears poked up at the top of its head, and one lazy green eye inspected us. The other was closed, a violent scar passing through the socket. Its long tail swished back and forth slowly as it opened its mouth and let out a soft ¡®purrr¡¯.


    I stared at the creature, its one eye studying my every detail, sizing me up. Unable to think, I scrambled back into Crab and made myself as small as possible. However, Crab relaxed and let out a laugh.


    ¡°Senya, I¡¯d like you to meet Captain.¡±

 Chapter Seven: Venture

    I pressed my tiny body as close to Crab as possible, trying to avoid Captain¡¯s gaze. I heard Crab laugh once again, but I was not to be fooled; this Captain was a rabid beast. One look into its piercing eye told me all I needed to know about its feral nature.


    As I leaned into Crab, the beast walked forward towards us, eventually leaping off of the table and onto the cot. As it met my eyes, I froze like a deer in headlights. Before I could think about what this meant, an odd feeling washed over me and I was forced to close my eyes to keep from getting sick.


    The memory of a forest swam into my vision, one much like the forest Crab and I had traveled through, minus the snow. The trees were bare and decaying, and what little leaves were left drooped with the brown color of death. This passed through my mind in a second, and was quickly followed by a graceful creature staring in my direction, proud yet careful. I realized what it was as I saw the odd growth on its head: a deer.


    The viewpoint of the memory turned and a human entered my vision. The man was smiling, dressed in an odd orange shirt. He pointed back towards the deer, and I looked to see that it had leapt into the tall brush, obscuring itself.


    The vision faded from my mind, and I tried to understand its implications. The clothes of the man¡­ they were like nothing I had seen yet in the village, bright and garish instead of drab and practical. However, I had learned something even more important. When I had turned to the man, my eyes had been almost level with his. I would have to think about this at some point¡­ but it would have to wait.


    I slowly opened my eyes, being sure not to feel too nauseous, and was met by a furry black face less than a wing¡¯s length away from my own. I stared, unsure what to do, and Captain slowly poked me with one of his paws.


    Acting as a catalyst, his paw sprung me into action as I dived sideways and tried to scramble to the other side of the cot. As I moved, Captain pounced on top of me, using his front paws to pin my body to the bed. Crab, finally seeing fit to intervene, spoke with an authoritative voice.


    ¡°Captain, you¡¯re not allowed to eat Senya. No matter what, you hear me? If anything happens I¡¯ll give you back to Erik.¡±


    Crab¡¯s speech seemed ineffectual until he spoke that last word. With the mention of this Erik Captain leapt off of me, hissing and baring his fangs at Crab.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s what I thought. I don¡¯t think anyone wants that.¡±


    Crab held out his hand until Captain stopped hissing and gave in. He nuzzled Crab¡¯s hand, and quickly settled down, keeping his wary eye flickering between me and Crab.


    Once Crab had laid back down on the cot, I quickly jumped onto his chest and settled back into my old home. On top of being comfortable, the pocket on his coat seemed the safest place to sleep. Eventually I fell into a light sleep, still a bit high strung with the new presence of Captain.


    Crab moving woke me the next morning, and I could see rays of sunlight streaming through the window across the room. I quickly checked for Captain, and luckily he seemed to be missing. Resolving myself, I climbed out of the pocket and down onto the bed. Crab was busying himself getting ready, but he stopped what little he was doing as I caught his attention.


    Making sure he was watching, I climbed onto the wooden fixture at the end of the cot. I perched at the top for a moment, before diving onto the bed, mimicking what I had done to the Silver Wolf. Digging my beak out of the cot, I gazed at Crab expectantly.


    He seemed to think for a moment, before taking a guess, ¡°You want to¡­ practice fighting?¡±


    I shook my head side to side, and then approached him and dug into one of the pockets in his coat. It took a while to find what I was looking for, but Crab sat patiently until I dragged out a piece of dark brown meat and looked up at him.


    Once again he thought before guessing, ¡°You want to get some food?¡±


    I gave him a ¡®kaak¡¯ before miming my diving technique on the dried meat, and he seemed to grasp my meaning.


    ¡°You sure are impatient. I was going to wait until you had grown some to start hunting, but if you want to learn I can start now.¡±


    He picked me up and dumped the meat back into the pocket I had retrieved it from, saying, ¡°For now, we should take it slow. There shouldn¡¯t be anything out there much bigger than you, but there weren¡¯t supposed to be any Silver Wolves round here either.¡±


    As we left the small cabin out into the morning sunlight, I could see that the village was already awake and moving. Villagers worked, talked, and bustled about, doing activities whose point I could only guess at.


    ¡°As much as I like this place, it gets boring fairly quick. I¡¯d much rather be out hunting than holed up here.¡±


    Crab continue walking, back towards the large building the Chief had been inside yesterday. Entering the hall, instead of returning to the round table Crab walked into one of the side rooms. The room was filled with the larger knives, shafts of wood with metal at the end, and slightly smaller poles of wood with indents on each end.


    Crab took one of these smaller poles, testing its flexibility, and then dug into a box in the corner of the room. Taking out a thin string, he then attached it to the bottom indent on the wooden pole, bending the pole to compensate for the shorter string. Grunting with effort, Crab secured the string on the top of the pole and held the thing up for inspection.


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    As I saw the completed product, a word pooped into my mind to fill in the gaps: bow. It was a weapon that shot a projectile, and while I couldn¡¯t picture what that was, Crab quickly answered my internal question by retrieving a bag from the box. Feathers protruded from the opening at the top, and this sparked a picture in my mind of the bow being used; arrow releasing from the string, whistling through the air before planting itself into its target.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s certainly been a while. Hopefully Chief doesn¡¯t mind me taking his gear.¡± Crab experimentally pulled the string before finally heading out of the building and back into the light snow.


    As we reached the gate that we had passed through the day before, the same two guards nodded in our direction. Well, they could have been anyone, but their faces were covered by thick cloth to protect from the cold. We were passing through the gate when a voiced grabbed Crab¡¯s attention. Donnie came running from slightly further down the wall, waving at us.


