foreign to people Chpt. 1-7

Chapter 1:

My best friend was another winged human type creature like me but he was older than me and had a broken wing, he never talked. He just showed me how to survive by acting it out as best he could. He was like a father to me, we never missed a day of practice, we would swim,run through the woods, practice dodging and a lot more fun stuff through the years. I assumed he had taken care of me since birth or he had found me somewhere. At one point he agreed on making a name for each of us, I would be Nozaki and his name would be Soiki. We live in a world where humans rule over the creatures of the earth, the animals and the original creatures. The humans refer to us, the original creatures, as monsters but for some reason when they see me lingering at the edge of the woods they go speechless, not in a bad way but like they are looking at something amazing. Unfortunately one day when I found out their true nature when I was fifteen still very young for our species I heard something coming from a nearby village the humans had built not long ago. I decided to go towards the strange noises but came to realize the noises were going to come to me, before I could reach the forest edge Soiki came running at me from behind and grabbed my hips thrusting me in the air about twenty feet. I instinctively started flapping and saw him from below, at that point he was screaming at me to fly away and forget about him and this place. It was the first time I had heard his voice but also the last, he used a deadly hissing voice that was like nothing I had ever heard before. I did as he commanded and started to fly away but I could never follow his words completely, I would never forget about him or my home. Not long after I started to fly I turned north and looked back to see flames shooting out of the trees below, my home and everything I had ever loved was being destroyed and sent up into flames by the creatures known as humans. I would never forget what they had done, most importantly I would never forgive them. At that moment I decided I would get my revenge on the humans but I knew I couldn’t do that with my weak child body, I would have to get stronger and survive until the day I could pay them back. After the longest flight of my life I decided to take a break and land near a ravine, there had to be water at the bottom and maybe some small animals I could snack on if I made a weapon. I landed near the edge of the ravine and gathered some branches from the nearby forest, as I was walking around gathering wood I heard a strange voice. It was a soft woman’s voice but it wasn’t quite a woman, when I looked around I found a large panther and two small cubs but before I knew it the adult panther had spotted me and hissed “Leave us be human!” strangely enough I understood what she said and slowly spread out my wings from behind while speaking in a small voice,

“Ma’am I don’t mean you any harm, let alone could I” she softened her expression and slowly approached me. I quickly took a few steps back for safety but she was too quick and surrounded me with her long beautiful body

“Little one where are you from?” I wasn’t sure how to answer that so I just pointed in the direction I came from and she seemed to understand. Not long after she cradled me she got up to comfort her two cubs,

“Lea, Pron this is not a human. This is something special, you will only meet one once in a lifetime so be respectful” then the two little cubs calmed down and came up to me. They sniffed my feathers then rubbed up against me,

“Hey hey! That tickles!” I shouted out, they quickly went back to their mother with sad expressions and whispered “mama what about Leo?” the mother gave them a cold stare and said,

“Forget about him, he isn’t family” with those words I couldn’t hold back my anger, just like the sun coming up from the horizon my face grew red with anger and I couldn’t help but scream

“What the hell? You would just leave one of your own to die! What kind of mother are you?!” and she started to walk off without answering me. She kept walking for a minute then stopped and looked back for a slip second and whispered,

“If you want to save him so badly look on the ledge, then you’ll understand” then disappeared into the jungle with her two cubs. As soon as they were out of sight I darted for the ravine dropping all the wood in my hands, once I reached the edge I heard a small cry and this time I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I looked over the edge and saw a small lion cub about ten feet down, it looked like it’s shaking and was scared so I reached my hand down to try and reach it but it didn't notice me, instead it covered it’s head with its paws. He gave me no choice so I extended my wings and glided down to the ledge and tapped the cub on the shoulder, it immediately swung at me claws extended I shouted “woah!” and jumped off the ledge losing my balance. I fell about five feet before being able to hover again. When I looked up I saw the little lion looking down with a relieved face and I said,

“Were you worried?” and giggled a little. As I made my way up to the ledge once again I hover near the lion,

“Hey, what do you say we work together to survive? I need a friend and you want back up there right?” the little lion gives me a small meow “I’ll take that as a yes!” so I reach towards the lion and grab him by the arms. Before we lift off the ledge I speak to him “You're going to have to get used to this, okay?” he just nods and up we go. Once we reach the top I set him down as we land but he doesn’t leave my side, instead he curls up by my feet “Hey, we have to keep a move on; the day just started” so I continue to walk at the edge of the ravine and he follows. After walking for the whole day we find ourselves surrounded by thick shrubs but just then Leo points his nose in a direction in the shrubs and at the same time we gasp in sync. We found ourselves looking at a giant flower that was glowing blue, when we got to it me and Leo looked at each other and I said “It’s not just me who wants to drink it right?” he shook his head like he was saying we shouldn’t “Oh what do you know” I say sarcastically and head for the giant flower. When I peered inside there was a water like substance so I reached both hands in not thinking about the consequences. I immediately regret doing that because my hands turned into talons like a hawk. I screamed and took my hands out of it, spilling the liquid all over Leo, to my surprise my hands were normal again but my feet looked like a hawks! Before I knew what was happening I had turned into a giant brown hawk and as soon as I looked over to Leo and heard a blood curdling scream and I saw Leo turning into a human… with a tail! I quickly grab a large tropical leaf with my beak and throw it at him urging him to cover up. Leo graciously takes the leaf and covers himself, at this point all the liquid has seeped into the ground. Once the glow disappeared into the ground I was transformed into my human state and Leo was a small cub again I quickly grabbed my clothes off the ground and put them back on. As soon as I was dressed I looked over to Leo with a look of confusion and he looked the same, I finally worked up the courage to speak “Not a word” we both just nodded in silence. Once we both calmed down and headed away from the plant with caution, after all that I weirdly enough felt refreshed like I could walk a whole day's worth again and Leo looked the same “Okay well now that that’s over wanna take a walk?” Just as he was about to speak he turned human again we both screamed “Oh god!” I rushed over and plucked a bunch of huge tropical leaves and a couple vines hanging down, I somehow made a kind of tunic out of it all and threw it at him.

