Chapter 5

Okay... this officially blows. Here I am, scaling a sixty foot cliff, with two creatures born for this kind of crap leading the way. My claws sting, my arms hurt, and I’m scared that if I make one wrong move I’ll die, which just so happens to be very possible from this height, it seems. I mean the view was probably fantastic, what with a horizon you could gaze across for hours. Hundreds of plants and wildlife scouring the forest, and not to mention the now setting sun on our backs. Merging it all together makes for picture perfect scenery. Here's the catch, I can’t find the time from being scared, to sit back and enjoy the view. Did I mention how much I actually hate heights? Yeah, yeah, I know I jumped off a cliff into waters below, but here’s the difference from then and now. There was fucking water at the bottom! You know what’s at the bottom of this cliff? Ground! Do you know how much ground hurts? Then there, you get the idea.

“Are we there yet?!” I griped.

Flora looked down and scoffed. I couldn’t really see the face since I was concentrating on not falling to my death, but the noise was still perceptible.

“Seriously? That’s the third time. Just look up, you can see for yourself! Quit asking every five minutes, it’s annoying!” Flora spat.

She ascended with great ease and grace, effortlessly jumping up from rock to rock. Pfft, show off.

Look up she says, yeah, easy for her to say. The girl was made for this stuff. I’m a huge chimera! I’m meant to stay on the ground dammit! I grumbled to myself, flapping my wings in frustration.

With every bit of reluctance I peer up to get a look, the cliff was pretty tall, no telling how far we had gotten. We could be halfway there for all I know-- Oh, we’re at the top. Huh, would you look at that.

“Come on, we’d like to get to Baldon’s bow today, please.” Flora persisted.

I frowned and defended myself accordingly. “Cut me some slack will you, I wasn’t made for this, you know.”

Flora just blinks at me, like how one of those dumb bimbos blink, like she can’t   even comprehend what I just said. She reminds me of a hostess on reality TV... I hate reality TV.

“Um, yeah, you are...you’ve got wings.”

Wings? What would wings help with climbing? I thought.

“What’s your point?” I asked curiously.

And here it is. That sassy “roll of the eyes” bullshit. This cat screams MTV.

“Think, what happens when you flap your wings and jump off?” Flora questioned in a very patronizing manner.

I was quick to answer. “I’d fall off the cliff and die.”

Cue douchebag smile. Perfect.

“I know what wings do, numbnuts. The only problem is I don’t know how to use them.” I continued, slowly climbing over the lip of the cliff and onto flat ground again. “Oh thank lordy jesus, glory hallelujah.”

“Who?” Baldon asked.

“Shhh, don’t ruin the moment.” I whispered.

Both basts took their time to just stare at me as I breathed heavily, my arms and legs screaming in agony. The kittens seemed bewildered for some reason.

“What’s wrong with you two? I’m going for it! Cat got your tongue?” I joked, cheesily. If only we had wine! The perfect fancy dinner. Mmmm, dinner.

“Yeah, something is wrong, you’re wrong, everything about you is wrong in some way. I mean, where are you even from anywa--” Flora couldn’t finish that sentence as I was eager to interrupt.

“Hey, this is nice and all, but... Food.”

“Food?” Baldon questioned.

“But we just ate not too long ago.” Flora responded.

Does daddy Chimera have to smack a bitch?

“No, I didn’t, what you fed me was not food. That was more than likely a burnt turd.”

She actually seemed offended. Like, I had insulted her cooking, and that I was the jerk here. Oh she’s good.

“Um... quick, can I ask something, Zack?” Baldon asked timidly.

My train of thought was already long gone, might as well start a new conversation. “Yeah, what’s up little man?”

“Um, did Colten get anything to eat?”

“Uh, no... why?” Colt responded.

“So why aren’t you bitching about not eating?” Flora snapped at him.

Bitching?! She’s the bitch here, not me.

“Well, Um, I did not eat all of my food... you can have some if you’d like.” Baldon continued, offering my brother some berries.

You know what I just thought of, and yeah, kind of late, I know, but where the fuck did she get that food earlier? There was bacon for christ sake! When did I miss the bacon tree? She couldn’t have gotten it from hunting, that would have taken too long, and there would have been blood... so what the fuck gives!

My brother could not actually pick the berries up so he had to eat from Baldon’s paw, talk about humiliating. This is just wrong, he shouldn’t have to be subjected to that kind of behavior, we’re not animals! Well, figuratively speaking we aren’t.

After demeaning himself in front of the whole group, Colt lifted his head and smiled. “Thank you.”

I seemed to have loss my appetite after that. I guess I just couldn’t stand watching him act like a damn pet to these stupid cats.

“Zack, do you want some too?” He asked, his paw already reaching for more berries.

“No, not really, I’m not hungry anymore.” Quickly, I shot down his offer and turned away. “Besides, I don’t like berries.”

That made him frown a bit, but thankfully he did not persist. We were all starting to get tired of each other. Pretty easy to tell by now.

“So, I guess we should keep going. The waterfall is just down there,” I said pointing to the distant raging wall of water. “We can use that as a waypoint.”

