Avian Scuffle

The massive beast brandished it's 10 centimeter long sharp talons, and based on eagles from earth, if this super sized eagle wraps them around any part of my body I can probably kiss that body part goodbye.

I swiped my hand trying to grab it's feet, I missed due to my current disheveled state, however even if i didn't manage to grab them I hit them hard enough to redirect them to the side which was my plan B.

That destabilized the bird and It started thrashing it's wings all over the place causing my already confused self to get even more baffled, while also kicking up some dust from the cliff side.

I quickly placed the hand I just redirected the talons with on a more stable cliff spot to hold my weight, just as I was doing that the eagle collided with me at full speed.

I could feel my foothold get pushed into a precarious position by the impact, i could not recover while dealing with the eagle, it was only a matter of time until I fall.

I used my limited time to put the full force of my left arm which was holding the sharp stone into a strike towards the birds head, I didn't trust my blows to be accurate which was why i was initially planing to direct my hit towards it's torso, where the area was larger and I had a lower chance of missing.

Sure enough the stone hit it's beak instead of it's head, It bought me some time since i aimed for the head exclusively to try to prevent the eagle from using it's beak to peck me.

My strike however backfired and startled the eagle, which was twice the size of a regular earth eagle, In it's startled state it began thrashing around, flapping it's wings and throwing it's talons all over the place in a blind animalistic struggle for survival.

All that movement caused me to finally loose balance but not before taking a few agonizing slashes to my shoulder, ribs and side from the talons.

My support on the ledge was gone and i was about to fall, but before i did I grabbed the eagle, which was easier to not miss due to it's proximity and lack of momentum, I grabbed both of it's feet with one arm, effectively imobilizing it's claws and I made sure to do the same for it's beak, grabbing it by the neck, but I had to discard my precious stone in the process.

It was time for plan B seeing as this big guy is putting up quite the fight, I specifically scouted this region of the cliff face because it had a rare flat pertrusion just bellow, where I was now falling.

I fell for 1.5 meters, somehow managing to get the thrashing eagle below me with it's back to the ledge, I also placed my knee on it's chest.

"Thud"

We impacted the narrow ledge bellow, I hit the ground with my arms and one knee, effectively crushing the eagle as i felt it's ribs crack under the weight of my knee and it's insides squish inside.

I try my best to ignore the searing pain in my knee, as many of you know knees are not precisely optimal landing gear for humans, non the less I powered through while breathing in and out rapidly to distract me from the pain.

I could still feel a few faint movements from the eagle so I ensured the kill by smashing the back of it's head against the rock ledge repeatedly.

I moved quickly to reap the rewards this whole wild scheme was brewed for, I desperately slashed at it's abdomen with my fingers trying to rip it's tough elastic skin apart.

After a few tries I got it open and plunged my icy hands inside breathing a sigh of satisfaction as my freezing hand hungrily devoured all of the eagles body heat.

I was hoping I wouldn't have to deal with the rest of the eagles as they are solitary creatures who usually hunt alone, and most likely only gathered here to observe me, I was wrong.

I reacted as quickly as i could to the sounds behind me, I grabbed the slain eagle by the feet and swung it as i turned 180°, my hands were still suffering from severe numbness but i somehow managed to do this movement somewhat quickly, all though my movements were quite stiff non the less.

"Pow"

"KE-KAW"

Direct hit to the torso of the new slightly smaller eagle that just swooped down, it only left out it's high pitched yells after it was clear I saw it, this pesky critter was trying to sneak attack me, unfortunately for it god only gave owls the silent flight buff, the faint sound of wings flapping alerted my tense body to react.

I managed to knock the new visitor out of the air using what was probably it's life long partner's corpse, i then lunged at it and grabbed it by the beak and proceeded to give it the smash against the rock treatment i just gave it's hubby.

It thrashed around desperately but in the end it's last ditched efforts were useless as indicated by the crack which was slowly followed by the movements, which were slowing down to a complete silent stillness, but not before delivering me a few talon slashes to the stomach with prime shipping swiftness.

I didn't have time to think as I lunged at it's abdomen and plunged my right arm inside after savagely ripping the new visitor open, i also placed my left arm inside the rapidly cooling corpse of the original brave swooper.

As I stood there, taking in the bloody carnage before me, trying my best to not scrunch to the ground due to all the pain my new deep wounds and the wind smashing against them caused me.

A feeling of guilt overcame me as I struggled to keep in my tears, which exasperated by the searing pain from my knee and wounds, what I just did was very brutal, the fact that they were most likely husband and wife didn't help my guilty conscience.

