Aiyana’s Perspective

‘Ughhh, where am I? What happened to me?’ I groaned as I slowly opened my eyes, still a bit delirious from just waking up. All of a sudden, I felt an intense headache that prevented me from doing anything except trying to hold my head in pain and closing my eyes. While moving my hand toward my head, I felt my hand brush past something soft. Before my hand could reach my head, the headache intensified even more and I cried out in pain. A few moments later, the headache disappeared and a surge of memories flooded my head.

‘Oh right, those scoundrels killed me!” I venomously hissed. ‘They betrayed me! Why did I trust them in the first place?! Everyone always betrays me! I never should have listened to them in the first place! Classic humans, they only know how to betray! I vow that I will never trust another person’s words again for as long as I live!’ I furiously ranted. I opened my mouth in order to let out a scream of frustration; however, when I did, a different sound emerged.

“CAAAAWWWW”

‘Huh?! That’s my voice?! What happened to it?! Oh no, no, no, no, there’s no way right?’ I fearfully looked down and started inspecting my body. I was horrified by what I saw. Instead of the lithe and fleshy body that I used to have, my body was full of black feathers, my height had diminished to a twentieth of what it had before, my hands were replaced by wings, and my legs were like sticks connected to 4 sharp talons. ‘This can’t be happening to me! Why am I a crow!’ I cowered in fear, not wanting to accept the reality of my situation, constantly repeating ‘This can’t be happening! This is all a dream! I am not really a crow!’

I started trembling and my whole body was starting to lose strength. I fell face-first into some kind of soft terrain, it felt similar to grass, but I couldn’t tell in my delirium. I remained in this state for several hours before I started regaining a semblance of sanity. I was still trembling and my head was still on the soft surface, but I could at least think somewhat coherently again.

‘Who made me a crow?! What did I do that could deserve this outcome?! Who did I upset in my life?!’ I finally finished venting my frustrations and disbelief and returned to a semi-normal mental state. ‘Okay, let’s calm down and think about this a bit.’ I took a few deep breaths to slow down my pounding heart and finally regain my ability to think with a clear mind.

‘What do I know? I was killed by a group of masked people, but I somehow woke up again, this time as a crow. The first thing I should ask is how am I even alive in the first place. The only thing I can think of is reincarnation, but I don’t believe that reincarnation is real. Nonetheless, the reality of my situation hints that reincarnation really exists. It’s the only explanation I’ve got so far, so I’ll just stick with it for now.’ I recapped my current situation.

‘The next question is why am I a crow out of everything?! If I’m going with the reincarnation explanation, then the reason for this is that I had too much bad karma in my past life. Actually, now that I think about what I did in my last life, it makes a lot of sense why I would be reincarnated as a crow. Was I responsible for amassing all that bad karma? Partly, but it’s all because of them that I did. Those people used me for their purpose without any regret. I won’t forgive them, I never will. If I see any of them ever again, I’ll mercilessly kill them without any hesitation. My revenge will be sweet!’ My voice once again turned venomous while I felt a creepy grin emerge on my crow face as I imagined my plans for revenge.

The grin slowly faded and an unnatural calmness flowed through my body. ‘There’s no point thinking about that for too long, as I am right now, I would be killed in a heartbeat.’ I admitted to myself. ‘Instead, I should be more focused on my current situation.’ I tried to stand back up on my two crow talons, but no matter what I did, I could not. This body’s balance was way different compared to that of my past body. I tried to push myself to my talons with my hands…oh wait, I didn’t have hands anymore. Scratch that, I tried to push myself up with my wings, but when I tried to do so, a burning sensation appeared emerging from the tips of my wings. It felt like I had inserted my wing into an incinerator, the pain was that sharp.

I quickly stopped trying to push myself up with my wings, returning them to their usual position beside my body. Even when I did so, they still stung and felt a bit numb. I mentally sighed at the failed attempt to stand up, but quickly tried other methods to attempt to make myself upright again. All of them failed in the end due to a multitude of reasons. The first and most obvious one was that my entire body was different so I could not rely on the techniques I used in my past life. The second one was that I didn’t have an idea of the physiology behind this body and so I couldn’t tell what I needed to do so that I could stand up again. The third reason was that some of the ideas were just outright dumb.