Chapter 2:

After a while of walking Leo finally spoke up “what the hell is happening?” we look at each other and I shrug while saying,

“No idea but we can talk now so that’s cool” when I said that Leo just gave me a glare and said,

“I’m wearing leaves dude” I nodded at him and had an idea. I stopped walking and tried to remember what it felt like to be the hawk again and poof I was the hawk! I attempted to say that I did it but all that came out was a squawk, I thought to myself “Right can’t talk” so I transformed back. Leo was just looking at me in astonishment “dude I just transformed on command! Okay you try it! All you have to do is imagine yourself doing it” just as I finished he did it too. We just look at each other and I tell him my plan “I’m a giant hawk… your a small cub, I’m gonna lift you!!!” I was shouting at that point. I was so happy about forgetting the whole incident that I just transformed and picked him up without hesitation and picked him up in my talons, as soon as I lifted him I heard

“Woah! Holy shit! Be careful!” as we’re gaining altitude I start to talk,

“Oh my god Leo! I can hear what your saying!” but I quickly realized it came out as a loud caw noise. We had been flying for about ten minutes now and Leo got comfortable in my large claws shaping them to his liking, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at him. We flew about five more minutes before finding a small town. I circled it before landing in a large tree on its outskirts. I set Leo down before landing myself on a higher branch and Leo spoke up to me “Okay we landed but I can’t climb down!” at this point someone is going to hear our animal chatter so I turned human again and tucked my wings into the back of my shirt

“Turn back, those humans are going to hear you” then he turned but his tail is still wagging and from behind him “I think you should stay here until I bring back some clothes to hide your… um…” I couldn't bring myself to say tail for some odd reason but he stopped it from wiggling and I jumped down to the ground with my wings hidden away. I thought about what the people would say because a weird kid is wandering around their village, I continued with caution anyway.

As I walk down the dirt path I notice something the village I once knew didn’t have, this village has hard red buildings. The buildings are not all red but most of them are and when I touch the material it seems like they’re being held together with something like mud, but this isn’t mud it is harder and stronger too. I feel like these humans have evolved more than the ones back home, they came up with these stronger buildings to survive the weather conditions. As I am thinking about these new revelations a woman walks up to me and crouches down “are you lost little boy?” I take a step back and glare at her but she continues pestering me

“Did you get separated from your parents?”. When she says that last word I can’t help but spit out my first thought,

“Why don’t you go look down on some other man?” the lady just smiles and says,

“Aren’t you a feisty little boy” then laughs. While her eyes are shut from laughter I disappear from the woman and run inside of a nearby building only to find out it’s someone’s home “Shit!”. Without thinking I closed the wooden door behind me so that lady couldn’t find me, besides nobody is home! While I walk around this new type of building the floor is still dirt, they have seemed to found out how to build not just baskets but boxes and tables too “Huh, I guess not all human race is stupid… actually they’re evolving a lot quicker than I thought” I sigh at my own words and rummage through they’re belongings. Just as I am about to quit I see some adult pants in a box “Score!” I grab the pants, just then I see a large orange shirt like none I’ve never seen before but grab it anyway. Once I leave the house I turn back to head to the tree I left Leo at, as i walk down the path I can’t help but notice a crowd gathering around the front of a building. I make my way over and crawl around the legs standing around, I scurry up to my feet in front of everyone and see there is a fight going on so I decide to pull a few pranks before heading out. I sneak up behind the large man with no shirt on and grab the some loose strings on his pants and yank them as hard as I can then make my way to the younger man who was fully dressed but had some kind of chewy food in his mouth so I put a feather inside his yapper and make off so quick nobody saw me.

