I was shivering and shaking like I caught the feather flu but it felt so much worse. My entire body felt like it was on fire, my vision if I managed to open my eyes was swimming to the point that it was just better not to open them. Everything I touched hurt like hell, and I found it hard to breath because of the feeling of dread and death gnawing at me every moment the torture continued. Along with everything I was feeling I also had no clue what was happening around me.

All I know was that someone found me and decided to bring me to help but considering the fact that they were strangers and I had no idea what they are made everything worse. I could make out shapes when I managed to open my eyes but they didn't look like a gryphon at all, they didn't even look like a pony. The only way how I know this was because of there extremely long ears that stood up straight and then my eyes would shut along with all semblance of time disappearing.

Eventually after a while I felt like I was hearing voices though they were only whispers and they lacked coherence and structure. This went on in the similar pattern of my vision where I end up hearing it and then I seep back into the black abyss a fraction later and also wake up in the same time though the atmosphere changed significantly. I heard more whispers this time though they felt loud but also inaudible, like when a rifle fires next to your ear though it lacked the constant ringing. Everything went blank again but when I woke up I felt like I was on a flat surface though I couldn't "feel" anything other than constant flaring pain.

I felt like something was happening to my body other than the constant pain and then it disappeared and I went flat again. This ended though I felt my eye sight flicker again though the blinding light didn't exist and everything was still bright though dampened. This disappeared also and I drifted deeper into my pain filled state that only got more intense as time went on. I felt like burning oil, I felt out of breath, my pain was growing to a degree of total restraint and my eyes no longer opened as often as previously.

Then suddenly I heard" It is up to you now." In a feminine fading voice and I felt everything in me just detach, feeling everything in my body being ripped apart in an instant. I couldn't feel anything anymore but what worried me the most was because I still felt here even though I felt nothing other than my emotions.

I woke up with a jolt only to see a blood red, water covered ground beneath me and the touch of rain soaking me to the bone. I felt confused as I stood up to see me in a mud covered trench that was reinforced with wooden supports and large plates of thin metal that made a tiny roof in the path in front of me. I looked around and noticed that was the only way forward and oddly enough everything was silent. I took a breath and immediately covered my beak, this place stunk with the smell of iron and a certain revolting smell that made me want to spill my guts. I looked back at the ground below me and saw a average looking wood cutters axe that was firmly planted into the ground. I grabbed the end with both of my bare claws and it was free with one pull that made me stumble on to the dirt wall behind me making my already filthy form worse.

I tried to keep my breathing even as I spoke "How the hell did I get here and oh fuck." I saw something move at the end of the path closer toward me, I couldn't make it out but the moment I noticed the smoke riddled figure the feeling of dread washed over me. My eyes darted toward the ground looking for a weapon that wasn't the axe firmly clenched and planted on my chest. I found no other weapon though shadow riddled bodies appeared in front of me, laying down completely still and were decayed to the point of being skeletons though they wore the red striped uniform of the Gryphon army. I became frozen like a statue when I noticed them though my eyes moved straight down the path that held more bodies to see the standing form of a figure.

It wore armor like the honorable warriors of old Gryphon stone though this figure wore only the metal plated chest piece bound by leather, and lacquer, along with the leg armor that hung around the waist, though It wore pants that looked blood stained and a ethereal black mist came from that part of him. I could not see its face through the mist that seemingly began having small amounts of a black looking dust come from it, it wisped around him like ash on the wind.

My eyes kept on it with only the constant of my rapid and uneven breathing but even that ended when it spoke in a distorted voice. "To leave this... place, you must kill me." It sounded like a broken engine that was choppy, uneven, and it constantly shifted tone from high pitched to low in the next syllable. I felt like stone even when it spoke and stood there waiting for something like me to make a move. After enough time my breathing controlled and I moved forward slightly with my axe to my side being held with both my glove covered claws. When I walked toward him my paws just went through the corpses like they never existed and it only made my nerves worse.

I stopped moving forward when it pulled out a smooth, blood covered curved sword, and said "I am- what stops you from LIVING so prove what you are and KILL ME." I kept my wide terrified eyes on it as I moved slowly closer to it with my axe at the ready, at least I thought was ready. The figure swung his sword at me vertically with both claws making me have to block the strike with my axe horizontally, my arms ached from the force of the sword hitting the wooden shaft of the axe but it also made a deep cut in the wood. The sword didn't bounce off of my block, it instead slid all the way under my block and I moved backward so that he couldn't just stab me.

