5 Soul Food

[Eternal Kin]

|Death Eternal herself has Blessed you and adopted you into her family, granted the Title [Fledgling Eternal] and upgraded system Privileges

-"We will be your family, as long as you will have us."|

*******

*whoosh*

well, I didn't die. but flying feels really different than what I had imagined.

I had, as one would expect, started falling rapidly after jumping out from the cliff. luckily my instincts didn't require any prompting to kick in and my wings snapped open and turn my plummeting fall into a graceful glide.

the odd part was when i decided to take the wheel and gain some altitude, my wings flapped with far greater ease than I had thought and I was sent rocketing upwards unexpectedly. after recovering from the additional panic flaps that sent me into a completely horrifying- yet awfully comedic series of flips, my flight skill had leveled up and I had leveled out.

It turns out Petrels fly in a similar way to bats, using their wings to rapidly push themselves and then gliding to maintain altitude and direction. this meant I would be able to cover ground very easily- but also meant that It would be rather hard to remain in one place while in the air without expending alot of energy.

after I had adapted a bit better to my flying I quickly raced towards where I had seen all the other Petrels fly off. I figured just catching up to then should help my skills level up, in fact, I quickly realised something else. now that I was out of my nest, I could see and smell a lot more than I had as a human. I could even smell a scent that dinstinctly screamed 'me'. it even, very clearly formed a trail towards my nest.

"And that's damn handy."

|Skill Gained [Scent Tracking]|

what was even better was apart from my own scent, I could smell alot of familiar-yet-distinct scents leading in the direction all of my birdy friends had headed!

|Attribute Gained [INT] +1|

apparently using your brain makes you more intelligent? or maybe Learning more skills does... more experiments to do. "but for now, we fly!"

and fly, and fly, and...

|Attribute Gained [STR] +1|

|Skill Leveled Up|

|[Winged Flight] Level 3|

"aaaand worth it. note to self, 'weak little birdy' + 'flying is actually hard excercise that uses an amazing amount of my muscles' = future swol' birdy"

unfortunately I had finally caught up with my new birdy friends and had no further time to grind flying proficiency and stat points, but the nearer I got the better I could translate the instincts my bird-brain kept bringing to my attention! and truth be told I had a feeling that catching my own dinner would still help with both of those tasks anyway.

The flock -I guess my flock now, were split into two groups. one group was overwatch, circling a section of ocean and keeping an eye looking towards the water and the other to the sky. the second group were fairly dispersed, just above the surface of the water, literally hopping along the surface, using their feet to patter the waves over and over. together the several thousand birds covered a remarkable amount of ocean, constantly moving, but still maintained a close enough group to assist any members of either group that got themselves into trouble. from afar it was chaotic, but really cool.

"would any predators really cause such a large flock any trouble? do they really need to take so many precautions?"

meanwhile my question was answered in by a slightly smaller Petrel as it finally caught the attention of some prey, a squid, that seemed hellbent on reminding me that this wasnt earth anymore. it wasn't easy to tell at first, but as I was rapidly growing closer I managed to catch the tail end of the almost-disaster. the little bird had fished up a squid twice its size and had brought it out of the water in its talons, intending to nibble at it 'on the wing', only for the squid to wrap the two of its longer tentacles partially around the suprised avian as some more experienced birds swooped down upon seeing the abnormality. the squid's tentacles started to somehow corrode the feathers on the Petrels breast, causing it to cry out in pain! the feathers started to fall, revealing melted flesh beneath. the petrel somehow managed to keep itself together and shortly after the beaks of the two guardian birds each gripped a portion of the squid, pulling it apart and ripping it into three pieces. having saved the day the two protectors each carried their piece away as a 'tithe' of sorts, and the little petrel flew off eating his own piece as he went.

"well shit, i forgot this world was on hard mode, maybe i should join the newbies and see what they've got."

Shrimp it turns out, and even these useless little cocktail snacks had a gimmick in this world, shooting a small spout of water that cut through the air and did decent piercing damage to whatever it hit along the way. frankly, at this point I was in the backseat as I let my instincts take over. I had been burning energy like crazy on the flight over, and the forceful training earlier also required masses of energy to recharge. so it was to my great suprise I found that i had hopped along the waters surface, and then back into the air with a shrimp in my beak, dodging a watershot at point-blank.

|[Sand Shrimp] Killed + 4xp |

The hunt was on.

|[Sand Shrimp] Killed + 4xp |

|[Sand Shrimp] Killed + 4xp |

|[Sand Shrimp] Killed + 4xp |

I'm pretty sure I had eaten my own bodyweight in crustacean... being full, and feeling much better about the future, I flew up to join the protectors. and right into a 'clusterduck'.

while I had been focused on filling my stomach, some bad news had come calling, a flock of gulls- some 20 strong- had come to harass us. something that was important to note was that Storm Petrels were the smallest form of seabird on earth, and that seemed to still be the case here, so while we most definitely had the number advantage, that didn't stop other, more predatory birds from bullying and stealing from us weaker ones. so a small portion of our flock, one hundred or so, had gone to defend our turf whilst the rest maintained vigilance, and one silly little me had emerged right in the middle of both groups.

"erm? for sparta?"

I decided to lead by example, half terrified and half excited that I could use this little aerial dogfight to level up my skills a little. and sure enough, brains are the great equalizer, at the last second I swerved to the side of the leading gull and let my talons [Swipe] the base of one of its wings!

the gull dropped out of the sky, slamming into the water at a startling speed with a *slap* and sinking into the surf.

|Disabled [Angry Sea Gull] +15xp|

my smug coo's could not be contained, my body posing 'valiantly' as I flew victoriously through the air!

...and then everything went sideways.

It seemed as though the fall of their boss flipped a switch, and their eyes collectively lit up red, aglow with anger, their flight somehow sped up and they crashed against the wall of much smaller petrels with a meaty thud. immediately from that point on the blood flew as the fight devolved into a blur of melee and bloody feathers, time seemed to stretch out for an eternity, the conflict refusing to end before one side was beyond salvation. but as with all things it did eventually end, and by the time it was over I had disabled three more gulls and had received several serious puncture wounds from the hardy gulls' beaks. the defending group of our ours had won, but not before losing half of the group to death or serious injury... all we could do was to return home ahead of the rest to nurse our wounds.

When I did finally return to my nest the adrenaline had long since worn off, and going through the entryway felt like returning home after a long journey. it was all I could do to dismiss the notifications for tomorrow and settle in to sleep.

*****

I had another dream, this one was both strange, and strangely easy to believe was real. I dreamt of when I died, and then, shortly after, being held in the hands of a beautiful woman.

She had pale skin, wore all black clothes and big black boots in a grunge style. other than her clothes her most notable feature was an ankh tattoo around her stunningly deep eyes. she felt familiar.

the conversation that followed with her very different and rather disheveled looking brother only served to deepen that familiar feeling. and then, I felt them caress something deep within me, leaving a tiny part of themselves there as words sunk hypnotically into my brain. I was blessed, and... I- for the first time, I had a... Family.

|...User's Blessings have Resonated with one another. System has recognised a New Skill|

|Gained Skill [Dreams of the Psychopomp]|

|Gained Title [Soul Guide]|

*****