Chapter 3:

I arrive at the tree to see Leo cat napping under the tree in his lion cub form,

“Thank god you’re not naked! Okay come on get up!” I say kicking him in the hips. Leo slowly opens his eyes and stretches so I grab him and start putting the clothes on him before he transforms “Hey quit squirming” and somehow manage to get it on him “Alright your fine now!” after I let him go he morphs into his teenager form fully dressed. I take a step back and notice how much taller he is than me, Leo bends down a little and looks at me with an evil grin

“What?” after questioning him he looks at the village not too far away. I look at where his eyes where at and see what looks like a food market, I quickly get the same evil grin and he says “You think we could pull it off?” I look up at him and reply with enthusiasm,

“No, I know I can do it. No offense but you are a little old to do this'' he just sits down and watches me walk up to a market salesman. Once I get to the stand I talk to the man in a small child voice “Um, sir can you spare any food?” the man looks down at my dirty clothes

“No way! Now scram you beggar!” just then a lady walks up behind him and her eyes land on me. I make the saddest eyes I can and start to walk away but am quickly stopped with a hand on my shoulder, I jump away because they almost felt my wing. The lady from the stand looks at me with gentle eyes

“Here, I'm sorry for my husband he can be a little rough” she hands me two bags filled with various foods and to my surprise there is a couple meats

“Wow! Thank you miss! Me and my brother can eat for a while now!” I spit out those pitiful words in a squeaky child voice. After hearing me she hands me two jugs

“And this is so you don’t dehydrate okay?” I look at her and nod vigorously. Once she stands back up I hastily make my way back to Leo. Leo is sitting under the tree enjoying the sun so I decide to test his abilities since we haven’t sparred yet, I grab an apple out of a bag and throw it with a little force aiming at his head. He easily catches it in his hand and throws it back with his eyes still shut then says

“You could throw a little harder you know” when the apple reaches me I catch it in my mouth.

“Mmm yep it’s good!”. We walk up to each other and bump fists I quickly hold up the bags.

“We could have gotten all this stuff in the rain forest where we came from, maaan that was humiliating” Leo rolls his eyes and we head back to the rain forest near the ravine to make camp for the night. The next day I wake up to rain splashing onto my wings then I notice something is up with my wings

“What the hell?” when I move my wing I see Leo tugging them back around him in his sleep “Hey jackass! Wake up and let go of my wing!” Leo looks up at me with a grumpy look but he lets go anyway. I reach over to the giant leaf covering our bags and reveal bites taken out of everything “Leo! What the hell did you do?!” After I scream Leo scrambles to a sitting position and looks over.

“Oh come ooon! I’m going to kill whoever ate our food!” and proceeds to let out a growl of anger. I am suddenly overcome with an uncontrollable hunger “I’m going hunting… you going to join?” Leo stands up and transforms into his lion cub form and starts walking off,

“You know you can’t hunt like that” then he glares at me with a fearsome look in his eyes. an idea pops into my head

“Oh! This time you’ll be the bait!” I grab Leo and open my wings to take off. After a large jump and a few flapping motions we’re off into the sky, after a few minutes Leo starts meowing with his paw pointing at a small opening a little ways away,

“Fine” I angle myself to go to the opening and start to descend. Once we land on the soft grass Leo jumps from my arms and runs off into the tall grass “Meet back here in a few hours you little squirt!” I hear him meow in response,

“I’ll take that as okay!”. After he heads out of sight I decide to wander around, Once I start walking I spread out my wings and let them dry off since we’re not in the rainforest right now. That tall grass could be good for training, when I walk into the tall grass I hear a bird chirping in the distance. I stealthily follow the sound of the bird and see a couple hawks flying around a large tree, this is my chance! I get a little closer before leaping into the sky and chase on of the larger hawks but it quickly starts fighting back while it’s friends fly away in fear and I shout at the bird,

“Let’s do this bird!” and the large bird understands and swoops around to claw me so I grab the talon in the nick of time and toss the bird down while losing balance with my wings. Damn I have to get used to flying tight turns again, the bird flaps it’s wings in a rage and comes at me from behind scratching my leg in the process. I decide to dive down with my wings tucked and the bird follows close behind, since the bird is close to my size it could pull this off but I doubt it has done anything like this before. I decide to shout at the bird “I may be small but I will grow up and be able to fight you with force!” instead of fighting with force I will outwit the damn thing. Right before hitting the top of the tall grass I open my wings in a flash and zoom like a rocket above the grass leaving the large bird crashing into the grass floor behind me and I can’t help but laugh at the sound it makes. While I continue zooming above the grass I see a hot spring up ahead, I start to backpedal my wings and slow down. Before I know it I'm soaking in the warm water only wearing a cloth over my lower body, my wings are spread out and I'm using them to swim around letting my sore arms rest beside my body. After a while of soaking I decide to get out and collect some berries from around the water “Nah, I don’t need to put my clothes on just yet” I whisper to myself while looking around the berry bushes nearby. Before I know it I'm a few yards away from the water when I suddenly hear,

“Mommy! Can we go get some of those pink berries?!” I cover myself as quickly as possible and make a run for the water. Damn it my legs aren’t fast enough I can’t make it to the pool of water! I jump into one of the large bushes and hide, I can’t exactly fly away with my wings this soaked either. A few seconds later I see a young girl about eight years old come up to the bush beside mine followed by her mother, I know I can’t just leave I mean I don’t have anything on but a cloth! Just then the little girl shrieks and falls to the ground and a snake head pops out of the bush next to me, welp guess that’s my meal! I stick my hand out of my bush and grab the preoccupied snake behind it’s head and pull it into the bush, this snake is big enough to feed me and Leo. I see the girl stand up and come over to me

“No! Don’t come closer!” and she jumps at my words then the mother comes over too “No! Please I don't have any clothes on!” both the ladies are speechless at my words so I try to help the situation “If you could please leave the area and let me grab my clothes that’d be great!'' The girls quickly make their way out of the area and I make a break for it to the hot springs. Once I get there I pull my pants on and get my shirt over my head “Wow, I was not expecting anyone to show up out here”. Time flies by as I walk back to the meeting spot with a handful of berries, when I arrive I see Leo looking pleased with himself “What’s gotten into you?” and he just smiles at me.

