Geneva had been startled out of a deep sleep before, usually when a loud noise intruded on her dreams at an unusual hour. A far-too-close peal of thunder. An inconvenient car alarm. Cleveland the cat knocking the lamp off her nightstand. Again!

But this was something different. This was so loud and sudden and shocking that she flung her body upright into an unsteady standing position as her heart pounded and she gasped in wide-eyed shock. A maddening chorus of shrieks reverberated throughout the forest, deafening and startling and relentless. As her sleepy vision slowly began to focus in the encroaching dawn light, she saw that the terrifying aural onslaught was accompanied by frenzied movement everywhere. The trees shook and branches snapped amid a blizzard of falling leaves. Objects—no, bodies!—flew all around her faster than her eyes could follow. These bodies were the source of the ear-piercing sounds, alternating between wild shrieks and savage snarls.

Geneva winced and ducked and staggered backwards as the violent movements and noises passed inches away from her. She lost her footing and fell hard onto her back, driving the wind from her lungs and causing her to squeeze her eyes shut. When she opened them again a frightening creature landed roughly on her chest.

Looming above her, inches from her face, was a giant...bird? Monkey? It's short-haired body was about two feet tall, and it stood on her with two long legs that ended in very intimidating talons. A pair of arms with little clenched fists shook in front her, one of them holding a short curved dagger that looked like it had been chiseled from stone. It's shoulders and back were covered in a mound of feathers. And it's head looked like a giant bird, complete with piercing eyes and a menacing hooked beak.

Suddenly the beak opened and the creature shrieked in her face as it unfolded a massive set of wings. Geneva responded with her own reflexive shriek of terror. The creature then lunged forward with his talons biting into her torso and the dagger pressed against her face. She felt it puncture her skin.

"You tender meat!" the creature shrieked at her. Then it grabbed her shoulders with its hands and dug its talons deeper into her body. She yelped in pain.

"Help carry outside spirit!" it shrieked even louder as it looked up toward the treetops. Another of the swirling crowd of creatures swooped down and latched onto the girl with its hands and talons. Then the two of them beat their wings rapidly and began to lift her into the air.

"Put me down!" she cried out, but they rose higher and began flying through the air, dodging the many trees and limbs. "Put me down, damn you!" she persisted.

One of the creatures reached out and cuffed her across the face in the same place where the stone dagger had jabbed at her. It pulled its hand away and she noticed her blood on the little fingers. She was horrified as it opened its beak and licked the blood away with a stubby tongue.

She wanted to kick and thrash and break out of their painful hold, but even in her panicked mindset she knew that wasn't a good idea while being lifted so high into the air. She desperately tried to think of a way to escape.

What was happening? Where was Steekbunk?

And then a voice cried out to her from somewhere. "Grab a branch!"

She twisted her body and craned her head to try to locate the source of the command, but could only see trees passing by in a blur.

"Grab a branch!" the voice repeated.

She looked to the side again as they veered close to one tree in particular. She wrenched one of her shoulders free from a creature's grip and quickly thrust her arm out to grab a passing branch. Their movement lurched to a stop immediately as a bolt of sharp pain lanced through her arm. She held tight to it as their momentum propelled them in an arc toward the tree, the coarse bark tearing at her fingers and palm. And then the three of them were wedged in a tangle amid the tree branches. The creatures snarled and angrily began to pull themselves free until one of them suddenly froze in shock at the sight of something above.

"Not him! Not Kraw!" it shrieked. Its companion looked up now and took on the same fearful expression. "We find outside spirit!" the companion screeched to the onlooker above. Geneva leaned back slightly from her precarious semi-seated position to sneak a glimpse for herself.

Perched on a limb above them was what appeared to be a tall man, silhouetted against the ever brightening rays of the morning sun. A cloak of some sort billowed about him and a sword glinted at his side. In a burst of movement he was among them and the crazy bird creatures' frenetic reaction ignited a confrontation that caused the girl to retreat back into the cluster of branches. She listened to wild shrieks and strained grunts until she couldn't stand the suspense any longer. She leaned back out, supporting her unbalanced weight with a firm grasp on a smaller branch.

Through the tree limbs she caught glimpses of spittle flying from snapping beaks, showers of wood fragments, the flash of a sword blade, spatters of gore, and then the face of a human man. A beautiful human man with a tense jawline, a shadow of facial hair, and a tousled mane of black hair. His bangs parted momentarily to reveal an eye, a gleaming silver eye that turned and held her in its hypnotic gaze for what seemed like an eternity.

And then the small branch that she was clutching gave way with a distinct snap and her stomach pitched as she felt herself roll backwards away from the tree. This time there was no swarm of Faerie to magically stop her fall. She plummeted helplessly upside down until her back slammed into a thick limb, then she ricocheted off and slammed her shoulder into the trunk hard enough to make something pop in her neck. The panic of her dizzying pinball descent continued until her head made impact and stole away consciousness.