The monkey scrunched its face, seemingly agitated, it hadn't appreciated what Marion's body had done,
Marion shook like a leaf, blood spilling from his arm and another liquid spilling from his pants, no thoughts were going through his mind,
The monkey growled and snarled at Marion, greatly displeased, it raised its arm in anger preparing to swat the stinky pest away,
In that moment every single one of Marion's dreams and aspirations seemed naive and childish, the very first obstacle he came across, one step into this journey, one decision into his story and he was going to die,
This was true death, the first time Marion truly felt it, on earth he didn't feel this overwhelming oppressing sense of danger, this was imminent, in front of him, death incarnate,
Marion blanked out, didn't move, didn't try to fight back, he just stood there,
In his piss.
And death,
that was all he saw, his eyes registered blood, blood going everywhere,
One swipe, that was all it took,
The monster fell, by one swipe of its feather, one singular swipe, shredding the monkeys body into two, from its shoulder to its hip, blood and gore and entrails shot out, bathing Marion in a substances he found much more revolting than his own piss,
The corpse fell down, and from behind it Marion saw the predator that saved his life, and might end it soon,
A beautiful raven, its feathers of a lustrous shining black, it stood tall, taller than Marion, its eyes of a dark crimson that stared directly into Marion's own, something about them told Marion this beast was different, it looked with intent,
Its feathers a mettalic black streaked with blood either naturally or as a result of the recent attack Marion wasn't sure,
Marion stood still, in the same exact position he stood in previously, his nerves still fried, but he couldn't take his eyes off the crow,
It was one of the most beautiful creations he had ever seen,
The bird as if sensing his admiration, spread its wings far and wide, easily reaching 5 meters in wingspan, a bird of incredible proportions,
The inside of its wings a tapestry of different colors, deep reds, yellows and purples, greens and blues, it was magnetic to the eyes, its feathers demanding to be looked at, they were almost alive, no, they most definitely were, Marion could swear they were moving about,
Marion felt himself relaxing, they had that kind of effect,
He felt light for a moment, forgetting the fear he had just felt, the near death experience he just had, the state he was currently in, he was able to relax for a moment, it was nice, his worries seemed to fade away,
The raven crowed, and Marion seemed to understand it,
It truly was intelligent, it really was, he felt it was saying it was hungry,
That made sense, it should eat, it was a majestic raven, why shouldn't it eat?
It crowed again, and marion nodded in understanding,
He raised his hands slowly, ever so slowly, and put them around his throat,
'what a simple solution, how did i never think about it? it's hungry, and i'm tired, we can solve all of our problems this way, what a brilliant creature, how did it never occur to me?'
Marion was delighted, he had the biggest smile on his face,
the world seemed to shrink all at once, there was only the majestic superior raven in front of him, nothing else,
He should certainly serve it,
His hands closed slowly around his throat, Marion felt more ecstasy than ever in that moment,
'Ah, how did i never think of this solution? so simple...'
He could feel himself slipping, his eyes were growing more and more tired, he could feel himself losing, yet his hands were only growing stronger, the euphoric feeling he felt was only getting more intense,
This was the answer to all his troubles, was it not?
The raven crowed, and crowed, and crowed, on and on,
Marion could undersrtand it, of course he could, how could he not, it was laughing, of course it would laugh, they had found a brilliant solution, he should also laugh,
Marion could feel the world spinning in circles, he wasn't seeing straight anymore, his body felt weak, yet his grip still held, stronger than he could understand,
And the bird crowed, still it crowed, laughed and laughed,
Marion choked and choked, and it laughed and laughed, on and on,
Marion thought it was weird,
Marion also wanted to laugh but he couldn't, how could he, he was choking,
And the bird got even louder, and Marion thought something was wrong,
'why can it laugh but i can't? that's not right...'
Marion thought for a moment, why couldn't he laugh, that didn't make sense,
'I can't laugh because i'm choking, that's why!'
Marion had finally found out why, simple, so simple,
'why am i choking?'
Marion thought, that was weird, just a moment ago it made sense, why didn't it make sense now,
Marion opened his eyes wide, something didn't make sense, he had experienced this once before,
'YES' Marion figured it out,
'this is the same thing that happened to me back on earth'
Marion opened his eyes wide, as wide as he could, and stared defiantly into the giant bird's beady crimson eyes, it was laughing, laughing at him,
Laughing at the Marion Valentine,
'No one laughs at me, i have had enough of getting pushed around, ENOUGH!'
Marion stared right into the bird's eyes, and it stopped crowing, its eyes opened wide,
Marion knew what that look was, surprise,
Marion was trying to stop choking, it was harder than he thought, those were his hands but they weren't listening to him,
'Damn bird, i've eaten more birds in my life than you can possibly imagine, i'm not gonna die to one'
Marion opened his mouth wide as if trying to scream then clenched his teeth hard,
Looking the bird dead in its eyes,
It took every single ounce of strenth he had, but his arms were leaving his neck, slowly, the pressure was receding,
Then air flowed in, and he could breathe again,
Marion breathed and coughed, and coughed, then vomited, and after he did that, he looked at his hands, as if they weren't his own,
The bird crowed, and Marion looked at it,
''Fucking bird, i have no idea how you did that, or why you did it, but i'm not going down by my own hands, if you want to kill me than you need to at least do it yourself'' Marion said with a smile,
This time Marion was laughing,
The bird looked surprised, then it surprised Marion and started laughing again,
The two laughed together, bathed in blood and guts, and other liquids,
They both laughed, but were both were thinking different things,
'I will kill this bird'
And god only knows what that bird was thinking, but its conniving smile said enough about its intentions,
It bent down and devoured the monkeys head, in one swoop, blood and bone flying about,
Only now did Marion stop laughing to look at his condition, it was miserable, he felt miserable, his hands were worn out, and his neck burned, he was still struggling to breath correctly, his clothes were all tattered and dirtied,
The bird smirked and crowed at Marion.