When I sit next to him I throw the limp snake body at Leo and he freaks out, he jumps into the air avoiding the dead snake

“Woah calm down dude, it’s dead” once Leo hits the ground he picks up the snake and throws it far into the tall grass “Heeeey that wasn’t needed!” he turns around with a gruesome look and punches my shoulder. After I finish my berries Leo starts to talk,

“I think this place is great, it’s got a stable environment and there isn’t a village near here. Ya’know we could make base at that large tree in the middle” I agree with him and we head to the tree with no hesitation. After a few days we have a small cave carved into the trunk for Leo and I make a huge nest out of twigs and mud with soft grass on top, we agree to only hunt when we need food and to practice our fighting skills every day so we don’t get rusty.

Chapter 4:

Twenty years go by in a flash and I’m still at the tree with Leo, as we are practicing out fighting skills one day I hear a strange noise coming from the rainforest and get distracted so Leo takes the opportunity to morph into his adult lion form and pounce me, pinning me to the ground with a loud roar in my ears I easily knock him off with a knee to the ribs.

I am finally at the teenager stage in my life and I can fight properly, on the other hand Leo has aged faster than me. I get up and Leo morphs back rubbing his ribs “man you didn’t have to be so rough ya’know” I roll my eyes at him and ignore his words. For some reason I feel like i’m being pulled towards that noise so I take off and head towards the noise leaving Leo behind, once I get to the noise I see there are people tearing down trees nearby, the peaceful goblin family that once lived there now is dead laying beside the torn out trees “damn humans what are they doing this far out? At this rate there won’t be any original creatures left!” I whisper to myself. It seems the humans haven’t spotted me yet so I land in a tree they’re about to tear down and shout in a deep voice “who do you think you are? Tearing down MY land and killing peaceful people with no reason!” the humans seem to tremble at my words. I swoop down and grab the large man by his neck and easily snap it leaving him limp, when I come down to the ground trapping the humans between my land and me I throw the man’s body to the ground and shout “why did you come here?!” with my pure white wings spread wide across the bare land. One of the men walk in front of the rest and speaks “we are here clearing land for some new buildings, who might you be?” I give the man a glare that could kill and in one long step am right in front of him “you can call me Devil, but that’s only if you live long enough to tell the tale” with my last words I grab him by the wrist and fly straight up only to drop him leaving a splat on the ground. The rest of them scatter into the woods and not before long I hear Leo roar while chasing one I shout down to him “leave one to tell the tale!” assuming he heard me I give a couple flaps and am high in the air once again. After a minute of flight I see smoke coming from a house in the distance and the memory of my forest catching on fire comes up from nowhere, before I know it i’m almost at the house. I make a quick landing and rush inside the burning house seeing if everyone was out, once I reach what looks like a kitchen I see a woman trapped by some flames. I leap over the fire and grab her by the waist flying out of a hole in the burning roof, when I land outside the house I feel a burning pain coming from my wing and it’s on fire “shit shit shit!” I quickly drag my wing into the dirt and put the fire out. When the fire is no longer on my wing I run back to the lady and ask “is there anyone in there?!” she just shakes her head in response “thank god…” I walk my way around the burning house and I finally get to use my skills. I run up to a couple trees close by and kick right through them making sure there is no way for the fire to spread cursing the whole time, once I was done with the trees I finally get to use my new skill so I walk to the front of the house and suck in a deep breath and quickly blew a gust of wind onto the house setting out the fire in one try. The embers were still lit and the woman is still standing baffled outside her house, I walk up to the woman and she falls to the ground “oh what now?! I didn’t hurt you did I?” she once again shakes her head “is that all you can do? I mean shaking your head” just then it looks like she came to her senses and stands up “thank god you’re okay, well bye!” when I jump into the air I feel something grab my leg and I can’t help but keep flapping so I don’t fall and snap a bone or something. I look down at my leg and see the woman holding on for dear life and I can’t help but scream“oh my god are you crazy?!” she has her eyes closed and won’t let go “come on let go!” she shakes her head and speaks for the first time “If i let go I’ll die!” i can’t help but agree with her but why should I care! I fall a little lower to the ground and try to shake her off my leg “god damn your stubborn! Just let go! Your low enough you won’t die!” with one last kick she finally falls off and lands on her ass. When I regain my balance I jet out of the area and fly around for a bit, after a few hours of petrol it’s dark out and I decide to head back to the tree. I get to the tree and immediately regret saving that lady from today because when I land on my branch I look down and see Leo talking to that woman, at that point i’m just pissed off and want to go to bed. I quietly make my way to my grass bed and plop down a little too hard, I fell through the bed straight into Leo’s lap. When i hit Leo i groan “damn it” and Leo throws me off with ease saying “anyway this is probably the guy your looking for!” with a huge grin on his face and he gives me a wink. The only person who can help Leo at this point is god because I lunge at him with full force and pin him to the ground yelling “why the hell is she here! You of all people know how much i hate them! If you don’t spit it out I will kill you!” after spitting those words into his face he kicks me in the stomach and leaps about five feet away. I grab onto his wrist and yank him into the air, it’s like he isn’t fighting back “why the hell won’t you fight back! Coward!” when he reaches the ground he transforms and jumps at me with power, I easily dodge him and parry with a counter attack to the base of his tail and he roars in pain and comes back to his human form screaming “damn you! Don’t use that against me!” and he made his way over to the woman who looks scared and frightened by what she just witnessed. I start walking my way over to them and Leo shouts at me “She came here to thank you! She even has a reward! So stop being a ass and hear her out!” I stop in my tracks and stare down the woman. After I called my breathing a little she speaks up in a quiet voice “u-um I came here to say thank you for saving me and I have something to give you” she stretches out her hand holding a large cloth bag that has a string tied around it and speaks up once more “it’s enough money to buy a decent house, I work for a foriegn country just north of here. I owe you my life, I hope this can make up what I owe you for a while. If you ever need anything please don’t hesitate to ask the country of Britia for help, just tell them Abigail silverton sent you and they won’t hesitate” with her final words she gently tosses the bag of coins to me from behind Leo. I stand up straight a look at Abigail with questioning eyes but decide to accept it and move on “So who is coming to take you back to the village or whatever?” after I ask that simple question she starts to blush and fittle with her hands and I become more irritated “Can’t you speak?” with that she shoots her head up and quickly says “I was hoping you could take me, the village is quite a ways away and th-this country doesn’t have any cars” Leo finally steps away from her and comes up to me with a sadistic grin, I can’t help but ask in a hushed voice “what do you have planned now? And before you answer I am not doing it” Leo looks upset at my words and pulls me a bit aways.