Seeing this much blood guts and carnage wasn't pleasant either, I could feel the insides of my stomach rushing to get out through the wrong end.

Of course like many people who use the internet way too much, I was sent a few shock gore videos as "pranks" over the years, like many others, I've developed a tolerance for it that I'm not too proud of having, tho I guess it came in handy.

Having just done this with my own hands far surpassed those videos in terms of gross out factor, my disgust was also exasperated by me already feeling sick, tired, and dizzied by the altitude sickness.

I stood there for an entire minute trying to control both the overwhelming pain and urge to throw up the nutrients i would desperately need if I survive this.

In that time all the body heat of the unfortunate pair of eagles was gone, my hands, all though still painfully numb, were now at least usable for just a bit longer, without wasting any time i jumped to my aching feet and climbed up the few meters of cliff.

I then hurriedly rushed towards the rock I got my stone from earlier, I reached inside the thick crack running through the middle of it and ripped out some dead and dried grass I saw earlier, probably dead due to lack of sun light.

I then carefully yet quickly chose an appropriate stone and rushed to a different bush than the one I had tried and failed to use as a weapon earlier.

Luckily this one didn't have thorns, I savagely swung my rock towards it's base trying to uproot the entire thing.

It appeared to be a dead bush, from what I remember they shouldn't grow this high due to the freezing cold temperatures, only grass moss and lichens should be up here, but it's a magic world so who knows what other crazy plants are out there.

I successfully up rooted the dead bush and swiftly moved to recover jiggly, when I picked it up I heard a crack and saw the small layer of frost that had formed on it's surface crack.

I checked the system and it seemed to somehow still be alive so I rushed back to the edge of the cliff.

I then shoved the dead grass between the elastic band of my underwear so it wouldn't fly away when i climbed down, I also bit down on the dead bush and descended using the only arm I could keep free while doing this dangerous descent.

I got down to the ledge, before I tried starting a fire I decided to see what was inside the large crack shaped crevice slightly above the ledge, but before that I placed down my shrub and secured it with a stone I found laying around, I did the same to the birds and continued, now the fast winds won't take away my loot.

It was a very tight squeeze, like your mom, but just like with your mom, I prevailed, managing to push my girthy body sideways scraping against the claustrophobic walls.

It was painful as it scraped against all of my wounds, and the rock walls were also frozen cold, numbing every part of my body that was not yet numbed.

I got lucky however and the cave inside was decently spatious, just after the tight squeeze at the entrance, it dropped down into a larger opening in the passage way, roughly 2×2 meters in size, and got tighter as it continued deeper.

I ignored that and made the tight squeeze again grabbing all the items I stored outside and pushing them inside in what was a pretty chaotic process, wouldn't recommend the house moving company known as "Frozen Stiff Hands" it was a pain and frustrating to work with 3/5.

In the end i got everything through the opening, I didn't know much about fires but I was hoping the opening I just squeezed through would be enough to allow the smoke to escape, it was towards the top of the cave after all.

This time it was a more arduous process but in the end I once again got a fire going, however unlike before, the air was slightly thicker now, and I was able to feed it the branches of the bush.

I managed to warm my hands and feet enough to examine them, they felt tingly from all the continuous numbing and shifts in temperature, but I lucked out, I did have frost bite as indicated by my discoloured fingers, but at least it seemed to be the mild kind, only the surface tissue was damaged, it should heal up tho i have no clue how soon.

The fire was crackling and popping in a relaxing tune signifying my sweet sweet victory, but the struggle had only just started, I had to go harvest as many of the shrubs above as I could.

But before that I will look to see what's going on in the rest of this cave, I didn't plan to cram myself through since I could get stuck, that would be a sub optimal outcome, because I had no step siblings to bail me out,

Not to mention if I got stuck I could die due to carbon monoxide poisoning, even tho the smoke of the fire appeared to be leaving through the cave opening i wasn't sure if it was properly ventilated just yet, I will know if i don't wake up from my sleep tho.

Anyway I shoved just my upper body into the narrow continuation of the cave to take a look, my face was hit with a strange pleasant warmness emanating from the passage way, the cave seemed to open up again into a spatious room with ... with..-

'No, no, no, That can't be right!, surely not.'

I told myself while glancing between the fire the two dead birds and the cavern beyond.

As if oblivious to all the hastle I've gone through to gain even a slither of warmth, there stood a pool of bubbling steaming geo thermal water, just 10 meters away from the spot I had just fought for my life in... it was so close, so so close, not to mention my plan C in case the eagles didn't attack was to explore this cave and hope I find either some sulfur coal and flint to start a fire or if I got even luckier a geo thermal bath....

'The fight was for naught!?!'