The charred black walls and floor of my shack made for an ugly sight as I held the one at fault between my little hands. I knew it wasn’t guilty, but I couldn’t help but sigh. This mess needed to be cleaned, and the hatchling sure wasn’t going to do it. Gently making a small nest for the cute feathery ball, I was thankful that it had fallen asleep not long after hatching. Now that my hands were free I got to work.
Opening the shack door I let the chilled air flow inside, enjoying the pleasant cold. Soon after I began the process of cleaning the shack, which I found mentally calming after the chaotic state my emotions had been in not long ago.
The smoke and ash in the air had dissipated and black stains were removed at the expense of some spare cloth. Making a new nest with the leftover blankets I noticed how they were rougher in texture, but I believe they should be just as warm as the ones I use to sleep with.
Looking over at the sleeping fluffball, I realized I had no idea what I was going to feed it. If I fed it the wrong thing it could become sick, or worse die. Nerves itching I started pacing back and forth hoping my faulty memories might contain something useful about how to raise a bird.
Remembering how Id saw birds eat larvae and worms, my joy surged as I ran outside ready to dig up as much as I could before the hatchling woke up.
As I stepped outside something felt different to me. It had always been quiet in the area where I lived but now… a sense of emptiness filled the air, as though no other living thing existed in the world besides me. Even the normally loud distant bird screeches were nonexistent as I felt the tender rush of goosebumps crawl across my flesh.
Gazing at what had once been a field of beautiful evergreens, unease filled me. It appeared a plague had ravaged all the winter trees in the area. They had lost most of their needles, and the remaining ones were turning an old dusty brown. The once powerful dark brown trunks became a sickly white.
Trembling slightly, my mana sense as I liked to call it felt something even strange in the air. Resentment. The mana reeked of resentment. It gave off waves of it, looking for something to release its revenge upon. I was starting to freak out again, but the need to feed the hatchling helped stabilize my emotions.
It was unlikely for me to find worms because it was winter but if I dug deep enough I might find some larvae.
With a shield and mana enhanced strength I dug madly looking for anything I could feed the hatchling, only to find disappointment. My effort had been successful at finding larvae, and other strange insects but they were all dead! The normally plump white larvae were shriveled and covered in black spots.
My failure at procuring a meal for the hatchling hurt me as was left with no choice but to risk feeding it raw meat. Ignoring my ominous surrounding trudged my way back to the shack briefly cleaning myself before entering.
“Chirp chirp chirp!” Shit, the hatchling had woken up and now it was crying for food! Rushing forward I quickly got to its side.
Pulling out a small deer from the ring I slowly cut a thin strip of flesh from its side. It was tough getting through the fur but once it was out of the way the rest was a lot easier.
The hatchling just keeps chirping and chirping, trying to express its hunger to me. Feeling nervous I slowly used the knife to cut fingernail size bits of the 8cm of flesh.
“Please be able to eat this, otherwise I'm going to go nuttier than I already am…” Softly I said to the bird lowering a tiny piece down to its beak.
In the blink of an eye, the meat was gone and I was left wondering what the hell had just happened.
“Chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp.” It wanted more, even I could tell that from its eager chirps. Happy that it the hatching was able to eat meat I continued feeding it as the day went on and nighttime fell.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Just how…?” My mouth ajar, I stared at the fluff ball that had just consumed more than 30 times its body weight in deer meat.
“Chirp chirp chirp….chiiirrrppppp.” Releasing a few chirps with one that sounded an awful lot like a burp the cute bird fell asleep in my hands again but now I had something else consuming my thoughts.
“If it continues to eat proportionally like this, I'm royally fucked.” A chunk of meat was missing from the deer, and I just could not understand where it had all gone. It hadn’t even changed size!
This was going to be a lot harder than the original difficulty I thought I was going to face. Feeding a Bird that ate 30 times its body weight would only get more difficult. All I could do is hope that it decreases somewhat as it grows otherwise I'm going to have to start hunting smaller animals.
But if this was what it took to make sure my new friend survived I would swallow my fear and try hunting.
Night had fallen and as I laid on my back with the small hatchling already resting, I tried to fall asleep, but the back of my neck began prickling badly.
Like a hidden beast, I knew something was watching me. It was then that I noticed the temperature of the shack had fallen dramatically. My breath produced steam in the frigid air as the fire in my oven began to dwindle as though something was slowly choking the life out of it.
As the fire died the shadows elongated across the wall, appearing like scrawny demonic hands. A new presence appeared around my mana sense, and sensing my detection it turned to stare directly in my direction. A hulking beast was standing outside the shack…….
Whether I was shivering from the extreme cold or the eerie monster outside, I could not tell as both had reached unprecedented levels I’d yet to experience. My mana couldn't even keep me warm as I felt the chill slowly seep into my bones, a parasite looking to consume its host.
All the heat in the shack has dissipated, the fire had been snuffed out, and I could feel ice forming on my eyelashes.
“Hahhh….Hahhh... Hahhh….” As it inhaled and exhaled the air, the temperature continued to drop further, the numbing of my toes began to set in as eventually, I lost the feeling in my entire legs. The monster outside the door was at least 3 ½ m tall, and 1 m wide, it was a massive thing, easily able to break the shack to get to me.
It was then that a soft knocking on the shack's door began to sound out, and I completely stopped breathing. “Please go away…. Please go away…. Please Go away….” A self-created mantra was all I could repeat as I prayed to whatever higher being might listen to make the monster outside my door leave.
The heavy breathing stopped suddenly, and my mana sense could not detect anything, but I knew it was still there, as I felt the temperature continue to drop.
“Open up child…. It's not nice…. To leave guests…. At the door….” The most terrifying of voices I had ever heard came from the entity outside. It was like the collective screaming wails thousands of individuals had all coalesced together to form a corrupted intimidation of speech. It’s voice contained a powerful temptation causing me to subconsciously reach for the door for it but this feeling was quickly destroyed as my soul began to rotate violently.
Looking deep into myself the Violet sphere that was my soul was enraged, compared to the time before was not pleased with what was going on.
As its rotation speed increased further the violet mana within began leaking out, warming my body as though I was taking a hot bath. The Hatchling in my hand had been completely immune to the cold, emitting enough heat to keep the hands cradled around it warm.
The room slowly filled with my soul’s mana and the cold was being forced out. The darkness got lighter, and the moonlight actually began to softly light the inside of the room.
The breathing monster went still outside.
“I will return... Boy…You and your…. Pet will make…. for an excellent….Meal.” The demonic voice let one last disturbing promise as I felt it disappear into the dark night.
Regaining the sense of feeling in my legs I shakily moved to the oven trying to rekindle the flame. My every step wobbly as the thought about what had just visited me was burned into my mind.
My shack wasn't a safe haven anymore which was about as bad as it got for someone in the middle of nowhere. As for why it didn’t just destroy the shack when it was half its size I didn’t understand, but I was thankful it hadn’t.
Staring into my hands the hatchling remained asleep, as though the horrific incident had nothing to do with it. Unfortunately for the hatchling, we were in a very shitty situation. It had chosen both me and the chick as its next meal making a promise out of it. I had no idea how to prevent myself, and my companion from meeting our early dooms, which only increase my already long list of nerve-wracking worries.
The experience had left me exhausted, and despite my fears, I was slowly falling asleep. The dreams grip eventually took me into the world of my subconscious where dreams of the demon outside haunted me.