After we walk a few yards away Leo stops and grabs my shoulder saying “Man how long are you going to hold a grudge? The humans are evolving and we need to adapt with the times too. Now is a good time to tell you… I’m going to live in the savannah” my eyes go wide at his sudden confession and i know exactly what he means so I say “I know, we’ve been through a lot together but you need to be with your own kind right?” he just nods and gives me a hug before whispering into my ear “you need to move on… find a flock of your own or something, okay?” with that last part a tear falls down my cheek because there are no others, there is nobody like me left in the world. Me and Soiki were the last survivors of our species but I couldn’t bring myself to talk about it, not now, not ever. Leo finally pulls away and walks over to Abigail saying “I’ll give you a ride back! Don’t worry I don’t bite, on the other hand I think Nozaki might” after telling her that he morphs into a lion and she climbs on holding onto his fur, wow that’s gotta hurt. The two of them make their way out of the tall grass and head to the village, I decide I should probably keep a look out for Leo and jump into the air catching the breeze of spring in my feathers. When I finally spot Leo it looks like someone is about to collide with him, as I look closer I see it’s a heard of horses, no it’s a heard of horses with riders carrying swords! I flap my wings as hard as I can to catch up but the wind is against me and a storm is coming in, I keep my eyes on Leo the whole time I try to catch up but it’s no use. I don’t make it in time and before he knows what’s going on he is surrounded and roars of pain full my ears, all i can see from this high up is the slashing of flesh and blood splattering the ground. I call out to him as loud as my voice can go “No! Leave him be!” but they didn’t care they just kept striking him and tied him in ropes so he couldn’t fight back while still in his lion form. There is finally a break in the wind and I rocket down to Leo only to land in the middle of the humans while they laugh at his limp body getting ready to finish him off. I quickly spin knocking them all of their horses in one swing, the horses start freaking out and run off so I lung at the one who seemed to be in charge and tore his throat out using my bare hand that had grown razor blade claws on ear finger. My next target is the closest human and from there on it was a massacre filled with human blood and pleas of mercy, I wouldn’t give them mercy even if they were a god themselves. One by one they all died in a flash of fury, within five minutes they were all just pieces scattered across the ground and their blood was on everything in sight. Just as I am about to go over to Leo the women named Abigail is crouched down on the ground in the distance, I ignore her and head over to Leo covered in the blood of those disgusting humans. I fall down by Leo’s head and cling onto him crying, trying to let him know i’m there and not a moment later I hear the last breath my best friend will ever take and I whisper into his ear “find someone better than me in your next life” with that I clinch my fist and prepare to dig a hole. Before I start digging I march my way over to the women, wings spread out wide and large, and speak in a loud commanding and frightful voice “You will make sure nobody ever comes near here again, let the humans of the world know they now have a reason to fear us original creatures because I will do what the miserable humans have done to me” when I finish speaking she scrambles to her feet and runs off into the woods.

