COVELENT: XenoTrait

The nest swayed beneath Felix’s feet.

Wind screamed along the cliffside, clawing at him, prying at his balance like it wanted to peel him off and throw him into the sky. The stench hit next, rot, wet feathers, and iron-thick blood clogging the back of his throat.

Not all of it was his most of it was just there.

Slowly, Felix lifted his head.

The mother eagle hovered before him.

Huge didn’t cover it. She filled the world. Wings half-spread, feathers bristling, her shadow swallowed the light. Her golden eyes locked onto him still, precise and already dissecting him with just her eyes.

Felix froze.

Behind him, the hatchlings whimpered with thin, scraping cries. One stumbled, claws skidding toward the edge.

The sound snapped something in her. A piercing screech detonated the air.

Felix flinched, ’ that scream was too loud and way too close.’

His heel slipped while sweat ran from his face.

The eagle moved one step forward and the nest groaned.

She took another and got closer. Her head lowered to Felix’s line of view. It was testing, measuring.

Felix moved back. He used his arms to further push him back again.

The hatchlings pressed into his back they were soft, they were trembling and odly helpless.

His mind raced, ’ think...think! Think!!

Right now that bird is not attacking for some reason... I gotta find something.’

His mind continued but still found nothing.

Sharp wind raced...the noise of the hatchlings grew louder and all of it was accompanied by his heartbeat which felt as if it was about to explode.

It then got to be too much for him to the point were his chest began to ache....

Then a shriek was heard which momentarily calmed him.

A chick had someone moved to the edge of the nest and slipped. Its tiny body tipped over the edge and in that moment the mother’s gaze snapped away finally diverting from Felix.

For a fraction of a second Felix moved...Not away but forward.

His hand snatched a jagged branch that was weaved in the nest. He grabbed the falling chick, forced its beak open, and jammed the wooden stick between the beak sideways and pulled on it, choking it.

It thrashed weakly. Felix turned but it was now too late. The eagle had landed.

Talons punched into the nest. The impact shuddered through his bones. Wings flared wide, blotting out everything.

She was right there.

Felix tightened his grip on the chick, ”I didn’t ask for this,” he rasped. ”You brought me here.”

She didn’t understand and frankly didn’t care.

Her head dipped into a stance and was in striking range.

Felix’s eyes flicked, ’ the edge...the sky, that’s death for sure but I’ll take a gamble.’

With no clear path, with no time to think of favourable circumstances. He moved...he jumped

The world vanished from his view and was replaced with white.

Wind obliterated his breath as he dropped. The nest snapped away above him. The forest began to surge up below layers of green and jagged branches waiting to tear him apart.

A shadow cut across him as he briefly saw it.

Felix twisted his body in an attempt to see what was going on.

His eyes glared as he saw the eagle already diving at him with full force. It’s wings folded tight. It looked like a living spear.

It was fast and it was cutting through the sky very cleanly.

Felix clenched his jaw, ”...Sorry...i hope you survive.”

He hurled the chick as far as he could in the opposite direction. It spun helplessly into open air.

The eagle’s focus snapped instinct overriding everything.

A heartbeat pulsed through Felix’s entire body as he saw the eagle ignore the falling chick.

Felix angled downward at a very fast rate.

Then, ”Ahhhhhh.” Felix screamed as his entire arm vanished into her beak.

The pain...It detonated through his body...blood dripping from the beak as his muscles tore up, the pain somehow travelled up to his spine and burst behind his eyes.

Felix screamed but this time it was silent as the wind devoured it.

The eagle flew up dragging him with it with some of the blood flowing all the way to his face.

His body swung beneath her like torn meat. His fingers spasmed as his vision flickered.

His vision went black for a second.....Wind rushed passed his ears, it was cold and violent.

Felix’s eyes snapped open with the sky above and the forest below he was in the middle ground.

His arm hung wrong it was bent, useless and numb.

’Dead weight....This might be it.’ The thought settled in, heavy and quiet.

Then another thought surfaced, ’ Jack... The office. The fall. The betrayal.’

Something twisted inside him as hope with something else surfaced.

His teeth ground together, ”No.”

His fingers twitched and curled, ”I’m not dying here!”

The eagle adjusted her grip and Felix used this chance to move. His good hand shot up...his fingers digging into feathers.

They tore free but he didn’t let go. He continued to pull on them more and more.

His body dragged upwards in the direction of his arm.

The eagle thrashed, her wings hammering the air. His body whipped side to side in a violent motion...it was quite disorienting but he held, ”Not... letting go...”

The eagle shook it’s head violently in an attempt to rip off the arm.

”Ahhhh..shit my arm!” He screamed.

On pure survival instinct Felix used his free hand to grab the feathers on top of the eagles head and pulled on them with all his might to stabilise himself.

Now Felix used this opportunity to lunge forward and sink his teeth into her eye.

A wet rupture followed shortly after.

Heat flooded his mouth as he bit deeper. The eagle shrieked, it was sharp and broken.

Felix drove his fist into the ruined socket....He hit it once, twice and by the third strick the grip on her beak loosened.

His crushed arm slipped free and he dropped if only a little only to catch the edge of her beak mid-fall.

His body slammed against it as they spiralled in the air.

The eagle shook violently, trying to fling him off but Felix climbed....hand over hand.

Blood slicked everything. His grip slipped...caught the eagle slipped again in a repetition.

He forced himself higher. Onto her beak with no proper footing, no stability.

Just momentum.

He struck a hammering blow into her nostril. The eagle recoiled, wings stuttering.

Felix fell of the bird, the bird lunged at him trying to eat him whole but Felix found himself in a peculiar position, he was in a squat position in the bird’s mouth.

He pushed up with his hands and pushed down with his legs

”OPEN!” he screamed.

Nothing....the eagle did not budge at all. The eagle folded her wings in an attempt to dive.

The world inverted as Felix’s body slammed forward...his ribs screaming at him in pain.

At the last second, he twisted and the beak sliced across his side.

Hot blood sprayed into the air but he ignored it.

His arm drove forward into her mouth, past the tongue....deeper inside

His fingers found something soft and he assumed it was a vital spot.

He clenched his fist and bit into it....his hair enlarged, his scales came forward followed by his eyes changing colour from green to a light orange as the pupils split to look just like an eagles eyes.

The eagle convulsed as it’s s wings faltered. Just enough for Felix to brace himself. He then pushed down on the beak like before.

Everything tore as he screamed, ”AAAAAHHHH!”

The beak cracked as the eagle lost control.

They fell down branches exploding around them, snapping, whipping and tearing flesh.

Then the two of them slammed into a thick stone.

The eagle’s beak smashed into it. It’s beak forced open.

Felix slid inside. Darkness swallowed him followed by extreme heat and pressure.

The walls pulsed around him. Then a burning sensation came forth as acid crawled across his skin.

His flesh blistered, it peeled off then regrew over and over again.

Felix grinned, ”Still... not dead...”

He bit into it and tore it stomach. He ripped chunks free with his teeth.

The eagle shrieked outside body convulsing violently.

Felix kept going.

Biting, tearing and eating it over and over.

The acid burned even hotter but his body healed faster.

After what felt like an entenity stuck in there light appeared ahead.

It was dim and distant but it was the exit.

Felix lunged toward it, ripping through flesh, forcing his way forward until his fingers broke through.

Cold air hit his face.

He clawed the opening wider. Then dragged himself out.

Felix collapsed onto the ground, gasping. Steam rose from his body as it healed, acid-scorched flesh knitting itself back together.

Above him, the eagle’s corpse twitched for the last time then went still.

Felix stared up at the sky breathing with an intensity.