On The Run

Being startled awake by countless pecks, slaps, clawing, and shouts of how this lord crow doesn't need a lazy servant, Eric reached for his knife only to stop when he saw it was the bird.

Still exhausted, he dragged himself up before he could do anything else.

The crow grabbed one of his fingers with its beak and pulled.

"We need to get moving before that thing loses interest in that ignorant raven." The crow stressed in response.

Eric let out a weak smirk so that crow can be serious, he thought to himself before fully getting up and restarting his delayed escape efforts.

That monster was something he never thought, even in his darkest nightmares he could encounter, something that he could never even scratch.

He couldn't help but curse his luck at encountering such a beast. Before Eric could beat himself up any further, what the crow said was brought back to mind.

"What do you mean by losing interest?" He asked the crow.

"Not that I would like to admit it that raven may stand at the same level as me. He has his tricks and talents like me or why else do you think the great me would allow him to follow me around"

"Then is it possible for him to kill that thing?" this information intrigued Eric.

"From what I know, he can not only stall and delay, but if I was in my domain, that bear would be nothing but a fly on a wall, not even a challenge." The crow answered before returning to his regular boasting.

"Is there any way that we could bring your domain here or force the bear into it?" He asked with a hint of hope in his voice.

Much like an older brother informing a younger sibling of the nonexistence of certain figures, the crow shot him down. "If it was that easy, why wouldn't I have already done it? The best I can do is move you and me to it briefly, but that's it. But we would end up back where we left from." Digesting all this new information, all Eric could do is continue his mad dash back to the city hoping to getaway.

Continuing as he had before for around an hour, the raven finally returned and landed on his shoulder and spoke with an exhausted tone "I've bought you as much time as I can, it is not much but it was the best I could do" Eric knew that this was a losing battle, no that would imply that he had a chance.

Now he was nothing more than a new toy and the best he could hope for was a quick death.

He did not doubt that he would not survive to see the sunrise tomorrow.

Finally stopping to catch his breath after climbing up into a tree Eric looked around from where he came from and to any sign of the bear, yet there was nothing something felt very off with that he knew that if the bear wanted to, it would have already caught up to him.

But it wasn't almost like it was using him to play a game.

If the creature was smart enough to be playing with him leading it back home or to the city, would only lead to more deaths other than just him, and that was something he could not allow.

Eric finally arrived at a small closed-in ravine.

This is the place where he would make his last stand. Looking back on the past twenty-four hours despite all the insanity and the looming threat of death right around the corner it was the most fun he had had in years, but something else dawned on him he had never asked the two birds if they had any names.

"Hey, would either of you two have a name? I would at least like to know the names of the ones watching my last stand." He asked, realizing just how stupid he was forgetting the most basic of manners.

"You finally asked, to think this lord crow has been so tolerant for not taking us and this contract seriously until now, rejoice because we don't have any names but you have the great honor as our contractor to name us." As both the loud mouth of a crow and the stoically silent raven both perched on his shoulders.

He was slightly relieved, as he had not been insulting them by not calling them by a name they did not have, but he had to name them.

He felt no normal name would fit.

After giving it some thought, two names came to mind, the names of two great being praised as gods before the world fell into chaos.

If he said that to the crow, it would stroke his already inflated ego even further.

"Then I will give you your name, loud-mouthed crow you are now Zeus and you quite raven will be Odin, carry those names with pride and accept them as my first and last gift to you guys." Suddenly both birds glowed with a dim white light that shattered, and sunk into Eric's body only to form a new connection with the two.

"With that over with and now that the contract is now fully complete, I can grant you one chance but entirely up to you and your luck. Do you take it?" Odin asked, content with his new name.

"I have nothing more to lose now. Why wouldn't I take it?"

"I warn you. You will only be able at your current strength to last an instant and even in that instant you will feel pain that you could never even imagine, and not only that, you could die from it. Are you sure you will still take it?" Odin asked him once again, but Eric's resolve still stood firm.

"It is my only chance. Even if it hurts or injures me, it's still better than death"

But before they could talk further, a loud snap and crash interrupted them.

The last player in this twisted game had arrived, confidently sauntering in as it had already won.

Now Eric had a chance to either turn this into a pitiful last stand or an impossible victory, but he didn't even know what his last card to play even is other than it grants him a chance to turn things around but at an enormous cost.

"Odin, whatever this chance is, hurry with it." He said with a large amount of panic in his voice.

"Once again, are you sure you won't regret this?" Odin asked, seeking the ultimate confirmation he needed.

The only response Eric could give was a simple "Yes"