Chapter 5:

I swing my wings at all the nearby trees and knock them down with ease, after the trees have fallen with a crash I pick them up one by one and make a large square around the hole I dug. After putting my only friend into the deep pit I cover it with dirt and make my way over to the human bodies from before I take each human skull from their lifeless bodies and place them around Leo’s grave. I give a deep bow to the grave and put a curse one the surrounding area chanting and praying so that anyone who would come near this grave would be cursed and forgotten by everyone they’ve met, as the final act of the ritual I pour blood from a horse onto the dirt above Leo.

I make my morphed fingertips turn back into normal fingers and feel the blood on my hands start drying, I jump into the air and fly back to my now lonely home. When I land on the ground near MY tree i head over to Leo’s cave that had been carved into the tree twenty long years ago, I see his blanket we had stolen from a village child once and can’t help but laugh at the memories we had made but something was bothering me and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Just as I sit down in the spot Leo used to sleep in, something hurts my back, I remove the thing hurting my back to see the bag of gold coins in my blood stained hands. As I stare at the bag I remember seeing a blacksmith shop in a nearby town and think,

“I bet I could get a pretty good weapon for this but that means i’d have to deal with humans” as I ponder these ideas I fall asleep thinking about it. When I wake up I remember the events of yesterday and cringe at the thought of being around living humans who just enjoy being weak and waste the last of their meaningless time on earth doing who knows what. I stand up still holding onto Leo’s blanket, after looking down at the blanket it hits me that I need to move on once again. I don’t want to move on, I don’t want to leave without my revenge. With a grim expression I jet into the air and within a minute I am at the blacksmith’s shop, when I step in the shopkeeper looks startled but I couldn’t care less. When I walk up to the counter in the back of the shop a slick black sword catches my eye and I call over to the shopkeeper “How durable is this?” and I point to the sword as he walks over and says,

“Th-that is our greatest creation yet, it is the sharpest and will last longer than any other sword. It is made of a rock-like material so it will not rust in water” after he is done explaining he picks up the sword off its pedestal and hands it to me. It’s a thin sword but heavy enough to do some damage, it’s handle is the same material as the sword itself like it was carved out of one rock. I look to the man and throw my bag of coins at him, just as I’m about to leave he speaks up to me “S-Sir this is too much, at least let me give you this ruby sword too” I grab the sword from him and put it in a sheath attached to my hip along with the other, before walking out I give the man a nod and leap into the sky. I have to flap a little harder with the new weight of these swords but it isn’t too different, now I'm headed off to the village those men from yesterday came from. When I arrive above the town I circle it watching the people from above,

they’re just walking around with smug smiles on their faces not knowing what it’s like to lose a loved one and with that thought I dive down smashing through the roof of a building and screams come from around the building while the roof caves in. I quickly silence the humans around me by crushing the mans skull in my fist and the woman near him goes silent as the crimson blood splashes her face, I walk out of the home and walk down the road. When I pass a larger woman I send her flying with a quick but powerful kick to the throat and she lands in front of a small child with her heads on backwards, the child screams and a large crowd gathers around the woman's corpse so I take my shot and pull the ruby sword from it’s spot on my hip and lunge at the crowd only leaving a few woman and the child standing while the rest fall to the ground leaving a pool of blood under the bodies. The woman stared at me with mouths wide open and I shouted to the town,

“This warning will only be given once! Leave the original creatures be and remove yourselves from this land, if you don’t there will be more bloodshed than you can imagine!” the townspeople scatter like bugs and hide in their buildings they are so fond of and I decide to smash a few homes before flying off into the distance. I can’t help but feel relief as I fly from the town with blood stained clothes…I start to think to myself “I am not done, there hasn’t been justice yet”.

Chapter 6:

After flying for a while the sun is starting to set in the horizon so I start to backpedal my wings and slow down, finally everything is no longer a blur bellow me and I see a small run down building with a sign saying “Drunken Cavern”. I gracefully land on a tall tree dropping a few feet to land on a mid way branch, I look at the ground beneath me and it seems clear enough for me to come down. I jump down from about fifteen feet above the ground, once i hit the dirt I walk towards where the tavern is.before I go up a couple steps I tuck my wings into my shirt and am quickly met with a huge wooden door with a metal hook for a handle, I grab the hook and push the door with a little force but made it swing open hitting the booth behind it. I ignore the banging noise it made and continued up to the bar and take a seat but not much time goes by before a couple men approach me from behind and the tall black haired one says,

“Hey your in my spot newby” I continue ignoring him until he places a hand on my shoulder trying to force me to face him but has no luck. The man finally steps to the side of me and attempts to swing a punch at my face but only to be grabbed by my own hand blocking any chance of escape then the man tries to pull away and I grip him even harder leaving a cracking echo around the bar. The man starts pleading,

“Hey man let go! You're breaking my hand! Someone stop him!” I finally get annoyed with his voice and glance over to him and in a sharp tone speak down to him,

