I Just Want to be Left Alone....by ArcadunatoChaptersWhat a lovely dayDeath must be having a hoot with this oneoh joy...Among the bloody starsSorrow of the lostWhat a lovely dayI sat up from my bed on the floor, the afghan throw blanket my grandma gave me, slightly rolling off. The cold of the room rolled over me as I sat there. I stifled a yawn, as I stretched, my balls slightly itching. My eyes readjusting to the morning shine, made me squint as I sat there and stretched, the light hit through the "window" of the trailer. My dog looked over to me as she lay there, like I had taken for ever to get up and was just waiting to get out. I rubbed the crust off of my eyes, letting out a yawn doing so. I dressed quickly and ate some granola from a baggie that I had gotten from my bag, filling up Nanas bowl with some dog food as well. I opened the door and let in the morning air. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and the weather seemed to be all around, really good for a hike! I quickly gathered the rest of my camp as it was strewn about in a haphazard mess surrounding the fireplace, ashes of the fire just wafting in the near nonexistent breeze. Nana just sat there and yawned. The little collapsible camper was made to be toted by a bike, and easy to transport. It was about five by seven feet in floor space, the door on one end, the jurry-rigged fireplace in the other. the camper rested on four bike sized wheels, which were posted on axles and suspension, along with its own breaking system for those slight slopes you don't want to go down. The roof consisted of two good pieces of plywood screwed together with a few pieces of 2x4s as well were held up by four 4x4s'. The walls were just a bunch of waterproof canvas held on by tacking and light ratchet clasps to hold it together. there was only one "window" in one of the "walls", a plastic screen sewn into the left side wall. I picked up my 357 revolver from next to my bed and put it in the holster which hung next to the door, and slung the holster on in one smooth motion and clipped the holster to my belt. After finishing her bowl of dog food, Nana rushed out and began running. The step was left out as always at night, allowing me to step up and down at the door with ease. The road was clear and the sun was just about to come over the horizon, the light was bleeding over the edge of night and waking the world a new morn. The tundra looked like it was on fire, the lite smoke haze adding to the look. The air smelled fresh with dew, tsura and fireweed. I walked around to my bike, still hooked up to the other end of the trailer. Light glinted on the water off of the lake, birds chirped and flew around. Today I felt like going to the cliff finally, just get that last picture. "Sigh," I walked over to the side of the road and quickly relieved myself. Afterwards, I slipped on my goggles and started up the motor on my bike, a chainsaw motor fixed up to mount onto my bike when I wanted to go faster. I whistled to Nana, telling her to come back and hop onto the seat I had fixed for her to relax on while we traveled. As soon as she was on, I revved the motor and we were on out way. The country side passed by in a picturesque haze, greens blues and browns and a hint of pink every now and then were all I could see as the road took me to the place I so needed to find. The cliff I was going to was hidden well up and behind a good amount of mountains, the only trail there was nearly nonexistent and hard to find, if you weren't trying hard enough. I had to wipe bugs off of my goggles multiple times as we sped along, the warm wind rushing about. It took a good half hour to get to the beginning of the trail, it was densely over grown with willows and alder, I was going to have to walk there. I shut off the bike and locked the engine and chain, effectively hobbling the bike and making it seem like it was broken. I opened the door to my camper and gathered up my backpack and other camping equipment. As we were about to leave, I smiled and locked the camper as well. Nana and I had been walking most of the day by the time we were almost there, but we knew something was following us, Nana had been anxious most of the way up. It took us a while, well it took me a while and Nana took her time with me like any good companion would. The time seemed to go by in a blur till I felt the edge of the cliff before I even saw it, the feeling you get when you find the one thing you are meant for just flooded my senses, till I heard Nana begin to bark at something. She only barks at bigger things than herself. I turned around to see a brown bear charging me barely thirty feet away, it had been the one that was stalking us... now I knew why, it was a man killer. I flicked out the revolver and began backing up. Nana tried to distract it till I aimed down the sights and began popping off rounds into it and it charged me, as it came closer, fear flooded me. 'Three, Two, One,' As the last bullet slammed home in the bear it slid like a freight train, the boar came and rammed into me, first I felt the weight, then even worse, weightlessness. Air rushed by as I contemplated weather or not I would actually have that death inducing fear driven heart-attack. As if to answer, I felt like I was being ripped apart and put back together, cell by cell, agony ripped through me. Lights flooded my vision as the feeling of gravity resumed. The bear was above me, but it looked different, like it was somehow bigger than before. The last thing I noticed was that my arms looked like they were scaled and clawed like an eagles legs before I blacked out. Death must be having a hoot with this oneAuthor's Note now, I know your kind hung up on why the grammar of the first chapter is a little choppy, well the reason why is because that was just a memory. A scetchy memory. Death must be having a hoot with this one Consciousness was something I knew would be impossible due to the fact that I had been tackled off a cliff by a dead bear. It was something I grew to accept as the darkness prevailed throughout my sight. I just didn't think that death would leave me in the dark like this either. The asshole probably thought it was funny to see us mortals squirm before punting us into the afterlife. I had been drifting in the darkness for what seemed like a few years when I felt someone poke me. It was annoying. It sounded like rain pattered around me. There is no rain in death. 'Why do I hear rain?' and that was when it hit me. Not a soft one either, an avalanche of feeling cascaded, every nerve live and firing. Oh, it hurt like no other thing could, cause what could hurt more than being forced back to life? Coming back to life while conscious hurts due to the fact that you mind is trying to reboot and make things work properly, normally people are not conscious enough to feel every nerve ending fire all at the same time. Normally. Now imagine doing so while in a foreign body. The first thing I did was to suck in as much air as I could physically could, and react. "RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!" I arched my back, flexed muscles and popped bones viciously into place while the rest of my sensory equipment decided to flip on. Light blasted my retinas, strange smells assaulted my nose, and sound blasted in my ears. I flopped around on the ground as my rib cage snapped back into place one rib at a time. My fractured and broken limbs began playing 'who sets first' as I writhed in pain. For some reason, I knew that I was going to be fine after this all stopped. Like watching the reverse timelapse of seeing a wound open up, I watched in abject horror as the foreign limb that was a claw where my arm was supposed to be, slowly stitch together. Slowly, like the tide, the pain ebbed away, followed by voices. I could barely make out the bear next to me in what appeared to be the remains of a broken table. Light faded and brightened like I was slowly about to loose conciouseness again, the pain already duller than a scrapped knee. What sounded like a pureed voice of a lion and an eagle screeching in my ears scared me awake and caused me to tug at restraints that I could feel straining against my ankles and wrists, along with a few belts trying to restrain my chest and hips. Leather bit deep into my skin around my feet and hip, the ones around my wrist felt like they were beginning to fray. The light momentarily blinded me as I foolishly look to a window. My eyes resolved the world around me faster than I had anticipated. What I saw was disturbing, it looked like I was surrounded by eagles and other large birds of prey. My head was throbbing with each heart beat, the slight murmur of voices resounded quietly around me as I fell back to the bed. It seemed to be a rather hospital like setting, I couldn't for the life of me see anyone around. I began to try and get out of the restraints, rousing the attention of the birds. "He's awake! Quick, get the doctor! And get me Freda, she was the one who found him!" I was utterly surprised as I watched one of them speak, the whole thing seemed surreal. The griffons (as I now saw what they were) began to orderly go about their tasks and continue working. Except the one coming towards me. With a set of scrubs on looking like a nurse. He walked over on his hind feet, allowing him to hold onto the clipboard in his claws. He was slowly going through the list on the papers, mumbling and striking things off with a quill. The glasses that were