‘I mean what would trying to peck my beak into the ground help with? How did I come up with that idea in the first place?’ I annoyingly scoffed at myself for having come up with those absurd ideas. ‘Wait beak? That’s right…why did I not think of that before?’ I slapped my face with my wing, which caused it to hurt even more. I winced at the pain, but it did not stop my thinking. ‘I’m a crow, why am I still stubbornly refusing reality? I should accept this and move on already. I don’t need to move like a human does, I’m a crow, I can just fly.’ Ironically, my dumb idea actually led to a solution, which goes to show that even though an idea may seem dumb, it might not be.

I flapped my wings and winced again because the numb and sore feeling was exacerbated now that I was using them again. It also did not help that I had slapped myself with one of my wings. I ignored the pain as best as I could and my body slowly started to lift off the drop. I continued flapping until I was completely upright again. At this point, the pain was getting unbearable so I stopped flapping and returned my wings back to my body.

I stood up on my talons and surveyed the area around me. I saw that I was in some kind of run-down stone ruin. It was dark and overrun with vegetation, yet there was some kind of altar near the center of the room I had awoken in that appeared nearly untouched. The stones were full of cracks and had moss and vines growing across every surface, but a few depictions could be seen behind the vines. I hopped closer to the paintings on the walls. I looked at the wall and saw what seemed like a black crow in the first image. The second image was completely covered by vines. I tried to cut the vines with my talons and peck at it with my beak, but neither left any scratches on the vine.

I gave up and moved on to the third painting, which was half covered by vines and moss. I could still see that same crow as in the first picture, but this time it was doing something. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was doing because half of the picture was covered up. The fourth picture was slightly better as only one small quadrant was covered by vegetation. It showed the crow receiving a stone table from something, that part was covered with vines so I couldn’t tell what that something was.

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I continued to the fifth painting which was completely unobstructed by vegetation. It showed the crow battling a group of people who had the appearance of fearsome devils and some hideous monsters while protecting what looked like humanoid creatures. The crow was bravely diving into the devils without a single look of fear on its face. Not understanding what it meant, I moved to the last painting which was almost completely covered with vines. Only a small portion of the original image could be seen. That portion showed a bright light raining down onto something.

‘What could these paintings mean? Are they some kind of prophecy or something? Why did they show a crow?’ I asked myself after observing all the paintings before I realized a terrifying possibility. ‘Wait, aren’t I a crow who suddenly woke up in these ruins after having died in my past life? Could it be that these paintings are showing what will happen to me!? Impossible, I would never help people, they could always betray me, so why should I help any of them? In fact, I would be more likely to kill them all for getting in my way before I would protect any of them. These paintings could not possibly be about me!’ I rejected my thought immediately.

I continued to look around the room for any hidden secrets. After looking around for several minutes, I could not find anything that really stuck out to me. However, this did not deter me, I started hopping around the room determined that something important was hidden somewhere. First I hopped around the northern wall and found a loose stone on the ground. Turning it over with my beak, I saw the number 7 written on the back. Then I hopped along the eastern wall and found another loose stone on the ground. Upon flipping it over, I saw the number 2 on the back. Afterward, I hopped along the southern wall and found yet another loose stone on the ground. I flipped it over and saw the number 3 written. Lastly, I hopped along the western wall and found a fourth loose stone with the number 9 written on the side that was face-up.

‘I found 4 rocks with numbers hidden on them, but what could these numbers mean? Could I be missing something in this room?’ I pondered about what the numbers could be used for, but could not come up with a feasible explanation. ‘I’ve checked all the walls already and nothing seems out of place or suspicious. The only place left to search is that weird altar in the middle of the room. In hindsight, I probably should have checked here first because this thing is by far the most suspicious. Oh well, I’m doing it now so it doesn’t really matter.’

I hopped around the altar multiple times but could not see anything wrong or weirdly out of place. ‘Where could it be then? I’ve searched this whole room and I doubt these numbers will be useful outside.’ I thought to myself while still scanning around the altar. All of a sudden, I saw one of the stone bricks move and start to push itself out of its original location. I initially thought the brick would fall, but it stopped just before it did. I immediately hopped over to it and examined it.