    ¡°Wait up! Are you going hunting?¡±


    Crab waited for him to catch his breath before responding, ¡°Yeah. With all the game in the area, I figured we¡¯d get something.¡± Then, drawing Donnie¡¯s attention to me he said, ¡°Besides, I doubt Senya wants to stay in the village under everyone¡¯s supervision.¡±


    Donnie glanced at me tentatively, and then agreed, ¡°I guess I understand¡­ But the Chief will probably come looking for you guys in a bit, so you¡¯d better hurry. I think he wants to show her to the rest of the elders.¡±


    Hearing this, I ¡®kaaked¡¯ angrily at Crab, making him chuckle.


    ¡°Well then, we¡¯d better hurry.¡±


    As Crab was turning to leave, Donnie stopped him once again, ¡°One more thing. One of the hunting groups left earlier this morning. They had the same idea as you, thought they would take advantage of the number of snowtails running about.¡±


    Crab paused and asked, ¡°I knew that there were more than usual, but that many?¡±


    Donnie nodded and said, ¡°Yeah, they went northeast towards Kenner Village. If you hurry you can catch them up.¡±


    As Crab started walking away he yelled, ¡°Thanks Donnie!¡± over his shoulder, putting distance between himself and the young villager. Crab increased his pace as I heard Donnie shout ¡°It¡¯s Donnel!¡± behind us, but Crab didn¡¯t respond.


    The trees surrounded us as we left the village, and they brought the peaceful sounds of birds chirping. I was happy to be out of the village, as safe as it seemed. I wasn¡¯t comfortable with all of the humans, and I certainly wasn¡¯t willing to share a space with that damn cat demon.


    Maybe I would get used to being around more than just Crab eventually, but until I figured out the memory I¡¯d had the night before I would stay alert. Before I could consider it too much my thoughts were interrupted by Crab as he seemed to have an idea.


    ¡°So far you¡¯ve really only made those ¡®kaaking¡¯ sounds, haven¡¯t you?¡±


    As confirmation, I let out a curt ¡®kaak¡¯ as he resumed talking.


    ¡°Try listening to the birds in the forest. I want to see if you can mimic any of them.¡±


    Unsure of his real intentions, I went silent and listened to the soothing sounds around us. Many of the overlapping songs I could hear were so smooth and melodious that I doubted I could even come close to matching them. However, among the many songs, I eventually made out a harsher squawking, sounding in intervals. I listened for a few more moments, before trying out my own rendition.


    ¡°SqWaaAkk¡±


    Crab practically jumped in surprise, and I admit that I did as well. The sound I had made did indeed sound like the original, if that original had a crushed throat. I crouched back into my pocket home, trying to hide my embarrassment, as Crab hesitantly responded.


    ¡°Well¡­ that¡¯s a decent start¡­ I guess. Just keep practicing, and eventually I¡¯m sure it could work!¡±


    Even though I had little interaction with humans, I could still tell that Crab was being fake with his words. Well, not that I blame him.


    Despite my terrible mimicry, it was interesting to make a sound other than the ¡®kaaks¡¯ I had been using up till now. I hadn¡¯t really thought about using different sounds, it¡¯s not like Cab would¡¯ve understood me any better.


    ¡°Hmm. It should do for now. We both need to practice our part, as I haven¡¯t shot a bow in almost a year.¡± Crab stopped, looking around. He then lifted me out of his pocket, continuing, ¡°Since you don¡¯t have your feathers yet, you can be a lookout. I¡¯ll be down here, and you¡¯ll be in the trees trying to spot snowtails. If you see any, use your new call to let me know where they are. Hopefully the call you chose isn¡¯t from one of their predators.¡±


    I cocked my head to the side, waiting for him to clarify.


    ¡°Ah, snowtails are these big grey creatures. They have long ears and a white specked tail. You¡¯ll know when you see one, there isn¡¯t much else out here this time of year.¡±


    I ¡®kaaked¡¯ my understanding, and Crab approached the nearest tree. He held out his hand to the nearest branch and I clambered up onto it. I could feel my heart hammering away in my chest as I used my beak to slowly scale the tree.


    Climbing to a higher branch, I looked down at Crab, now smaller than before. Gazing through the surrounding trees, excitement coursed through me: my first hunt was about to start!

 Chapter Eight: Hunt

    I quickly jumped onto a nearby branch, continuing forward as Crab followed on the ground. We moved silently through the forest, searching for our prey, until Crab stopped and settled down against a tree stump. Understanding his intentions, I advanced through the trees, my eyes combing the snowy ground for any signs of movement.


    It hadn¡¯t taken long to spot one of these snowtails; a grey furred creature caught my attention, only slightly camouflaged by the backdrop of snow. Long, drooping ears slid over the ground as the creature foraged through a clump of bushes. As I inspected the snowtail, I recalled a similar creature from my memory: the rabbit. Well, instead of similar, I¡¯d say identical. The only difference I could see was the snowtail¡¯s size: rabbits in my memory were fairly small, only slightly bigger than what I was currently, while the snowtail was easily triple my size.


    It was still devouring the leaves of the bush when I finished inspecting it. Then, I hopped through the wispy trees, placing the snowtail in between myself and Crab.


    ¡°SQwaaaAK¡±


    The snowtail¡¯s head shot up, pulling its heavy ears up with it, and froze. I could tell from my perch that it was frantically searching its surroundings for any sign of a predator. I sat perfectly still, and eventually the snowtail returned to munching on the leaves of the small bushes.


    I was still watching it eat the leaves, trying to figure out what to do next when an arrow whistled through the air and impaled the snowtail through its lower back. Blood exploded from the wound and spread across the snow as the creature tried to understand this sudden source of pain. It struggled on the ground a few more seconds before Crab came running into view, grabbing the snowtail and finishing it off with his knife.


    I hurriedly climbed down the tree as Crab cleaned his knife and retrieved the bent arrow from the snowtail¡¯s corpse. As I reached the lowest hanging branches above him, I ¡®kaaked¡¯ and started a¡­ controlled descent down. He looked up, hastily catching me with his free hand and placed me in my usual home.


