Dangerous Game

It was the hurricane. It had turned such a placid place into… this. Just ruins. The massive swirling formation of clouds could be seen not far from the town, still blowing fiercely on everything around me, pieces of houses and other random shards of the town flying everywhere. I didn’t know why or how, but the hurricane winds weren’t affecting me. It only felt like a strong springtime current to me, even though my trench coat was blowing furiously as if it was in a hurricane. When I had woken earlier today to the howling winds and seen entire chunks of earth and building flying in every direction, I had immediately been drawn outside for some reason, as if some sort of salvation could be found out there aside from living.

Why?

It was one word, but trying to solve it felt like trying to figure out the last digit in pi. In other words, it was impossible.

Calmly walking along a small street I glanced around, my left arm occasionally brushing over the FN Five-Seven hidden beneath the trench coat under my armpit. I had taken it due to force of habit, being a retired U.S.A.F. pilot. Pulling the gaiter I was wearing further over my face and fixing the winter cap on my head, I proceeded around the corner of an intersection. Carefully scanning my new surroundings, I could see multiple cars flipped or damaged on the streets. Sighing at the depressing sight, I moved at a slow jog down the road.

After a few minutes of jogging down the long street which I had now assumed was close to the main street due to it’s length, I heard a nearby window shatter loudly as if a large thing—or person—had smashed into it. Instantly training my Five-Seven on the window frame, I took a deep breath and slowly walked towards it. When I was about five meters from the house, another very large chunk of rock impacted the ground near me. Jumping back in surprise I looked in the direction of where I thought it had come from.

 “Fuck me…” I grumbled.

There was a large cluster of pieces from structures and earth heading right towards me. Letting my gut take over, I beelined it to the shattered window and dove through it into the house. I was pretty scared now. There were pieces of scenery the size of briefcases flying at me at 200 miles per hour, and I wasn’t sure a wood wall would protect me.

After a painfully long half minute of listening to the pieces impact into the ground and some to the building I was in, I heard silence. Mentally crossing my fingers, I peeked over the window and saw a small house across the street has now half gone. After a quick area check I slowly climbed out of the window. I seemed to feel that the object I was searching for was almost within my grasp. I wasn’t far from whatever it was. I looked around before setting off on a slow run down the street again. Glancing behind me one more time, my eyes widened in shock. I threw myself down to the ground and covered my head as a large metal case the size of my head rammed into the ground where I was once standing. Quickly standing up I was about to book it out of there, but the feeling once again increased ten-fold. Whatever I was looking for was probably in the case that almost decapitated me. Walking over to it I saw it was stuck in the road on an angle, but the top was facing up and a latch was visible. I kneeled down to open it but saw an empty key hole.

“I don’t have time for this.”

I stood up and aimed my Five-Seven at the latch. Pulling a trigger, a 5.7x28mm armor-piercing bullet traveling at almost 2,000 feet per second blew the lock to pieces, leaving a decently sized hole in it. Smiling in satisfaction I kneeled down and flipped open the lid. What I saw inside was a bullet hole, a squished bullet half impaled in the stone beneath the case, a rolled up dark red and  striped scarf, a silver-ish piece of metal with tribal designs engraved on it, and a scroll with a gold band keeping it rolled neatly. Putting down my gun I took out the scarf first. It was made of fine cloth and expertly weaved. Shrugging, I stuffed it in my coat pocket. Next I took out the piece of metal and found it to be very heavy, like lead or iron, or both. I examined it, looking at every finely engraved detail before putting it in my pocket too. I looked at the scroll. Something about it felt more vital than the other two things. I carefully picked it up and turned it in my palm before removing the metal band and unrolling the parchment. On it was… another language.

ఈ ఎర్ర కండువా మీ ప్రయాణము వెచ్చగా ఉంచేందుకు ఉంటుంది.

నేను మీరు ఏమి చెయ్యాలో ముఖ్యమైన ఏదో మీరు ఈ రహదారి కనుగొనేందుకు మిగతావారికి పాటు, ఉంది. నేను మీ స్వాధీనంలో 500,000 బిట్స్ నిలబెట్టాయి. ఒక వైవిధ్యం: మీరు ఈ ఒక విషయం కోసం బిట్స్ మరియు మాత్రమే ఒక విషయం ఉపయోగించడానికి. మంచి కోసం ఈ ప్రపంచాన్ని మార్చండి. మీరు మీ సొంత వ్యక్తిగత లాభం కోసం ఈ డబ్బు ఉపయోగించి గుర్తించారు ఉంటే, అది తీసివేయబడుతుంది మరియు మీరు ఇంటి పంపబడుతుంది, మీ మెమరీ కనుమరుగవుతుంది. మీరు ఒక తేడా మేకింగ్ విజయవంతం, మీరు అందంగా రివార్డ్ చేయబడుతుంది.