on his beak kept sliding down and annoying him, making him push them back up. He stopped next to my bed. "Now its' going to be OK, the Ursa that you fought died when it hit the ground. How did an Ursa even get up there? You are quite lucky to survive one of the last, most dangerous tribe of beings on Equis." He sat down and patted my knee and smiled. "Your going to have one of the best parties thrown just for you, Wrens will be lining up to get their claws on you, and you will be granted one of the first newly built houses. Lucky you." He seemed pissed. "Steady Claw, the doctor and Freda are here, they want to talk to him." A female voice came from the opposite direction. "You can take his restraints off now that he's awake and compliant." "Rraaat." I squaked As I tried to speak. "Rra rraat!" They look at me like I grew a second head. The female talked first. "Aw shit, a feral. Now we have to let him go." She threw her foreclaws up in mock defeat. "Well, at least we don't have to hold him for that much longer." Steady smile softened. "RRaat!" I shook my arms, and pointed int he general direction of my head. "RRaa raat!" That confused them, the female looked between Steady and I. "Do you think he understands us?" Steady gave her an incredulous look. "Are you daft? He's obviously a feral and just using hand signals to try and communicate with us! don't try to read too much into it." He waved a dismissive claw in her direction. He reached over and undid a few of my straps, letting my neck and right arm free. I slapped his claws away as I undid the rest of the straps myself. "Holy crap, how did he figure out how to do that by himself after only seeing you do it a few times? He couldn't possibly have figured it out that fast!" I sat on the edge of the bed and patted my throat, trying to tell them there was something wrong with it. After a few seconds of confused looks, I grabbed the clipboard from Steadies' claws along with the quill, making him flinch. I wrote 'can't talk, throat not working right!!' and turned it to them. As they tried to decipher the words they grew even more confused. "What did he write? do you know that language Steel Feather?" Steady looked over to Steel. "I have no idea, I've never seen anything even remotely close to that other than Minish, and that is as close to that as I could guess." They looked back and forth between me and the paper. Steady froze up and slowly turned towards Steel. "How do you know what Minish looks like? They never let outsiders look upon their holy transcrips, only their priests get to read them." Steel smiled nervously and rubbed her arm. "Weeeeeell, you remember when I said I was going on vacation a few moons ago? I kinda snuck in one of their temples and maaaaybe stole a few tombs." I facep-clawed and snatched the board back, and quickly wrote out the alphabet in the lower half of the paper. "RRaat." "Hey dweeb, I hope you like knuckle sandwiches, cause your about to-what in the name of the first king are you all looking at? gimme that." A new female surprised us and quickly snatched the board from Steadies' claws. "What in Tartarus is this gibberish? Is he illiterate or something?" She made an attempt to study the paper. With a dismissive fling and a roll of her eyes, she flipped the board back to Steady. "Well, since he's my charge due to the fact that he fell through my roof, I guess I have to take him with me. Come on dweeb, we need to get going." She grabbed my arm, lifted me up and began dragging me behind her. I though to my self, 'Death must be laughing her ass of right now.' oh joy...The walk to her house-roost was a short but filling adventure unto itself. Meaning I was propositioned by nearly every female except for the elderly and the too young. Thankfully. But the state of the City had me gawking as she pulled me along, most of the roosts (I assumed that's what they call them) were in disrepair and were mostly about to fall apart. It looked like the place was a disaster area that just didn't seem to recover. Slowly in front of us a tumbleweed rolled across our path. I stopped and watched it as it blew off, the female griffin just kept walking. Or what ever you call that thing they do on all fours. What had stopped me was the fact that I saw the remnants of what seemed to be a library. I don't always go into towns or big cities, but when I do, I always go to the nearest library or book store. This was, to me, a travesty. I slowly walked over to the destroyed building, looking at book spines and pages that fluttered around. The building must have crumbled in the last few weeks, cause most of the names on the books were still mostly ledgible. From what I could tell. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what the hell they said, the language barrier just happened to rear its ugly head again. Joy. I felt someone tap my shoulder. "Hey dweeb, you coming or not? The doc said you need to stay close to me till you get your own roost. Come on, we need to get back to my place so I can finish repairing the hole in my roof that you made." 'So it was her house, oops...' I tried smiling at her and motioning for her to go. She turned around with a roll of her eyes and a flick of her tail. "Dweeb." she flared her wings and took off. 'shit.' I stood there dumbstruck, watching her fly away in the direction of what I assume was her roost. After a few seconds, I blinked and began running after her. I tried to weave my way around obstacles, roosts, and other griffins in my attempt to keep up with her, but as a rather large cart rolled in front of me, I slammed face first into it. I dropped to the ground as I tumbled away from the cart, breaking a few old wooden boxes as I fell. I gave out a squak as I felt a rather large splinter gouge my leg. I lifted the injured limb and tried to survey the damage. 'double shit.' I looked on as my left leg bled due to the small shaft of wood protruded from it. The piece of wood was only about five or six inches long and half an inch thick. 'Why the hell do I keep getting hurt?! This sucks a shit ton!'. I reached and grabbed the piece of wood, barely even noticing the two who had come around and were looking at me. I winced as the pain finally registered, letting go of the splinter. "Ah!" I reached down again, bracing for the pain, and ripped it out. As pain lanced up my leg, I grabbed it in an attempt to stem the flow of blood that had already begun to flow out of it. A new female appeared at my side with a strip of cloth and tried to pry my ha-claw away. Her fur was a light almost golden color and her feathers were dark-ish brown with silver hi-lights. "Here, let me help you. I know how to do this." "RRaaaht!" I brushed her h-claws away and grabbed the cloth for myself. I quickly wrapped the cloth around my leg a couple times and tied it off. "Raaht." I stuck out a h-claw for her to help me up, she just looked at it confused. "What?" she looked at me like I had grown a second head. Over head, I heard the tell-tale sound of cussing and the flapping of wings as The first female showed up. "What the heck you get yourself into this time dweeb? The hell?! what you do to him? Now their gonna be on my ass for this! Damn it, here, let me help you up." She reached down and grabbed me by the arm again and pulled me up, mindful of my leg. "Why the heck didn't you fly with me? You wouldn't of had this happen to you, ya dweeb." She looked me over one last time. "Come on, we need to get you to my place already, Gruff Is already ruffled enough." "Hey, he's mine Freda, I found him! back off!" The second one pipped up, fluffing out her chest plumage and flaring her wings a little. She brushed up to Gilda as I stood there. Gilda (as I now know her name(should have guessed earlier)) Leaned me on the back of the cart and slowly began to do what I thought o be a territorial showdown. The two began circling each other and fluffing out their plumage and wings in an attempt to scare each other. As realization hit her, Gilda stopped, smiled and walked over to me. "You know Airius, you need to get back to your cockrel before another wren snaps him up." I checked my leg again only to find that it had already partially closed up. "RRaaht, raa raaht." I pointed at the closing wound, trying to catch her attention. She looked down to where I was pointing, and with a surprised look, bent down a began inspecting it. "What in the name of Grover? How is this even possible?! We need to get you back to the hospital so they can figure out what's going on." She stood up and grabbed my arm again, flaring her wings and taking off. "RRAAAAHT!" I clutched onto her h-claw with all I had as we went airborn, causing her to careen into the building next to up. As we fell, I grabbed Gilda and positioned myself between her and the ground with a twist. As we hit, I felt what seemed to be a rather large piece of wood lance through my chest. Gilda rolled off to my left, away from the building and came up on her ha-claws and paws. I began coughing up blood and shakely looked to my chest to find a broken spar sticking out. Oddly enough it barely hurt. "OH SHIT! You IDIOT!" Freda ran back to my side, panicking And on the verge of tears. "Why didn't you just FLY?!" I looked up to her and grabbed her shoulder. "G-cough-et m-me o-cough-ff t-this d-cough-amn t-thing!" Her eyes rolled up and she droped like a sack of potatoes. Right on my legs, further spearing me onto the spar with a sickening crunch of my rib cage falling apart and a shlorp of blood and what seemed to be a portion of my heart. I felt the ground on my back and my blood pooling down into a puddle. I noticed that it had been a few seconds longer that necessary to kill me, as I was still conscious despite the blood loss. I looked around to see a few griffins looking at us like they would watch a funeral, that sad, almost regretful look they watch the coffin go by. I raised my arm and shakely tried to wave a few over to help, not even the wren Airius just stair dumbfounded. I frowned and waved a little more frantically, garnering a little better response, One of the males walked forward and grabbed my claw, but not to pull me off. He bent down and held my claw like a total bro. "It's ok, go into the light, stop fighting, you've earned your passage to Elesyum. Remember me brother, we will meet in the afterlife." his colors were very ordinarily brown and white. He gave me a pat on the shoulder with his free claw. I coughed a little blood in his face and gave him a dirty look. "Get me off this damn stick, you asshat." Apparently all I had to do to talk was use my mouth like I normally do. 