Chapter 11: Before It Goes Bad

I strode over to the body of the once terrifying bird, as it rested lifelessly on the floor. The way it had died was miserable, and I almost felt a bit of pity towards it.

Then again this was a battle of survival. Getting pushed out of a tree and eaten by a bird...

There was no way I would allow myself to die in such a comical way.

I was currently standing in the center of the dark cave, which more closely resembled a long tunnel.

From the place I stood I really couldn't see an end to the depth of the space, and It stimulated an interest in me to find were it lead, yet at the same time to not explore too deeply.

Turning around I walked towards the cave entrance the bird had flown through.

I arrived at the edge of the entrance and looked down, finding myself on an immeasurably high cliff edge.

I couldn't help but become disorientated when I looked down and fear started welling up in my subconscious, causing my vision of the ground to blur.

Snapping my head back, I began to suppress my feelings of anxiety.

There was no flying bird to carry me anymore , so from this point on, maintaining my balance relied entirely on my own ability.

Right now I was on a narrow cliff edge and my only chance of climbing down was to cling onto the wall, and blindly walk the ledge. hoping to find a path leading downwards.......

That seemed stupid. I turned around and re-entered the cave.

Tap tap tap tap tap

My bare feet slapped against the cool ground as I walked up to the dead bird's corpse. I grabbed on of its legs an began to drag it further into the cave....whether I liked it or not, I was going to have to brave the unknown.

I preceded forward into the cave, in lonely silence. It felt Like I was the only person in existence, as I went forward. I was beginning to miss the rowdy shrieks of my fellow ghouls.

After entering deeper into the cave, and walking for a while I finally ran across a large nest...

'This bird'I thought while looking down at it 'while still alive must have been quite the architect.'

Looking at the nest that was several times larger than it own body, and wide enough to house more than one of it kind,I was impressed.

admiring the size of the nest, I approached it slowly, deciding to peek inside....

Because the size of the nest eclipsed my height, I had to rearrange some of the twigs and other miscellaneous things to create footholds along its side.

I did this all very meticulously, making sure not to distort the shape of the nest too greatly, or create too much noise.

after I had finished I still didn't like the fact that I couldn't see all the way inside the nest, so I proceeded to poke holes through the lining to see inside.

Soon I finished arranging a climbing route halfway up the nest. Having discovered no other birds inside.

I climbed the prearranged route grabbing onto the rim of the nest with my hands, and slowly rose onto my tippy toes, I stretched my neck, and bringing my head above the rim of the bird's nest....I gazed down into the bottom.

As I gazed into the depths of the nest, what I saw were three Entirely black bowling ball sized eggs. Seeing these eggs I turned back to look at the dead bird on the floor.

The annoyance I felt towards this bird vanished and I began to feel a little guilty, I viewed the bird with a better prospective, as I overlapped the image of the selfish bird from earlier, with the image of a mother hunting food for her offspring's.

I shook my head pitying the creature, what's done was done, If I had another chance I would still kill it,just maybe not as miserably as I did earlier.

However battles for survival had no room for sentimental feelings, In the future when I killed animal I would do it humanly, but I would still kill to feed myself and become stronger.

of course the way I approached battle with animals would change.

There was no reasons to make them suffer excessively, they only followed their instinct's , and there was no reason to be angered by an animal.

Shaking my head, I climb down from the nest, and began dragging the corpse deeper into the cave and away from it former home. I wondered if any of the eggs would even hatch anymore....

The deeper I journeyed into the cave, the more it expanded, and the more sharp jagged rock formations began to appear on both the floor and ceiling...It was the first time in both my lives, that I had ever explored a cave, I couldn't keep my heart from palpitating excitedly.

It impossible to suppress the childish feelings of being a hero on a journeying into the unknown.

however while I felt excitement I also felt its counterpart anxiety....

With each step I took, these two emotion worked together to keep my heart beating excitably, my feet walking forward, and my mind cautious.

Caw cawww

Cawwww

Caw

After traveling for several minutes. I began to hear the calls of birds in the distance, I stopped my forward movement, and walked for two minutes back the way I came.

I found a solitary corner in the cave and decided to rest here for the day. As a ghoul I wasn't usually active at this time anyways, I decided to rest till night, before continuing forward.

I looked at the birds body in front of me. Dragging it close, then I began to rip the feathers from the corpse.

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didnt fulfill my promise so two more chapters coming up now

i wanna rip a portal to the past and restart this series, to when i had time to work on it, and didnt have to attend to school and everything else.