    ¡°Looks like I really do need to practice more.¡±


    Crab grabbed our prey, tied its limbs together and started walking back in the direction of the village.


    ¡°I think I¡¯m going to practice a bit more first,¡± Crab said with a shaky voice I was unfamiliar with. ¡°The poor thing had to suffer a lot.¡±


    I craned my head back to see Crab¡¯s face, and was surprised at what I saw. He had a worried, almost apologetic cast to his eyes, and I could tell he was unhappy.


    I ¡®kaaked¡¯ once again to get his attention, and he looked down and said, ¡°You did fine. In fact I¡¯m surprised that worked so well. It¡¯s just¡­ I need to practice the bow so something like that doesn¡¯t happen again.¡±


    I went silent and thought about how frantic he had been to kill the snowtail with his knife. Well, it wouldn¡¯t hurt to give him a few days to practice before hunting again, to make everything go smoother the next time.


    However, as excited as I was to hunt with Crab, I couldn¡¯t shake the desire to hunt myself, to track down my prey and finish it without any help.


    For about three weeks Crab and I hunted together, leaving after the village hunting party everyday, with me locating snowtails and him putting an arrow through their heart. After the first hunt, Crab had spent about three days at the village, loosing arrows at a small target. Crab stopped having to use his knife after the first kill, with every arrow finding its mark, and every snowtail falling silent after impact.


    Aside from these hunts, I was forced into being inspected by a group of wrinkled old men, who were apparently the elders of the village. The only reasons I got through this were having Crab there to act as my mobile home and hiding place, and seeing the Chief break out into childlike excitement. I had started to get used to the Chief, mostly due to the charm of the enthusiastic vigor set against his decrepit appearance.


    I regularly feasted on the best snowtail catch of the day, and found myself eating more as time went on. I began to need more food naturally as well, as my body grew. Even Captain stopped bothering me as I approached his height. Of course, there were crushing downsides, as I wasn¡¯t able to fit into my comfy home as well as before.


    Perhaps the best part of my growth, however, were the tiny grey feathers that had begun to sprout on my wings and body. Although they were weak and useless, their appearance gave me hope for the future. Even my stunted wing had tiny, fluffy feathers sprouting haphazardly from it. I started testing out my new feathers during hunts, and after a few days I couldn¡¯t hold myself anymore; I needed to hunt on my own.


    ¡°So, you want to try doing it yourself.¡± Crab remarked, as we quietly walked through the forest.


    I nodded my affirmation, and spread my lopsided wings to show my conviction. Crab gave me a squinted inquisitive look, and then seemed to approve of the idea.


    ¡°Alright, first snowtail we see, you can have it. But we¡¯re going to need more ways to communicate.¡±


    Crab proceeded to make two whistling sounds; one low and melodious to signal the finding of prey, and one high and off putting, to warn of danger.


    ¡°Should be enough for now. If I see anything, I¡¯ll let you know.¡±


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    I puffed out my chest and climbed onto a low hanging branch near one of our usual spots. I had already spent most nights thinking of a strategy to hunt the snowtails, and all the observing I¡¯d done on previous hunts had given me a good idea of what tracks to look for and what their habits were. This would have to compensate for not being able to fly much, as my feathers were still just starting to come out.


    As I climbed to a lower than usual branch, I contemplated the one thought that had been bothering me the most recently: what if I could never fly? My left wing seemed to be growing fine, but the simple difference in length compared to my right made it very awkward to balance in the air. Even just falling, my weight would shift and I would begin to flip if I extended both wings.


    I shoved this thought away as I started scanning the snow for the usual signs of life. Almost immediately, I spotted tracks that could only belong to the snowtail. It wasn¡¯t long before I stopped over a particularly large bush, with a fittingly oversized snowtail lazily munching next to it. As I positioned myself as best I could in the canopy over the creature, I was amazed at the snowtail¡¯s lack of awareness. Even though Crab and I had been here several times, the animals kept on coming back. On top of that, none of the snowtails seemed to be able to use their giant ears for actual listening.


    I went over my plan once again in my head, if you could even call it a plan. It was essentially a recreation of the way I had attacked the wolf: stab it with the pointy thing on my face. If I couldn¡¯t fly or glide very well, I¡¯d just have to dive bomb it. The rest of the plan just played off of the species¡¯ habits when eating. From what I¡¯d seen, the typical snowtail like to stay still after securing a food source, blending into the snow, only moving to bite off more leaves. This tactic, however, seemed useless since their camouflage wasn¡¯t very effective on me. Considering Crab had a harder time spotting them, I would have to give credit to my eyes.


    I watched the snowtail bite off a leaf, making sure it stayed true to my observations, and was relieved as it stayed almost completely still. I tucked my wings under my body, crouching, waiting for the creature to take another bite.


    As my prey ripped off another leaf, I let myself drop from the branch, aiming for its upper back. Its neck would be the best spot, but I decided at the last second to change to the larger target.


    The snowtail continued munching away as my outstretched beak reached for it. The air rushed past my streamlined body as my beak made contact with the fur of my prey, immediately breaking through the skin. I had incorrectly judged the angle of my fall, but still I felt the blood erupt from the snowtail¡¯s lower back. The creature jumped in shock, writhing from the pain and dislodging my beak. As the creature tried and failed to stand up, I found myself laying on the snow, my bones jarred and throat full of the taste of blood.


    I was quickly brought back to attention as a large foot slammed down near me, the snowtail flailing about still unsure as to what happened. As the blood trickled down my throat, I quickly stood and jumped near the snowtail¡¯s upper body, spearing my beak into the creature¡¯s flesh at the base of its neck.


    As more blood poured from this new wound, the snowtail slowly stopped jerking around as much, and its wild kicks decreased in strength. As it finally stopped moving, I collapsed back onto the ground, exhausted.