'This is a bunch of bull, I need someone to help me get off this damn thing! Why won't they help?!' from the crowd, a donkey walked out, looking at me like I had steped on his tail. "No offense!" I hacked a bit more blood onto mister idiot here. "Some taken, Feather brain." He waked away into the crowd, pushing what I could only assume to be a janitors cart. I watched as he walked away. "Damn, granted." I pulled Asshat down to talk to me, "Pull me off-ach this damn stick, Asshat." With a look of awe, the griffin finally decided to pull me off the spar, after he removed Freda from my lap. As he pulled me off, a few of the rest of them decided to 'Grant my final wish', as it were. They all gathered around me and lifted me off. I felt my bones grind against the wood and slow down the progress as they pinched it as they were pulled on. As the spar finally left my chest cavity, I noticed that I still felt my heart beating despite having a chunk missing. As they sat me down, I decided to look, the organ was mostly on display as it beat there, blood flowed out still, in minor torrents at each beat, but the pain had dulled to the point to where I could barely feel it. I looked back to the rest of them and smiled. "Do any of you have a camera? I really want a picture." They began to murmur amongst themselves as the flesh knitted its' self back together, the bones slowly setting and aligning and ligaments reattaching. I reached in and poked my heart. "Heh, this is really weird, any of you ever see something like this?!" Author's Note sorry couldn't fit the whole thing into one chapter, the next will be out soon enough. This little fleshy-bit went; wee wee wee, all the way back to where it was supposed to go! Among the bloody starsMy first mistake was trying to sleep. The second just happened to be succeeding to do so. Oh stars, why did I want to sleep? I felt the branch through my chest first, then I noticed that I heard whining. I could barely breath and I felt faint from the blood-loss, Nana had somehow made it down to me and had curled up over my lower body, keeping me warm. I noticed that my head had been resting on something soft-ish, possibly cushioning me from the fall. I opened my eyes to see that I had landed (Comically I might add) in a thicket of bushed, or more specifically alder bushes. Just like the piece in my chest. That had somehow not killed me. I could feel my heart beating, albeit lightly, right damn next to it. I had gotten very luck or unlucky here, cause I'm pretty sure that was where my left lung goes and attaches to the airflow thingy from my earlier years in Biology. I heard Nana whine a little more persistently now that I was awake. That was when I also noticed that I was lying on top of the bear that had hit me over the edge. Apparently we had been speared by the same stick, first by it creating the sharp edge necessary to get the surgical precision needed to get this close to my heart without killing me, then followed nearly immediately by me cushioned by the bears body. Pretty damn miraculous if I might say so. I reached down to her with my right arm to pet her when I noticed that I still held the pistol, it felt like the damn thing weighed a damn ton! I relaxed my death-grip (heh, "Death-grip") on it and dropped the damn cannon. "O-h, 'cough' Nana, I had the weirdest dream, I was some sort of bird-cat thing, and I was in some sort of weird place where most of the population except for me were related! The females were damn near tearing each other apart for a chance at me!" I scratched her ear, getting her to lean into it and stop her whining. I looked at the piece of wood sticking out of my chest again. "Well... I guess I have to get off or take this with me, what do you think Nana?" She gave me a yip and a whine, pitching her two scents in. "Well, alright, I guess I should wait till we get back to a town before I try and take it out then... Whelp, l-cough-lemme get the saw out first, I kina neee need iiii-" My vision blurred and darkness crept around the edges, apparently I had spent too much time talking to Nana. I tried to draw in another breath before I blacked out, my strength ebbing away. Right before I blacked out, I finally managed to draw in a breath, the starbursts in my sight slowly disappearing. I slowly unsnapped the clip holding my backpack, thanking that it was one of those weird ones that had one strap. It had apparently shifted while I had fallen and had come around to sit on my stomach, the strap right below the branch. I fished out the handsaw that I had packed, opening the sheath that held it. With that task finished, I gripped the branch and slowly began to saw through it a few inches away from my chest. As I was half way through I shifted my cutting angle, opting for a smooth edge in case I had to pull off of it. After a minute or so, I had finished sawing through it, I put the saw away and gripped it with both hands, bracing for what I had to do next. I reached down and patted Nana off my legs, needing the extra leverage. I grimaced as I prepared to twist the branch into breaking . Before I could try and talk myself out of doing so, I twisted and forced the branch to snap off below me. After a few seconds the pain registered and made me black out. I jolted up in the bed, the covers clinging to me like an old bloody bandage. I was breathing hard, the pain still lingering. I peeled the blanket away from my chest, revealing the wound that I had thought had closed fully open and profusely bleeding. However, I noticed that my heart had not been savaged this time, the side of it peeking out from inside. "Doctor! Doooohhhhh" I began to black out again due to the fact that blood had pooled out of my body. apparently, I had been bleeding out on the bed for some time now, since all it took to get me back into the realm of dreams was to sit up. Spots began to dance at the edge of my sight as I struggled, I tried to get out of the bed, my sight caving in as I leaned over the edge of the bed. As the floor rushed up to greet me, A pair of claws grabbing me as I faded out of consciousness again. My eyes flew open as my heart thrummed in my chest, the night sky sprawled out above me. I could see all of the stars out tonight. The willow that I was next to had a sturdy enough branch that I could use to stand up. I felt fine, but I didn't want to take any chances, the ease of which I seem to get knocked out was frightening. I chose to crawl on the tundra that surrounded the willows I was in, grateful that the small gathering of the bushes had saved my life. I pulled out my compass, the road that I had come from was to the north of where I had been hiking. Well... since I had fallen off the southern edge of the mountain that I had been hiking on... I was going to have a very long way to walk. In the wilderness. Without any sleep gear or water. And only two granola bars. 'At least the mountain isn't that big around...' Every time I breathed in and out, it felt like my ribs were trying to scrape on the piece of wood sticking out of my chest. My once pristine green shirt now had a small red circle around where I had been impaled. 