The Lord of the mountain

// THIS IS AN OLD CHAPTER. THE NEW CHAPTERS ARE IN VOLUME 2. YOU CAN READ THESE CHAPTERS IF YOU WANT SOME INSIGHT ON WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN LATER BUT SOME EVENTS CAN BE DIFFERENT BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW CHAPTERS.

I wake up the next morning thanks to the first ray of the sun. Chenoa is still naked on top of me sleeping. I shake her lightly and she opens her eyes before noticing the rays of the sun.

"Damnit, we have to hurry, we don't have much time before the morning patrol arrives."

We get dressed quickly before tidying up the camp and resuming our climbing. The thunderbirds are already awakening, and we can hear them above us.

Once I get to the top, I start to admire the birds and choose which one of them will be my target, most of them are smaller females but I spot a very imposing male with sun symbols printed on its wings. Chenoa is heading towards one of the smaller Thunderbirds when I stop her.

"No, I want this one"

"What?! Tekaku is the King of the Mountain, it's going to take us too much time to capture him."

"Give me five minutes." Catching a big bird is going to be a piece of cake

I walk in the direction of the great thunderbird which has just made a fatal error, looking me straight in the eye. The mental defenses of the animal are almost non-existent, the only thing that makes it difficult for me is the difference between the mind of an animal and a human.

Once the animal is hypnotized, tracing my seal on it is easy. I put it in my suitcase and when I turn around Chenoa looks at me dumbfounded by what just happened. She must never have seen someone capture one of her birds so quickly, I walk over to her a triumphant smile on my face as she looks down at the ground and turns pale.

"Shit, we have to get out of here quickly!"

"What is happening?"

"I just activated a detection spell, we have less than 2 minutes before the guards show up." She takes my hand and apparate us to the foot of the mountain. We run as far as possible until we see a group of cactuses that could hide us.

The guards arrive a few seconds later, we hear them trying to round up the animals to protect them and examine the surroundings from the top of the mountain. If only I had bothered to steal the Invisibility Cloak from Harry's things.

"We can't stay here any longer, MACUSA agents will end up arriving as reinforcements" she whispers. We move slowly, trying to hide as much as possible behind rocks. We finally arrive at a sufficient distance and we start running in the direction of the car. Once inside, we go full speed, still with the objective of putting the maximum distance between us and the mountain.

"What are you going to do now, they're going to wonder why you haven't gone to help them with that alarm."

"Not really, I took a week off. I told my boss I had to take care of my brother."

"What do we do now?"

"We drive around a bit more, and then we Apparate separately."

"It's a shame, I would have liked to see you again. And maybe see what we can do with some… creativity." I manage to break her serious face and give her a slight smile.

"It's better that way, we'd take too much risk if we saw each other again." She didn't say anything for a while. "It was nicer than I expected when accepting the contract."

When we're about to reach a town, she drops me off. It's a shame, I really hope I will see her again one day. I watch her car pull away in the distance before Apparating to Mystic Falls.

Once back in London at the Bones mansion, I rush to my room to examine in more detail my new acquisition which awaits me quietly in my suitcase. When I see it, I tell myself that I should have taken a second one and found a legal way to keep this one as a mount. The bird is huge and sparkling white, its eagle eyes look like liquid gold. I imagine the spectacle if I ever got to Hogwarts on the creature's back. I bet old McGonagall would get mad about it and Hagrid would create a new lake by drolling on the ground.

I spot Elvis wandering through the different rooms of my suitcase. He seems to be acclimating to his new banshee undeath. Maybe I should try to strengthen his powers, having an overpowered ghost at my service might prove to be useful.

I take my thunderbird to the ritual room, a large empty room with an easily washable stainless steel plate floor in case I need to spill blood in the near future. The bird follows my instructions and land inside the ritual circle. The magic of this spell no longer holds any secrets for me, it's always unpleasant to have to be pierced in the abdomen but you get used to it.

Once the Thunderbird is absorbed, I assume my Humanoid Beast form. The large black wings appeared on my back with the sun symbol shining the same bluish glow as the tattoos adorning my body.

There is nothing human about my appearance when I am not in control of the transformation. I am trying to play with it to create several levels.

In the first level my arms, my legs, my back are the only things to change shape, I always keep my chest and my human face. My wings, tail and horns are there but not my second pair of arms. When I use this form the influence that the Beast exerts on me is much less than when I assume my appearance as a humanoid Beast.

The second level is simply the appearance that I take naturally when I merge with the Beast. I don't look like a human at all anymore but at least I don't crawl on all fours.

And finally, there is the form of the Beast, where I become the creature of nightmares, the overpowered monster. It's very difficult for me to control myself in this form but the adrenaline that so much power gave me is exhilarating. I feel the bond that unites me to the Beast draw us closer and closer when I am in this form, slowly undermining my control.

It's too dangerous to stay in this form where my instincts are much stronger. It will be my ultimate card if ever all hope is lost, and I have no choice but to use it.