A slight flicker of movement against the nearly-bare forest floor was all that marked the movement of the tiny figure. As it endeavored to dash from cover to cover through the towering, yet quickly thinning underbrush. Although running as quickly as he could, he still hardly managed to make any substantial headway due to his diminished size.
The shrill and exited squawking above him had thankfully stopped. But the occasional passing of the same ominous shadow meant that it still loomed somewhere overhead. Still on the hunt and no doubt getting closer to finding him with each questing pass.
With several furtive glances into the sky just after the dark shape passed once again over him again. He darted out from under the small bush that hid him to where a broken pot lay in the near distance. He let out a small sigh as, despite his reduced size, he had managed to cover the distance without being noticed. But it did nothing to alieve the gnawing feeling that it was only a matter of time before he was spotted again by the hungry death that still loomed far above him.
He knelt in the shadowy space under it, glad for the relative safety it provided. As he worked to regain his breath and tried to plan out a course of action that would keep him alive until at least the next good hiding spot. However, a surge of adrenalin shot through him as the dark shadow passed over the opening before him. While an accompanying gust of wind demonstrated that the feathered monster had swooped down low in its ceaseless search of him. As though it had spotted the movement and made a grab for him, perhaps only missing being its meal by mere moments.
The thought made him pause and consider if he should just stay put. Get as far back into the darkness as he could and wait for his hunter to lose interest. But as he began to creep backwards, something soft and faintly sticky brushed against the skin of his right arm. He spun around and to see a tangle of cobwebs that stretched off into the darkness.
The ominous mass increased in volume as it reached toward the dark, unseen end of the ceramic cavern. He pulled his arm away and took several reflexive steps back to the front and watched as a small wave of vibration spread through the collection of filaments. A wave of terror surged through him at the sight, coupled with the expectation of seeing a tangle of furry legs and fangs leaping out of the darkness. It froze him at place for some time as he braced to try and fight off the murderous abomination.
When that didn't happen, he relaxed a little and moved back toward the opening despite the danger it too posed. The thought of spending the last moments of his life in horrifying agony, wrapped in a cocoon, as his insides were dissolved was far more motivating than the looming alternative. Although, being digested alive from the outside in would most likely be just as grim and kept him as far from the light of the opening as possible.
The realization dawned on him that he had put himself in a very precarious situation. With a sudden and unhappy death lingering on each side of his current position. It was no doubt only a matter of time before it came from one of them and the longer he lingered there the greater the chance. There wasn't much time before it started to get dark, which would bring its own set of problems and threats.
This had clearly been a very bad idea. So, he might as well take his chances and keep moving. With any luck, the blasted creature had grown tired or bored and moved on. Either way, staying were he was as darkness fell was not something he was willing to consider under any circumstance.
With as much stealth as he could manage, he crept into the light and peered up into the surrounding sky. The branches of the massive trees that towered into the distance far above him appeared empty and moved only from a faint breeze. He spent a couple long minutes scanning the heavens in search of his pursuer and felt the anxiety start to ebb with each massing moment of not spotting it. Of course, not seeing it was just as apprehensive as finding it looking down at him.
The empty sky did finally manage to spurn his feet forward after a moment. Then, with a quick consideration of his immediate options, he darted out in the direction of a nearby bush. It looked as though it offered plenty of cover and might even be a good spot to hold up for the night if needed.
However, he hadn't gone more than a dozen quick steps before a large shadow passed over him. A loud, keening noise thundered around him and forced him to grab his ears from the pain. He looked up just as a blast of wind nearly knocked him over to see the brightly colored feathers of the bird that had been spending most of the day trying to catch and eat him.
The sight filled him with bone-chilling terror that froze his legs in place as he watched its flight path curve around back toward him. It let out another victorious call as it sped down toward him, its beak opened just enough to snatch him up. The gaping black void of its maw had just about reached him when his legs decided that they might as well do something on their own since his brain wasn't going to.
His body leapt to the right and out of the way just as the beast's hungry mouth came together to grab him. The feathers of its wing brushed against his body in a heavy blow that knocked him down and sent him sprawling along the ground. He managed to turn the fall into a roll that placed him back on his feet as he tensed to run for the nearest cover. His eyes made a quick scan of the area around him and he realized that the broken pot was still the closest, and best, place to hide. He spun around, his legs already bending in preparation to launch him back to the tenuous safety it provided.
