Chapter 1

The world seemed so much different this high up, seeing the whole world that I knew in just one minute of flight. After an hour of what seemed like endless dunes, I finally arrived to an arid mountain range, it had trees and brush, some areas bare because of past wild fires. My curiosity got the better of me and I started gliding over the treetops, I knew what these trees were but this was my first time actually seeing them. By the time I start to lose interest my wings all of sudden stop, as I lose control of my wings they slowly start reentering my back. Trying to slow down my pace it was too late I was going too fast, I was not too much higher than the trees when my body free fall hitting the ground.

I awoke yelling in pain, I don't know how long I was out but before I even looked at myself I knew my whole body was mangled. As I try to view myself I couldn't move my neck, I was stuck looking directly over my left shoulder. I could see some of my body, my left knee was facing the wrong way, my femur bone was sticking out of the skin, the shackles connected to my feet chain broke just leaving the shackles, although my feet were completely shattered. From what I've seen and feel it's probably not too much different for the rest of my body. It didn't take me long to realize that I'm dead. No way I'll be able to walk or do anything, and worse part is I've seen plenty of large looking animals lurking around while flying by, it’s just a matter of time until they get my scent.

As I dwell in self-pity, movement happened. My femur bone was slowly moving inside the opening, it was burning with pain, but it was moving. I watched for about 2 hours when the bone finally went back in place, at the same time my feet were aligning back in place, I was slowly starting to rotate my neck back straight. It was about 8 hours until I was able to sit up, another 4 hours to stand up and take small walks. The rejuvenation ability was slow, but it really was a lifesaver.

It was night now; it would not be safe to continue by foot, the plateau I crashed on will be good for the night. Even at night it was still hot enough to where I would not need a fire, I didn’t want to draw any sort of attention as well. After laying up next to a tree that I apparently crashed into, I closed my eyes and tried to get some sleep before sunrise.

The sound of clawing could be heard and small movements. It didn’t seem far but something was climbing up here, I cautiously viewed around the tree that I was leaned up on. Five large mountain lions were about 100 feet away slowly creeping up behind me. When I saw them it made my mouth gape. They were the size of horses, their steps now sounded heavy. Without a second to even think I took off in a sprint forward toward the edge of the cliff, I tried to bring out my Phoenix wings but nothing happened. I jumped off the edge and rolled down the large hill grunting after each bounce. The mountain lions not far behind. When I reached the bottom even in all the pain I ran in full sprint through the valley, it wouldn’t be long until they reached me. I passed around a corner of a large boulder and hid in a small indent of that boulder, the monsters ran by in hot pursuit on the trail near me. It was just a matter of time until they found me, after that thought I immediately ran the opposite direction they went. About five minutes in the run I saw a small camp of a few men cooking some rats over a fire, it looked like they just woke up recently and were eating breakfast.

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I was not planning to approach them since I did not know if they‘d be hostile, until I heard movement not too far behind me, maybe they could help. I ran toward them and when I came within a reasonable close distance, I shouted.

“Hey! Help me! They’re right behind me!”

Startled they stood up and tensed up with the nearest weapon they can find

“You just wait right there, don’t come no closer!”

I didn’t listen.

I kept running full speed and ran right around their camp; a minute went by after I ran when I heard fighting. Deep down I knew it was wrong to drop the monsters off on these people, but it was the only thing I could think to do, I cautiously made my way back over the next five minutes.

When I got sight of them from behind cover of a rock, it was a bloodbath. There was body parts of the mountain lions all over the place, two of the men were on the ground, it seems their throats were cut out. The last man was fighting the last Mountain Lion by himself, he had an arm that was barely attached flopping uselessly by his side, his face was slashed by the claws, there was so much blood you couldn’t make out any details of his face, but you could see his left eye dangling out of its socket. The man used a large sword that was obviously meant to be wielded with two hands. He had one monkey looking forearm and hand.

The mountain lion leaped at him, he cut off one of the paws but couldn’t power through to the mountain lion’s head, it roared in pain but started biting its way through the mans stomach as he yelled in agony.

This is my chance if I ever had one

I slowly approach as I saw a spear off to the side that one of the other men used; the monster seemed occupied tormenting this man. It paid no attention to me, as I moved around the corpses, I had a clear shot at its back, with all my strength I slammed it hitting its heart, I heard a light growl and it fell to the side motionless.

Slowly after, a large amount of green essence flew through the air and sunk into my skin. The man was still screaming as he was trying to put his insides back into his stomach with his one arm. He soon saw it was futile to do it anymore and looked at me with rage.

“It’s all your fault! Why would you enter the mountain lions territory?! Everyone knows to stay away from it!” he coughed a few times slowly losing his energy.

“Uhhh…Sorry.” I said unenthusiastically

“I swear. I should have killed you right when you ran toward us and let them tear you apart. You piece of shit.” He spit.

I wonder if he could give me life essence

The man was not going to make it, he was slowly dying painfully, and if I were in his position, I would be begging me to kill him to end the pain. Knowing how this guy felt about me I’m sure he doesn’t want me to end it. Therefore, I’ll just have to kill him. As I slowly walked closer to him with the spear, his eyes went wide, he opened his mouth, before sound came out I shoved the spear as hard as I could through his mouth, the shocked look in his eyes was quite enjoyable for me for some reason. Then the shocked eyes turned lifeless, not long after green particles flew at me and sunk into my skin again, this time it was not that much.