శుభాకాంక్షలు,

ప్రిన్సెస్ Celestia

I blinked a few times. If this was what I was looking for then why couldn’t I freaking read it? Looking over it again, I was able to recognize only two different words: 500,000 and “Celestia”. By the way the latter was put at the end of the letter, I guessed she—I hoped it was a she—was the person who wrote it. I stood up and picked up my Five-Seven, holstering it with the scroll still in my hand. I rolled it up neatly and put the band back on it to secure it, but didn’t put it in my pocket. I looked around before stopping at the hurricane, the swirling mass of cloud and water battering itself across the land. I was about to look away and continue my trek when something caught my eye.

There was something far down the street standing at the corner of an intersection, it was tall and lengthy with bright orange marks on parts of its body, but I couldn’t see it’s body due to the grey color which was blended into the background. Tucking the scroll in my right coat pocket, I cupped my hands to my mouth and yelled at the top of my lungs.

 “HEY!”

The thing didn’t even move. I was about to yell again but it bolted around the corner, disappearing around the nearest house.

“Damnit.” I muttered to myself.

I set off in a full sprint in the direction of the intersection, hoping there was someone else out here who could help me. With my mind set, I failed to notice the winds around me pick up dramatically. By the time I noticed it was too late. I was whisked off the ground and hurled at breakneck speeds towards the hurricane. Shielding my eyes with my arm, I squinted behind me where entire houses in pieces was traveling in the same avenue as me, but these were going faster. As the storm of stone approached me, I curled myself into the fetal position to maybe reduce damage done to me by the impact of shards. Peaking between my knees, I spotted the last thing I would’ve expected. The same figure I had seen before was flying about fifty yards away from me, parallel in trajectory. But it was actually flying. I could see massive wings sprouting from the back of the figure, which (to make it more weird) were equine. Like a pegasus. But those things are myths!

As soon as my mind finished its statement, I felt a sudden weakening in consciousness. I fought the urge to fall asleep and my body went limp in the air. As I squinted in the direction of the hurricane, I saw I was about to go actually into it. I was going to die inside a cone of clouds. I would be a hundred meters in the air with no parachute free falling inside a hurricane. I closed my eyes lightly and waited for the end to come. Feeling consciousness completely leave my body, I closed my eyes. Kind of a shocking way to go, inside of a typhoon, but I guess it’s just nature, I thought. Right…?

~~~~~~~~~~

        Every part of my body was sore. I felt myself waking up, regaining my senses. First my vision: Dirt, dirt filled my vision. Next was hearing: I heard birds chirping. Next was smell: I smelt fertile soil and scorched… fur? Next was touch: I was laying in a lot of moist soil. Finally came taste: My mouth tasted like dry rubber; I needed water. I rolled onto my side and looked down in the direction I had supposedly came from. A few odd things got my attention. One was there was a large rut in the dirt that ended where I was laying, as though I had impacted the ground and slid through it.

Ouch, I thought bitterly.

It was the next odd thing though that really caught my attention. Looking down at my lower body there were no longer any layered pants with hefty hiking boots bottoming them off on my legs. Instead there was a thick coat of bright stone grey fur covering my legs, which had two joints like a horse’s back legs, and had...hooves. I rolled over onto my back and brought my hands up to rub my eyes, and almost had a heart attack. Looking at my hands they were no longer hands, but hooves just like the one’s that took my feet’s place. My fingers… I thought.

Making an attempt to stand up, I fell flat onto my face with a thump. “Fuck!” Shakily getting back up, I put my front… legs… before me as well and slowly balancing myself on all fours.

        Taking a deep breath, I looked over my shoulder at the rest of my body. I let out a small whimper at the sight. I was a horse. With large, silver wings on my sides, and a brilliant orange tail with a black stripe stuck out from the top of my ass.

 “I’m a horse.” I said flatly as I looked forward blankly. “Is this really just nature?”