I stared at the assassin now slinking back into the trees with Witness in hand, then glanced at my body. “No point getting Calden involved when they’re after him, and I can follow Thread in person too. Guess I’ve got no real choice. Time to wake up!”

I willed myself to stir, but nothing happened.

“This… this is going to be a headache isn’t it?”

A statement underlined by the fact that Suzy was still sitting on top of me covering all but my feet. She looked to have recovered some of her wits as her tongue was no longer lolling out, but the way she sat hadn’t changed.

In other words, I had to either wait until she shifted her position, or just ghost my way through her feathered butt in order to get even a tiny glimpse of myself.

“I don’t have time to waste either… Ugh. Let’s just get this over with.”

I ignored the mental discomfort of phasing through a living being, and tried laying down on top of the image of my body. I dunno what I expected to happen, some sorta synchronization or something? But that didn’t work either. So I got up and tried jumping up and down on it, again while still overlapping with Suzy, but I failed again.

Then I tried to do CPR on myself, ya’know, in some sort of mind over body crap, but to no real surprise at this point, that had zero effect.

I pinched my imaginary nose with my imaginary hand in this imaginary space created by my subconscious and sighed. “What does one have to do in order to wake up around here? And why the heck is it taking me so long anyway? I wanna say I got just as beat up by Goldorath, if not worse since I got a freakin’ death notice that time, but I was basically better the next day so what gives?”

Then I felt Uriel buzz. But unlike the normal tingle in my brain, it came in the form of this whole space shaking and rattling as a white light rippled through.

Conclusion: Recovery is delayed due to mana contamination. Gretkarn was partly tainted with blight so absorbing his polluted mana without purifying it has had an adverse effect on recovery.

“That… Was intense… But more importantly, I totally drank in a whole bunch of his mana, which I didn’t do against the demon, so there’s the difference.”

Then the system quietly spoke.

I blinked. I guess that makes sense. But wait!

“Why’re you so quiet? And what the heck happened last time? Why’d you screech at me?”

I got no reply, of course, so I just ignored the ever so frustrating system and the questions nagging at the back of my mind, and went back to trying to wake myself up.

I don’t know exactly how many hair brained ideas I went through, but I tried everything from whispering in my own ear, to shouting, to slapping my own face, to pinching myself.

“I’d try holding my breath too but I already know I don’t need to breathe… What should I do? That chump is getting away! And I’m stuck under an owl!”

I could almost picture the things they'd try to do to poor Witness while I’m away, so inevitably I also imagined myself throttling them too.

And then everything went black.

And became awfully stuffy.

And warm, let’s not forget warm.

As if some sorta giant bird was seated atop my entire self.

Holy crap! I did it! And I don’t care how!

I felt exceedingly heavy, but chalked it up to being sat on, and immediately rolled over and began to burrow out from under Suzy’s fluffy fanny.

But before I got very far the big bird hopped up, and loomed over me, blocking out the sun that I only briefly felt the warmth of.

Naturally, I stopped, as the intensity of her gaze combined with me being in her shadow was, well, enough to send a chill down my spine.

Now I know what Gretkarn probably felt like before he got eaten.

I glanced over my shoulder at her, as my awareness array was still down, and smiled. “Nice birdy, I know you’ve saved me but I’m kinda lacking an instrument at the moment, and have something urgent to do, so I can’t really regale you with the songs you love right now, but don’t worry! I’ll be back and–.”

I swallowed my words when she tilted her head from side to side, blinked, and let out a deep and, if I’m being honest, kinda grumpy sounding. “Whhooo!”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Without hesitation, I dove back into digging, but I found my body much slower and heavier than I was used to.

Just as I was almost completely within the confines of my new burrow, a rush of air blasted me out.

I got a beautiful view of the cloud filled sky, followed by glimpses of trees, a disturbing notion that I’m now very high up, a blurry tan blob racing past, a rush of air, an all consuming shadow, and then a set of particularly sharp talons closing in.

Given my lethargy, I barely had time to comprehend what just happened let alone react to it, but after a few silent wingbeats and the nauseating bobbing that came with them, I realized that Suzy now had me in her clutches, and was intent on whisking me away somewhere.

If not for the fact that a giant talon now barred my mouth I might’ve ralphed by now, but since she had me literally covered I was condemned to ride the acid reflux express tightly secured in what amounted to a living straight jacket.

