Chapter 12 - Hunger

Taking my griffin form, I spread my wings and soared through the skies, searching for the Mayan citizens. Scouting wasn't difficult, as they were easily found deep in a forest. Descending towards where they were, I could see that a crowd was grabbing the mother as if to stop her advance. Her gaze showed desperation and worry, but when she saw me descend, her expression changed to one of happiness and hope.

"Wow, I never thought guilt could feel so heavy," I could barely keep my gaze as the crowd left the mother and she approached me with her arms outstretched with those eyes full of hope. Looking away, I could see out of the corner of my eye how the hope that had disappeared from her eyes and her soft words began to turn into desperate cries as she grabbed the feathers of one of my legs tightly...

"Don't worry about your daughter, she's here," an angel with high-grade armor descended from the sky and in her arms she carried the daughter, who was unconscious. I felt the grip on my paw disappear; looking back I could see the mother slowly approaching both figures. "I managed to grab her before that ball of fire fell on her." The angel handed the girl over to her mother's arms, who welcomed her happily while uttering words of thanks in her language.

Walking slowly, I approached the mother only for her to push her away and her gaze reflected hatred. "I guess that's what I deserve; I couldn't even protect her." Turning my head, I looked at the angel who looked back at me. "I deeply thank you for helping us in this battle," he said while bowing his head. "Even if you don't understand my words, we are truly grateful to you," I silently watched as he opened his wings and began to fly... "I guess he thinks I'm an animal without intellect, or incapable of understanding words." Walking in the opposite direction I opened my wings. "I better not rush things, I'll talk to them another time," with a strong flap of my wings I flew away, disappearing into the clouds before the gaze of the daughter who had awakened from her unconsciousness. "Thank you."

...

"Shit, the effort of having produced so much electricity and strengthening my skin is already taking effect." After having been flying for half an hour, my stomach began to growl like never before. "With the current fruits, I don't think they will stop this damn appetite, so," I lowered my gaze to the ground and began to look at the ground in search of food with an eagle's eye. "Ugh, I'm sorry, but I'm hungry." From the sky, I could see a large herd of elephants and among them there was a very large one. "That one, that one is very fat, juicy and tasty." Guided only by hunger, I closed my wings and fell into a dive towards the herd of elephants.

After plummeting, I opened my wings to lighten my fall as I was close to the ground, and finally, I dug my claws into the huge elephant. "SKREEEEAAAH!", letting out a loud cry, I made the other elephants keep their distance, and then they moved away. "Finally, food," my eyes went from round to vertical lines, turning completely wild. I grabbed the elephant's neck with my beak and with a strong pull I ripped off its head and then began to devour it without mercy or shame.

...

"This has been one of my lowest moments so far," I silently looked at the pile of bones under my feet, in addition to having almost my entire body covered in blood. "How disgusting, I should wash myself before the blood dries," opening my wings, I flew through the skies in search of some kind of lagoon or river, which was not difficult either, since in the distance I could see a huge lake and with that I began to fly faster.

"Just what I needed, territorial animals," upon reaching the lake and landing to bathe, I was abruptly pushed aside by none other than hippos, several hippos. "Honestly, I don't want to kill them, I don't want to cause an extinction of hippos in the future." Just walking a little way to the lake, almost twenty hippos came out of the water with their mouths open in warning. "Fine, if you want to play like that, let's play."

My body mutated and deformed again, changing my body from a griffin to a larger one like an elephant with thick, hard gray skin with red spots, easily exceeding eight meters. My beak was replaced by a huge, long jaw like that of a hippo. In addition, two long elephant tusks and small ears like those of a rhinoceros grew on the top of the jaw. "Now, let's see who is scarier." With a strong stomp, it was enough to make the ground tremble slightly. "HRRRRAAAAGH!" With a loud roar, he opened his mouth almost ninety degrees, causing all the hippos to back away.

"Oh?" I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, when a hippo bigger than the others, easily exceeding two meters in height, came out of the water and stood in front of the others, letting out a loud roar. "Apparently you are the alpha, you are very brave, but unfortunately that can lead to death." With a small growl from my stomach, my eyes became thin again in a vertical shape like a predator, despite being the fusion of herbivorous animals. "Besides, I'm still hungry," noticing my intentions, the alpha hippo without any spark of fear, charged towards me with his jaw open.

"HRRRRAAAAGH!", letting out a loud roar again, I also charged towards him, but with my jaw closed; after all, it was a sure victory. Turning my head, I landed a strong blow on his head with my long fangs, knocking him out for a few moments, then positioning my two fangs under his stomach, I lifted him up with such force that he ended up flying several meters into the sky.

