I woke up to huge gusts of wind blowing at me at equivalent inervals. At first I disregarded it, and tried to fall back asleep, but I wasn't able to. I opened my eyes and noticed that my right leg was stuck underneath the boulder. Failing to push it off of my leg, I looked behind me to see a bird the size of a minivan. It's feathers were a mix of red, blue, green, and black, and it's beak was rigid and had sharp points. It was skinny and looked like it was weak, hungry and molting.
Any rational person would've freaked out, but I'm curious, strange, and some people say I have a death wish. I stared at the bird and studied it while it did the same to me, it's head tilting back and forth. Thanks to my years of studying wild life habits, I was able to determine it was young, but unhealthy.
I lifted myself up on my left leg, my right leg still under the boulder. I stared it deep in its large, lime green eyes. Once it got hard for me not to blink, I narrowed my eyes. When it exhaled through its nostrils, the wind made my eyes dry out. I resisted the urge to blink until finally, it bowed it's head in front of me, it's sharp beak touching the ground, showing that it accepted me of being dominant. I rustled the feathers on its head and laughed, leaves and dirt falling everywhere.
"Can you understand me?" I asked it. I knew that some birds could understand human speech, but only if they'd been around humans. It bobbed it's head, moving it's entire body along with it. That meant that either it knew that guy that tried to kill me, or there were more people wherever I was. I didn't know whether or not it was a good thing that there was a possibility of more people being here.
"Yay," I said laughing. It sounded weird yet natural for me to say that in my deep voice. "Can you help push this boulder off of my leg...without breaking my leg?"
It stood straight up, flapped it's wings, and let out an ear - piercing shriek, and kicked the boulder off of my leg with a single claw. I saw that it's legs were yellow and had scars and deep, blood cuts and the claw was black with grey points that we're obviously messed up in a fight of some kind.
"Thanks, so I guess I owe you one now. How about I clean you up and get both of us food?" The fire had gone out over night, but I could easily light it again. I didn't have to worry about running out of lighter fluid or matches. It bobbed his body again and I rubbed the feathers on its breast. Based off of the bright colors, I determined he was a male. "How about I call you Alejandro? That's what my Spanish dad wanted to name me, but my English mom wanted to give me an English name." He bobbed again and followed me to the water.
When we got to the water, Alejandro saw some fish and darted towards them, flapping his wings and screeching, creating waves. The fish darted around in all directions, and he calmed down when he saw that he hadn't caught anything in his claws. I figured this was why he was so skinny. I walked up behind him and pet his back, "That's not how you catch fish. You have to be quiet and subtle. Let's clean you first." I scooped hand fulls of water and poured them over his back to wash all of the dirt off, then I picked every feather that was loose and rubbed the rest of his feathers until they were even. "See? Now you're a pretty bird. Pretty and tough looking, thanks to your beak and claws. Now you go wait on the beach and I'll get us some fish."
Alejandro flew to the beach and perched himself onto a giant log. I waded waist deep into the water and stood for a few minutes, taking off my hat and letting the water settle. I knew that fish had glands on the side of their faces that could detect movement, so I mad sure to stand still. After what felt like an eternity, a school of fish showed up and started swimming around my legs. I quickly struck down and scooped up a hat full of fish and used the bottom of my hat to cover it so they wouldn't flop out. I also grabbed one with my hand straight from the water and walked to the beach.
I waited until the fish stopped jumping and sat my hat down in front of Alejandro, and he ate them one at a time even though they were so tiny. He was eating them so properly and I marveled at him. A sophisticated, giant bird with beautiful feathers but the power to destroy anything it wants. He'd pick each individual fish by its tail, turn his head up, and let it slide down. I watched him eat each fish until it he finished. When he did finish, he tilted his head and I held the dead fish out in front of him. He leaned forward and picked the fish up. I felt his beak, but he made sure not to hurt me in the slightest way. That's what I wanted to know.
I didn't have much patience, so I wasn't going to go out and catch more fish right away. Instead, I decided I'd go get some berries or apples or whatever I could find. "Alejandro, do you know where any fruit or meat are?" He nudged me towards the water. "I don't mean fish," I laughed, "I mean something not in the water, preferably fruit because I don't want to kill any animals.
He turned and spread his wings. I expected him to take off and have me run after him and follow, but he turned his head and looked at me patiently. I put my hat on and climbed onto his back, and it saddened me that I could feel his rib cage. He took off to the sky slowly, and once we were about 10 feet above the tall trees, he took off at full speed. I grabbed onto his feathers and wrapped my legs around him to make sure I didn't fall off.
I looked straight ahead with a wide, open mouth smile on my face. I leaned in closer to him to reduce the air resistance. My adrenaline started pumping, and I guess he sensed my energy because he started doing barrel roll after barrel roll. I felt like a bullet, and our target was a giant pillar of smoke in the middle of a grassland field on the other side of the forest. Once we got closer, I realized it was a village of some sort. Alejandro didn't bother circling around it. He flew straight to the center of the wooden village near a fire pit, and a scream came from somewhere ahead. I hopped off of his back and looked around.
Within seconds, I was surrounded by a crowd of men wielding bows and arrows.
