Prologue:
Dusk

A cold icy gust howled as snow gently fell from the sky, blanketing the rocky mountain slopes. Further out snowy peaks could faintly be seen rising in the distance through the snowfall as they were starting to get hit by the rising sun. The magnificent white layer lay nearly completely undisturbed…

…Nearly

On one of the slopes the snow had melted away, revealing the grey rocks below. Though new flakes of the icy precipitation tried covering it back up, the surface below was still too warm for the flakes to survive.

In the center of the circle lay a well-toned male, unconscious, griffin. Brown-feathered wings fluttering in the cold winds, breathing slow and deliberate as those wings twitched and his body stirred.

Shooting up, I took a deep gasp of air as if I'd just been drowning and managed to stick my head above the water. I followed this by trying to scramble to my claws only to drop back down again as my legs did not respond in the way I'd expected…

What the hell? What's… this… Claws?!

I looked at the appendage, reasonably certain no human was supposed to have the grey appendages of raptors as hands. A quick inspection of the rest of my body revealed that the strange mutation wasn't exclusive to my hands. Legs had turned into the mighty muscled paws of a big cat, wings large and majestic like an eagle, my head following in the trend of that particular bird as a sharp beak protruded from it.

Holy sweet Jesus, this can't be happening! What the fuck is going on? This can't be right, there's no way… I'm dreaming, I must be dreaming.

My breathing sped up as panic spread through me at a rapid pace, as my eyes darted around. Equipment was scattered within the snow-cleared spot around me: camouflaged bags and clothing, rations, a tactical vest… there was no way my stupid mind could dream this mess up, right?

A glint caught my eye from something laying a bit further than the other stuff, lodged in the snow outside of the cleared space.

Alright, keep it together Jack. Whatever has happened, you're sure as hell not going to mope about it here until you're frozen. Survive now, freak out later.

Gritting my… beak, I tried standing up again, finding that if you aren't trying to stand up on just two legs instead of four it wasn't too hard to move about. The first order of business now moving about was an option was investigating if the glint was from what I assumed it was. Stumbling towards the spot I stuck the new claw into the snow and grasped the object that was hidden in it.

The scope was the first thing to emerge from the snow, followed by the barrel and then the body. Wiping off the snow revealed the magnificent rifle in all its glory.

“Hello my baby.” I couldn't help but smile at the sight of my long gun, an Arctic Warfare Magnum chambered in .338 lapua… Wow, this beak was much more flexible than I'd expected if I was able to pull that smile off. Deploying the bipod, I placed the weapon to the side, gathering all of the scattered equipment as the snow was starting to win out over the ground and lightly covering the gear. All in all, I found pretty much a complete setup for someone having to survive on their own, only bummer being that the camo was a green pattern rather than the white that'd be useful in the surroundings I was currently in.

Now if only I knew the reason for this stuff being here… or me for that matter… Ugh, what the hell am I going to do with a ghillie suit here?

Shaking the thought from my head I picked up the canteen I'd found and flipped it upside down in the metal cup that came with it before placing it to the side. The next thing I grabbed were the rations, three days of them. I was going to have to find an alternative source of food really soon, or it would be a very short run for me in this cold. The next thing I picked up was a large backpack, stashing most of the items I'd found into it and only leaving out the tactical vest, long gun, helmet, frag and smoke grenades, a Colt C7a2 with its vertical foregrip attached to the tactical rails surrounding the barrel, a Glock 17, mags, a maroon beret, my watch, and a BDU jacket.

I'm sure sarge can forgive the breaking of dress regulations in my current predicament.

Not that I was particularly cold yet, the feathers and fur on my new body seemed to be good insulation, but I could feel the cold from the outside trying to creep into my body, so an extra layer in the form of the buttoned jacket would be nice. I was pretty sure the jacket would still fit, after some modification with my knife to accommodate the wings of course, but the pants were another issue entirely, so I'd let those stay in the filled backpack.

The tactical vest was next, after strapping it tight I checked all of the mags in it, finding they were all topped off, four of them in total excluding the one already in the rifle. I knew there were more boxes of loose ammo I'd stashed away in the backpack but I'd have to line those up after getting off this mountain, out of the snow. The pistol was secured in its holster, next to a long knife sitting in its scabbard. The long gun I secured to the side of the backpack. No point in keeping that on hand if it wasn't needed. The C7 or Glock would be much more effective if by some random chance I managed to get into an engagement somehow. The helmet suffered the same fate as the sniper rifle as I opted to wear the beret instead.

Not like I'm wearing good camouflage anyway. Might as well make myself more visible in case there's another poor sod who got thrown into this mess.

Picking up the backpack and hoisting it onto my back went much better than expected, my body seemingly a lot stronger than what it had been even as a human. Sadly the backpack wasn't made for four-legged creatures but after pulling its straps tight it wasn't too bad… my wings also helped with the stability.

Wait, holy shit, I have wings!

Although I'd seen them already, the fact now really hit home as I flapped the appendages, feeling myself lift a little.

Whoa! Let's not jump the gun here. You're still on a mountain. Let's not become red paint at the bottom of a ravine just yet.

Closing the two appendages I looked around, picked a direction, and started to walk…

Tallgrass shot up from the ground all around me. The sun had long since dipped below the horizon, shrouding the large field in near-complete darkness. Not that it mattered with the night vision goggles placed on my head. I firmly grasped my rifle as inch for inch I snuck forward, not making the slightest of sound as I along with the rest of my squad made our way to the spot we'd scouted out.

The moon sat high in the sky as, after the hours-long trek, we arrived at the position we’d plotted out. Command had detected something here, and we were supposed to find out what. Getting to work further, Sarge had us build a camouflaged observation post that looked out over the marked open field and manned it, hoping to find out what in the world the higher ups had detected.

Hours went by. The moon advanced through the sky, and the sun started painting the sky in the colors of dawn. Animals waking from their slumber started to break the silence of night.

“Think we got sent out here on bogus intel? I mean, it was vague as hell but at least some high wig thought it important to send someone to check this place out,” Mark, one of the soldiers of the squad whispered to me as we shared the watch.

“I’m not expecting to find anything really. There’s nothing out here,” I huffed, slightly annoyed. “Just sit here for two days and count it as some free hazard pay.”

“Guess that’s not too bad really…” The both of us fell silent as we simultaneously noticed a change in the atmosphere. The forest that had previously been alive now deathly quiet, not even the rustling of leaves in the wind. A stinging headache came up as I looked back at the soldier next to me giving me another surprise as I now sat alone in the observation post. A black mist had flowed into our post, smothering all light, and plunging me into darkness. The pressure in my head quickly became unbearable, making my eyes roll into my skull and placing me at the edge of consciousness.

What… the hell… is going on…

Once again gasping for air, I shot up from my sleeping spot, cold sweat covering the fur and feathers of my body. My eyes quickly adjusted to the dim light that was coming over the horizon as I was quickly reminded of my situation, stuck in a foreign body and a day-long trek under my proverbial belt. Last night I’d set up a little makeshift tent in the treeline and built a fire before going to sleep in my sleeping bag while cradling my assault rifle.

Sun is coming up anyway. Let’s get everything packed up so I can move the moment that there’s enough light.

After packing camp I strode further into the forest to search for signs of either civilization or prey…

Author's Note

And there's the new story I teased a while back to Spits Fire readers! I've got quite the backlog of chapters I'm going to release weekly so buckle up for that. More info on when they'll release will be in chapter 1 ahead

Hope you'll enjoy this ride!

Remember that comments are like authors' food, we gain energy from them. Constructive criticism is welcome.