'At least I didn't bleed out too much, hopefully my lung isn't too bad either.' I was finding it harder to breath as I could only fill up one side, the chunk of wood keeping me from bleeding out (physical) hopefully wan't causing internal problems. Hopefully... Well, I really need to get to my mode of transportation. Either way, I'm in for some serious hospital time! I slowly began to crawl my way off to my bike and portable shed, Nana running around for stuff. What I had failed to notice was the fact that the sun was setting, not rising, and the moon had not risen tonight. It had taken Nana and I till what felt like around one am to get back to the bike and shed, having to stop every now and then to catch my breath. I was thirsty and tired, but I knew that if I stopped, that that would be the last time I slept. I had one epi-pen in my emergency pack for allergic reactions, hopefully it would be enough to get to someones place or a passerby. I was at the edge of the willow line when I heard a truck pass by, Nana had begun to bark at it as it had gotten closer. I groaned and tried to whistle for her to come back, barely staying awake as I crawled to the road side. the shrill sound that I had made nearly rendered me deaf, Nana quickly came to my side and whined at me. I looked up to her and smiled, my knees and hands hurting from the crawl here. "Nana, you need to stay close. Ahhh, I have a greater understanding for people with one lung now. eh.." My breath was labored and unsteady as I dragged myself over to the back end of the trailer. As soon as I was within grabbing distance of the step up to the door, I had latched onto it with all my remaining strength. I slowly began to raise myself into a standing position, careful not to make myself not black out. As I opened the door, I almost collapsed into the door way. I was shaking from the effort of keeping myself going for this long, the pain nearly unbearable by now. My chest felt like I had a red hot poker slowly digging into it, the days effort compounding onto me. I had what felt like mere moments before I would pass out, luckily I had stashed the pack right next to the door for such emergencies. the epi-pen sat right on top of the rest of the medication that I had for various other emergencies. With a shaky hand, I slapped the damn thing down on my thigh, waiting a few seconds before I couldn't feel the needle again. As soon as the epinephrine hit me, I felt like I had put my had on a horse fence again. I sucked in a huge amount of air, my head cleared all except for the pain, the night sky came into around me as I sat there. I dropped the pen and yelled at Nana to get inside as I rounded the shed and pulled out my keys to get my bike started, thankful that I knew how to get it roaring from a cold start. As I revved the engine I let the clutch go and began the ride back to the last town we were at. I could barely remember what it was called, only remembering where the hospital had been at. After what felt like a few hours, I suddenly felt like I had a weight lifted from my shoulders. I could breathe fully and for some reason, I felt cold. The night sky lighting up like a party. I felt suddenly lonely and very weak, my grip on the bike slaking until I fell off to the left. I barely felt anything as I tumbled on the road, rolling a few times before coming face up on the last roll. I was barely able to lift my head and find that the piece of wood that I had was no longer in my chest, leaving a small gap where it had been. Nana ran up to my side and was whining, nudging me, trying to get me to get back up. 'I don't want to die..' I began to cry, Nana curling up next to me as I tried to fight what I knew was going to happen for real this time. "N-n-n-na-n-n-na... I-i 'm-m s-s-sor-r-ry..." Light slowly fading as I lay there the stars shining losing there luster. The last thing I heard was her howling. Author's Note Life... life has meaning to everyone. Losing someone you love hurts more than anything in the world. Losing yourself... hurts more than just yourself. Sorrow of the lostI woke as a griffin once more, screaming and thrashing on the bed, getting tangled in the blanket that they had thrown over me. Tears streamed down my face as I thrashed, the cloth barely containing me as it ripped. "NOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOO!" claws gripped me and tried to pin me back to the bed, further shaking my mind. I could barely make out them screaming at me in an attempt to placate me, their voices drowned out by my own. After what seemed like an hour, I was lying on the bed, curled up in a tight ball crying to myself. Freida was sitting on the bed, holding me in her lap and stroking my head as a few nurses and orderlies herded around us. I was gripping a piece of the blanket in my right claw, the near black appendage contrasting against the lighter fabric. I had finally come down from my 'fit of death' as I call them, usually I had to grow into a body before I could remember anything previously encountered. "Fuck, that was the second most horrible one yet." I was finally calm enough to talk, the doctor obviously wanting to know what had happened to trigger my reaction. Freida stopped petting me, instead she helped me into a sitting position and continued to hold me. "That was the worst way I've nearly died in years, tell me, have you ever killed something, nearly die falling off a cliff only to pass out on a road to the nearest hospital?" Of course the looks I was receiving were less than stellar. For all of the centuries that I had dealt with, this was the one were I had to go back to swords and arrows, just as the porn was getting weird. The nurses and orderlies were beginning to thin out due to disinterest, apparently I had calmed down enough. The doctor had decided that I had enough time to cool and was now ready for questioning. "Could you tell us your name, we have yet to actually establish that due to other circumstances." "Well, I can't... well I guess I could tell you. My name is... is... I think I was Florence... or was it... no, I think it was Felix!" I had barely remembered the name I had been born with, my memory a hazy as Alaskan blizzards. I knew for certain that I had a dog and a bike, some sort of two wheeled contraption. I think I had a brother or two... "Hello? Are you still with us?" Freida was snapping her claws in my face, making me blink. "You spaced off there for a minute. Are you sure that your okay?" I blinked and shook my head, trying to clear out the memories that invaded my head. "I just had a bit of a flashback, I have no idea where the hell I'm from for some reason." That of course raised a few eyebro... 'I have no idea what to call them at this stage.' I thought to myself. 'Eh, screw it, eyebrows it is!' The nurses that were still there decided that now was a good time to mention the fact that I was severally in debt to the crown due to the fact that he owns the hospital. I was not amused. But of course, my choices were either work off my debt, or try to pay it off by questing. Thankfully I only owed three thousand gold. "At least the price is reasonable." I let go of Freida and rolled onto my back to stretch, somehow stretching my wings out without knowing how. "Wow, I have no idea how I did that." Ever since I came here I had been operating on the basis that I wasn't going to stay, like I was in a dream that I could change at any given time. Now that I knew that I was stuck, I was just going to have to deal very thoroughly with what I was stuck with. The only things that I had going for me were the fact that I could still eat meat and I had opposable thumbs. Down side were mounting, I didn't know how to fly this wasn't my native species and I had no Idea why they were coming onto me. Another down side... I might be dead or dying and this will all be a dream. I finally decided to get a good look at myself, I had a black and white coloration to my feathers, black being the primary color and white edges. I had the rear end of a lynx, but they were rather lithe and muscled like ripcords. My arms were obsidian scaled and the claws were like silver knives. All in all, I looked bad ass. In my opinion. All that mattered was mine anyways. The only down side was my new height. from what I could tell comparing myself to others, I was on the short end of a very skewed spectrum. Of course, If I had control over myself like usual, It wouldn't be a problem. I have a serious mental issue. There is someone else in my head, and sometimes he likes to take over. 'You do know that I can hear you you know?' I call him Tamyris. He is an asshole. "Hey, we are stuck like this and we agreed not to bitch about when I decided to have a turn at the wheel!" I could talk alright, but he had motor control at the moment, rendering it useless unless I wanted to let him have full control. Before I left to watch from the back of our imaginary break room, I decided to leave out friends a parting gift. "If Tamyris does anything weird, just smack him, that should make sure he doesn't wreck this body up like our last one." The doctor and the rest of them looked at me like I had yet again, said the weirdest thing in their lives. As I let go of the metaphorical wheel in our head, I found myself in a room and in the same body, of course I was still in my subconscious, so that was an improvement. Our split happened around my twelfth birthday, the days around that time were a blank and my parents never told me what happened, only that it was an accident and they would never let it happen again. Taking up an entire "wall" was what we interpreted as a "screen" to what the other was doing through our eyes. their was a coffee table with baubles and intricately "crafted" items that would be impossible to make in the real world. around the table were two chairs and a couch for leisure, not needed as in our mind we didn't feel anything. Oh well, aesthetics matter any way. I was just going to wait around to see if any of our present company would freak out due to the drastic change in personality, but an interesting thing happened, I fell out. Now, to those who don't understand what the FUCK just happened, I fell out of our designated "safe-house" in the destructive center of our psyche. Ever have a bad dream? That was what I fell into, since I was just another one of the ID's, I could literally die in a dream. I think. I hope not. I don't have a firm grasp on psychology okay? The worst part was the fact that falling out held the consequence of not being able to figure out which way to go to get back after doing so. Well, the worst part only compounded upon the fact that I was still in Griffinstone. RIGHT NEXT TO TAMYRIS WITH THE REST OF THEM STARING AT ME. Author's Note Tamyris: pronounced "Ta-mir-riss"