    For how long I stayed like this, I¡¯m not really sure, but it wasn¡¯t until Crab found me that I stood back up and inspected my prey. An ugly hole in its lower back oozed with dark red blood, pouring out the contents to stain the pristine snow. Another smaller mark bled at its neck, making the entire scene accurately resemble the death throes the snowtail had been through.


    ¡°It¡¯s not the cleanest kill I¡¯ve ever seen, but you¡¯ll practice.¡±


    Crab looked at the snowtail regretfully before he began preparing it for the journey back to the village.


    ¡°That¡¯s all we¡¯ll do for today, okay?¡±


    I looked at him for a moment, and then fell back down onto the stained snow, not bothering to respond. Crab took that as agreement, picked up me and the snowtail, and set off for the village.


    The forest sang with the same harmonious ring as earlier that morning, but something felt different as I watched the passing trees. I stared through the canopies, occasionally spotting the fleeting form of drab colored birds hopping over branches. What did they eat, I wonder. Probably berries and fruits. Definitely not snowtails, at least.


    Ever since I was born, I had been eating meat, or at least what I assumed had been meat. Today was the first time I had done the killing myself. Even attacking the Silver Wolf had been different, that was a rabid beast intent on killing and devouring me, but the snowtail was a peaceful, oblivious creature. The worst part of this, however, wasn¡¯t that I minded killing peaceful creatures to eat, that was just a part of nature. Even the wolf was simply following nature¡¯s laws. No, the scariest part was the taste of the blood dripping down my throat, at how sweet it was, and at how easily I had gotten up and finished my prey; not out of survival, but to taste its blood once again.

 Chapter Nine: Alpha

    I stared up through the trees at slivers of the late morning sky, nodding off to the rhythm of Crab¡¯s footsteps. I was only brought back to reality when the gate passed over me, indicating we were back in the village. I slowly moved my body upright inside my pocket home, in time to see Crab lay the dead snowtail down next to a local butcher¡¯s table, apparently sensing my mood towards my prey.


    We left the corpse behind as we slowly made our way through the village, only stopping at the sight of a large crowd of murmuring people at the entrance of the village hall. Crab pushed his way through the knot of villagers, ignoring complaints about his bloody hands as he moved forward confidently.


    I eventually made out the wispy voice of the Chief over the rest of the whispering humans, and could make out only a few words about holding a meeting before he seemed to wrap up, and head inside the hall. Crab quickly walked up to join the Chief as the door closed behind him, shutting out the voices of the rest of the villagers.


    ¡°What¡¯s this about?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ It seems we have a troubling situation on our hands,¡± the Chief rasped back, before eyeing me and turning towards the end of the hall, ¡°I¡¯ll let those involved inform you.¡±


    We quickly marched to the circular table, where the Chief unsteadily took his seat. I looked around as Crab claimed a seat, seeing a few faces I recognized, including Donnie and the other elders I had been introduced to. Standing out from the dull colors of the elders were three weary men. The clothes they wore indicated that they were at least from the area, but their sunken eyes and the red stains covering their gear piqued my interest, and apparently Crab¡¯s too.


    ¡°What in the hells happened to you?¡± Crab asked, leaning forward against the table, and then directed his glance at one of the men. ¡°Willin?¡±


    An older man with mud-colored hair looked up from the table at Crab, responding with a sorrowful voice, ¡°Still not sure ma¡¯self, to be honest.¡±


    I looked towards the other two men; a scrawny kid who seemed around Donnie¡¯s age sat completely still, eyes planted in the wood of the table, with his arm and head both wrapped in slightly red stained bandages. The other stared directly at me with two unwavering black eyes, just as still as the scrawny kid. I shrunk into the pocket instinctively, but quickly correctly myself and stared back at him. This sudden bravery was caused, of course, by the fact that I was indeed too big to completely fit in Crab¡¯s coat pocket; my head stuck out no matter what I did.


    I met his eyes for a moment longer before averting my attention to the Chief, who was speaking, ¡°Just tell everyone what you told me.¡±


    This Willin glanced at the Chief for a moment, before starting, ¡°We were out huntin¡¯ snowtails like usual. S¡¯far as we could tell, nothing out of th¡¯ordinary. We shoulda known somethin¡¯ was wrong though, the snowtails were way too careful. We could barely get any of the lil¡¯ bastards.¡±


    Willin shifted back in his seat, and as he continued I noticed the scrawny kid rubbing his wrapped arm furiously, ¡°The five of us were out at one of the usual spots near Kenner Village, when we started hearin¡¯ all this howlin¡¯. In no time there was a wolf on Bowles, nothing we could do. One jumped on Ense ¡®ere as well.¡± Willin then nodded at the dark-eyed man before continuing, ¡°Lucky Mord fought it off, and we bolted.¡±


    Silence descended over the table, and I could feel Crab¡¯s chest tense up even through his coat, but it was the Chief who eventually broke the silence, ¡°You said five?¡±


    Willin seemed to lose composure for a moment, but it was Mord who answered instead, ¡°Edel was with us, but I don¡¯t have a clue what happened to him.¡± He shifted his heavy gaze from me up to the Chief, ¡°I¡¯d guess he¡¯s dead by now.¡±


    Ense continued to rub the bandages on his arm with a trembling hand, as the Chief sat back in his chair and took a deep breath. Again the weight of silence fell over the table. This time Crab was the one to break it, ¡°What about these wolves? What can you tell us about them?¡±


    ¡°They were Silver Wolves, no doubt. And organized too,¡± Willin replied, regaining composure.


    The older men around the table grimaced almost in unison, and as I looked around I could tell that Donnie was just as confused as me. I waited only a moment before Donnie asked the question for me, ¡°Is that bad?¡±


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°It means, most likely, that there is an Alpha somewhere. And if there is an Alpha, then the Silver Wolf pack has found a new den nearby. Yes, it¡¯s bad.¡± The Chief receded into his thoughts after this, before speaking up again. ¡°Alright, we¡¯ve dealt with this once before, and we can do it again. Donnie? Tell Arik what happened, get a message to Caramill, in case we cannot handle the situation. Elmer? Take your hunting squad and get to Kenner Village immediately.¡± Donnie and an older human with a receding grey hairline both nodded and briskly walked off.


