Chapter 43: Chapter 43: Getting preyed on ain’t fun And it sure did take a long time.
By the time he was done, Rhian felt like he’d scrubbed off a layer of skin. But at least the blood was gone.
His uniform was soaked, clinging to his skin and still heavy with water, but it was better than being covered in green.
He stood, adjusting the wet fabric, then looked down at his left hand.
He pulled off the glove.
The skin underneath was a shade darker than the rest of his body. Slightly scaly in patches.
The texture wasn’t human, grey and veiny, and he noticed a bit of scales feature on it.
He crouched again and rinsed the hand carefully, rubbing water along the edges, watching as the pale color shimmered in the light. Then, without thinking much about it, he slipped the glove back on and sighed.
"Are you dressed? Can I come in?"
Nia’s voice came from the edge of the trees.
He cleared his throat. "Yeah, it’s fine."
She stepped in, brushing a branch out of her way. Her eyes briefly scanned the lake, then fell on him.
She pointed at her sword lying near the bank. "Forgot this."
Rhian nodded as she bent to grab it. He didn’t say anything. She didn’t rush to leave either.
Her eyes flicked once to his glove, and Rhian immediately shifted his arm behind his back. It wasn’t subtle. She noticed.
"You’ve been wearing that glove since I met you," she said. "What’s up with it?"
Rhian opened his mouth, the lie already there.
But he stopped.
Miss Liane’s words echoed in his head from that day a month ago, the day she told him to stop hiding from what he was. If the world rejected him, then he needed to at least stop rejecting himself.
He sighed again, not in defeat, but in decision.
He pulled off the glove.
The skin caught the light again, dull but noticeable. Scales near the base of the knuckles.
Nia didn’t say anything.
She just stared for a second, then looked back up at his face.
"That’s it?" she asked.
Rhian raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, that’s it?"
"I don’t know. I was expecting something worse." She shrugged. "Kind of underwhelming, honestly."
He blinked at her.
"I mean, it’s cool," she added quickly. "Just not, like... scary levels."
Rhian couldn’t help the small laugh that slipped out. "Thanks, I guess."
She pointed at the glove still in his other hand. "You gonna keep wearing it?"
He looked at it, thought for a second, then stuffed it in his pocket.
"Maybe not."
Nia gave a short nod, like she approved.
She didn’t say anything else about it. Just slung her sword over her shoulder and motioned with her head toward the others.
"Come on. We should head back before Ash starts making up stories."
Rhian followed, the wet uniform clinging to him again, but somehow feeling a little lighter.
Rhian looked at his hand and forced a smile.
He crouched, reaching to pick up the blade he had laid down near the water’s edge.
That’s when he heard it.
A shriek tore through the air, high-pitched and unnatural, something between an eagle’s screech and a woman’s scream, but too loud, too sharp. It rattled through his head and made his muscles tense without meaning to.
Rhian turned fast, but before his body could react, pain exploded in both shoulders. Talons, sharp and long viciously dug into his flesh like hooked blades.
His scream cut short as his feet left the ground.
"Ahhh!!"
He was in the air.
𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺 The wind hit him instantly as the creature beat its wings, lifting higher.
The thing hauling him upward wasn’t just a bird. Its lower body was avian, large and covered in thick, black feathers, but the torso above was humanoid, female actually, lean, gray-skinned, and breast flaying around, its arms folded with jointed wings, and a face stretched too long.
The mouth was wide with jagged teeth and shrieking eyes that glowed yellow in the sockets.
He felt the claws twist, jerking him violently. Blood ran down his back. Panic took over.
"NIA!!" he yelled.
She was already running toward him. Her sword dropped somewhere behind her.
The moment Rhian passed overhead, she jumped.
Her arms locked around his legs.
"Shit!" Rhian groaned as her weight yanked down hard, nearly ripping him in half. His pants almost tore or pulled off, and the monster shrieked again, adjusting mid-flight.
"NIA, LET GO—"
"SHUT UP!"
She climbed her grip slightly, arms straining as the two of them dangled in the air. The pain in Rhian’s shoulders grew worse. His skin burned where the claws dug in.
Below, Ash was already sprinting toward the lake’s edge, yelling something no one could hear clearly.
Iris reached for her gear, preparing for something, but they were too far. Aras had both hands raised, his brow tight as he focused, trying to catch the monster in his range, but it was rising fast, just beyond his reach.
Ash stared up at the open sky, his usual grin nowhere in sight. His jaw was tight, and his eyes narrowed as he tracked the shrinking shape above them, Rhian and Nia, clutched in the talons of a monster none of them had seen before.
His fingers curled at his sides. One second too slow, and they were gone.
Aras stood still, arms lowered now, frustration clear on his face.
His core surged with energy, but it wasn’t enough. The monster had flown just beyond the edge of his gravity field.
"I could’ve gotten them," Aras said under his breath, the words dry and sharp. "If it had just dipped once... just once more..."
Iris didn’t respond immediately. She had one knee on the ground, eyes fixed on the fading direction the creature had flown. Her expression was hard to read, but her silence said enough.
She didn’t have the tools to reach them. Her speed meant nothing when the battlefield was sky, even if she transformed to her true form.
Ash, meanwhile, didn’t shout. He didn’t scream or ask for a plan. He just bent down and picked up a small rock. Without looking and thinking, he threw it high and far into the trees.
No one paid attention to where it went.
A soft thud echoed in the distance, and a black-feathered raven dropped from a branch, neck twisted unnaturally. It landed with a quiet thump in the brush. None of them saw it.
Ash sat down next to the water, elbows on his knees. He muttered something no one could catch.
Iris glanced at him, then looked back at Aras.
"He’ll be fine," she said. "it’s Rhian and Nia, I’m sure they’ll survive"
Aras didn’t reply, but he nodded once.
She turned fully toward him, voice quieter now.
"We need to think. That thing wasn’t just flying randomly. It was heading toward something."
Aras ran a hand through his hair, slowly refocusing. "The weight shift, when Nia grabbed him, it dipped. It didn’t have enough power to stay high for long."
Iris nodded. "So it’ll nest somewhere close. Maybe in the cliffs or high trees. It wouldn’t risk long-distance flight carrying two people. One of them would’ve dropped."
She stood, dusting her legs.
"We find the nest. We move fast. If they’re alive, we reach them before that thing decides to eat or drop them."
Ash didn’t move right away. But after a moment, he stood, brushing off his hands. Still quiet.
Iris stepped beside him and tapped his shoulder. "He’s not dead. Don’t sit like he is."
Ash looked at her. Then, back up at the sky.
"I know," he said, voice low but steady. "I just hate watching people I care about get taken."
Aras was already moving. Iris followed, glancing back only once before breaking into a run.
Ash stood one more moment by the water. Then he turned and followed.
The hunt was on.