What a lovely dayI sat up from my bed on the floor, the afghan throw blanket my grandma gave me, slightly rolling off. The cold of the room rolled over me as I sat there. I stifled a yawn, as I stretched, my balls slightly itching. My eyes readjusting to the morning shine, made me squint as I sat there and stretched, the light hit through the "window" of the trailer. My dog looked over to me as she lay there, like I had taken for ever to get up and was just waiting to get out. I rubbed the crust off of my eyes, letting out a yawn doing so. I dressed quickly and ate some granola from a baggie that I had gotten from my bag, filling up Nanas bowl with some dog food as well. I opened the door and let in the morning air. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and the weather seemed to be all around, really good for a hike! I quickly gathered the rest of my camp as it was strewn about in a haphazard mess surrounding the fireplace, ashes of the fire just wafting in the near nonexistent breeze. Nana just sat there and yawned. The little collapsible camper was made to be toted by a bike, and easy to transport. It was about five by seven feet in floor space, the door on one end, the jurry-rigged fireplace in the other. the camper rested on four bike sized wheels, which were posted on axles and suspension, along with its own breaking system for those slight slopes you don't want to go down. The roof consisted of two good pieces of plywood screwed together with a few pieces of 2x4s as well were held up by four 4x4s'. The walls were just a bunch of waterproof canvas held on by tacking and light ratchet clasps to hold it together. there was only one "window" in one of the "walls", a plastic screen sewn into the left side wall. I picked up my 357 revolver from next to my bed and put it in the holster which hung next to the door, and slung the holster on in one smooth motion and clipped the holster to my belt. After finishing her bowl of dog food, Nana rushed out and began running. The step was left out as always at night, allowing me to step up and down at the door with ease. The road was clear and the sun was just about to come over the horizon, the light was bleeding over the edge of night and waking the world a new morn. The tundra looked like it was on fire, the lite smoke haze adding to the look. The air smelled fresh with dew, tsura and fireweed. I walked around to my bike, still hooked up to the other end of the trailer. Light glinted on the water off of the lake, birds chirped and flew around. Today I felt like going to the cliff finally, just get that last picture. "Sigh," I walked over to the side of the road and quickly relieved myself. Afterwards, I slipped on my goggles and started up the motor on my bike, a chainsaw motor fixed up to mount onto my bike when I wanted to go faster. I whistled to Nana, telling her to come back and hop onto the seat I had fixed for her to relax on while we traveled. As soon as she was on, I revved the motor and we were on out way. The country side passed by in a picturesque haze, greens blues and browns and a hint of pink every now and then were all I could see as the road took me to the place I so needed to find. The cliff I was going to was hidden well up and behind a good amount of mountains, the only trail there was nearly nonexistent and hard to find, if you weren't trying hard enough. I had to wipe bugs off of my goggles multiple times as we sped along, the warm wind rushing about. It took a good half hour to get to the beginning of the trail, it was densely over grown with willows and alder, I was going to have to walk there. I shut off the bike and locked the engine and chain, effectively hobbling the bike and making it seem like it was broken. I opened the door to my camper and gathered up my backpack and other camping equipment. As we were about to leave, I smiled and locked the camper as well. Nana and I had been walking most of the day by the time we were almost there, but we knew something was following us, Nana had been anxious most of the way up. It took us a while, well it took me a while and Nana took her time with me like any good companion would. The time seemed to go by in a blur till I felt the edge of the cliff before I even saw it, the feeling you get when you find the one thing you are meant for just flooded my senses, till I heard Nana begin to bark at something. She only barks at bigger things than herself. I turned around to see a brown bear charging me barely thirty feet away, it had been the one that was stalking us... now I knew why, it was a man killer. I flicked out the revolver and began backing up. Nana tried to distract it till I aimed down the sights and began popping off rounds into it and it charged me, as it came closer, fear flooded me. 'Three, Two, One,' As the last bullet slammed home in the bear it slid like a freight train, the boar came and rammed into me, first I felt the weight, then even worse, weightlessness. Air rushed by as I contemplated weather or not I would actually have that death inducing fear driven heart-attack. As if to answer, I felt like I was being ripped apart and put back together, cell by cell, agony ripped through me. Lights flooded my vision as the feeling of gravity resumed. The bear was above me, but it looked different, like it was somehow bigger than before. The last thing I noticed was that my arms looked like they were scaled and clawed like an eagles legs before I blacked out.
Death must be having a hoot with this oneAuthor's Note now, I know your kind hung up on why the grammar of the first chapter is a little choppy, well the reason why is because that was just a memory. A scetchy memory. Death must be having a hoot with this one Consciousness was something I knew would be impossible due to the fact that I had been tackled off a cliff by a dead bear. It was something I grew to accept as the darkness prevailed throughout my sight. I just didn't think that death would leave me in the dark like this either. The asshole probably thought it was funny to see us mortals squirm before punting us into the afterlife. I had been drifting in the darkness for what seemed like a few years when I felt someone poke me. It was annoying. It sounded like rain pattered around me. There is no rain in death. 'Why do I hear rain?' and that was when it hit me. Not a soft one either, an avalanche of feeling cascaded, every nerve live and firing. Oh, it hurt like no other thing could, cause what could hurt more than being forced back to life? Coming back to life while conscious hurts due to the fact that you mind is trying to reboot and make things work properly, normally people are not conscious enough to feel every nerve ending fire all at the same time. Normally. Now imagine doing so while in a foreign body. The first thing I did was to suck in as much air as I could physically could, and react. "RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!" I arched my back, flexed muscles and popped bones viciously into place while the rest of my sensory equipment decided to flip on. Light blasted my retinas, strange smells assaulted my nose, and sound blasted in my ears. I flopped around on the ground as my rib cage snapped back into place one rib at a time. My fractured and broken limbs began playing 'who sets first' as I writhed in pain. For some reason, I knew that I was going to be fine after this all stopped. Like watching the reverse timelapse of seeing a wound open up, I watched in abject horror as the foreign limb that was a claw where my arm was supposed to be, slowly stitch together. Slowly, like the tide, the pain ebbed away, followed by voices. I could barely make out the bear next to me in what appeared to be the remains of a broken table. Light faded and brightened like I was slowly about to loose conciouseness again, the pain already duller than a scrapped knee. What sounded like a pureed voice of a lion and an eagle screeching in my ears scared me awake and caused me to tug at restraints that I could feel straining against my ankles and wrists, along with a few belts trying to restrain my chest and hips. Leather bit deep into my skin around my feet and hip, the ones around my wrist felt like they were beginning to fray. The light momentarily blinded me as I foolishly look to a window. My eyes resolved the world around me faster than I had anticipated. What I saw was disturbing, it looked like I was surrounded by eagles and other large birds of prey. My head was throbbing with each heart beat, the slight murmur of voices resounded quietly around me as I fell back to the bed. It seemed to be a rather hospital like setting, I couldn't for the life of me see anyone around. I began to try and get out of the restraints, rousing the attention of the birds. "He's awake! Quick, get the doctor! And get me Freda, she was the one who found him!" I was utterly surprised as I watched one of them speak, the whole thing seemed surreal. The griffons (as I now saw what they were) began to orderly go about their tasks and continue working. Except the one coming towards me. With a set of scrubs on looking like a nurse. He walked over on his hind feet, allowing him to hold onto the clipboard in his claws. He was slowly going through the list on the papers, mumbling and striking things off with a quill. The glasses that were on his beak kept sliding down and annoying him, making him push them back up. He