    The Chief turned back to the men at the table, ¡°Willin, Mord, can either of you lead us back to where you were attacked?¡±


    The two men nodded consent, as the Chief looked at the shaking Ense, ¡°Get Ense back home, he needs to rest. When you go, I¡¯ll have fifteen men from the guard come with you. You need to find the Alpha¡¯s lair before dark comes today. Got it?¡±


    Both men nodded once again and stood up to leave, half supporting and half dragging Ense away with them. The Chief proceeded to give concise instructions to the other elders, and each went to follow them with a sense of determination. Eventually only the Chief, Crab and I were left at the round table, and the hall in general.


    The Chief slouched into the wooden chair he had stood up from to give the orders, and rubbed his eyes several times before speaking to Crab.


    ¡°When we need to exterminate the Alpha, I need you to lead the men.¡±


    I glanced up at Crab¡¯s face, seeing surprise surface briefly.


    ¡°Surely someone more skilled should lead-¡°


    ¡°There is no one more skilled, Crab. There hasn¡¯t been a Silver Wolf Alpha in these parts in almost twenty years. Everyone who fought then is either dead or too old to wield a weapon. And have you seen the village guard? They aren¡¯t real fighters, just boys with sharp sticks. I need someone who knows what they¡¯re doing to lead this, and you¡¯re my only choice.¡±


    Neither men spoke for a few moments. I stared at the Chief¡¯s face, his expression pleading Crab to agree. I was slightly startled when Crab¡¯s hand rubbed the top of my head, petting the short fuzzy feathers growing there.


    He eventually responded, saying, ¡°If the villagers aren¡¯t skilled, are you sure we should do this at all?¡±


    The Chief replied with disgust in his voice, ¡°Silver Wolves are parasites. If left alone, they will increase their territory, killing us in the process. Many good men died the last time this happened, and it¡¯s now my job to prevent that from occurring again.¡±


    ¡°¡­Fine.¡±


    The Chief sighed in relief, visible thankful.


    ¡°With any luck, Willin and Mord can find the den. Prepare to leave tomorrow, early.¡±


    Crab slowly rose from the table, still rubbing my head. As he turned to leave, the Chief spoke out.


    ¡°Thank you, Crab. Thank you.¡±


    Crab grunted in response, walking away and out of the hall.


    I was sitting on Crab¡¯s cot in our one room cabin, watching him organize the gear on the table for the third time. He checked his knife one more time, for reasons unknown to me. Maybe he thought it could run away? I glanced through the window at the fading light. I suppose it was natural to be nervous. Mord and Willin¡¯s group had found the Alpha¡¯s den fairly easily, so we¡¯d be going over the plans once more in the morning before heading out.


    Crab finished his check and lounged back on the cot next to me. As I thought about his nervousness, I wondered at why I wasn¡¯t that scared of this mission, even to the point that I had gone out of my way to be included. I mean, I understood his nervousness; the starving Silver Wolf alone was a terrifying and rabid beast, and I couldn¡¯t even picture something considered its Alpha.


    Whatever the case, my thoughts were interrupted by a shadowy form slipping through the window. Captain slinked up and jumped onto the desk, directing his one eye towards us. I had gotten used to his presence, but something felt off about his stare.


    His single green eye, normally languid and smug, showed a very distinct and recognizable emotion.


    Fear.


    --------------------------------


    Sorry this came out so late... pls forgive me <3

 Chapter Ten: Smoke

    Sorry for the terrible release consistency!!! College move in and first week are annoying~~


    Hope you enjoy the chapter! Longest one yet at 3k words! :O (not that that''s particularly long...)


    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    My eyes were drooping as I sat in my pocket home, and across the round table I could see Willin focusing on everything but the maps in front of him. I checked Crab to see what he was focused on, to find out that the only things he saw were the backs of his eyelids. Not that I blamed him. Captain had mewed incessantly through the night, letting neither Crab nor I get a wink of sleep.


    Conversation behind me quieted down as the Chief came into view, taking his usual place at the table. Settling himself, he looked at Crab and cleared his throat. Crab slowly opened his eyes, rubbed them, and stood up from his chair. From my position I could see the men gathered around the table, all staring at the largest map.


    ¡°Alright, pay attention. I¡¯m only saying this once. The Alpha¡¯s den is here.¡±


    The other humans leaned in to see the area Crab was pointing to. I inspected the map as well, trying to understand it. A mark had been made near the location of the den, with some writing I could not understand. There was another similar mark northeast of the den, closer to the upper edge of the map. Although the script next to these marks was unreadable, they were obviously meant to be villages, considering the layout of the map. To the west of these marks, a group of indents spread across a large area. At first they made no sense, but a memory of a crudely dawn map swam into my head. Curving lines, marks with script, and the same indents. This map in my memory helped me understand these were mountains, most likely the mountains of my birth.


    Only one other major distinction was drawn on the map. Encroaching between my current location and the mountains was the edge of a dark shape. It had no marking, it was just an entire shade deeper than the rest of the material.


    My attention was drawn back to the humans as Willin stood up, getting ready to leave.


    ¡°It won¡¯t take too long to walk there. We leave immediately, get your gear and wait at the front gate.¡±


    As Crab said this, the rest of the humans left, leaving Crab, the Chief, and myself. The Chief stared at the map for a few moments, before tiredly raising his eyes to me, and then Crab.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    I felt Crab shift awkwardly, saying nothing.


    ¡°Promise me that you¡¯ll keep Donnie at the back? He¡¯s a reckless fool, but he¡¯s my grandson.¡±


    Crab chuckled quietly, and I felt his nod. Satisfied by this, the Chief sat back down, and Crab turned to leave.


    About twenty men were waiting outside at the front gate as Crab and I approached. Among them, I recognized Willin and Mord. These two, along with the rest of the humans, wore weird, dull gray hats and thicker clothes than usual. Each man also held a stick with a metal pointy end, which I believed was called a spear, a small wooden shield, and the typical large knife.