He swung from left to right and I just hopped backward with my head leaned forward to avoid the blade cutting me open. He didn't stop moving though and twirled his sword into a down ward swipe aiming for my head so I brought my head back barely missing the blade by inches. I started feeling myself grow some semblance of bravery so I began swinging my axe from being held in both claws at my waist, to swinging it right to left. My axe head ended hitting him in the shoulder though he seamed unfazed as my axe scraped him.

I brought my axe to my previous position before I felt talons grab my shirt and through me to my left. I ended up hitting the dirt wall hard and ended up feeling a sharp pain come from my left shoulder, I looked at it and saw a large cut bleeding profusely. I ended up swinging my axe from left to right with a fast one armed swing and nailed him on his right side with the axe still in him. I Pulled it free fairly quickly and hopped right when I saw a swing going for my throat. The attack narrowly missed the top of my head as I ducked towards the end of my movement.

When I finished my movement I swung my axe towards his knees only to have him hop backwards. I was about swing again only to feel my left shoulder give and have the axe lazily skirt the ground. I began stumbling and before I new it I felt something hit me square on the beak causing me to practically scream "Fuck" before I felt another thing hit me in the face causing me to fall on the ground groaning. I looked at the shadowy figure standing above me with vision that's swimming to the point where I saw multiple of the shadowy figure.

The figure stood there for a second before he pointed the sword downward and rapidly plunged it into my chest by putting its entire body into the action. I felt the stabbing burning pain immediately as it shot through my entire body, my breathing halted, my vision became unnaturally clear, and I felt my claws dig in to my palms. It continued for who knows how long until the figure retracted his blade and looked down at me with zero emotion.

While I was feeling my insides seemingly spill it I heard the figure say "just like the rest." And began moving away as I quickly clutched my bleeding stomach. My stomach felt warm and wet from all the blood that was pouring out of my and my vision was beginning to grow a black shroud around it. The pain just kept on coming and the rushing feeling was growing worse, but I felt tired when I knew I shouldn't be even thinking of closing my eyes. I tried to fight the growing urge to close my eyes and after multiple seconds of my eyes rapidly flashing and my body convulsing in odd manors I manage to keep them open long enough to notice something when I put the top of my head on the mud.

I saw a dirty mud covered rifle with a bayonet fixed at the end, I growled in pain as I laid my eyes on it."I need that gun to live, fuck everything hurts, shit I want to live."I began turning myself to crawl but everything felt so much worse. I began swearing everything I told myself not to use regularly like a horribly drunk sailor and began crawling with my left arm toward the rifle. I used my elbow to get me closer to it as I used my right claw to hold in my guts and rather morbidly I felt a squishy object in there and with that existence my pain felt so much worse. I was shuddering at ever single twitch and the black vision cones were coming back along with the erratic breathing.

When I was within arms reach of the stock I heard the figure say" You aren't dying like a dog it seems." I quickly reached for the rifle and managed to grab the very end of the stock and pulled the weapon quickly toward me. I grabbed where the trigger is and spun around rapidly to see the figure over me again ready to stab my god forsaken lights out. I fired my gun at the blurry figure and felt the kick of the gun hit me in the chest and felt my ears ring due to the noise.

I looked at it from my laying down position to see the figure picking itself up and my muddy boots. I felt my uncovered claws automatically bolt the gun and had my sights aimed at his head, though the pain and the rapid blood loss caused my aim to drunkenly skirt around its head. It continued to shuffle its way toward me while holding its left shoulder and I felt my claw slowly pull the trigger.

I felt the gun buck and I saw the figures head become a fountain of black mist spraying with no resistance into the air.

I lurched into a sitting position while breathing in air like a fish on land, my claws were shaking erratically as I stared at them from my sitting position. I felt a blanket was around me and I noticed that I was in a room of a building but I didn't react to it. I just kept on staring at my claws and tried to piece together if that was real or just a nightmare as I still felt all the lingering pain.

Author's Note

Its been more than a month since i updated any of my stories and if any of you think im dead even though ive been on at least once a day then yeah total confirmation im alive from the gryphons mouth im not dead. ok im pretty sure you guys didnt have any questions about that so im pulling legs then again i get very few comments acutally ive probably gotten 10 max thus far.

so enough of that you guys say if this is bad, like, hate it or ask me questions. though always tell me something to improve. I'm going to continue my back and forth story method.

yes i felt the action was indeed underwelming.