The Forgotten Trial

Chapter One

Egret has often been asked what it feels like to be in a jet while it crashes. She has never been able to answer that question until now. There was definitely panic, but also a lot of anger. One of her claws was desperately trying to keep her eagle jet level, the other was battling with the jammed eject throttle. She looked back at her jet to assess the damage. "By Cavora!" She cursed under her breath seeing that two-thirds of her wing had been sheared off. Her earpiece crackled to life as Eswald screamed. "Egret! EJECT! EGRET EJECT NOW!" The fear in his voice caused Egret's own panic to rise exponentially. Her silvery feathers were all sticking up as the adrenaline and epinephrine levels in her small body rose.

"I CAN'T IT IS STUCK!!" Egret shouted back over the earpiece as she let go of the yoke entirely to tug on the eject throttle, but it wouldn't budge at all. She screamed in horror as the panic rose within her. "EGRE—" Her earpiece cut out. Both claws went back to the yoke as her jet started to do uncontrollable aileron rolls. She put all her strength into trying to regain control as alarms started to blare.

Her face lit up as the wind sheer, overspeed, bank angle, stall, engine fire, and GPWS blared their warnings and lit up all over the cockpit control boards. "I KNOW! I KNOW! I KNOW!" She cried, tears starting to form in her eyes as she desperately battled to level out her jet.

Her efforts did not prove fruitless as she managed to pull the plain into a hard but controlled dive. Her altitude warning started to go off, warning her that she was. "600 meters"

Her adrenaline levels were now off the charts, all the blaring and stimulation faded into the background as she stared at the now rapidly approaching body of water that she was hurtling towards at almost 2,000 kilometers per hour. "500" the soulless robotic voice informed Egret.

Not wanting to give up, Egret continued to pull up on the yoke, cursing under her breath. "400... 300... 200... ALTITUDE! PULL UP!" The warning screamed at her as she dropped beneath 100 meters to the ocean beneath her.

Her voice got very squeaky and high pitched, like that of a new hatchling as she launched into a quick prayer, her words slurring together. "Oh great eagle beast, please provide me with protection. May the lifeblood of chi sustain me in my time of need. And may the sky above give my soul freedom in the event of my death."

"30.. 20.. 15... PULL UP! TOO LOW! PULL UP! WARNING OVERSPEED! WARNING OVERSPEED! WINDSHEER! STALL STALL!" All the alarms screamed at her as she let go of the yoke one last time and braced for impact. All the sounds and panic left her as she processed the water rising to meet her jet.

She expected to die on impact, but instead everything slowed down to an almost complete stop as she felt her jet bounce off the water's surface. She felt her body be thrown against her restraints and the speed of the jet start to spin vertically up. Anything not bolted down was floating in the air around her as the jet's cockpit started to roll up towards the sky.

She was thrown sideways and forwards when the jet started another spin, she felt her left arm slide out of her socket as she slammed against her chair. She was jerked hard to the left as the jet's other wing hit the water forcing a sideways roll. Her head collided hard with the hard metal sides and she immediately lost all conscious thought.

Egret coughed up a lot of blood and some fleshy chunks. In a panic she inhales and gets a lungful of water. Now hacking that up, with more blood, she started to panic. She fiddled with her still strapped harness and got it undone. She could feel the fear of death building in her as tears started to form in her eyes.

The jet groaned as it continued to sink down. Egret grabbed the hatch release and pulled it as hard as she could and kicked at her shattered but still intact windshield. Her movements sluggish and uncoordinated, her ankle bent at a very unnatural angle every time it collided with the cockpit hatch.

She screamed, her will to live surged through her as she gave one last kick and the hatch popped open and shattered. Egret started to push her way to the surface, every movement caused enough pain for her to almost black out. Her lungs screamed for oxygen as she approached the surface. She broke it and took a breath of fresh air. Oxygen never tasted sweeter. She then started hacking out all of the seawater she had inhaled, causing the water around her to turn into an off-red from the mix of blood and bile in it.

"Thank the beasts." She sighed as she saw the shore wasn't far from her. She slowly but strongly made her way to the warm sands. All the adrenaline and energy leaving her. Her body collapsed and turned her head to the sky as she passed out from exhaustion and exertion.