    I spotted a fidgeting Donnie standing near the back of the crowd, and he quickly saw us and walked over. Readjusting his hat, he addressed Crab in a strained voice.


    ¡°We are ready to go, uhh, sir.¡±


    Crab looked at him for a moment before nodding and heading towards the front of the group. As he passed by Donnie, I felt an impulse to take action. This action was to push my way out of my comfy pocket and jump onto Donnie¡¯s shoulder.


    Donnie jumped in surprise, and Crab looked at me for a second before raising an eyebrow and continuing to the front of the group. I settled down on Donnie as he stayed unnaturally still, unsure what to do. I poked the side of his face with my fluffy wing and let out a ¡®kaak¡¯, and Donnie got the message.


    My new human escort walked as steadily as possible near the back of the group. I couldn¡¯t see Crab through the throng of gray hats in front of me, but undoubtedly him and Willin were guiding the rest of our party to the Alpha¡¯s den.


    A little way into our trek I felt a presence next to me and Donnie. I turned to see Mord staring at me, unblinking. Donnie, unsure what to do, said nothing until Mord started talking.


    ¡°You sure the Chief knows what he¡¯s doing?¡±


    Donnie failed to respond, startled by the bluntness of Mord¡¯s question. In the silence that followed, another man, one with greasy long brown locks, responded cheerfully, ¡°C¡¯mon, Mord, don¡¯ be so worried! When¡¯s tha Chief ever been wrong?¡±


    A chorus of agreement echoed around the man, as Donnie finally found his voice.


    ¡°Gran-er the Chief has always helped everyone in the village. If he thinks this is the right way to do things, then I trust him.¡±


    Donnie¡¯s voice wavered slightly, but Mord simply continued to stare at me, eventually saying, ¡°I trust him as well. I just have a weird feeling about this whole situation.¡±


    The man with the greasy hair responded, cracking a smile full of crooked teeth, ¡°Yer just worried that I¡¯ll kill all th¡¯bastards before ya can even draw yer sword!¡±


    This was met by jeering from all sides, making him grin even wider.


    Mord simply frowned and said, ¡°Just try not to piss your pants in fear, Kell.¡±


    Another round of jeers sounded, but was quickly hushed down by the humans at the front of the group. We were approaching the den. I felt Donnie¡¯s shoulder tense up beneath me, and Mord¡¯s unwavering stare on my back. The front of the group had stopped next to some tall brush, and as the group huddled around Crab, the only sounds I could hear were the breathing of men and the rustling of gear.


    I confirmed once again that there were no signs of life apart from us. No fluttering of wings in the trees, no animal calls, no tracks save for our own. I gave Donnie one more pat of reassurance before fluttering away and onto Crab¡¯s shoulder. Perched there, I could see over the brush, and realized that I had been wrong about my previous observation.


    There was a clearing ahead, marked by disturbed snow and pawprints. At the edge of this clearing, the entrance of a cave easily large enough for four humans to stand shoulder to shoulder was framed in glistening white. The cave¡¯s mouth, however, quickly grew pitch black.


    I turned back to see several humans walking away in pairs, seemingly to set up a perimeter. At the same time, one large human was removing some small planks of wood from a bag. Each of these planks had a small bit of cloth wrapped at the end. A familiar feeling came about my mind, as I seemed to recognize the contraption, but I could not place its use.


    With these readied in the hands of multiple humans, Crab nodded and led the group quietly over the cave¡¯s gaping mouth. Looking around, I could sense the tense atmosphere that contrasted so greatly with the cheerful one from earlier. I could see that even the Kell fellow had stopped smiling, and was starting to sweat.


    Reaching the entrance, Crab nodded as two men worked silently to create something. I couldn¡¯t quite see what they were doing until the light of a fire rose up, and the two began lighting each of the small cloth planks one by one. Realization hit me that these were torches, and I couldn¡¯t see how I missed that fact earlier. It seemed so obvious now.


    As the last torch was lit, the fire was stomped out and three men, including Donnie, stayed outside the cave. The remaining humans and myself, about twelve to thirteen of us, ventured into the dark.


    Crab and Willin led the way, carefully making their way over the uneven ground. Willin held a torch, and from its light I inspected the walls of the cave. Scratch marks covered almost all of the lower rock walls, with very little smooth rock left. The only smooth rock I could see was coming from smaller offshoots. Near these offshoots, large, deep gashes appeared higher up on the rock face, sometimes revealing different colored stones and granite.


    Further into the cave, at a point where the daylight did not reach, we finally reached a large cavern. The humans fanned out into a wide formation, each man alternating between spear and sword-shield. As Crab gave a signal, the group filed into the cavern, crouching low to the ground and taking cover behind scattered rocks.


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    As the humans scanned the room, it became readily apparent that it was entirely empty. As torchlight revealed the rest of the cavern, it was obvious that the room had been evacuated recently. Bones lay strewn across the floor, and even some fresher carcasses lay half-eaten, covered in bite marks.


    Inspecting the scene, I was overcome with a strong feeling. Captain¡¯s fear-filled stare rose up in my mind as I clamped down on Crab¡¯s shoulder three times with my talons, our agreed signal of danger when we needed to be quiet.


    Crab immediately stopped, raising his hand, where his dagger gleamed faintly against the torchlight. Willin and the rest of the group froze, and I could hear their grips tighten on their weapons. Crab looked at me for an explanation.


    I thought for a moment, before hopping as quietly as I could onto a rock. I retreated back to the entrance of the cavern, and into the winding passage that had brought us there. Crab¡¯s footsteps following behind, I approached the nearest offshoot I could find.


    I stared up at the large gash next to the offshoot, seeing a faint green sparkle to the cut. I then proceeded to the next offshoot, where a similar deep gash was located above it, this time glowing in a faint red. Hearing Crab behind me, I climbed onto his shoulder to take a closer look at the red glow.


    The gentle light emanated from the gash. But, it did not come from the uncovered rock as I had expected. Instead, it seemed as though the gap left by whatever had made the scar had been filled in with this red nucleus.


