Beneath broken stone and warped metal, a solitary raven panics as it senses imminent danger. It escapes certain death mere seconds before the structure finally crashes to the ground. On soaring above the devastation, the bird spies a wet-eyed woman...
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Light flared around me as a stone slab was shifted, opening the way ahead. I bobbed, craning my neck for a better view, thinking I could be free at last.
But things were still obstructing my way: metal spars, rocks, slabs. I had but a thin crevice to try and wriggle through; I knew it was impossible. There was no way out for me from this... tomb.
I felt such hopelessness as I watched the only available exit shrink from my view. My situation was beyond dire.
The living thing, a fleshy claw, twitched and dug deep grooves in the ground. Its unexpected movement made me flinch, my wings instinctively opening for flight, but realising I had nowhere to go, I folded them again.
Curiosity bested me; I ducked my head, almost level with the ground so I could spy through a splinter in the rocks.
I watched the fleshy claw continue digging into the ground. I deduced it was a humanoid's hand.
It was straining to reach something which was just outside my peripheral vision. Then the hand lurched forward. Slowly, it started to pull back.
I pressed my eye closer to the random openings which afforded me the only view, desperately trying to see what it sought. The coveted object turned out to be a long stick.
The carving of a bird sat at its tip and attached below that were several strips of fabric.
The stick, although dusty, was adorned with symbols, feathers and spherical objects clustered near the bird's feet and dangling from the ribbon.
The human's hand continued moving away until I saw the human in its entirety. It scrambled to its feet, the wooden object held in its grasp. Then it was gone - it had managed to break free.
The wailing above me suddenly changed pitch; there was a hint of relief. "Roo, roo," it sounded. That too, then moved away.
A moment later another voice commenced. Its desperate, sorrowful bleeting - "Caagaw! Caagaw!" - was sending shivers down my spine. There was agony in that sound; a pain so profound it resonated with me. Yet how was that remotely possible? What manner of creature produced such doleful sounds? Another human perhaps?
An earth-shattering sonance filled the air once more. Stone and metal jarred around me, scraping, screeching, shifting and sliding.
It was excruciating, tearing so viciously at my mind, I felt as if my skull was splitting open. My beak chittered as if from the cold; my body was rendered limp by both the intolerable noise and the pressure within my confinement.
I had to get out of here - wherever here was. I knew it was going to collapse, crash around me; upon me.
A deeper, more throaty sound arrived. The one wailing "Caagaw" suddenly started protesting; its anguish, desperation tugging at my heart.
The unstable surroundings shifted again, brutal, significant. My brain registered the screams and bellows of the creatures outside my prison - they were retreating!
I turned my head, trying to locate an exit, drawn hopelessly to the light where the human had escaped moments before. I could not squeeze through - could not reach it!
As the very ground beneath me shuddered and heaved, an opening yawned directly above. In that same instant, I saw another object, a pillar, falling, slicing through the air, coming straight towards me.
I had to move.
Now.
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