However, just as he finished the about face, his heart nearly stopped, and his body was involuntarily petrified by fear. The bird was still on the ground, its massive form loomed above him as it regained its senses. The creature hadn't seemed to have noticed that its prey was still in the open, although just out of range from its beak. That could soon change in a matter of moments as it began to look around for the small, pink thing it had been hunting.
He stood stone-still as the bird?s head panned around with quick jerking motions in an effort to locate him again. After several heart-pounding seconds, his lungs started to burn, and he realized that he had been holding his breath. With the concentration and attention of someone defusing a bomb, he let the air escape his burning lungs in a long, quiet exhale of breath. Then refiled them again with the same forced-calm as the eyes of the predator swept the ground around him.
He watched it scan around him, certain that the heavy pounding in his chest would give him away at any moment. Which made it all the harder stay calm as the time went on. Soon though, the piercing gaze of the hungry avian was directed away in an ever-widening arc. His stillness having apparently been enough to elude the bird's attention.
It turned from him and began to move away with slow steady steps, still attentive and searching. He relaxed as the distance between them increased with each slow, lurching step. When he thought it was far enough away, he began to edge away himself. But only managed a couple of tentative steps before an ill-placed foot caused him to stumble due to him paying more attention on the bird than his feet.
The action was quickly arrested but the sudden, jerky motion was more than enough to alert the ever-vigilant bird to his location. Before he even had a chance to realize it had seen him, a shadow fell over him and its beak was again gaped open and darting down toward him. His eyes widened at the sight and thought he could already feel the heat radiating from it against him.
With no time to respond, there was little he could do but watch as the yawning black-abyss bore down upon him. It clamped together and held him in its firm grasp as a surge of acceleration from the creature lifting back into the air tried to wrench him free. To his dismay, he watched the ground fall away at a dizzying speed as the bird took flight back up to the trees with its prey.
The world came to a jarring stop as it landed on a branch far above the leaf littered forest floor below. He tried to struggle free, but the beak kept a solid grip on him no matter how hard he tried to wiggle or pry at it. Given his size, he might be able to survive the fall if he managed to free himself; and given the alternative, he was willing to take the chance. However, no matter how hard he tried, he could do nothing against the hard beak that held him.
Whether from cruel amusement or callous indifference the fowl simply held him in its beak and ignored the small, vain struggles of its meal. This changed soon though when the head made a sudden jerk backwards and a small synchronized release of the pressure around him. The action caused him to tumble back into its mouth and onto the hard tongue within.
There was barely enough time for him to observe the gloomy cavern of its mouth before the beak closed again to seal him in humid, putrid darkness. The tongue moved under him, its hard slightly-damp surface pressed his body against the rough surface above him. Followed by another sudden jerk that tossed him further back into its maw and a quick flash of light. Which was quickly followed by sliding down to be engulfed by a tight slickness that pulsed around him.
He couldn't move, he couldn't breathe, the only sounds were that of the birds fast beating heart and quick breaths. The palpating tightness continued and soon he again could feel his lungs begin to burn with the painful lack of oxygen. His body squirmed with involuntary movement against the confining walls of the bird's long throat. While his lips gaped in a vain attempted to breathe, its only reward was a mouthful of the foul, slimy mucus that lined the flesh around him.
In what seemed to be a particularly cruel turn of fate. He was dumped into a small sac with an ample supply of breathable air just as the spotted blackness of unconsciousness began to claim him. He spat the putrid slime from his mouth and inhaled rank, fetid air around him in deep, greedy gulps. Which devolved into a bought of coughing as he retched in an automatic response from the stench of it.
The chamber shifted and his body slammed against one of the soft, unseen walls as the hungry creature around him took flight in search of more prey. While the start of several ominous groans and gurgles around him signaled that the bird's stomach was about to attend to its newest guest. The mucous slickened flesh under him going through several preemptive convulsions as it worked to consolidate the contents of the dark enclosure.
Thankfully, however, the air had been a bit thin to begin with and started to run out before too much longer. His breathing soon grew ragged and labored just as the walls of the chamber began to press in close against him. His awareness slipping away as his body received the first of many firm convulsions that would soon help to break him down.
The last thoughts he had before sinking into oblivion weren't about family or whether he could have avoided his current fate. But, oddly enough, which of the local statues his remains would most likely be deposited on.