    Looking down into the offshoot, I realized what this meant as I saw the smooth, unscratched walls of the smaller corridor. I clamped down on Crab¡¯s shoulder once again, gesturing my wing towards the gash. Crab looked at me with a face full of confusion, asking, ¡°What? What¡¯s wrong?¡±


    I stared for a moment, and quickly gestured at the torch Willin had been holding behind us. Crab, understanding this, relayed the message to Willin, and the light was snuffed out. Darkness engulfed us, but the perfect pitch black was broken by the sole red glow from the gash. Crab froze for a moment, as he realized what I had figured out.


    ¡°Is it like this for all of them?¡±


    I gave a single squeeze to his shoulder in affirmation.


    ¡°What? What¡¯s tha problem?¡±


    Crab answered Willin through the darkness.


    ¡°That light. There¡¯s one for each smaller offshoot. They aren¡¯t just Silver Wolf scratches, they¡¯re planned markings, to find the way through the cave system.¡±


    ¡°That means¡­¡±


    ¡°That means that it wasn¡¯t just Silver Wolves living in this cave.¡±


    I heard Willin gulp through the dark, as immediately both men began carefully walking through the near pitch blackness back towards the cavern. Before long the faint light of torches shown, and the three of us met up with the waiting group of humans.


    ¡°There something else living here. Something fully sentient.¡±


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡±


    Mord, along with the others, responded in confusion and disbelief.


    ¡°We need to check the side passages immediately. Stay together.¡±


    At the serious tone of Crab¡¯s voice, the men quickly fell in line behind us, wary and on guard, weapons held up, no question being asked. We quickly traveled down the green marked passage, reaching a small room at the end. Crab¡¯s shoulder went taught as he froze, and I did the same.


    A small rock sat in one corner, flat and sturdy. On it lay a handmade stone hammer, with small parts of leather and stone laying around it. On the other side of the opening, a rough sack of cloth lay across the floor, obviously meant for something larger than human to sleep in.


    Each one of the men froze at the sight of the workstation and bed. Everyone was still and silent until a man yelled from the main cave tunnel.


    ¡°Crab!! Trouble!! Out here now!!¡±


    Crab and Willin sprang into action, barreling past the unmoving men in the corridor, all sense of stealth lost. I barely hung onto Crab as he reached the man who shouted. I saw Kell staring wild-eyed at us, with Donnie holding a torch, panting and out of breath.


    ¡°Smoke¡­ huff¡­ from the village¡­ need to get back¡­¡±


    Crab waited no longer, as we ran towards the entrance of the cave, the group of humans and Donnie in tow. The men left outside were grouped closely at the entrance looking up in fear as we ran into the sunlight. Every man there and I looked at the sky in the direction of the village. A large, billowing cloud of dark smoke was rising, only growing larger by the second.


    ¡°Two lines! Drop anything that¡¯s not a weapon! We¡¯re going back!¡±


    The confused men spurred into action on Crab¡¯s commands, forming two lines with Crab, Willin and I at the front once again. We began a brisk jog back to the village, as Crab lifted me off his shoulder and onto a branch. I climbed a few layers and kept pace with the group.


    We reached the village in a fraction of the time we had taken to get to the cave. I approached the edge of the trees looking over the village and stared in shock at the scene before me. Through the smoke and flames of the burning buildings, the snowy ground was littered with the bodies of villagers, red blood flowing freely. Howling and barking could be heard from further into the village, so I dropped from the branches onto the nearest roof, letting out a high call for Crab to follow, and to communicate the level of danger. I spattered across the roof and onto an adjacent building until I finally overlooked the town square.


    More dead bodies lay across the wide area, as Silver Wolves bit into their victims, both living and dead. I quickly let out a longer high pitched whistle as Crab rounded the corner with the group of humans. Seeing the scene of death in front of them, the humans froze again, only to jump into action as Crab ran forward. As he passed by, he yelled towards me.


    ¡°Stay there! Let us know if there are any behind us! Join me when I give the call!¡±


    I let out a short ¡®kaak¡¯ in response as I watched the group run towards the frenzied wolves, some humans much slower and hesitant than others. As Crab reached the closest Wolf, his knife slid up and through the surprised beast¡¯s gullet, killing it instantly. Willin soon joined in as he wielded some sort of large hammer, crushing a beast¡¯s torso to the ground.


    Noticing the new group of humans, most of the rabid wolves turned and charged. The humans, encouraged by Crab¡¯s and Willin¡¯s actions, met the charge head on, using their slight advantage in numbers to surround and spear the beasts.


    As the wolves lay twitching in their death throes, spears penetrating their mangy fur, more howling and footsteps could be heard further into the town. The men advanced towards these noises, brave from their first victory. As they reached the opposite end of the square, wolves began to crawl out of alleys and houses, until they equaled the humans in number.


    Crab commanded the men into a defensive formation, spears out and shields up. As they readied themselves, the wolves stopped in unison. A single, monstrous wolf slowly ambled from behind a building. Nearly double the size of any other Silver Wolf, the beast stared directly at the humans in front of it with piercing yellow eyes. Sculpted muscles rippled underneath silken silver fur, combining elegance and ferocity into a single murderous monster. Two fangs protruded from its mouth, saliva falling to the snow as if in anticipation.


    I ripped my eyes from the beast, and scampered to the edge of the roof. I gazed through the nearby alleyways and towards the entrance to check for more wolves, and thankfully saw none. As I reached my original spot overlooking the square, my stare met directly with two sickly, yellow eyes.


    A muscled, leather clad creature stood upright in the middle of the road. The humanoid figure was a dark shade of green, with no hair and two large, tusk-like teeth on its jaw. As we locked eyes, I noticed the four similar creatures standing behind it, all equally menacing with large axes and clubs.


    I broke out of my hypnotized state briefly, lifting my head up and letting out a screeching triple call for maximum danger. I was halfway through a second call when I sensed a spear racing towards my body.

