First thing I do when I wake up is check to see if I'm a person again, in the slight hopes that it was all a bad fever dream. Feeling my feathers rustle about as I stir confirms otherwise. And while not the worst part (but definitely a close second), it seems I'm still alone in this pitch black cave. Every once in a while, I can hear a slight blip come from the water, giving me the slightest sense of direction.
As I get my morning drink, I think about my next course of action. I need to see where I'm going if I'm going to get out of this place, especially if I need to swim. So I need to backtrack and get another opal. The alternative is, well… not ideal.
Okay so there's no alternative. Was really hoping I could avoid backtracking downhill in the darkness. If I'm lucky I'll only trip a few times and keep injuries to a minimum. If it wasn't for that ridiculous lizard! The things I'll do if that little scaly bastard if it shows up again.
I let out one last sigh before I steel my resolve for the journey back. Deep breathes, in and out, you'll be fine.
Within a few minutes of descending back through the tunnels, I notice that the air is getting heavier the further I descend. My lungs struggle to breath, then the atmosphere condenses even further. It gets so bad that it feels as if my limbs are bound in viscous jelly. The pressure on my chest is overwhelming, it actually hurts! Warm blood starts dripping from my nostrils and my eyes. My heart is beating out of control! I need to turn back!
Fighting against this malicious force, I flee in desperation towards the lake. Racing through the darkness does not come without it's own risks however. One after another, the jagged boundaries batter every inch of my body as I struggle to remember the twists and turns of the treacherous cavern. My third fall sends me tumbling headfirst into a wall, forcing me to wait for the new waves of pain to pass.
Part of me is tempted to stay curled up in a ball, but somewhere inside of me the will to continue spurns me on. So with great reluctance I get back up and get moving again, this time much more carefully. It seems that suffocating pain from earlier has dissipated so there's no need to be in such a hurry. Last thing I need right now is to twist my ankle and be completely immobilized. That would be a death sentence for sure. Now that I've slowed down, my wings work wonders in helping me navigate the rest of the journey. The long feathers bend harmlessly against the hidden obstacles, giving me plenty of warning to re-maneuver.
With a sploosh I accidentally take a step into the lake, oh what a relief. I'm back! I can't help but splash around happily, it's a small victory but I'll take it! As much as I need another opal to get me through this leg of the journey, I'll find another way. There's absolutely no way I'm heading back inside those tunnels, it legitimately felt like I was about to pop like a grape.
Perhaps getting cleaned up will help clear my thoughts. I dip my head into the chilly water to get the blood from earlier washed off. Then I decide to get the rest of the grime that has built up washed off, and man does it feel refreshing. There's just something irreplaceable about a good bath.
As I float in the water, I weigh what few options remain. The only other option I can think of is to literally swim blind, but that seems likely to end in disaster. If push comes to shove I could stay here a bit longer I think. I do have some of that fish from yesterday left over and I could try and use some of the scraps to lure in more fish. No, that will hardly work. How am I supposed to catch anything, if I can't see anything.
Damn this is frustrating.
Wait lure in the fish. What if I lured in the lizard? Is it possible?
Probably more achievable than walking through the invisible cloud of death. Speaking of, is it spreading? I turn back to look, not that I can see, but more out of habit. There is a strong chance that it is working its way towards me. And that thought sends deep chills down my spine. Being caught between that awful crushing pain and this impassable lake. My imagination runs wild, playing out the horrible scenario in my mind.
Nope, not helping.
Feeling a new bit of… inspiration, I get to work. Finding some loose stones about the cavern I begin placing them in the shallow ends of the water until I have some sort of crude bird-made tide pool. Then I give each of the rocks a good wiggle test to make sure they are nice and secure. Once I'm confident in that, I take some of the scraps from yesterday's dinner and place them in my brand new artificial pool. For good measure, I scoop up several scales at a time in my beak and toss them out unceremoniously into the water. They might not have the most meat on them but at this point every little bit helps.
So come on you little pest, you can get some food and I can get my precious rock back! I don't have all day! I'm so excited for my own idea that failure isn't even a blip on my radar. For now I must be patient.
An hour in, I see it. About fifty feet out there's a mote of luminescence emerging from the depths. Ah there you are, you treacherous thief. Reveal yourself to me, I promise I won't hurt you… much!
The intensity of the light shifts unpredictably. Perhaps the creature is cautious, more sly than I gave it credit for. My muscles tense up with anticipation as I wait in the shadows of a nearby boulder, ready to pounce on it and redeem my past failure. Come on, closer now... Closer…
Wait it stopped. Come on! Why are you going to the other end, don't you want this delicious fish? This impossible lizard!
Then it bobs to the right. What on earth is it doing? It's roughly twenty feet out now and I think I can see it surfaced above the water, the ridges of it's finned spine just visible. Just as soon as I get a good visual on it, the lizard dives again. Then it clicks.
It's being chased! If some giant catfish gets to him before I can I'm doomed!