“Oh am I mistaken? Didn’t you just try to punch me?” after hissing out those words I punch the man in his nose but still holding his hand so he just goes limp falling to the floor only being held up by the hand I held. Soon enough I am approached by two more men a little taller than the one on the floor, they don’t even say a word before going in front and behind me. I calmly speak to the man in front “May I help you?” the one with long brown hair behind me snorts in laughter, I felt a really bad urge to smack him across the table with my wing but right now I needed somewhere to sit for a while. When I was done thinking for a second the man in front swung a right hook and I quickly lean down to pick up a cup that was knocked over making him smack the guy behind me right in the cheek. When I stand back up I glance over my shoulder and can’t help but say “Oooh wow that must’ve hurt” with a very sarcastic voice but that seems to piss him off even more and he lunges at me so I grab both his arms and swing him around a couple times because I know he had a couple of those weird drinks the man behind the counter gave him, once I’m done I shout “Off you go!” and release him into the middle of the bar and he topples over a table and smacks his head against the floor “ouch night night little man” and he just lays there. I am glad that’s all over and walk behind the bar to grab some of that rustic looking liquid but the the man who was serving them stops me saying,

“Sir you can’t be back here, please don’t touch the alcohol” I walk around him and grab the bottle of what he called alcohol and walked out of the building.

Chapter 7:

I felt very uncomfortable and started backing up the stairs, that’s when she darted at me and grabbed my wrist. I made an unnerving noise when she lifted my arm,

“Can I help you?” she kept examining my body so I tried to gently shake off her hand but it was no good. She started up the stairs still holding onto me with her dainty hands, we reached the top and she started ranting to the young man,

“You snuck a friend on our boat and now look at that window! I can’t believe you let this happen! I wish you would take better care of this boat! I’ve never met this friend of your and why does he have barely anything on?” with those last words I knocked off her hand and took a step back with my hands in the air. I have never met someone like her before, she seems to never run out of breath. The young man starts talking back to her saying the truth like

“He just showed up” and “I’ve got no clue who he is” the woman looks at me from a side view and understands the situation. I felt awkward as hell and felt the need to say something,

“Uh, hi there. I was in the ocean and found your boat so I decided to get on and take a break… I hope that’s okay” I fibbed a little but I can live with that. It doesn’t seem like they wanted to kick me off but it was uncomfortable in every way possible “I was hoping you had a spare shirt” the young man nodded and went into the cabin. When he came out he handed me a black shirt “Can I borrow a knife?” the woman looked like I was going to kill her or something. I mean I don’t blame her for that considering what happened. She took a knife out from her back pocket and handed it to me, I cut two large slits in the back of the shirt and slipped it on. I stretched my wings out but for some reason I couldn’t see them “What that hell?” I shook my feathers and they appeared from thin air “Oh thank god” I let out a sigh of relief and jumped off the boat catching a gust of wind and floating upward with the air. The moment I look down I see the two of them open mouthed and staring at me. I stroke my wings down toward the sea and rise a tremendous height, I remember a spot where seafolk had deemed it holy to their people so I set off to the south gliding along the breeze. I am nearing the spot that was more holy than any other on earth but I got a bad feeling as I came near. I was now flying above the triangle of the sea and everything below me looked like man made objects had crashed into the ocean, I couldn’t understand why there were so many crashes in the area. I lowered myself near the ocean and reached my hand into the water, as soon as my hand touched the surface there was a electric shock sent down my back “Oh fucking lord that was not pleasant!” it was only for a moment that I felt the shock but when it went away I felt something new on the spine of my back. When I flexed there was a line of feathers going all the way down my back, like a dragon had scales to open and close I now had feathers to do so. My shirt was making it very uncomfortable so I stopped flexing my new feathers and rose from my position near the water. It would probably be best to learn more about the new world I live in, I should just put up with the humans until I get a better understanding of what happened. I tilted my wings and got swept into the current of air, the wind here is much stronger than where or uh… when I used to be, it was a lot easier to coast on currents of air instead of having to flap all the time. I know there is nobody I know in this world so I will have to find someone to help me. I decide to keep heading south for a while and I reach some land, this land also has a beach on its outskirts. I land in a small nearby patch of trees, when I get steadied I tuck my wings in and once again they turn invisible “Huh that's useful” when I whispered to myself apparently someone heard me while they were walking by,

“Hello, is somebody there?” it was a very young boy with a small voice. I look down at the boy through the branches and talk to him,

“Hi, my name is Nozaki, do you know anyone around here?” the boy takes a liking to me and starts to cheer up,

“Yeah mister! My family lives in that house across the bridge!” I keep talking to him about trivial things like hobbies and foods until he asks me if I will come down,

“I will come down if you promise to bring me a snack of some sort, how about that? Hell we can even share it bud” he gives me a huge smile and shouts,

“Okay I will be right back!” I chuckle at him and climb down from the tree. That kid is so sure and innocent I don’t know how such a human can exist, he is a little skinny for his age but other than that he seems like a good boy. I start walking in circles around the tree and spot a big red brick fence surrounding the area, my feet are on top of luscious green grass. Then hear the boy returning to me along with some other foot steps, soon enough I hear a woman say,