Everyone seemed alright with it and we carried on with our little adventure. In almost no time at all we were coming up to the waterfall. During our walk I had some time to think. I realized that once these two left for their village Colt and I are screwed. We’ll be dead by tomorrow morning, if we even survive that long. Basically, the only option I could figure out is that I follow them home, which is a promise for almost certain death as well. It’s a lose-lose situation here.

My train of thought was yet again disrupted, this time by the roar of the water nearby. Looking around I could see that we were here, now all that was left was to find this stupid bow.

“Which way do we go from here?” I asked out loud.

The cats seemed to be sniffing the air and looking at trees for some reason. These guys were hunting this bow down. Which reminds me.

“What’s so important about this bow anyway?”

That stopped Baldon in his tracks. He seemed to look off into space, in some kind of remembrance I’m guessing. He just stood there standing for a bit before turning to me and frowning.

“It just is.” He answered vaguely.

“That’s not giving us much.” Colten seemed to voice my own thoughts. He just said it in a more polite way, though.

His frown seemed to intensify. “It’s none of your business, so please stop asking.”

“Yeah, how about no. I want to know why this damn bow was so damn important that I had to climb a cliff to help come and get it.” I sassed.

“You begged me to come! And what help? All you’ve done is complain, and take up our time!” Baldon shouted.

Geeze, this kid is actually getting angry.

“Don’t turn this on to me. I still want to know why the fuck we’re searching for a stupid bow!”

Crossed the line on that one it seems, because that little bast pulled out the scariest looking death glare I’ve ever seen.

“It is NOT stupid! Take. That. Back!” He demanded.

Well shit, that’s a sure sign that I royally fucked up.

“Oh... crap, it’s sentimental to you, isn’t it?” I visibly flinched as he nodded slowly, still holding his glare.

“I-I’m so so--”

“Baldon, I think I found something!” Flora suddenly interrupted.    

“What is it?” Baldon replied

“It looks like some giant idiot smashed through here.” She grinned a bit at her own little joke, which wasn’t that funny if you ask me, then continued. “We can just follow these tracks back to where you dropped the bow.”

Suddenly, Baldon was completely done talking to me and instead headed off to follow Flora into the woods, leaving me behind.

“Whoa, wait up!” I yelled, scampering off as fast as I could to catch up.

It wasn’t long before I finally caught up to them, and for some reason they were hiding in a bush. I approached without any means of slowing down. What’s that Issac Newton la?: A rock in motion will stay in motion until someone slaps it out of air? Yeah, well I was the rock and these kids were in for a slap.

They can’t necessarily be angry at me, I did give them a fair warning before I crashed, albeit not a very loud one, but a warning is still a warning. I ended up tackling them out of the bush and into the clearing just in front of them. We rolled over each other and finally stopped, all of us laying in a heaping pile of fur and scales.

“Pfft, whoops, my bad.” I chuckled to myself. “Kind of what you get for stopping so abruptly like that.”

Squirming my way out of the pile I shook myself off and popped a few bones in my neck. The cats seemed frozen in their little huddle as they stared off behind me, pupils dilated and everything.

“What is up with you two?” I queried, curiously.

“Y-You’ve killed us...” Flora mumbled.

I know in this situation the right thing to do is run, but I couldn’t handle the suspense any longer. I mean come on, there’s no way I couldn’t look.

Slowly, I turned around just in time to get slammed by a giant black tendril. The pain was instant, and didn’t stop as my body was launched sideways. I flew for a bit there, then met the ground just as fast as I left it. After tumbling a good ten feet I slid to a stop.

“Ugh... Thanks for the warning bro....” I groaned.

My right shoulder felt stiff, that’s never a good sign. I tried moving that arm, but that just made the pain worse. Waves of agony would wash over every nerve in my limb. It was starting to flood my senses.

“Shit... That’s broken.” I announced through gritted teeth.

“Oh fuck, Zack, are you sure?” Colten questioned.

I tried it again and got the same results. Nothing, that arm is gone, fuck! What the hell am I gonna do without it? I’m right handed... paweded? I use my right arm okay! My chances of survival just hit zero. It’s over, It really is. I failed, I got to be in charge, make my own decisions and lead for a single day, and wound up killing myself, my brother, and the only two creatures I ever met in this world.

My working paw was slammed on the ground in frustration. Feeling helpless only fueling my anger. Then, suddenly, I was snapped out of my self loathing by a terrified scream.

“Help!” Flora squealed out in terror.

The perpetrator was standing over both her and Baldon, looking vicious and hungry. This creature had, a lion body just like me, It had wings just like me, and it had a creepy looking tail just. like. me...Mother of god.

“Fuck today!” I yelled.

In all my life I never thought I’d see one, and I was pretty okay with going my whole life without, but here it was, in the flesh.

“Zack?” Colten asked.

“It’s a fucking manticore.” I sighed. “We are so screwed.”

Colten suddenly became speechless as he watched in horror as the Manticore drew closer to the cats, his tail at the ready. I couldn’t watch this, it was going to get ugly, real fast. I looked away, whispering my goodbyes to them quietly.

There was another loud, ear piercing scream, then a yell. Thud! Dead silence.

Next Chapter: Chapter Six Estimated time remaining: 18 Minutes