Wings of Evolution (WoF AU)

Chapter 52

Preyhunter

Preyhunter picked up the scroll, it was a very fancy case, but not flashy enough to draw too much attention out in the world. He held it for a few moments, feeling something… wrong in the air as he held it. Almost as if the world itself was falling apart. 

He didn’t have time to dwell on it, because Feirceteeth snatched it from him as Moon searched around the room for other treasures. 

Most of them found at least one animus touched object, an earring that could make one’s footsteps as silent as the night, a bracelet that could shield someone from mind reading, a pair of arm bands that could make the wearers as strong as a storm. 

The sheer number of undocumented items was also astonishing, there were twelve rings of different colors that were identical in shape and size, a stringed instrument with ornate carvings down the side, and several ordinary objects like a stone the rested on a shelf and a childs painting that lived in a flimsy wooden frame. At the last moment, Feirceteeth took a set of wooden dice off a side table with a confused frown. 

Half of the objects Preyhunter would have doubted the magic of, except for the fact that Feirceteeth, who had been granted an ‘enchantment spotter’ insisted that every one of the objects had some type of spell on them. So they took them even if they were ordinary enchantments, out of fear that they might miss something big. 

After several hours scouring the entire place, Feirceteeth finally led everyone back down the tunnel and through the disabled death trap. Strongwings kept trying on random artifacts, trying to figure out what they did, and since Feirceteeth didn’t stop him, no one said a word about it as he put one ring on each talon and wiggled them about, pulling on several armbands and poking at the dice. 

Feirceteeth finally stopped him when he reached for the stringed instrument, shaking her head with a frown. “I think this one is powerful.” 

Strongwings shrugged and took out the scroll with a curious glance at the side, “what does this one do? It was in a big room on a pedestal and everything.” 

Feirceteeth frowned at it, “I don’t actually know, it’s like my visions are sliding off of it, I can’t get a read on it’s future. Strange.”

Strongwings shrugged and handed it to Preyhunter, who took it hesitantly as the larger NightWing kept looking through the bag of magic items. Preyhunter frowned down at the scroll, staring at it for a long moment as they exited the tomb. There was something… wrong about it. sinister.

“Oh! What about the weird picture?”

“I don’t think-”

As Preyhunter exited the door, he fell forward with the scroll, screaming as his entire body wracked with pain.

He tried to breathe, only to find that he couldn’t. 

He tried to ask for help but all that came out was that long terrible noise as the air in his lungs ran out. 

The pain moved about him, as if deciding exactly the worst place to attack, it worked at his joints, bones, muscles, moving through his very blood as it centralized on his skull. 

Time passed, he felt talons at his side, screaming his name, pulling the scroll from his talons and screaming for someone to help.

But no one knew what was happening, Preyhunter didn’t know what was happening. 

He heard the jingling of Strongwings nearby, jewelry clinking against his scales as Preyhunter tried to take in a breath, tried to open his eyes and see more than pain. 

He heard the tones of his mother’s voice, screaming that he was suffocating, he heard the word from afar as Preyhunter’s lungs screamed for air. He wasn’t sure when he’d stopped screaming aloud, but apparently that had happened at one point. 

Preyhunter felt his own claws scraping at his throat, begging it to let in air. But it remained closed as he felt himself fading, strength leaving him, everything going numb as the darkness clouded in. 

I’m… dead… aren’t I? 

The part that stood out the most about that wasn’t the fact that it was happening, but just how much he’d wanted to do in his life that now would never happen… 

The darkness took him, and he couldn’t help but wonder what he would be reborn as. 

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Vote to pay respects to Preyhunter ;-;