John’s heart raced wildly as he fled higher and higher. His wings beat unsteadily as he got used to the feeling, but he couldn’t resist the urge to repeatedly look over his shoulder. If it weren’t for one of his tails holding the man, John would’ve got to see what happened when someone failed to pull their parachute back in his world.

The ambushers eventually gave up and he stared at the familiar hoods that hid the features of everyone below. He kept looking back until he could no longer see them and then crash landed in a clearing - body skidding unceremoniously to a halt.

The man had been completely forgotten by John until he groaned in pain. John looked over and saw that the man landed shrubbery that cushioned his fall. John began pacing anxiously in a circle, his mind spinning as a thousand thoughts a second overwhelmed him.

‘Crap. Crap. Crap. This is bad. This is really bad. They have her. What do I do? What can I do? Do I go back, do I let them take her, do I just sit here and do nothing?’ His talons and claws preened at the ground, rending the ground and upturning the soil below. ‘Options - what are my options? What do I know?’

He didn’t actually know why his Contractor had made them run. He did know that he wasn’t dead or severely crippled yet, which meant that they wanted him for something. That didn’t matter much to John. He had to fulfill the request for Amadeus, otherwise he would inevitably die. Not to mention the parasite that was still running rampant inside of him.

He halted in his anxious pacing and looked up towards the sky, ‘I’m screwed. This is it, isn’t it?’

He felt his mind going into lockdown to stop himself from panicking. He almost got a hold of himself, but a deep growl reverberated through the woods. His eyes flickered back and forth through the trees.

There was nothing, and then they were there.

Large wolves with steel-plated scales instead of fur. They were the size of regular wolves, but John could already tell that he was in trouble. Again, he heard the man groan from the shrubbery that cushioned his fall, but John’s eyes went wide as the wolves saw the free meal. They circled John like the pack wolves they were, doing their best to blindside him.

He saw at least five of the steel wolves, but he knew there could be more out of sight. His tails flicked forward and smashed into one that stepped a little too far forward, but their armor proved to be substantially stronger than he initially expected.

John wondered how long this would go on, slowly backing closer and closer to the man, until they all rushed forward with no signal. The man was defenseless behind him, but they targeted John.

Three of them rushed him from the front and absorbed the brunt of his tail’s fury while the other two flanked solo to either side of him. He couldn’t get cornered, otherwise, he would die. There were too many of them and their defense was too sturdy.

He got a running start forward and then leaped into the air, flaring out his wings. He realized quickly that the wolves were waiting for this. They pounced higher in the air than he ever expected possible and latched onto his rear legs. He shrieked in pain and rage as he plummeted back down to the ground.

His tails renewed their assault, lashing out with abandon. A death rattle filled the air as he scored a lucky strike, his tail sinking deep into the skull of a wolf and pulped its brains.

It fell away from his leg. Instead of a respite, the steel wolves continued their assault with renewed vigor, leaping onto his body and rending his flesh from bone.

Fear of death fogged his mind and clouded his judgment. He struggled against the wolves with reckless abandon.

Fear of failure - of never seeing Lily’s smile or hearing Elaine’s precious laugh - kept him fighting, but the exhaustion of the day slowly began to creep up on him. His body felt like it would collapse on itself and his eyes glazed over as the pain sent his body into shock.

Panic. Stress. Frustration. Hopelessness. Mind-numbing fear…

His mind shut down and he closed himself off to the world. He couldn’t face the reality of his situation, so he withdrew into himself.

The continuous pain felt like an itch in the back of his mind that he knew he shouldn’t scratch.

A burning coldness radiated out from within that caught John off guard. A strange burning that stared at him within the emptiness of his soul. It shrieked in rage, flailing about wildly.

The light in the clearing flickered wildly as a bright light shined from John’s chest. Light itself bent, warping until it formed several streams of radiance. His chest formed a bright vortex and sucked those streams inward, body absorbing the energy rapidly. His body completely restored itself. A thick, black fog replaced the light of day and the wolves whimpered as they backed away from John’s unmoving form.

His body underwent a metamorphosis. His wings disintegrated and were replaced by the fog. His horns emitted the strange smoke, and the brightness of his chest gave way to all-consuming darkness.

Blacker than black pervaded reality descended for only the briefest of moments before everything returned to a quiet calmness. The wolves were nowhere in sight and John’s appearance returned to its original form, though the energy he contained had grown.

The burning coldness returned to its slumber inside of him and he opened his eyes. The wolves were gone, no trace left behind.

John looked around and found the man standing next to the shrubbery he landed in, eyes wide. The smell of urine filled the clearing and dark spots spread down the man’s leg as John’s gaze landed on him. His shoulders shook and he breathed heavily, slowly backing away from John. He tripped backward and slammed his head on the ground, groaning loudly.