I stumble around in the dark frantic to think of something, anything. I could try diving in but the lurking predator could be dangerous to me too, and there's the small matter that I still can't see. Don't want to scare the lizard off too, come on think of something!
My legs move on their own, pacing back and forth as I desperately try to think of any solution. Could start screaming into the cavern, no. Throw a rock? I doubt I could toss it accurate enough, especially considering I have to use my feet.
Out on the water, the lizard breaks the surface and remains still. It's belly is visible with a leg ajar and still. A slight twitch. A few more ripples flow out from the creature, until after a couple confusing seconds, nothing happens.
Lizard? Are you okay?
There's no response.
Apart from tiny waves softly caressing the rocky shore, the cavern is silent. The peaceful atmosphere is interrupted as my legs slosh through the water. I don't know what happened, but I'll be plucked and battered before I let some mutant fish gets to him before I do.
Albeit awkwardly, I make my way over to the glowing belly-up thief. The first stretch I can wade through the water with little issue thanks to my long legs. Until the ground drops sharply and I'm chest deep in the frigid lake. Yikes, okay, time for a trial by fire. My wing's allow for large strokes that work shockingly well. This is the confidence boost I needed. Swimming, no problem!
Meanwhile the lizard doesn't move at all as I get closer. With my recent luck, it would have been playing dead. Sure enough, it's just floating there. Still not taking any chances, I open my beak wide and grab the creature with the assumption it's about to dive. My beak makes contact with its scaled midsection let it hangs limply in my mouth.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Little heavy aren't you? Eating too many things that don't belong to you?
Now with my precious cargo, it's time to make my way back to the water's edge.
Alright little fella, what the heck happened to you? By the looks of it, there's no bite or scratch marks. Just a glazed over expression with it's mouth wide open. Doesn't look like it choked on anything, which was my best guess. Something seems a bit off though, was it always so spiky? Three parallel rows of menacing scutes dot its back length from shoulders to tail. While I can't remember if it always looked so intense, I distinctly remember its face. How could I not when it kept lickings its eyes right in front of me? Just above its nostrils, two scaly whiskers, one on each end, extend past the front legs. That is most certainly new.
You sure are one strange little oddball all the way to the end, aren't ya. Unfortunately today wasn't your lucky day. And I need my wonderful little opal back.
SHINK!
With the deceased lizard rolled onto its side, I plan my first incision starting at the base of the neck. I press my talon deep and fail to penetrate what I assumed were soft belly scales. Perhaps more force is needed here. Pressing the weight of my body down, my talon finally pierces into its flesh but wow, are these scales tough!
It takes several minutes to saw and tear at this thing until a reasonable gash is made. This is proving to be far more gruesome than dealing with the fish. There were moments where I had to use my hooked beak to hold it in place and get more leverage. I'm practically sitting on it now, both sets of talons hooked along the cut I made while I use my beak to pull up as hard as I can. Some of the organs fly out and slap me upside the head, ow! Wait hold on, the lizard isn't glowing nearly as bright anymore.
On the ground is a glimmering fleshy sac, nerves and phosphorescent blue pulsating veins still attached. I know it just died recently but seeing something dead still moving is still eerie. Like a doctor wielding a scalpel, I use my talon to make a delicate cut into the sac, this time with far less resistance than before. Peeling the layers back, my heart soars as it slowly comes into view.
My precious opal! Except a mess of veins, tissues, and nerves are fused to it in horrific fashion. The glow it now gives off can hardly hold a candle compared to before. How on earth did this happen? I don't know about my past experiences, but this is easily the most alien thing I have ever seen.
Methodically I sever all the gruesome bits keeping it attached to the sac. As I cut through the veins in particular, a luminescent fluid leaks out. The liquid shines much brighter than my gem, however, it evaporates into colorless gas before it can pool.
Right…
A bit disturbed, but I continue to free my ticket to the outside world. Tiny threads of flesh cling persistently to the gemstone's surface. Again with extreme caution, I do my best to unsully the opal, pulling on the threads until the minuscule sinews pull free. Some areas are left cracked after my treatment, but at least the job is now finished. Now free of it's fleshy coils, I hold the opal in the palm of my talons
The luster and shine it once had pales in comparison to now, perhaps it will return in time. After-all, I remember it casting more light the longer I held onto it.
There's definitely something curious going on here. If I held onto it long enough, would it have fused to my flesh similar to this lizard? Looking down at the horribly butchered lizard, I quiver. It might be possible that… No, now is not the time to harp on it.
For the time being, let's make best use out of him. Setting the opal aside, I have the goal in mind to get my claws on some of its sinew. Separating it from the bones and flesh prove challenging and messy with the lack of proper digits. Several minutes of nasty business leaves me with a few medium-length sections of sinew that might work. With a quick rinse in the nearby water, these can be laid aside for now
This next step makes me a bit nervous. Holding the opal in my left foot, I position my right on top of it with one talon extended. With my talon now making contact with the face of the stone, I begin to pivot my left foot in a rotating motion, keeping my talon centered on the same spot. As the stone swivels in place, a carved indent gradually comes about.
