The Beast

Chapter 2

Gabriel started to look around, he was lying flat on a padded bench but his hands and feet were shackled to it. The hand was still on his chest and beyond the gloves were thin feathery looking forearms. His eyes followed the arm only to see a mix between a human and an owl in white robes. When he reached the creature's head it was already staring right into his eyes. He was stunned by the absurdity of something this unbelievable. when the beak of this thing started moving.

"Its waking up" the owl said

"Do you need my help?" the other voice asked.

Gabriel looked to where the voice came from. Now he was looking at a somewhat less absurd mix between a human and a lizard but this thing was not in white ropes. It was in military uniform and didn't even bother looking down at him.

"He's properly secured, I will call for help once it's time for transportation" the owl replied.

"Just don't fall in love" commented the Lizard as it walked out the door.

"I promise, I won't" shouted the owl out the door before switching its attention back to Gabriel and moving its face inches before his and started staring at him.

He was so absolutely perplexed by what he just witnessed that he just stared back in the big black eyes of the owl. Suddenly it moved away and brought a tiny flashlight to shine in his eyes. After a second of the blinding light it whispered to itself:

"Reflexes presumably healthy", now it looked him back in the eyes, "It seems like you are at least sentient, little buddy."

In all his confusion about where he was and what he was looking at, he still came to the conclusion that it was better to stay quiet until there was a proper reason to speak.

By time he finished the thought, the owl had already put the flashlight back and started to poke his leg with some weird stick that gave him light electric shocks which irritated him but he was still tied to the bench so there was nothing to do but wait for the next shock. This went on for quite some time but after the owl put the stick back and mumbled something about muscles to herself. It was back to making deep eye contact with him and started speaking.

"I would love to figure out what deity made you into the war machine you are now but the captain ordered that I focus all my efforts on making you battle ready. The fact is that you can definitely understand the words I am saying since I implanted your translator myself and I'm guessing you are scared out of your mind because you haven't been able to understand words since you were modified into this thing. So I will go as slow as I can for you okay?"

Gabriel didn't know how to respond. Was it time to break cover? Could it even understand him if he started speaking? But before he could finish the thought the owl continued.

"I am Tibi. You can't understand the concept of names but that is okay. I will now unlock your right hand and hand you something."

Gabriel watched Tibi turn around and noticed that she was actually quite a bit smaller than him. She brought back a helmet with scratches and a big hole in it, opened his right arm cuffs and gently placed it in his hand.

"Crush." Tibi said and put pressure on his fingers. He understood that she tried to teach him a simple command but was unsure whether he should obey.

"Crush." Tibi repeated putting further pressure on his hand. His started weighing the advantages and disadvantages of cooperation.

"Crush!" Tibi basically screamed. He snapped and crushed the Helmet in his hand like a can. Tibi squeaked in delight as the unrecognisable piece of metal hit the floor.

"So the data was right." Tibi's face was inches away from his "If the data about your muscles is correct so should be the data about your nervous system. Close your eyes twice if you can understand this."

Gabriel was baffled. Was there anypoint in holding back anymore? He could just skip the whole ordile and start talking.

"Come on, I know you can hear me.", Tibi interrupted.

There was nothing to be done anymore, if these things wanted him dead he would be dead already.

It was time to talk.