‘Nothing about this stone brick looks out of the ordinary, but something definitely happened to cause it to move like that. Perhaps doing something else to it will cause something else to happen.’ I reasoned. ‘The answer probably isn’t pushing the brick in because that would just return the brick to its original position, which I don’t think will do anything. Only one choice then, time to pull out this brick’

I flapped my wings again to attempt to dislodge the brick with my talons. They still hurt considerably, but I forced myself to endure the pain and continue forward toward the loose brick. After a few minutes of flapping, I finally reached the brick. I tightly put my talons onto the brick and quickly yanked it out with one fierce wingbeat backward. The brick started to fall and I took my talons off the brick before it fell to the floor. Then I gently lowered myself until my talons reached the ground; once there, I let my sore wings return to a resting position.

As soon as I did this, I heard a clattering sound coming from the place the brick was. The clattering lasted for a few minutes before finally stopping. In place of the altar wall was an open passageway leading to the center of the altar. I cautiously entered this passageway and soon ended up in an essentially empty room. The only thing in the room was a pedestal displaying a series of words; underneath the words was a keypad. The pedestal said:

To proceed forward, you must demonstrate your intelligence. Solve this riddle and you will receive the treasure guarded by this ruin. Polaris, the brightest star in the sky can never be seen from a place where it is always sunny during the summer from whence the sun rises till it sets when summer concludes.

‘This is quite a cryptic riddle. What could it even be talking about? Polaris? A place where the sun sets? How does any of that relate to a certain number?’ I tried to analyze and solve the riddle but failed. I was too confused by how any part of the riddle related to numbers. ‘Wait, I found riddles hidden on stone located near each wall and each of those walls had a direction listed on them. So instead of dealing with numbers, the riddle relates to directions and the order to input the numbers.’ An idea suddenly flashed into my head when I considered the numbers I had found in the room.

‘Polaris, the other name for that is the North Star, so north. Next, the place where the sun never sets during summer would be Antarctica, which contains the South Pole, so south. The next thing mentioned is the sunrise. The sun rises from the east, so east should be third. Finally, the sun sets to the west, so west is last. From this, the order should be north, south, east, and west. Translating that into the number on the rocks, it would be 7329.’

I typed this number into the keypad and when I did, a rumbling sound could be heard as the floor in front of me opened up, revealing a winding staircase. I cautiously walked down the staircase, ready to run at any time, until I reached another room. This time, the room was completely barren except for a chest. The chest had a simple design: it was completely made of wood with a red button where a lock would usually be. The chest was small enough that I could tap the button with my beak without having to fly. I did so and the chest slowly creaked open. I checked the contents inside and I found a single seed.

‘That’s the treasure guarded by the ruin?! A simple seed?! This was a waste of time.’ In a burst of fury, I turned around to leave without picking up the seed; however, when I approached the staircase, my body turned around automatically and walked to the chest again.

‘What?! Why can’t I control my body?! It must be that seed! I have to resist and get away from it or else who knows what will happen to me!’ I panicked slightly before putting all of my effort into regaining control of my body.

I could see my efforts paying off as my body started to slow down, but I was unable to completely regain control. I walked closer, and closer, and closer to the seed before I stood right over it. My beak was rapidly approaching the seed.

‘No! I can’t let this happen! I must regain control now!’ My resolve strengthened and I put all the energy I could muster into resisting. My beak slowed down until it came to a complete stop indicating that I had successfully resisted it. I panted in exhaustion and was relieved that I had stopped myself from consuming the seed. I relaxed and allowed my breathing to return back to normal.

Suddenly, I found my beak heading toward the seed again. I once again mustered all my energy to stop my body, but I was still exhausted and this attempt ultimately failed. I was forced to watch myself consume the seed, unable to do anything about it. Once the seed had entered my beak, I involuntarily swallowed it.

As soon as I did so, I felt a sharp stream of pain flooding my body. Every part of my body felt like it was constantly being burned by the hottest fires. The pain ripped through my body, shredding all my muscles. I writhed on the ground unable to do anything except let out pained caws. The pain was impossible for me to ignore and my mind was no longer able to resist it anymore. I felt the last remnants of consciousness fading away and soon I fell to the ground, unconscious.