Nice!
Once I burrow about half way through, I flip the opal on its other side. Revealing the other side exposes the rough and jagged edges from where I fractured it off the wall. The trick here is finding a good spot to start. Then it is off to work again, rotating the stone as I drill into it with my talon.
After several minutes of the repetitive motion, my talon punctures through the thin membrane between the front and the back. At last, a hole!
Cwoo!!!
I didn't think it would work that well, I thought for sure I would break it! Just some finishing touches here and there to smooth it out… and done!
Now for the last step of my arts and crafts project.
Nearby the sinew cords I left to dry have shrank and stiffened up a bit more than I would have liked. Nevertheless, I can fix this. Time to bust out the wing claws! They might prove a bit more dexterous than my feet which work phenomenally for grabbing things, but not so well for what I have in mind. At first, getting my two outward fingers to move without pulling the rest of my wing with it was challenging. Then there was the matter of my itty-bitty thumb. Yes I have one, but its almost worthless. The range of motion on it is far too limited compared to a human thumb. But at least I have one right?
Sigh
This might take longer than I thought.
Attempt after attempt ends in failure as I try to knot the ends of the sinew into a fully connected loop. Even with the intervention of my beak to try and hold one of the ends isn't working! This worked out so much better in my head. Fundamentally, it just seems impossible, the sinew is just far too rigid. The more I try to shape them however, I notice the ends start to fray into tiny little fibers. Giving some of these a test pull with my beak fails to tear them. Perhaps I was just going about this project in the wrong way.
Instead of trying to shape this ridiculous material, I now divert my attention to shredding it instead. With a combination of using some nearby rocks and my beak, I separate a surprising number of pale fibers the pile of sinew I harvested.
I take one of the longer strands and mess around with it, testing how malleable it is as well as getting an impression for how tough it is. As expected, pulling on just one strand causes it to snap at the middle pretty easily, so I bundle a few extra and try again. Now this time, they survive my assault, and they still remain far more flexible than the non-processed sinew. I can work with this.
What I severely underestimated was combining these threads of sinew into a woven cord. Trying to overlap the tiny things one atop the other was incredibly stressful. Every time, one of my wings would get in the way, or I would lift a claw and the entire thing would become unwound. GAH! After what must have been the seventh or eighth failure of trying to weave the fibers into cord I give up! These claws suck! It's like having only two fingers with half the dexterity while your thumb is taped to the side of your hand.
While I fume in the corner I try to think of another approach. Looking around the underground lake I am struck with inspiration.
This time I take three of strands and wrap them around thin stalagmite in the shape of a 'U'. each end of the strands I pin down with a rock to keep it from moving. Then, one at a time, I pick up a thread and fold it over the weave, after which I place the rock back on top of the thread's end. While extremely monotonous and tedious, it's working! With the cord now woven, I use a similar method to wrap it around and tie a knot with both ends.
Pride wells in my chest as I hold up the cord to inspect it. Is it rough? Sure. But did I make it? Hell yes I did.
Setting aside the cord loop, I head over to where I last set my opal down. True to my hypothesis, it was already three levels brighter compared to before, nearly back to its full shine. My reliable little light source, it is so nice to have you back.
On my way back to my rocky crafting station I glance back towards the carcass of the lizard. In life, he was a little bastard, but he did afford me some precious insight and he was the first creature I truly interacted with since I awoke.
Feeling sentimental in the heat of the moment, I make a new decision and set the opal back down. While I won't honor you with a name postmortem, I will take you with me. Well, not all of you at least, and more than just some muscle fiber.
I get to work prying off the largest, most pristine scale I can find on his body. A task that I soon came to regret. Every single scale clung to his body like cement, unyielding and refusing to give quarter.
Dammit why do you have to be such a pain in the ass even after death?!
Pulling harder yields the same results. I have to stop and catch my breathe before I wear myself out too much. In my mind's eye I can already see the little thief staring at me, only pausing to perform his signature eyeball lick as if to mock me. No way am I resigning my efforts here, not to this idiotic lizard.
Wedging a talon into the chinks of his scales finally gives me some progress.
Riiiiiiip!
Suddenly, it gets torn off its body, but I am sent hurtling against a nearby stalagmite. My painful collision along with my surprised cries echoes throughout the secluded cavern. Taking a moment to let the throbbing pain ebb away, I smile weakly. For within my clutches is a charcoal colored scale as tall as it is wide as one of my talons. Victory is mine.
However I can still feel the lizard's spirit hanging over me as if I forgot something.
Right, I still have to drill through this impossibly tough scale.
… Lick
You're lucky that I'm stubborn.
So I lay down and get to work, using the same motion I did with the opal to drill a hole into the scale.
And there I would remain for several hours until weariness overcomes me. Scale still in foot, I rest my eyes and surrender to the sweet embrace of well-deserved rest.