stopped next to my bed. "Now its' going to be OK, the Ursa that you fought died when it hit the ground. How did an Ursa even get up there? You are quite lucky to survive one of the last, most dangerous tribe of beings on Equis." He sat down and patted my knee and smiled. "Your going to have one of the best parties thrown just for you, Wrens will be lining up to get their claws on you, and you will be granted one of the first newly built houses. Lucky you." He seemed pissed. "Steady Claw, the doctor and Freda are here, they want to talk to him." A female voice came from the opposite direction. "You can take his restraints off now that he's awake and compliant." "Rraaat." I squaked As I tried to speak. "Rra rraat!" They look at me like I grew a second head. The female talked first. "Aw shit, a feral. Now we have to let him go." She threw her foreclaws up in mock defeat. "Well, at least we don't have to hold him for that much longer." Steady smile softened. "RRaat!" I shook my arms, and pointed int he general direction of my head. "RRaa raat!" That confused them, the female looked between Steady and I. "Do you think he understands us?" Steady gave her an incredulous look. "Are you daft? He's obviously a feral and just using hand signals to try and communicate with us! don't try to read too much into it." He waved a dismissive claw in her direction. He reached over and undid a few of my straps, letting my neck and right arm free. I slapped his claws away as I undid the rest of the straps myself. "Holy crap, how did he figure out how to do that by himself after only seeing you do it a few times? He couldn't possibly have figured it out that fast!" I sat on the edge of the bed and patted my throat, trying to tell them there was something wrong with it. After a few seconds of confused looks, I grabbed the clipboard from Steadies' claws along with the quill, making him flinch. I wrote 'can't talk, throat not working right!!' and turned it to them. As they tried to decipher the words they grew even more confused. "What did he write? do you know that language Steel Feather?" Steady looked over to Steel. "I have no idea, I've never seen anything even remotely close to that other than Minish, and that is as close to that as I could guess." They looked back and forth between me and the paper. Steady froze up and slowly turned towards Steel. "How do you know what Minish looks like? They never let outsiders look upon their holy transcrips, only their priests get to read them." Steel smiled nervously and rubbed her arm. "Weeeeeell, you remember when I said I was going on vacation a few moons ago? I kinda snuck in one of their temples and maaaaybe stole a few tombs." I facep-clawed and snatched the board back, and quickly wrote out the alphabet in the lower half of the paper. "RRaat." "Hey dweeb, I hope you like knuckle sandwiches, cause your about to-what in the name of the first king are you all looking at? gimme that." A new female surprised us and quickly snatched the board from Steadies' claws. "What in Tartarus is this gibberish? Is he illiterate or something?" She made an attempt to study the paper. With a dismissive fling and a roll of her eyes, she flipped the board back to Steady. "Well, since he's my charge due to the fact that he fell through my roof, I guess I have to take him with me. Come on dweeb, we need to get going." She grabbed my arm, lifted me up and began dragging me behind her. I though to my self, 'Death must be laughing her ass of right now.'
oh joy...The walk to her house-roost was a short but filling adventure unto itself. Meaning I was propositioned by nearly every female except for the elderly and the too young. Thankfully. But the state of the City had me gawking as she pulled me along, most of the roosts (I assumed that's what they call them) were in disrepair and were mostly about to fall apart. It looked like the place was a disaster area that just didn't seem to recover. Slowly in front of us a tumbleweed rolled across our path. I stopped and watched it as it blew off, the female griffin just kept walking. Or what ever you call that thing they do on all fours. What had stopped me was the fact that I saw the remnants of what seemed to be a library. I don't always go into towns or big cities, but when I do, I always go to the nearest library or book store. This was, to me, a travesty. I slowly walked over to the destroyed building, looking at book spines and pages that fluttered around. The building must have crumbled in the last few weeks, cause most of the names on the books were still mostly ledgible. From what I could tell. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what the hell they said, the language barrier just happened to rear its ugly head again. Joy. I felt someone tap my shoulder. "Hey dweeb, you coming or not? The doc said you need to stay close to me till you get your own roost. Come on, we need to get back to my place so I can finish repairing the hole in my roof that you made." 'So it was her house, oops...' I tried smiling at her and motioning for her to go. She turned around with a roll of her eyes and a flick of her tail. "Dweeb." she flared her wings and took off. 'shit.' I stood there dumbstruck, watching her fly away in the direction of what I assume was her roost. After a few seconds, I blinked and began running after her. I tried to weave my way around obstacles, roosts, and other griffins in my attempt to keep up with her, but as a rather large cart rolled in front of me, I slammed face first into it. I dropped to the ground as I tumbled away from the cart, breaking a few old wooden boxes as I fell. I gave out a squak as I felt a rather large splinter gouge my leg. I lifted the injured limb and tried to survey the damage. 'double shit.' I looked on as my left leg bled due to the small shaft of wood protruded from it. The piece of wood was only about five or six inches long and half an inch thick. 'Why the hell do I keep getting hurt?! This sucks a shit ton!'. I reached and grabbed the piece of wood, barely even noticing the two who had come around and were looking at me. I winced as the pain finally registered, letting go of the splinter. "Ah!" I reached down again, bracing for the pain, and ripped it out. As pain lanced up my leg, I grabbed it in an attempt to stem the flow of blood that had already begun to flow out of it. A new female appeared at my side with a strip of cloth and tried to pry my ha-claw away. Her fur was a light almost golden color and her feathers were dark-ish brown with silver hi-lights. "Here, let me help you. I know how to do this." "RRaaaht!" I brushed her h-claws away and grabbed the cloth for myself. I quickly wrapped the cloth around my leg a couple times and tied it off. "Raaht." I stuck out a h-claw for her to help me up, she just looked at it confused. "What?" she looked at me like I had grown a second head. Over head, I heard the tell-tale sound of cussing and the flapping of wings as The first female showed up. "What the heck you get yourself into this time dweeb? The hell?! what you do to him? Now their gonna be on my ass for this! Damn it, here, let me help you up." She reached down and grabbed me by the arm again and pulled me up, mindful of my leg. "Why the heck didn't you fly with me? You wouldn't of had this happen to you, ya dweeb." She looked me over one last time. "Come on, we need to get you to my place already, Gruff Is already ruffled enough." "Hey, he's mine Freda, I found him! back off!" The second one pipped up, fluffing out her chest plumage and flaring her wings a little. She brushed up to Gilda as I stood there. Gilda (as I now know her name(should have guessed earlier)) Leaned me on the back of the cart and slowly began to do what I thought o be a territorial showdown. The two began circling each other and fluffing out their plumage and wings in an attempt to scare each other. As realization hit her, Gilda stopped, smiled and walked over to me. "You know Airius, you need to get back to your cockrel before another wren snaps him up." I checked my leg again only to find that it had already partially closed up. "RRaaht, raa raaht." I pointed at the closing wound, trying to catch her attention. She looked down to where I was pointing, and with a surprised look, bent down a began inspecting it. "What in the name of Grover? How is this even possible?! We need to get you back to the hospital so they can figure out what's going on." She stood up and grabbed my arm again, flaring her wings and taking off. "RRAAAAHT!" I clutched onto her h-claw with all I had as we went airborn, causing her to careen into the building next to up. As we fell, I grabbed Gilda and positioned myself between her and the ground with a twist. As we hit, I felt what seemed to be a rather large piece of wood lance through my chest. Gilda rolled off to my left, away from the building and came up on her ha-claws and paws. I began coughing up blood and shakely looked to my chest to find a broken spar sticking out. Oddly enough it barely hurt. "OH SHIT! You IDIOT!" Freda ran back to my side, panicking And on the verge of tears. "Why didn't you just FLY?!" I looked up to her and grabbed her shoulder. "G-cough-et m-me o-cough-ff t-this d-cough-amn t-thing!" Her eyes rolled up and she droped like a sack of potatoes. Right on my legs, further spearing me onto the spar with a sickening crunch of my rib cage falling apart and a shlorp of blood and what seemed to be a portion of my heart. I felt the ground on my back and my blood pooling down into a puddle. I noticed that it had been a few seconds longer that necessary to kill me, as I was still conscious despite the blood loss. I looked around to see a few griffins looking at us like they would watch a funeral, that sad, almost regretful look they watch the coffin go by. I raised my arm and shakely tried to wave a few over to help, not even the wren Airius just stair dumbfounded. I frowned and waved a little more frantically, garnering a little better response, One of the males walked forward and grabbed my claw, but not to pull me off. He bent down and held my claw like a total bro. "It's ok, go into the light, stop fighting, you've earned your passage to Elesyum. Remember me brother, we will meet in the afterlife." his colors were very ordinarily brown and white. He gave me a pat on the shoulder with his free claw. I coughed a little blood in his face and gave him a dirty look. "Get me off this damn stick, you asshat." Apparently all I had to do to talk was use my mouth like I normally do. 