I clutched my ribs. It felt as If a thousand knives were puncturing me at any moment. Every step was heavy enough to shake the earth and my breathing was light and quick.
Nevertheless I pressed on as I was intoxicated by the truth I had seemed to discover. 'Hero... I'm the Hero!' I thought, failing to stifle a grin. After all those of years of yearning and suffering I was finally being rewarded for it. I silently talked God, or perhaps even Goddess as it seemed to be a staple of the genre. Ignoring my tangent, I thought once again about what awaited me. Adventure,camaraderie,fame,riches,power! All of it would be mine!
However before all of that,I would need to get out of this forest. I rested against a tree. It's bark was white and peculiarly,extremely smooth more like a cylinder. Leaves red in colour fell down and contrasted with the white,as If a gory, bloody, scene had taken place on top of and stained the trees. Regardless It did provide some comfort. Still, it couldn't get rid of the suffocating air.
The air felt ... heavy.
And it wasn't just because I could barely breathe regardless.
It felt as If there was some sort of invinsible pressure weighing in on the air itself.
I trudged along making sure not to my injure myself further as the 'road' (if it could even be called that) was full of twist and turns, roots and branches making for a nasty surprise due to the abundant amount of trees.
It wasn't that I was worried about though. I was being watched.
I could hear it with the rustles of the leaves every time I got a little too close to the greenery, and I could feel a thousand gazes piercing, into my back. Of course I wasn't all that concerned . No doubt if the time came i could handle it,maybe with some struggle to keep things interesting. Or maybe I would simply be conveniently saved by an important character, as my plot armour kicked in.
I was feeling a bit anxious though, so I focused my mind and at the same time shouted "Status Window!".
Nothing happened.
I tried again.
And again.
And again.
Still nothing.
I stopped once it hurt to go on. It seemed I had not inherited a status window. It wasn't much but a seed of doubt grew in my heart.
No matter. It's a shame I had no status window but I'm sure that my powers must have simply manifested in another way.
I walked more trying not to fall over.
And that's when it hit me.
A shadow given solid form seemed to hit me with the power of a semi-truck.
Crunch!
For the second time that day I felt something else shatter. I let out a shrill scream,one which seemed to scare every bird around the area as they all flew away in a cloud of black. Or that's what It seemed like from my blood stained vision. Practically all I could see was died red,unbelievably so.
Despite that however I looked to see what was on top of me. I had seen many since I got here. And felt. And smelt. And heard. But what lay on top of me surpassed all those things combined. Actually it wasn't laying on top of me,because if it was, I wouldn't even be a splatter on the ground.
It was large .
Large enough to see over the already large trees and then some. It was clear it held a lot of power in its wide stature . It seemed to be a bird. But that was the thing.
Something was wrong about it.
So very wrong.
I felt it in the air let alone looking at it. I was now sure the pressure in the air I had felt before was not me imagining things. This thing. It was the cause behind it. And it had seemed to only get stronger as it invaded my body,dominating it,refusing to allow me to breathe. The 'bird' flapped it's wings. All five of them. Two on one and three on the other side. Each flap seemed to change the winds direction. It's wings curved in such a way it resembled blades. They seemed sharp enough to cut through steel like butter. It's claws were no better either. The talons were akin to longswords. And the claw wasn't shapes like that of a birds. It was alarmingly similar- no identical to a human hand. It clutched wiggled it fingers,fidgeting much like a real human hand aswell.
Suddenly it pierced the ground next to my head as the 'bird' bent down. It's feathers seemed to be black,yellow,blue, red,sliver,etc. It refracted in such a way it was as if every colour of the spectrum was present. It hurt my brain the more I looked at it. It's beak did seem deinfintively yellow in colour along with the thousands of sharp needle-like teeth inside.
And finally I had caught a glimpse of its eyes. Three on each side of its head. All the same colour,or should I say colours. It was a mix of blue and gold intertwined in a vortex with a black iris in the middle. The iris spread all over the eye in tiny cracks as If it was slowly taking it over. Coupled that with the fact that no light seemed to carry in those eyes,it made a truly ghastly sight as If staring into the eyes of a corpse. That wasn't the part that terrified me though.
Something else was hidden in those eyes. Something I couldn't quite describe. And as it stared at me I felt... kinship?
The air silenced and i felt a strange warmth inside. The bird seemed to come closer. It gazed at me and for a second I also saw a flair of recognition.
And just before I tried communicating with it-
I felt a talon pierce my arm cutting through it like butter.
All that kinship was gone in an instant, and the birds eyes seemed full of madness.
My consciousness slipping by the second as despair engrossed my heart. Was this really how my story would end? I thought... i was supposed to be the hero. I thought i was given a second chance after all my suffering. Was it all just a foolish dream? 'No. No! I won't let it end like this!'
An anger flared within me bubbling up before finally popping. If I was going down ,I wasn't going to go down without a fight. Using every ounce of strength I could muster, I looked at my now detached arm. It seemed that a piece of a talon,the size of a dagger was still stuck inside. Using my other arm I gripped on to it, ignoring the bleeding, and yanked it out before trying to shove it as far and deep as I could into the birds eye.
too weak.
I was far too weak.
I couldn't accomplish even that.
So i stabbed its human-claw-hand instead. A scream that greatly outdid my previous record-setter was made by the bird and in its eyes i caught glimpses of shock,confusion even, and rage beyond belief.
I was glad that was the last thing I saw as my consciousness faded. This was the end.
But again regrets teemed into my heart. Despite the fact this was supposed to be the start of my new adventure,it had to end like this, huh? I was killed by a random beast on my very first day after already having my ribs shattered. And I couldn't even manage to take an eye let alone kill it. It seems... this as far as I would go.
I caught something with my ears in my finals moments though. It seemed to be shouting. I couldn't understand what they were saying, likely due to me dying, but then an explosion rang out and everything went dark.
Then I awoke in a cabin.