Devastation

9. Training

After I reluctantly agree to train with the Dove, I get snatched off the ground and flown to a new area. I can still see One from where we are, but I still don't feel safe. The Dove sets me down harshly, letting me fall onto my hands and knees in the dirt.

"Hahaha, why are you bowing to me amiga? Oh that's right, it's because I'm the beta." The Dove says condescendingly from the middle head.

I avoid his gaze as he takes a step towards me. The tip of wing brushes my chin, causing me to shiver.

"Get up amiga. Or I'll kill you where you kneel." The left head growls low and threateningly.

"I will go easy on you, but that doesn't mean I trust you around my alpha you hear me?" The right head says nonchalantly.

I get up, not before noting to myself that the Dove may have three different personalities. The middle head is a condescending vulgar jerk, the left head is belligerent and aggressive, and the right head is calm and seemingly sincere.

I slowly get up and raise my gaze. I look up right into the middle head's piercing red eyes. He huffs a breath of disgusting sourness right into my nostrils. I reel back in disgust, only to get swooped back up.

"Let's go." The three heads say in unison.

The Dove jumps back away from me. I raise my hands protectively. He then raises his wings high and threateningly, I get a feeling of dread. A second later he takes flight, rushing forward. I dodge to the right and he misses, but he does a flip midair and smacks me with his wing. I'm sent flying and he's after me again. Once I hit the ground, I push myself up and start running away. The Dove flies at me again and I sharply spin around and jump at him.

He is taken aback and tries to dodge me, but he was too close and we connect. I hit him square on and start punching his middle head, but the other two heads start snapping at my arms —the left head more so than the right. I ignore the shooting pain in my arms and go to town on his face. He lets out an angry screech and dives for the ground. We hit the ground with a thud and bring up a cloud of dust. I'm winded, but try to hold on to him still. He pushes himself up with his wings and then slams back down.

The force of the slam made me let go and he takes advantage of that. With one swift motion, the Dove slams his head into mine and then snatches me up and throws me some feet away from him. The impact has my vision blurry and it feels like the world is spinning. I can feel the blood leaving my body through the gashes on my arms. The Dove walks up to me, his wings at his sides, heads held high —and bleeding— with a smirk.

"Hmm amiga. You did alright, but if I wasn't going easy on you, you would be dead." Says the bloodied middle head.

"Yeah, you'd be a bloody mess in a heap on the ground." Growls the left head covered with my fresh blood and a bit of my flesh.

"True. But you did well enough to hurt me. Well done. Time to go back to my alpha." Says the middle head, nonchalantly again. The right head didn't have nearly as much blood on it as the other two heads.

As I'm passing out, the Dove picks me up and flies back to One. When we arrive, One looks at us both and makes a few hooting sounds. The ground rumbles a bit and a few little creatures start crawling out from in the ground, doing little squeaks. They look like the mutant groundhogs I fought before, but these creatures are smaller and have little cloth pieces on them with plus signs on them. Could they be the mutant medics?

Before I know it, I'm surrounded by the little mutant creatures and am being patched up with dirty rags and some of them are spitting into the deep wounds. I scream through gritted teeth and I try to wiggle away since the spit burns, but to my surprise the spit is healing my wounds, but not getting rid of the pain. When the little creatures finish healing me, they leave as quickly as they came and One swoops me up into her arms.

"I see you fought well. The Dove has a battered face by the looks of it. Good job." One commends me, proceeding to carefully stroke my head with the palm of her paw.

She is still huge, but her size and mine are the equivalent of that colossal gorilla holding the little blonde woman from that very very old movie I don't remember the name off, or an adult holding a little hamster in their fist —so she wouldn't initially crush me from petting my head. I can't help but feel proud at her praise to me. I'm a human, not a pet, but her rubbing my head is calming. I yawn and she makes a cooing noise.

"Hehe are you tired? I guess you can sleep now. You deserve it." One coos as she proceeds to plop down in a pretzel position, beginning to lean up against a building with an indentation in it —most likely caused by her.

One leans in the building, her belly exposed as she places me on her chest. She snuggles into the debris and surrounds herself in it, as if making a makeshift blanket before closing her many eyes. The moon appears red from the red haze in the atmosphere, but that's not really important. I close my eyes and listen to the rhythmic breathing coming from One.

I fall asleep, not before hearing the whoosh of wings and a quiet voice.

"Buenas noches, amiga." Says the Dove quietly before flying away.