BAM!

With a loud thud, he crashed hard into the ground with his paws, making it difficult for him to stand up again. "The show is over and you didn't even make me warm up," slowly approaching, the alpha hippo tried to get up and fight, only to fall helplessly. "Pathetic," letting out those words, I stepped on his head and, pressing harder, crushed him like a watermelon, letting out a disgusting sound. "How disgusting, but I hope that the other hippos have understood," moving away from the corpse, I walked towards the lake where this time the other hippos were fighting to get away from me. When I got to the center of the lake, I took a deep breath and then submerged myself to the bottom. Once there, I began to shake my body, hoping that the water would clean the blood.

A few minutes later I got out of the lake, walking up to the alpha hippo's corpse. "I guess it's time to eat." My eyes turned predatory again, and opening my mouth, I tried to eat the corpse. "Huh?" When I tried to tear off a piece of meat from the corpse, I realized that I didn't have the teeth necessary for that. "Just what I needed," I looked at the corpse for a few minutes and then looked around. "Well, it's time to take another form... I guess... something more... wild."

After that, my body deformed again, causing my body to lose size until it was barely over five meters tall with a length of almost nine meters. The thick, hard skin was changed to a thick, soft skin full of orange hair with black stripes, as well as a beautiful lion's mane. Thick legs equipped with huge, very sharp claws and a tiger head. "I guess this form is better," he brought my attention back to me, I pulled out my claws and began to devour the alpha hippo's corpse with great ease.

Almost half an hour later, I had finished eating the corpse and had to bathe again due to the enormous amount of blood that stained my fur. Luckily, the hippos understood that the previous creature and the current one were the same, so they did not bother me again while I bathed and then I left and walked peacefully through the savannah until I reached a good shady place to rest with the only disadvantage being that it smelled like a cat. "ROAAAAR!" My peace was interrupted when a loud roar caught my attention. Lifting my head I could see a lion in his prime a few meters away from me with a height that exceeded with difficulty a meter and a half, as well as a large number of lionesses behind him. "Animals must be so... animal."

Letting out a resigned sigh, I stood up, showing my real size. At that, all the bravery of the lion and his lionesses disappeared in an instant, but, even so, the lion did not retreat, nor did he escape... "I think he got the club, since he stood stiff as a statue," I looked at the lion with my head bowed and then approached leaving only a distance of only one meter. "GROOOAAARR!", with a loud roar, it was enough for the lionesses to throw themselves to the ground showing their bellies; on the other hand, the lion remained standing without moving a muscle. Lifting a paw, I slapped the lion and it flew off with force, rolling on the ground.

"Wow, I didn't know this form had so much strength," I looked at my paw in disbelief, then looked back at the lion who flew off, only for it to get up unsteadily and run off in the opposite direction. "And now, who's next?"

When I turned my head to see the lionesses, instead of seeing them growling or wary, the unfortunate ones had already approached, while making sounds similar to purrs and rubbing their bodies against mine in an affectionate way. "Oh, I forgot, lions have a dominant male and I guess I am now." It was then that several lion cubs appeared from a den. "No way, how cute, they are just like cats," ignoring the lionesses, I walked towards the cubs, when out of nowhere all the lionesses stood in front of them in a protective manner, but with their heads facing the ground.

"And this?", raising an eyebrow, I continued on my way until I was very close and I could see them shaking but not moving out of the way. "Oh, I forgot, I'm supposed to kill the cubs," I looked at the little cubs and shook my head. "Even if I was paid, I wouldn't kill these furballs, but I guess they won't understand even if I tell them, so," turning around, I went back to the shade where I had previously been resting and then was followed by the lionesses at a slow pace with their cubs.

"Ah, finally, peace," I laid down on the grass and closed my eyes, while I felt the lionesses lay down on my sides and others licked my face. "So this is what it's like to be a lion, if only I had remembered before," I felt the cubs play with my tail and my mane so that later, little by little, I began to sleep. "Finally, I can live like a king."

BOOM!

"Damn it, me and my damn mouth!", when I heard the explosion, all the sleep disappeared as I screamed in frustration.

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Well, here goes another finished chapter, this time without any unnecessary fighting, but the next chapter will. Plus I finally have another review! And thanks to that I realized how poorly written the first chapters are, so I decided to correct them at some point. With that said, I'll see you in the next chapter, take care.

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( ̳• · • ̳) ~ ♡ Thanks for reading ♡

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