Darkness... Darkness everywhere. A darkness that swallowed the moon and consumed its light pervaded the forest as the numerous occupants of the forest sang their nightly song...

"W—What do we do?" I heard Sonny whisper.

"We do as C.R said, we survive." An unknown male voice replied.

"That must've been the large bird." I guessed.

"You don't think he'd leave us out here to die, right? He's not that cruel." An unknown female asked.

...

"I think... That he would if it meant the survivors will learn from their mistakes." I said with more confidence than I felt.

I didn't want to believe that C.R would leave us out here to die, but past experiences with leaders had taught me a valuable lesson. "Sacrifice a few to save many" is a good deal in most leader's eyes, and from the way Fen and Cogi talked about C.R, he was a very good leader...

"Any ideas?" I asked the group.

"Just one..." The cracking of a twig and the heavy beat of wings followed the male's voice.

...

"Did he..." The female asked.

"Yes," I sighed. "He's gone."

"That chick of a flying rat!" She yelled.

"Shh! Not so lou—" Sonny's warning was cut off by a rustle of leaves, a huff of breath, and the low rumbling of something much larger than any of us.

"Grrr..."

I felt Sonny's... Or, what I really hoped was Sonny's paws, wrap around my head and push me to the ground. A few seconds later I heard the muffled protests of the female as she too was shoved to the ground and pinned beneath my fuzzy friend.

"Shh." He whispered.

The sound of something's breath rustling leaves on the forest's floor sent shivers down my spine. Judging from the sound alone, I guess it was about twenty feet away... And getting closer by the second.

"We—" I felt Sonny tense up as the girl spoke... That wasn't the problem though, no, the problem came from the beast... Because it wasn't sniffing anymore.

...

Silence, unlike anything I'd ever experienced, invaded the forest...

"Rrrrr" The thing rumbled. A huff of hot, stinking breath hit my face.

Old habits began to resurface as my brain tried to come up with something, anything that would get us out of this.

Fly away? I wasn't strong enough to carry Sonny by myself and I doubted the girl would both to stick around and help. Attack it together? Sure, it could work... But it would most likely get us all killed.

So that left one option...

"Scatter!!" I yelled. I shoved Sonny off of me with a furious kick that would hopefully get both him and the female far enough away that the thing would ignore them. I blindly swung my right wing and felt it brush against something big... Like, really really big.

"Over here! Come and get me!" I yelled, desperate to give Sonny and the girl time to get away.

A whoosh of air ruffled my feathers and caused me to instinctively twist out of the way as something heavy slammed into the leaves beneath my feet. I kicked off the thing I'd just dodged, digging my new talons into it as I did, and jumped to where I suspected the things head was... I was slapped out of the air before I'd gotten a foot off the ground. My body bounced along the forest floor twice, before coming to a stop beneath what I suspected to be some kind of bush.

I'm not sure what hurt more, the possibly broken wing, the definitely broken leg, or my beak that felt like it was half-torn off. What I was sure of was that I was in pain... A lot of pain.

I was in so much pain that I barely noticed the muffled screams a few feet away. I barely noticed the sound of flesh being ripped or the crunching of some poor saps bones.

"No..." I groaned as I tried to move. I was too delirious to know what I was moving towards, only that I needed to help. To the sound of tearing flesh and the whimpering moans of something breathing its last breaths, I wormed my way out from beneath the bush.

Then I felt something grab my non-broken leg and yank me backward.

I struggled, briefly. Then I gave in... The pain was just too much for my body to handle.

"Rage?" A whispered voice broke through my pain-filled haze.

"Huny?"

"Yeah... It's me."

I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but that was a little difficult to do at the moment, so I settled for a gurgled acknowledgment.

Then another thought broke through the haze. If the thing didn't have Sonny... Who did it catch? Was there someone else with us?

Then, for the first time since this nightmare began, I saw light. Moonlight broke the treetops and illuminated the area around the bush. The female bird was clearly dead, over half of her body devoured by the large, gray-scaled cat that knelt over her. One of her wings dangling lazily from its mouth as it chewed.

I felt Sonny's body tense.

"That could have been me..." I heard him whisper.

He grabbed my leg tightly, causing me to wince in pain, and began to drag me away from the creature. I would have screamed were it not for the threat of immediate death currently eating one of my comrades a few feet away, so I settled for screaming internally.

...

It didn't help.

I'm not sure how long, or how far Sonny dragged me. All I remember is bouts of intense pain, followed by moments of clarity, that were quickly followed by me blacking out. Eventually, we stopped moving and Sonny settled me in someplace dark and cold.

"Do you have enough points to heal?" I heard him ask.

Though I didn't remember calling for my E-Chart, it was suddenly floating in front of my eyes.

Name Rage Current diet Omnivore Current evolution style Explorer Avian Current senses Basic Avian Current movement style Explorer Avian Status Severely Injured

Evolution Points 12/67 Possible Evolution Options

Mild—> Major wings— 30 points (Damaged)

Mild—> Major Legs— 20 points (Damaged)

Normal Vision—> Hunter's vision— 12 points

Basic Talons—> Sharp Talons— 10 points

Size Change Tiny—> Small— 20 points

Size change Tiny—> Diminutive— 10 points

Basic perception—> +10% Perception speed— 30 points

Basic Strength—> +10% strength increase— 20 points

Basic Speed—> +10% Speed increase— 20 points

Repair Broken Beak— 10 points

Repair Bruises— 10 points

Repair Major Concussion— 15 points

Repair Internal Hemorrhaging— 25 points

Repair Broken Leg— 15 points

Repair Ruptured Blood Vessels— 15 points

Repair Torn Wing— 20 points

Repair Cracked Ribbs— 25 points

Injuries Continued...

Total points needed to return to optimum health— 152 points

I immediately spent ten points to repair my beak, then screamed as it wrenched itself back into place. I felt power beyond my comprehension flow through me as my beak knitted itself back together. However, once my beak was healed I was left feeling drained, and exhausted.

"Sonny?" I whispered as my vision grew darker.

"You can talk!? Oh, thank god!"

I laughed in spite of the pain.

"Do me a favor, yeah?"

"Anything."

"Remind me not to do that again."

Sonny laughed.