Keeping myself still was incredibly hard. I so wanted to rip this boy’s head off and eat his grey matter. It was to the point I realized that it wasn’t just the smell of sin driving me, it was also the mountain of curses hanging loosely in the wind. This child will not last until his manhood, I can attest to that with or without my involvement. I patted myself on the back for making sure to wear a mask, otherwise, they would have seen my face slip through there. Still, what did this kid, no more than twenty, do to warrant so many curses and such a strong smell of sin.

Demon worship comes to mind, but I made sure they could never escape their entrapment. Well, I’m sure humans would find something else to do that is just as atrocious. Though I was once a human myself, it still astounds me how they can come up with so many ways to screw themselves over. Guillemot seemed to sense my sudden spark of bloodlust but decided to ignore it. A good call for everyone. I moved my ponderings back to the subject at hand. A siege he says sounds like a great way to get a certain student working under outside pressure. A smile unconsciously grew on my face, if she can operate on someone while in the heat of a war, then she certainly should be able to fight in a battle.

I took out my notebook and look through the list, besides a few here and there, mostly everybody just needs a bit to recover. We don’t need to man this camp any longer. I gave my disciple a look and gestured with my head, which she understood, “It seems my teacher is interested in accompanying you to the siege.”

Guillemot gave me a worried look, “Are you sure you want to do that? Considering the current state of affairs, you may be labeled spies and executed,” he gave my nearby horses an uncomfortable look, “Kelmot isn’t exactly friendly to mages.”

I gave my horses a look, I did put burlap sacks over their heads, but they still look very abnormal. After all, normal horses don’t resemble a bear on steroids. I was starting to lose the battle with my hunger, so I decided to chip in to end the conversation sooner. My voice came out in its usual threatening raspy manner, “We will be there.”

I turned back to my pot and completely shut down most of my senses, I was dangerously close to killing someone.

By the time I was confident enough that I wasn’t going to go on a rampage, I opened my senses back up. That was a bit too close for comfort, I really needed to do something, if I continue to ignore the hunger the more problems I’m going to have to deal with. I groggily stalked away from camp and to the valley, I took note of earlier. I inserted a gloved hand into the eyeholes of my mask and ripped it off. With a solid thud, it skipped across the grass. A myriad of different senses consumed my mind, I could hear the rats chewing through bodies, I could feel the soft breeze in the air, and I could finally get a good smell of the misery in the air. The mask blocked not only my smell, but also sight, hearing, and sense of magic.

The bones of my skull began to elongate into a perfect replica of the mask, If I was going for a bird theme then I might as well run with it. Feathered wings sprouted from my back and I took to the skies. The chilly night air fluttered over my wings as I dipped in and out of the overcast clouds. I let out a caw of delight at the feeling of freedom. I cocked my head to the side and listened for any prey. My previous call silenced all the night critters, allowing me to pinpoint sounds better.

POV shift---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Did you hear that?” Jarred shuffled uneasily as he looked at the sky.

“Shut it scaredy-cat, get moving. If we get caught, we’ll get our hands lopped off.” I responded. Our bags were heavy with loot from the recent battle. “Come on, there is a ravine nearby from what I remember. We will hide there until we can see past two feet in front of us.”

The moon was supposed to light our way tonight, but clouds threw that plan in the mud. I cursed at every spirit I can think of for ruining our plan. “Hey, uh, Milton. Where did Richard go?”

“I gave Jarred a look before realizing that he was telling the truth, I couldn’t find Richard, but then again, I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. “He must have got lost in the dark, he knows where we're heading, he’ll find his way.”

I said it with confidence, but I wavered. Though we just met Richard a few days ago, he was still a massive help, plus, he was a deserter who knew how to avoid any patrols. Our risk of getting caught multiplied exponentially without him. When we were close enough, I lit a small torch to prevent one of us from falling to our deaths. I was glad I did too, we were only a few feet from said death. Jarred approached the ledge and whistled at the sight of the inky abyss below. “You sure there is a way to get down there? That looks pretty steep.”

“Richard said there was a shelf only ten feet down, we’ll camp there.”

I started to walk the ledge in search of our goal while Jarred dropped his bag and stretched. It’s been a long night, and his bag was the first to be full. We had quite the bounty of precious steel and coin. It was well worth the risk in my opinion. A shrill scream stopped me in my tracks, I whipped my head back in time to see my partner fall into the abyss. I ran over in a panic but I could only stare into the darkness hopelessly, that bastard, I warned him not to get too close to the ledge.