“Who is this friend of yours anyway?” the boy just laughs and runs up to me,

“Hey there bud!” After I greet the boy with a smile the woman stops in her tracks and stares at me. She doesn’t seem mad, so that’s a good sign, maybe she thinks I am ugly. I notice she looks to be about eighteen or so and she is wearing a silky black dress that goes to her knees and the rest of the way is lacing, the sleeves are short but it also has lacing then I see a tight necklace on her throat that looks like it would choke her. After she is done looking at me she starts running back to the house not far from here screaming something about it being hot and something about me being a man. I crouch down to the boy’s level and we start talking together,

“Hey, bud what’s your name?” he looks at me with his brown hair dangling in his face and says his name is James and gives me a great big smile with some cheery green eyes staring up at me. This boy seems to have no cares in the world.

“Hey what snack did you bring us?” James holds out some nuts within a sack and frowns like he did something bad,

“Hey are those cashews? Good score!” his frown is turned upside down at my words and he hands me the bag. I take a small handful and give him the rest. “You need to eat too, they’re filled with protein so you can grow up big and strong” We eat our cashews together but it’s not long before two people join us, the young girl and an older woman who looks about forty. The older woman looks at James with a worried expression,

“James do you know this man?” he looks up and nods his head saying,

“He’s my friend from the tree! Don’t worry he is a nice man!” then she turns to me with a questioning glare,

“Ma’am it’s just as he says, I am his friend from the tree!'' I heartily laugh “Oh I’m sorry I’m sorry! I wandered into the area and decided to take a nap on that large branch right there” I say that pointing at the branch I was perched on. The woman seems to believe my story but is still standing there “I’m sorry if I caused any issues, I just arrived in this country and I am not acquainted with the laws and customs of the land nor am I affiliated with the history” after I finished explaining the younger girl runs up to me and grabs my hand,

“Oh my gosh are you a history nerd?! I can totally teach you everything you need to know about america!” I lean back the more she leans in toward me. I veer my eyes to their mother begging for some assistance until she speaks to them,

“Julie! Leave the man alone, he is probably tired. He did say he was trying to take a nap earlier” she waves at her daughter to come back to her and she does. I turn to the boy with the giant smile,

“Well I should probably get going bud, I am sure if I stay here it would cause some issues. Oh but before I leave I have a gift you can have, it’s quite pretty” I reach into the back of my shirt and pluck a giant white feather that has been bugging me for a while. When I hand it to the boy I talk to his mother,

“Don’t worry it’s clean and the quill is not sharp” she looks relieved when I hand it to him. He starts stroking it like you would a dog and thanks me,

“No problem bud, well I’m off now!” I stand up from my crouching stance and head over to the big red fence. I turn around to wave at them but before I know it James latches onto my leg “Woah hey there, what cha doing?” without speaking he looks up at me with tears in his eyes “You know I can’t stay here. I would be intruding on everyone you live with” he starts whimpering like a dog still holding onto my leg. That’s when Julie starts talking to her mother,

“Mom, maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to let him stay for lunch. James seems to be very attached to him, it might be a good influence” she has a smile on but I know that kind of smile, she’s up to something. The mother looks over at me and James with a sigh and nods her head. Julie waves us over and James finally lets go of me “Yaaay Mr.Nozaki is having lunch with me! Wee!” we made our way over the small bridge above a river and went into a garden,

“These Anthurium flowers are beautiful in the sun” I start pointing out and naming flowers that I know as we walked. When we reach the back of the house there are some chairs with a long wooden table. Everyone walks into the house but I just stand outside the door “Uh excuse me but I lost my shoes when I came over the fence and my feet are dirty, I wouldn’t want to get dirt on you floor” Julie looks down at my feet as if she hadn’t noticed I was bare foot and said,

“Oh we have a hose you can use, let me show you how it works!” she races past me and squats near a green long flexible pipe. She explains it's a hose and turns a latch, soon there is water coming from the hose,

“Woah” she laughed at my reaction and handed me the hose. I poured the water all over my feet and the dirt came right off, I shook my feet dry. We walked into the large house and I was brought to a large table in a smaller room, I sat down at the table then James came running up to me still holding the feather he sits down in the chair beside mine. The mother sat across from me and told me a few things,

“My name is Cassey, you know my kids James and Julie. James has trust issues but it seems he bonded to you right away… why is that?” Cassey looks at me, I can’t tell what she is thinking so I am honest,

“I guess he saw something special in me, I’m not sure what but I will be sure not to let him down” she smiled at my words and I patted James on the head as he listened in on our conversation. James doesn’t talk a lot unlike his sister, speak of the devil. Julie came out from the other room with something in her hand, she was talking into it and giggling,

“Uh, may I ask what that thing she has is?” suddenly Julie jolts up at me and starts talking really fast,

“Oh my gosh you don’t know what a phone is? My friends are going to have a hayday with you! I am talking to Sarah right now, I bet you she can come over! MOM CAN SARAH AND KALLEY COME OVER?!” she shouted over to her mom right in front of my ear, great now I’ve got a headache…