There was a meadow that seemed to span the entirety of forever. It was beautiful unlike anything else. Hundreds of different flowers seemed to spring up from the sea of green like tiny stalks of purity.

It was mine. All mine. Every single foot of it was bits that I had fought for, every step a memento. It was all mine.

Not that it mattered.

What was the point of the bounty if there was nobody to share it with?

Pain. More pain. Waves of pain.

I panted, reaching forward for the edge. My wings pounded with agony. Just a little bit more to reach for, just a little bit more. I could make it. It wasn’t far at all now.

Even my tail hurt. I was drenched, a storm was tossing me around the sky. It felt great to be out of control again. I was so close to my goal, I could almost feel it.

Pain. Something crackled and something exploded.

I let out a relaxed sigh, my tongue flicking out to clear away the specks of gore from the rabbit. My talons were still reddened from it, but I didn’t pay it much heed.

I stumbled and limped forward, still trying to ignore the fact that I was down a usable limb. Here, alone in a forest I felt more at ease than I had the entire time that Cale had been awake. Even with the pain I felt better.

It was hard to mess things up if nobody was watching, after all.

Not that I cared about that.

There were flashes of light and sound disorienting beyond regard. It didn’t make sense. The memory read it as being music but the noise just hurt.

There was something wet trickling down my face.

His face.

I was in the human body. I was in his body looking through his eyes. Instantly, the familiar waves of loathing washed through me like streaming sunlight.

They weren’t my waves of loathing. No, the best part of it was that they were coming from the human. Somehow, the human and I agreed on something.

We both hated the human.

Something danced at the corner of our eyes. A knife, flashing in the dim light like calling card of grace itself. There was no hesitation. We seized the knife.

We both wanted him dead.

There was a brief sensation of pure elation and then there was blood everywhere. A feeling like tearing paper. The knowledge that all was well once again with the world.

The pain was sweet.

The blood was red.

A surge of heat.

A soul was dead.

My heat pounded rapidly. I panted, leaning against a tree. My vision was blurred.

I was back in the real world.

I panted a little more, thoughts swimming.

I was Gilda.

"I am a griffon forced to deal with an apparently suicidal human thing." I muttered out loud. It helped.

Slowly, the world swam back into focus.

Cale.

Get the fuck out my head. You pathetic little worm.

What?

Oh look, I'm Cale, nobody likes me so I'm going to go hide out in my room and cut myself. Pathetic. I growled under my breath.

You. GET OUT OF MY HEAD.

Why? So you can kill yourself?

...Shut up.

No. I'm not letting you anywhere near anything dangerous. You know what? You're not getting control again.

WHAT?

Oh please, listen to your self. Like anyone with half a brain would ever let a pathetic delusional idiot like you do anything important. Oh wait. That's right. You already think that about yourself.

SHUT THE FUCK UP!

Pathetic. I taunted, feeling a spiteful grin split my face. You sat there and cried yourself to sleep at night and pretended that nothing hurt.

...at least I did more than sit on a mountain for a few years...

...get out of my head...

HOW DOES IT FEEL WHEN I BRING UP YOUR MEMORIES?

GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HEAD YOU TWERP.

Pssshht. Twerp?

I shut my eyes and counted back from ten. Each number was complimented by a series of images that should shut him up. I could almost feel him recoil away in disgust.

Answer me this, Gilda. Who is better? The one who actually went out and did things, or the one who hid away on a mountain.

Shut up.

I think you're angry because I'm better than you.

I am better than you will ever be.

I think you're mad because you know that I'm stronger.

I leaped to my feet, my wings snapping out on command.

Of course, I still had a hole in one of my back legs. Which I just jumped on to. "SHARDS." I swore, looking down at the puffy wound. It wept.

Oh? Is the ickle Griffon hurt?

I snapped out my wings and took to the air. Almost instantly, my wings locked up, sending my plummeting back to earth. I landed hard on my bad leg, forcing tears to my eyes.

You bastard. Let me fly us out of here.

Oh no. I may not know how to fly, but I do know that you need to move your wings for that. I'm not letting you move those until you admit that I'm better.

Obviously, I wasn't going to do that.

Aren’t you just hurting yourself here?

You’d have plenty of experience there, wouldn’t you?

Oh? I’m sorry. I can’t hear you over THE SOUNDS OF YOU CRYING ON A MOUNTAIN

Shut up.

Speechless, huh? Well guess what, Gilda?

I hate you.

Same here. Just as easily as you can be a bitch, I can keep you here.

I struggled to my feet. Every muscle felt numb and deadened. “Cut it out.” I muttered.

Admit it. I’m better than you.

I’d rather die than say that lie.

Alright.

For a while we stood there, for a long while. Thoughts of bleeding out and estimates on total blood loss flickered across our mind but we did not address them to each other. They simply were there.

I guess you will get your wish in an hour or two then.

I guess I will.

I am not weaker than you. I grit my beak. But I might as well give up this body to you if the worst you can do to it is kill it quicker.

Like that, I was back in control. The pain slammed me to the ground before I could remember to breathe. Heh. That was easier than I thought it would be.

The stunted growl from Gilda made me smile a bit. Then I frowned, looking down at the hole in my leg. It was swollen. Puffy. I put pressure on it. I went back to my feet, slowly taking a few halting staggering step forward.

There was pain. Tears sprung to my eyes eyes and trickled down. I clenched my grip on the ground and let out a gasp. The talons dug into the ground. I felt a smug sort of satisfaction from the griffin.
Give up yet?

I growled. It felt natural. I took another step, just to spite her. And another.

You really just don’t know when to give up, do you? Come on, you've got knives for fingers, end it already.She was bitter.

And again. And again. Every step was another strike against her. She fell silent, it almost felt like she was surprised, or confused. “What’s the matter?” I grinned. It felt good to be her.

It hit me then that perhaps we were a bit more alike than either of us would ever admit.

What changed, Cale?

“Huh?”

Why are you even trying? What happened to the kid I just helped cut himself?

I stopped. There was an almost hesitating tone to her voice. Despite knowing it was probably cliche, I voiced it aloud. “I grew up.”
The silence in my head spoke volumes, but I could feel my wings twitch.

We should probably get to a hospital.

There was pride in my step. Something I wasn’t entirely used to.

Hey, remember that multiple choice backstory? Let’s mix it up.

I pick all three.