'This is a bunch of bull, I need someone to help me get off this damn thing! Why won't they help?!' from the crowd, a donkey walked out, looking at me like I had steped on his tail. "No offense!" I hacked a bit more blood onto mister idiot here. "Some taken, Feather brain." He waked away into the crowd, pushing what I could only assume to be a janitors cart. I watched as he walked away. "Damn, granted." I pulled Asshat down to talk to me, "Pull me off-ach this damn stick, Asshat." With a look of awe, the griffin finally decided to pull me off the spar, after he removed Freda from my lap. As he pulled me off, a few of the rest of them decided to 'Grant my final wish', as it were. They all gathered around me and lifted me off. I felt my bones grind against the wood and slow down the progress as they pinched it as they were pulled on. As the spar finally left my chest cavity, I noticed that I still felt my heart beating despite having a chunk missing. As they sat me down, I decided to look, the organ was mostly on display as it beat there, blood flowed out still, in minor torrents at each beat, but the pain had dulled to the point to where I could barely feel it. I looked back to the rest of them and smiled. "Do any of you have a camera? I really want a picture." They began to murmur amongst themselves as the flesh knitted its' self back together, the bones slowly setting and aligning and ligaments reattaching. I reached in and poked my heart. "Heh, this is really weird, any of you ever see something like this?!" Author's Note sorry couldn't fit the whole thing into one chapter, the next will be out soon enough. This little fleshy-bit went; wee wee wee, all the way back to where it was supposed to go!
Among the bloody starsMy first mistake was trying to sleep. The second just happened to be succeeding to do so. Oh stars, why did I want to sleep? I felt the branch through my chest first, then I noticed that I heard whining. I could barely breath and I felt faint from the blood-loss, Nana had somehow made it down to me and had curled up over my lower body, keeping me warm. I noticed that my head had been resting on something soft-ish, possibly cushioning me from the fall. I opened my eyes to see that I had landed (Comically I might add) in a thicket of bushed, or more specifically alder bushes. Just like the piece in my chest. That had somehow not killed me. I could feel my heart beating, albeit lightly, right damn next to it. I had gotten very luck or unlucky here, cause I'm pretty sure that was where my left lung goes and attaches to the airflow thingy from my earlier years in Biology. I heard Nana whine a little more persistently now that I was awake. That was when I also noticed that I was lying on top of the bear that had hit me over the edge. Apparently we had been speared by the same stick, first by it creating the sharp edge necessary to get the surgical precision needed to get this close to my heart without killing me, then followed nearly immediately by me cushioned by the bears body. Pretty damn miraculous if I might say so. I reached down to her with my right arm to pet her when I noticed that I still held the pistol, it felt like the damn thing weighed a damn ton! I relaxed my death-grip (heh, "Death-grip") on it and dropped the damn cannon. "O-h, 'cough' Nana, I had the weirdest dream, I was some sort of bird-cat thing, and I was in some sort of weird place where most of the population except for me were related! The females were damn near tearing each other apart for a chance at me!" I scratched her ear, getting her to lean into it and stop her whining. I looked at the piece of wood sticking out of my chest again. "Well... I guess I have to get off or take this with me, what do you think Nana?" She gave me a yip and a whine, pitching her two scents in. "Well, alright, I guess I should wait till we get back to a town before I try and take it out then... Whelp, l-cough-lemme get the saw out first, I kina neee need iiii-" My vision blurred and darkness crept around the edges, apparently I had spent too much time talking to Nana. I tried to draw in another breath before I blacked out, my strength ebbing away. Right before I blacked out, I finally managed to draw in a breath, the starbursts in my sight slowly disappearing. I slowly unsnapped the clip holding my backpack, thanking that it was one of those weird ones that had one strap. It had apparently shifted while I had fallen and had come around to sit on my stomach, the strap right below the branch. I fished out the handsaw that I had packed, opening the sheath that held it. With that task finished, I gripped the branch and slowly began to saw through it a few inches away from my chest. As I was half way through I shifted my cutting angle, opting for a smooth edge in case I had to pull off of it. After a minute or so, I had finished sawing through it, I put the saw away and gripped it with both hands, bracing for what I had to do next. I reached down and patted Nana off my legs, needing the extra leverage. I grimaced as I prepared to twist the branch into breaking . Before I could try and talk myself out of doing so, I twisted and forced the branch to snap off below me. After a few seconds the pain registered and made me black out. I jolted up in the bed, the covers clinging to me like an old bloody bandage. I was breathing hard, the pain still lingering. I peeled the blanket away from my chest, revealing the wound that I had thought had closed fully open and profusely bleeding. However, I noticed that my heart had not been savaged this time, the side of it peeking out from inside. "Doctor! Doooohhhhh" I began to black out again due to the fact that blood had pooled out of my body. apparently, I had been bleeding out on the bed for some time now, since all it took to get me back into the realm of dreams was to sit up. Spots began to dance at the edge of my sight as I struggled, I tried to get out of the bed, my sight caving in as I leaned over the edge of the bed. As the floor rushed up to greet me, A pair of claws grabbing me as I faded out of consciousness again. My eyes flew open as my heart thrummed in my chest, the night sky sprawled out above me. I could see all of the stars out tonight. The willow that I was next to had a sturdy enough branch that I could use to stand up. I felt fine, but I didn't want to take any chances, the ease of which I seem to get knocked out was frightening. I chose to crawl on the tundra that surrounded the willows I was in, grateful that the small gathering of the bushes had saved my life. I pulled out my compass, the road that I had come from was to the north of where I had been hiking. Well... since I had fallen off the southern edge of the mountain that I had been hiking on... I was going to have a very long way to walk. In the wilderness. Without any sleep gear or water. And only two granola bars. 'At least the mountain isn't that big around...' Every time I breathed in and out, it felt like my ribs were trying to scrape on the piece of wood sticking out of my chest. My once pristine green shirt now had a small red circle around where I had been impaled. 