 Chapter Eleven: Eyes

    I threw my body over the edge of the roof as the spear clattered uselessly behind me. I caught a glimpse of blue sky as I tumbled towards the stone street.


    I spread my wings as best I could, in a pathetic attempt to level myself out, but my short wing immediately flipped me into a falling spin. Releasing any control over my descent, I curled up for the impact.


    Pain seared up through my left shoulder, and my vision fluttered between the grey of the ground and darkness. I rolled onto my stomach and off my shoulder, knives of pain reaching into my chest. Well, it certainly wasn¡¯t the most controlled of dives, but at least the ground had broken my fall. I tried to gently move my short wing, only to be reminded that the ground had probably broken me as well. Standing up, I glanced to see the throng of humans tightly packed and surrounded by Silver Wolves.


    I was brought back to my senses as a multitude of heavy footsteps sounded to my right. I scampered in the opposite direction, looking up after putting some distance between myself and the footsteps. I was once again met with that pair of yellow eyes. They stared at me, and seemed almost inviting. The other creatures had all sheathed their weapons, and were waiting patiently behind their leader.


    I exhaled violently as my left wing twitched, breaking me out of the creature¡¯s gaze. Looking down, I found that I had taken a step forward. Glancing at the battle raging in the square, I made my decision. I ran away, head to the ground, back to the edge of the village.


    It had been a few days since I had fled the village, and my short wing was still unusable. I had run across the ground for a long time, putting distance between myself and the green creatures. Luckily for me, it seemed as though they hadn¡¯t given chase. Not that it mattered much, as I was still screwed.


    I had yet to find anything to eat. As far as I was concerned, I was the only creature left in these godforsaken woods. No sounds, no smells, no movement, no nothing. Just me, the snow and the trees. In fact, the snow and the trees had already become my best friends; I spent my time walking and eating snow, giving my body an unsatisfied sense of being full. As for the trees, I had tried to peel off some bark to eat, but that was about as edible as it sounded.


    Several freezing nights had passed before my stomach started to complain. Every time I stopped to rest my legs, my stomach would start to gnaw at me. The only respite from everything was that my stomach started to distract me from my shoulder. As nice as this was, however, I knew that I would have to find food soon.


    I trudged along, and the trees around me began to blur together. I had little hope of knowing where I had gone since leaving the village, but I doubted that it would matter anyway. Whether I was walking straight or in circles, it didn¡¯t seem to make a difference.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    I thought about Crab, Donnie, and the rest of the humans from the village. It seemed so far away now, but I still hoped that they had gotten out all right. Crab and the Elder, they had treated me with care, and given me a way to live. It was all I could do to hope that they had escaped.


    My eyelids drooped to dangerous levels as one of my legs started to give out. I was unsure how many days it had been, but it certainly outnumbered how many I had left. I collapsed into the snow, barely noticing the cold through the hunger and the pain. My shoulder stayed at a constant throb now, still refusing to move. I stared down at the white snow, knowing that I needed to eat some but lacking the strength to move.


    My head fell lower as I let my body relax. As I was about to fall asleep, an odd color caught my eye. Forcing myself up, I dragged my feet to the discoloration to inspect it more closely. A small speck of red disturbed the sea of white. I stared at it for a long time, unmoving. After a while, it clicked in my mind.


    It was blood. It had to be. Nothing else in these woods had that scarlet color. My mind shifting into full gear, I tiredly inspected the clearing around me. It didn¡¯t take long before I found what I was looking for. Faint footprints, leading through a patch of brown bushes. Surprisingly, these footprints were very much human sized.


    I approached the bushes carefully, staying as low as I could without toppling over, and glanced through the bushes. On the other side was a small clearing, surrounded by the usual monolithic forest. My attention shot to the center of the clearing, however. Two corpses, both human.


    I started to stalk slowly around the perimeter of the opening, trying to check for obvious traps, but my stomach soon took control of my actions. I approached the nearest body, staying outside the faded pool of blood that had blossomed around it. A jagged slash across the human¡¯s neck told me all that had happened.


    My stomach growled fiercely, but I managed to keep my impulse in check. Inspecting the large cut that had killed the human, I realized that no animal had done it. The fatal blow had been too clean and precise. Given this realization and the fact that these two corpses hadn¡¯t been eaten, it was obvious no wild animal had been here. The implications of this were frightening, to say the least, but for now I moved on to the next corpse.


    The fatal blow was easy to make out on the next corpse as well. A large horizontal gash showed the inner workings of the human who lay crumpled in the snow. My stomach rumbled once again, but I held back and checked the humans face. Dead eyes gazed back at me, and the corpse¡¯s mouth lay agape, teeth protruding wildly. The human¡¯s brown hair seemed familiar to me, but it didn¡¯t matter now.


    I went back to his open chest and stuck my beak through the gash. Blood filled my mouth as I tore through muscle and soft organs, occasionally clashing with bone. I didn¡¯t care. Every other feeling left me as I drank in everything my meal had left to offer. I continued noisily, until something unnatural caught my eye. Through the waning light, I saw one green eye inspecting me, hunger rippling underneath a calm facade.


    Captain stared at me from across the clearing. He did not look well, to say the least. Mouth hung open and crouched in a defensive stance, he seemed about to fall over. We stared at each other for a few moments, before he started to approach me, circling around the first corpse. I swallowed some human, turned to face him, and stood up as tall as I could. My shoulder screamed in protest, but I paid it no mind.


    Captain bared his teeth, letting out a faint hissing noise as he prowled towards me. I could see saliva dropping to the snow, and his eye now looked crazed. He stopped at the feet of my meal, not looking away. I dug my talons into the snow, staring straight back. We were motionless for some time, and the pain in my shoulder felt like a beach being pounded by waves, relentlessly, forever. I tried to think what a beach actually was. I realized I didn¡¯t care. All that mattered was my food.


    I took a step forward as the leaves of the brown bush rustled. Captain and I immediately looked over. For the second time tonight, my meal was interrupted. Mouth foaming, a Silver Wolf¡¯s yellow eyes stared ravenously at us, unblinking.