Sheesh. I get over one hurdle and immediately get tossed into another! Only problem is I have no idea what she wants or how I’m supposed to get out of this! I mean, I have a few ideas… but they all require magic, and that’s not exactly my strong suit right now.

I wriggled as best I could, but her hold on me was truly something fierce, nearly bone breaking!

Imagine a vice squeezing down on your jaw, then apply that same pressure to several sections of your torso, including your arms, as well as your pelvis and upper legs. Now add to that the chaffing from the hard, rough, scaly, surface that is most of her talons, and then the fierce points of each claw digging into my rather soft and fleshy frame!

It’s like their only purpose is to poke me just enough to make me utterly uncomfortable, while keeping me painfully aware of how far south things can go if she squeezes just a little more!

I watched the trees whoosh past beneath us as we sailed uncontested through the air at a truly terrifying speed. I doubt I’d be able to escape her even if I could fly normally myself, and braced for the freezing wind to whip my face quite fiercely too, given our altitude and speed, but there wasn’t even a breeze around us.

I guess she’s eliminated wind resistance with magic. Which means I should expect some turbulence if I’m gonna do shifted steps.

I blinked, and to my horror, found that the spell had activated during that instant.

As I materialized, a wall of wind threw me into an uncontrolled dive back toward the earth.

Frantic, I checked my distance to Suzy, and though she was now getting further and further away, based on her ludicrous speed I estimated my unintentional spell only moved me a few feet at most.

And it looks like she’s turning around too… So much for waiting for her to let her guard down, and gunning for a good opportunity… Welp. Here goes nothing!

I swallowed the bile in my unsettled stomach and went into a proper dive position, hands pointed in a wedge for maximum speed, before I twisted my legs just enough to make the air currents throw me into a spin.

Apologies oh gut of mine, but we’re in a bit of a pinch so you’re gonna have to take one for the team… And I really hope all this spinning won’t slow me down cause I’ll need to use this momentum to dig deep enough to escape in time given my current lethargy.

I would’ve used more magic to go even faster or to slow her down, but that one accidental cast of basic magic was enough to make my brain burn so I decided against it, and prayed that Suzy was too far away to catch back up to me.

After all, there’s no earth mages here to place magic stone in my way this time, so I shouldn’t have any issues burrowing my way out of this one once I reach the ground.

And my grassy safe haven was fast approaching.

Extending out till it was all I could see.

Which wasn’t hard given how fast I was rotating.

Thankfully we’re well past that forest already so I won’t have to worry about any sudden collisions throwing me off course and killing my momentum.

My stomach protested fiercely as my spin grew fast enough to outpace my eyes, so I just shut the ol’ peepers tight and waited for the inevitable impact.

It’ll either be me with the ground, or Suzy grabbing me again. And for both my and Witness’ sake it better be the first!

A moment passed.

Then another.

Other than the rush of wind I heard nothing at all.

Because of her abilities I won’t hear her coming, but because I can still feel myself falling and hear the wind that’s a good sign.

Another moment fled.

But man! Is the wait killing me!

I opened my eyes to the nauseating sight of the blurred world whirling before me and screamed.

“AHHHHH!”

Right in front of me was the soil I sought, my extended arms literally touched it the next instant, but it was all so sudden that I couldn’t help but yelp.

Well. Okay. Maybe I screamed… But who cares? I made it!

And then my spiral and descent were abruptly traded for an overwhelming shift to the side and the annoyingly familiar restraint of an oversized pair of talons.

I croaked. “Crap.”, and Suzy soared back up into the sky at her unbridled, and quite frankly alarming speed.

I can’t even see Kalsynthholme anymore. So how far is she planning to go? And why? And what are those goons gonna do to my staff?!

Just as my frustration began to mount, a small glint fell out of my one partially talon-less pocket, and I quickly fumbled to catch it.

Oop! Oop! Oop– And… Gotcha!

I sighed in relief and grumbled. “If nothing else, at least my failed escape freed my arms… .”

I clasped the small object tight and realized what I’d almost just dropped.

“It’s that coin I found! The scrying one with its own magic supply! Perfect!”

I held it up to my eye and my will sparked it to life.

“Now where is this blinkin’ bird taking me?” I whipped my head around as much as I could, while using the enchanted coin as a telescope. “Let’s see… There’s some mountains over there. Some sorta giant tangle of thorns that way… And… Holy crap! That’s one big tree!”

Well. Once we get where we’re going I hope I’ll get the chance to peek at that assassin, and maybe assess my current status too… That’s assuming Suzy cooperates even a little.