Member
EXP: 1,875, Level: 1
Level completed: 94%,
EXP required for next Level: 125
A smile came to that young face. Young and human looking.
"Can you tell me your name?"
I blinked as I thought. My name? I had a name, surely, everyone's mother gave them a name when they were fresh from her womb. As I thought it came to me, because it was my identity. That of my brother who had died beside me however ...
"Avin," I murmured.
The man sat back a little and I titled my head to see him more clearly. He was sat on his knees, hands curled on his lap. I noticed then that I was lying down, on top of a thin matress. Blinking, I began to frown with my eyes as he nodded slowly.
"Yes, you are Avin. And can you tell me what you last remember?"
A flash of the blood and agony stabbed my mind and I felt anger come into my eyes.
"I died," I stated simply.
Slowly the man, Vindrexis he said his name was, nodded.
"Indeed," he agreed. "You did die. And now you are alive."
The contradiction struck me then. I was definitely alive, I was sure of that. After all there was no nothing, but rather something. I could see, I could hear, I could gain a sense of spacial awareness. He was sitting a metre away from me on a floor of nonidentical stone tiles.
"How?" I whispered in astonishment, as slowly, I began to push myself up.
Taking in my surroundings now I saw I was in a vast stone room. Stone was the main material here, and it was not just the floor, but the walls too. Even the ceiling was stone - huge vast slabs of it were held up on sturdy rocky pillars. Two long rows of them were placed even down the room, making out its shape to be long. At one end of this room, near where I discovered I was, was a dais. On that dais sat a huge marble throne and on that throne sat another man.
He was very unlike the first. Instead of being pale and handsome he was fat and rugged. His skin was tanned, and his hair flaxen. Two profound, olive eyes started down at me, both them as his parted lips indicating utter astonishment.
"It worked ..." He was saying, slowly.
The white haired man heard him too. Twisting his head around he grunted a laugh at the enthroned man.
"Of course it did," he retorted - and in a condescending way, I thought. "Yours and my power together can conquer everything."
His and his power? Confused, mostly still about being alive I sat up slowly, leaning my body forwards ... And that was when I noticed it.
My beak. And my body. They were dressed in a light tunic but they were not black. Not in any way the destined tones of a blessed kenku. My claws, my plumage, my scales - they were all bleached. Horribly. Instead of the glorious sable that adorned all of us humanoid corvids, there was only grey. Light, almost ivory grey. From my beak, that I could see if I crossed my eyes, to my very claws.
"What have you done to me?" I murmured in utter horror.