I had never liked birds.

Never, Ever.

Even though I grew up surrounded by them (my parents owned a pet shop after all), the more I stayed around them, the more grounded my fear of them became.

I hated those talons which would scratch everything even resembling a branch (including my fingers) and their god-awful screeching kept me awake at night.

And if I had thought those little fuckers were nasty, then I would learn a whole new lesson in a place called 'Australia'.

We went there for summer vacation in the 90's, and I was too busy being caught up in the glee of not being around birds to notice our schedule.

If I had taken more than a glance at it, I would have noticed that on Sunday, we would go to the Australian Savannah.

The trip going to the Savannah was enjoyable enough (I liked most animals, after all, just not birds) but that changed when I met It.

The Emu

2 meters of pure, heinous terror, covered in brown feathers rough as rags. Its legs were long and brown like the branches of trees, and tipped on each toe was a talon as big as 3 fingers and sharp enough to rip an elephants hide apart.

Nope, nope, nope.

Get that thing away from me.

When I saw the Emu while sitting in the open-top Jeep, I nearly had a panic attack.

Then, it started running towards us. Fast.

The driver put his foot on the pedal and accelerated as fast as possible, but an Emu could sprint to 50 km/h in a matter of seconds.

It came upon the right of the passenger's seat and slashed with its claws the door of the Jeep.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The two back talons caught the door.

The biggest one caught my shoulder.

Needless to say, at this point in my life, I did not like birds very much at all.

The years after that was a blur.

I moved out, went to college, and lived like that for 3 years until the blur ended abruptly.

While doing homework, I died.

From a heart attack of all things.

No warning or anything and my life went out in a snap.

A boring end, wouldn't you say? (Apparently, all the truck drivers were busy)

I closed my eyes for what I thought was the last time and went to sleep...

...

....

chirp

chirp

chirp

...

What is that?

...

chirp

chirp

chirp

...

Okay, who the fuck is disturbing my sleep?

...

chirp

chirp

chirp

...

That sounds familiar. What in the world...?

I opened my eyes.

First, there was the blinding of the sun, then color flooded my world. 

The sky was perfect and cloudless, and trees dotted the landscape.

Behind it, all was a wall of massive snow-peaked mountains, where rivers ran down it and into the valleys

And right in front of me, greeted a massive eagle perched atop a close branch.

Beside me, lay half a dozen of small brown chicks.

What the fu-

You have been born as a:

Common Mountain Eagle