Strangers Pt. II

 He quickly got up from the place he stood, and using his sharp claws, cut the rope that was holding her.

 "..." She got up, supported by a tree, to look at him.

 "You are free to go… I'm sorry for what I did… Everything…"

 "... Fotheor to andsarg in? To speeto in ot thein flibberds efore? And yety' inbec asormed arsthein! And fothe, in arsthein ol folhein obleere!"

 He only heard gibberish, there were no discernable words that he could make up except for the occasional familiar sound.

 What she actually said was along the lines of: "Are you kidding me? You brought me out here just to let me go? I don't even know where I am, tell me where we came from!"

 "I'm sorry, I really can't understand you…"

 Meaningless back-and-forward sentences followed until Avis got tired of it and walked away.

 'What an infuriating man, this so-called god!'

 "Hey! You can't just leave, you…" She tried to hit him, but as he heard her footsteps against the crunchy snow, he easily evaded. "I won't let you get away with this! I don't even have a weapon! How can you just leave me here?!"

 Avis now stood silent, examining her face, until, his eyes shifted to a figure behind her, making her even angrier.

 "So you're ignoring me now! I'll fucking ki…! Wha!" He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him. "What are y…"

 *THUD*

 In the place she just stood, something heavy landed, and she couldn't even get a proper look at the creature before she was thrown to the side, Avis remaining in the attack's range.

 A big white bird was the perpetrator, it had amazing white feathers with dark accents that made it blend into the environment, its giant beak and claws making it look way more ferocious than it would otherwise be.

 It stabbed with its beak, but Avis was in no danger of being hit.

 "What a beautiful monster." 

 It attempted to flee, but as Avis raised his hand, the bird felt something grip its neck, it tried escaping the grasp, but the man was already on top of it, making himself comfortable.

 "Come!" He extended a hand to the woman, who seemed somewhat reserved about flying with her captor. 

 "...I-I'm scared…"

 "...It's alright, it should be safe!"

 Neither of them understood, but the girl eventually relented, as she didn't want to be left alone in the forest.

 She extended her own arm to Avis, but she felt something grip her wrist, and the monster took off, with her dangling behind it.

 "Whoa!" Before she could properly panic, she was in the arms of her captor. "W-What are you…"

 He simply smiled at her and put her down in front of him, ensuring she properly held on to the animal, gestures which made the girl blush. But suddenly, she felt his head buried in her back as he muttered something.

 "W-Why did I think this would be fun… I-I didn't know I was afraid of heights until now… God, I'm such a wuss…"

 The woman held off on trying to judge what he said, as she refused to believe that the apparent god was afraid of flying, and the thought that he was making advances on her at this time was too strange to fathom.

 The snow-covered lands underneath them were breathtaking, mountains and hills appeared and disappeared from their vision as they passed by, however, they could rarely admire the view as their beastly companion didn't seem to get used to them as it would continuously try to bite or make them fall off.

 It was a wild beast after all, and it could not be tamed easily, if at all.

 In the two-day journey, through the cold harsh air, the two tried to communicate to the best of their ability, slowly making progress as they taught each other the basic words of their language like good, bad, me, you, and so forth.

 …

 "A tornado! There's a tornado in front of us!" She said with urgency, forgetting Avis couldn't understand her, and opting to just point her finger at it.

 As he was forcefully woken up, the image in front of him was just terrifying.

 An enormous tornado, carrying snow and branches in a violent torrent was decimating the ground, and this intimidating entity was standing right in front of them, ready to destroy them at a moment's notice.

 "A fucking tornado!" He shouted

 Using his spirit, he pushed the bird's head down and to the side, narrowly avoiding an uprooted tree.

 "Watch out!" The woman screamed.

 Not seeing the steep cliff ahead of them, they fell below the treetops, the bird tried its best, but it hit its wing on one of the trees, completely dismembering it, and was sent spinning until it reached the ground.

