Devil's Due the flip side of the coin

Author's note: Starting out need comments to make improvements.

Also look at Devil's Due by my good friend All American... cough promoting his stuff with link.

A great story you should have already read.

Only when done with this one of course.

It was a bright sun that shown across the forest; its rays cascaded through the tree like little strips of beauty reaching towards the ground as a man would reach to hold and love his child.

“No, no, no, no, no, nooooo!” I laid then bolted upright, shouting in abject terror as I woke up.

I rapidly checked myself for any shrapnel or burns. My suit was still clean except for dust… and grass? ‘Where the hell am I?’

The land that had shit brown trees and gunmetal gray buildings where I was ‘working’ was now replaced by a long vibrant green forest stretching for miles in all directions. I got up and began to survey my surroundings only to find myself in a world that looked vivid and untamed; I found some, if not all, things I had on my person when I left. My older SVD appeared a bit battered seeing as the bolt looked to be jammed. I kicked the bolt and hoped to free it up. Success! Thank god for Russian engineering. I looked to my side-arm for the comfort of something a little more familiar than my surroundings. ‘Ryan gave me this before I left. Haven’t even fired it once yet, I hope it works.’ I proceeded to check the slide.

My only protection in this shitty predicament was an M9 Beretta with a few mags (9mm), my father’s old SVD 'Cold war piece of shit is older than me and still shoots to kill’ with a good amount of mags (7.62x39mm Russian) , a few packs of smokes, sunglasses. Hey got to look good when in combat, night vision goggles (NVGs for the low light missions, P.M.C.s got to be ready), and my Kit (Backpack with three days’ worth of rations, a canteen, flares, compass, knife, a very resilient wrist watch (I wear it so the clock is right under my palm), some non- and lethal grenades and my woodland grassy ghillie suit.

Ok, ok, not the best way I’ve been left somewhere alone, but thankfully whoever left me here left my pants intact. So I set off to… well… somewhere.

**

I walked through the woods at a cautious pace, all be it in a very lazy manner. ‘Hey ‘middle of nowhere’! Who the fucks gonna ride my ass, let alone the fact I have no idea where I am!  All of a sudden I hear a rustle in the leaves about 20 meters above me. I went prone near a tree covering my left flank with bushes to my right. ‘At least I have some cover.’ I heard the noise of some kind of bird flapping its wings; from the noise it had to be a big-son-of-a-bitch. I laid there quiet and unmoving.

The area around me was calm almost asleep. The trees seemed to sway in defiance of the lack of wind. And as I heard the sound again I got ready with my SVD, and stayed down as grass in the lining of a forest. It flew by in a few passes then landed in a clearing just in front of me.

It was about four feet tall, had brown- white feathers, but had the body of a lion; the head, claws and wings of an eagle. ‘Holy shit I am trapped in a DND game!’ I looked at the beast in astonishment. I gasped without realizing it, giving away my position. It turned its head towards me, looked right at me than spoke.

“Who’s there?” It said in a voice feminine to my ears.

I did not speak back I did not want to believe this was at all possible. For a moment I thought I may have been dreaming, but my heart pounded like the first time I ever saw combat. I knew I had to do something to gain any intel on my new zone of deployment.

“Hey there bird thingy.” I said trying to fake a calm voice. While I lined up the sights to get a fire lane going.

“Who? What? Where are you?” She said in utter confusion.

Its eagle eyes still not a match for human engineering. With my ghillie suit I was one with the world around me just another blade of grass in a sea of green.

It said aloud, “Hey this is not cool, come out.”

Cool? Who speaks like that?

The wind bellowed for a moment in a hard gust, as it spoke again, “Hey this is not cool at all, don’t be lame.”

My better judgment was over ridden by my complete lack of knowledge of this strange new place and just wishing to talk to someone to learn anything about how I got here. I raised myself up from my cover like a ghost form nature, covered in her works. I began to speak to it, as I took the ghillie’s mask off.

“Hey, chicken wing don’t be afraid.” I said as a joke to break the ice.

“Hey I am not a chicken. I am a proud member of the Griffon Kingdoms Army.” She said with undue pride in her voice.

“Ok then umm… Army huh…” my voice trailed off as I thought about how bad this might end up for me.

“You, you look like that creature that repelled the attack on Ponyville.” She said rising a little off the ground with her wings and moving closer to me.

“What happened?” I asked backing away slowly to not bring any more attention to myself.

“You even have the same weird weapons.” She said as she now hovered around me like a bird of prey inspecting its catch.

“You mean my manly arms.” I said to distract her.

“No but you and you things are coming with me.” She said while swooping down before me trying to look intimidating as she looked me coldly in the eyes.

“Let me think… hmm… Fuck you.” I lowered my hand as I spoke and grabbed my M9 from its holster.

She backed away a little at its sight, but stayed much closer than I wished. So I fired a single round to scare her off. She flew up over the tree tops and out of my field of view, lost in a sea of leaves.  She left only a trail of light brown feathers in her wake. I picked one up as a trophy. Can’t wait to hear the cheers for this fucker. Then I started off walking again thinking she’d left. The area around me was utterly quiet for a while now. Well I might just start to miss her. Oh well, this quiet still beats any possible jail time.

**

After about twenty minutes of stumbling around in the woods lost, I heard the sound of wings flapping again, Oh fuck… The sound was much louder or just closer now maybe a few more have come seeking me. I heard a whistling noise and as I ducked a spear hit the tree next to me. And with that five of them now descend from above the trees. This time wearing some kind of metal plate armor and armed with mostly spears. I bolted to the right using the trees to cover my escape.

My only thought being of the scene from ‘Apocalypse Now’ with the song ‘Flight of the Valkyries’ playing in my mind as adrenalin kicked in. ‘Thank anything they don’t have rockets…’ Another spear hit the ground a few meters away in front of me; I dodged narrowly avoiding the obstacle as I ran. The noise got even closer. I saw my chance to evade my pursuers in a slope coming up. I slid down the slope and lay silent at the bottom. Four of the ‘super chickens’ flew over without noticing me. Where is the last one? Maybe off to get reinforcements?

I got up off the ground and listened… and nothing. Must have lost them, hehe still got it. I walked no more than 5 meters when I heard it again, this time stronger and faster than before. I turned towards the noise, and was greeted with the sight of the female from before charging at me. I tried to dive out of the way, but she was too quick. She slams me and sends me flying and as I hit my head on the tree I crash into. My vision fades as they surrounded me. I tried to reach for my M9, but my body was unresponsive.

She smirked as she approached me, “Whose the chicken now?”

I smiled and laugh, “I surrender and automatically volunteer for treason.”

“Loser.” She said with a sense of triumph in her voice. Another one walks over and punches me in the mouth plunging me into unconsciousness.