'At least I didn't bleed out too much, hopefully my lung isn't too bad either.' I was finding it harder to breath as I could only fill up one side, the chunk of wood keeping me from bleeding out (physical) hopefully wan't causing internal problems. Hopefully... Well, I really need to get to my mode of transportation. Either way, I'm in for some serious hospital time! I slowly began to crawl my way off to my bike and portable shed, Nana running around for stuff. What I had failed to notice was the fact that the sun was setting, not rising, and the moon had not risen tonight. It had taken Nana and I till what felt like around one am to get back to the bike and shed, having to stop every now and then to catch my breath. I was thirsty and tired, but I knew that if I stopped, that that would be the last time I slept. I had one epi-pen in my emergency pack for allergic reactions, hopefully it would be enough to get to someones place or a passerby. I was at the edge of the willow line when I heard a truck pass by, Nana had begun to bark at it as it had gotten closer. I groaned and tried to whistle for her to come back, barely staying awake as I crawled to the road side. the shrill sound that I had made nearly rendered me deaf, Nana quickly came to my side and whined at me. I looked up to her and smiled, my knees and hands hurting from the crawl here. "Nana, you need to stay close. Ahhh, I have a greater understanding for people with one lung now. eh.." My breath was labored and unsteady as I dragged myself over to the back end of the trailer. As soon as I was within grabbing distance of the step up to the door, I had latched onto it with all my remaining strength. I slowly began to raise myself into a standing position, careful not to make myself not black out. As I opened the door, I almost collapsed into the door way. I was shaking from the effort of keeping myself going for this long, the pain nearly unbearable by now. My chest felt like I had a red hot poker slowly digging into it, the days effort compounding onto me. I had what felt like mere moments before I would pass out, luckily I had stashed the pack right next to the door for such emergencies. the epi-pen sat right on top of the rest of the medication that I had for various other emergencies. With a shaky hand, I slapped the damn thing down on my thigh, waiting a few seconds before I couldn't feel the needle again. As soon as the epinephrine hit me, I felt like I had put my had on a horse fence again. I sucked in a huge amount of air, my head cleared all except for the pain, the night sky came into around me as I sat there. I dropped the pen and yelled at Nana to get inside as I rounded the shed and pulled out my keys to get my bike started, thankful that I knew how to get it roaring from a cold start. As I revved the engine I let the clutch go and began the ride back to the last town we were at. I could barely remember what it was called, only remembering where the hospital had been at. After what felt like a few hours, I suddenly felt like I had a weight lifted from my shoulders. I could breathe fully and for some reason, I felt cold. The night sky lighting up like a party. I felt suddenly lonely and very weak, my grip on the bike slaking until I fell off to the left. I barely felt anything as I tumbled on the road, rolling a few times before coming face up on the last roll. I was barely able to lift my head and find that the piece of wood that I had was no longer in my chest, leaving a small gap where it had been. Nana ran up to my side and was whining, nudging me, trying to get me to get back up. 'I don't want to die..' I began to cry, Nana curling up next to me as I tried to fight what I knew was going to happen for real this time. "N-n-n-na-n-n-na... I-i 'm-m s-s-sor-r-ry..." Light slowly fading as I lay there the stars shining losing there luster. The last thing I heard was her howling. Author's Note Life... life has meaning to everyone. Losing someone you love hurts more than anything in the world. Losing yourself... hurts more than just yourself.
Sorrow of the lostI woke as a griffin once more, screaming and thrashing on the bed, getting tangled in the blanket that they had thrown over me. Tears streamed down my face as I thrashed, the cloth barely containing me as it ripped. "NOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOO!" claws gripped me and tried to pin me back to the bed, further shaking my mind. I could barely make out them screaming at me in an attempt to placate me, their voices drowned out by my own. After what seemed like an hour, I was lying on the bed, curled up in a tight ball crying to myself. Freida was sitting on the bed, holding me in her lap and stroking my head as a few nurses and orderlies herded around us. I was gripping a piece of the blanket in my right claw, the near black appendage contrasting against the lighter fabric. I had finally come down from my 'fit of death' as I call them, usually I had to grow into a body before I could remember anything previously encountered. "Fuck, that was the second most horrible one yet." I was finally calm enough to talk, the doctor obviously wanting to know what had happened to trigger my reaction. Freida stopped petting me, instead she helped me into a sitting position and continued to hold me. "That was the worst way I've nearly died in years, tell me, have you ever killed something, nearly die falling off a cliff only to pass out on a road to the nearest hospital?" Of course the looks I was receiving were less than stellar. For all of the centuries that I had dealt with, this was the one were I had to go back to swords and arrows, just as the porn was getting weird. The nurses and orderlies were beginning to thin out due to disinterest, apparently I had calmed down enough. The doctor had decided that I had enough time to cool and was now ready for questioning. "Could you tell us your name, we have yet to actually establish that due to other circumstances." "Well, I can't... well I guess I could tell you. My name is... is... I think I was Florence... or was it... no, I think it was Felix!" I had barely remembered the name I had been born with, my memory a hazy as Alaskan blizzards. I knew for certain that I had a dog and a bike, some sort of two wheeled contraption. I think I had a brother or two... "Hello? Are you still with us?" Freida was snapping her claws in my face, making me blink. "You spaced off there for a minute. Are you sure that your okay?" I blinked and shook my head, trying to clear out the memories that invaded my head. "I just had a bit of a flashback, I have no idea where the hell I'm from for some reason." That of course raised a few eyebro... 'I have no idea what to call them at this stage.' I thought to myself. 'Eh, screw it, eyebrows it is!' The nurses that were still there decided that now was a good time to mention the fact that I was severally in debt to the crown due to the fact that he owns the hospital. I was not amused. But of course, my choices were either work off my debt, or try to pay it off by questing. Thankfully I only owed three thousand gold. "At least the price is reasonable." I let go of Freida and rolled onto my back to stretch, somehow stretching my wings out without knowing how. "Wow, I have no idea how I did that." Ever since I came here I had been operating on the basis that I wasn't going to stay, like I was in a dream that I could change at any given time. Now that I knew that I was stuck, I was just going to have to deal very thoroughly with what I was stuck with. The only things that I had going for me were the fact that I could still eat meat and I had opposable thumbs. Down side were mounting, I didn't know how to fly this wasn't my native species and I had no Idea why they were coming onto me. Another down side... I might be dead or dying and this will all be a dream. I finally decided to get a good look at myself, I had a black and white coloration to my feathers, black being the primary color and white edges. I had the rear end of a lynx, but they were rather lithe and muscled like ripcords. My arms were obsidian scaled and the claws were like silver knives. All in all, I looked bad ass. In my opinion. All that mattered was mine anyways. The only down side was my new height. from what I could tell comparing myself to others, I was on the short end of a very skewed spectrum. Of course, If I had control over myself like usual, It wouldn't be a problem. I have a serious mental issue. There is someone else in my head, and sometimes he likes to take over. 'You do know that I can hear you you know?' I call him Tamyris. He is an asshole. "Hey, we are stuck like this and we agreed not to bitch about when I decided to have a turn at the wheel!" I could talk alright, but he had motor control at the moment, rendering it useless unless I wanted to let him have full control. Before I left to watch from the back of our imaginary break room, I decided to leave out friends a parting gift. "If Tamyris does anything weird, just smack him, that should make sure he doesn't wreck this body up like our last one." The doctor and the rest of them looked at me like I had yet again, said the weirdest thing in their lives. As I let go of the metaphorical wheel in our head, I found myself in a room and in the same body, of course I was still in my subconscious, so that was an improvement. Our split happened around my twelfth birthday, the days around that time were a blank and my parents never told me what happened, only that it was an accident and they would never let it happen again. Taking up an entire "wall" was what we interpreted as a "screen" to what the other was doing through our eyes. their was a coffee table with baubles and intricately "crafted" items that would be impossible to make in the real world. around the table were two chairs and a couch for leisure, not needed as in our mind we didn't feel anything. Oh well, aesthetics matter any way. I was just going to wait around to see if any of our present company would freak out due to the drastic change in personality, but an interesting thing happened, I fell out. Now, to those who don't understand what the FUCK just happened, I fell out of our designated "safe-house" in the destructive center of our psyche. Ever have a bad dream? That was what I fell into, since I was just another one of the ID's, I could literally die in a dream. I think. I hope not. I don't have a firm grasp on psychology okay? The worst part was the fact that falling out held the consequence of not being able to figure out which way to go to get back after doing so. Well, the worst part only compounded upon the fact that I was still in Griffinstone. RIGHT NEXT TO TAMYRIS WITH THE REST OF THEM STARING AT ME. Author's Note Tamyris: pronounced "Ta-mir-riss"
