Before I could comprehend what was happening, we were already flying in the sky over the trees’ tops, I looked in awe at the fascinating scenery while the wind was caressing my face and blowing my hair.

I turned my head all around me trying to digest all my surroundings, unfortunately, the bird’s flying speed increased rapidly, adding to that the strong wind hitting my eyes made it impossible to see the details in a forest full of trees, though I could still see the main changes in the natural surroundings.

I squinted my eyes and put my hand in front of them to shield them from the strong wind and tilted my head down a little in an attempt to reduce the wind’s effect, how I wished I had a goggle with me so I could enjoy that rare opportunity.

The banging pain in my shoulders snapped me out of the dazed state I had been in, only to notice that the bird’s talons were shoved in my flesh and that I was bleeding, I glanced at my health and it was dropping slowly but steadily.

I closed my eyes and crossed my hands in front of my chest trying to figure out what I should do, I had only around seventy-four health points left, so the success rate of my original plan on waiting until we reach the bird’s nest before making my big escape became slim.

After contemplating for a few minutes, the best plan I could come up with was to remove the talons from my shoulders in hope that the bleeding will stop or at least be weakened, then grab the bird’s foot and wait until we are near the ground to jump and run away or hide. With a plan ready in mind, I raised my hand and tried to remove the talons out.

I tried with one hand, then added the other one and used all the strength I could muster to no avail, it was as if I was giving the bloody bird some nice massage treatment to soothe its muscles, the bird tilted its head a little and I could swear that it would have mocked me if it could talk.

With no other option, I grabbed my dagger and aimed at its foot above my shoulder, to my unpleasant surprise, its feet were covered with some kind of hard scales that neither my poor quality dagger nor my poor strength has any hope to cut through. I kept trying though until my grip on the dagger started to get loose. Afraid that I might lose my only weapon, I sheathed the dagger in its scabbard while trying to think of other solutions.

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I tried to pull a feather from its wings whenever it’s flapped them hoping to annoy the bird to release me, but my hand couldn’t reach anywhere near its feathers, neither its wings nor its body.

I glanced again at my fast dropping health and a sense of fear crept itself inside of me, my body was shaking and shivering violently, it seemed that I was going to die before seeing anything in this fantasy world except for the forest and the damn bird.

My tears flew with the wind as I cried from the unbearable pain in my body but mostly from the pain in my heart, I never felt alive before coming to this world, even though at that moment I was dying I never felt that much alive. It was the first time in my life that I really wanted to stay alive, when I was still on Earth I never really cared that much if I lived or died, because to truly be alive you must first feel alive.

I shook my head angrily and looked at the bird with hatred for being the reason of shattering all my dreams; it automatically rose to the top of things I don’t want to see again, even more than that berry-like fruit, I was boiling from anger and hatred and all I could think of was to take the bird to hell with me.

I grabbed its talons with shaking hands trying to pull them away from my shoulders while wishing from the bottom of my heart for the fucking bird to lose the ability to fly and fall from the sky to its demise.

Suddenly, a sensation similar to warm air flowed from my heart toward my hands, the bird’s movements became unsteady and had a hard time moving its wings, the bird shrieked as we started to descend.

I looked in confusion at the bird only to notice something similar to a thin layer of black smoke covering my hands, but before I could understand what was happening, the bird’s grip on me loosened and I was about to fall down, I hurriedly grabbed at one of its fingers tightly and stared on horror at the quickly approaching ground.

The bird glided the wind poorly but nevertheless, it reduced our falling speed until we were a few meters away from the trees’ tops, the bird tried to fly again and flapped its wings only to lose what little balance it had and the gravity played its role and we fell directly toward the trees, my grip on the bird got loose and I got separated from it.

As I was falling, I saw the bird crashing into the top of a tree, the branches were thin to withstand the bird’s weight and the force from the fall, they snapped under its feet and big wings, the more they snapped the more terrified the bird became and struggled more.

I could feel the branches crashing against my body while my health dropped with each crash, my eyes started to feel heavy and my vision became unclear as I started to lose consciousness, I heard a last loud screech from the bird so I looked at it dizzily and the last thing I saw before I drifted to darkness was the fucking bird’s head covered in blood.