 Avis grabbed onto the woman, jumping off of the bird, and hitting a tree himself, before falling into a pile of snow, managing to remain moderately uninjured.

 "Are you hurt?" He asked the woman.

 She didn't answer, as she couldn't understand him, but since she didn't seem to feel much discomfort, he concluded that she should be fine, but as he let her down, she quickly winced in pain. Her leg was broken.

 "Ah, right…"

 Avis scratched his head, before turning his back to the woman and letting her climb on.

 She eventually did so, but not because she had a choice.

 They walked to the beast's landing spot, its white feathers were now stained with blood, its legs were broken, and its remaining wing was flapping haphazardly.

 *CHAW* It wined, blood was seeping from its mouth, only to eventually calm down, its breathing was sloppy and slow.

 "Ah, I'm sorry, friend." Avis bowed to it. "I will put you out of your misery now…"

 His invisible arm moved forward, entering the bird's mouth, and slipping down its throat, until it reached its heart.

 The beast was screeching and trying to break free from its doom.

 Using the hand, Avis grasped the heart and crushed it, as it was the best method he could think of, but that is not to say it was an easy death, on the contrary, for minutes it fought about, trying to retain its life.

 Eventually, it stopped moving completely, until it was only a corpse, a stain of the land.

 As one final sign of life, from its body, a figure rose. It was a bird, with the same features as the big one, just smaller.

 Avis recognized it was a spirit, and it was drawn to him, but as it was about to touch him, he grasped it by the neck, using his eyes, he took the creature off the ground and lifted it to the woman's face.

 "As an apology." He said.

 "Ah…" She thought of a way to show that she didn't need it, as she already had a spirit -a traditional one of her tribe- but he ignored it and told her to hold out her hand.

 "I want to try something."

 Intrigued, she did so, and he placed the small bird in her hand, the spirit didn't react much, as it wasn't interested in her, but Avis placed his hand over it, then pushed it down, squeezing it against the girl.

 She freaked out and tried to stop the man, but before she knew it, a strong pain shot through her arm, she almost fell to the ground but was caught and held up by Avis.

 "Aght! What the fuck is wrong with you?!" She pushed him away and held her arm, the pain was radiating from it, but there was no wound, with time, it transformed into a strange warmth, and she began to feel something she couldn't place, as it wasn't on her body, but on her soul. "What the hell did you do?!" She shouted.

 In response, Avis raised his hands. 'Did it work?'

 The woman began to get used to the sensation, and it began to remind her of something else, the sensation of the time she was given her spirit, when she was only a little girl, like every other child in her tribe.

 Her spirit was something like a scorpion without a tail, with long legs and a strong exoskeleton, even in its life the creature was small, and it didn't give out crazy new limbs or powers, all it did was generally enhance the person possessing it, be it with great intelligence or a strong body, it was believed to take on the owner's best attribute, and make it incomparable over time, for her, though, this skill was agility.

 In both reaction time and body control, she excelled like no other. Even so, however, she was being overshadowed by Avis without him even trying, he was a monster she had yet to understand, literally.

 As she tried to call out the heat inside her, slowly and steadily, two stumps began to grow on her back, from nothing they soon became a huge pair of wings, almost twice her height. She turned back in awe as she flapped them around, moving them in all the ways she could think of. And as she was almost ready to take off, she looked at Avis.

 Uncertainty filled her heart, this man had killed her friend, and had taken her away, yet, he had now given her wings.

 'What a strange person... But what is he after, what does he want with me… Is he insane? Or is he just stupid? Am I an experiment to him? Does he even feel bad for what he's done?' These are all question that would be left unanswered if she left him now, and she knew that.

 But even so, she broke the eye contact, and with a strong flap, raised herself off the ground, quickly disappearing into the clouds above.

 'If I knew it would give me wings I would have kept it for myself, whatever, I guess she really hated me.' Avis turned around to look at the beast's corpse, saluted it, and moved on before that tornado turns back to get him.