I awoke to the sound of an animal cry. I felt the pressure of something on top of me. Did this creature think me dead?
I shoved the thing off, grunting my displeasure "Get off!" I growled.
I heard the satisfying noise of the animal back off, only for it to come back, moving closer.
Opening my eyes, I came face to face with a human. A hatchling from the looks of it. Its skin that funny pinkish colour that humans are, shaggy brown fur on its body and head. Its eyes green like mine.
In its little paws he held a human tooth. Small, the colour of stone, but it looked very sharp.
Fear grew in my gut. This human must have come here to kill me. Was I to die? Would the Elder One find my spirit here if I were to die?
The human growls at me in that complex, unitelligible chatter that humans make. It must have been trying to scare me, it growled at me, yelled at me, raised the tooth in its paws over its head.
I knew he could not understand me, so I only stared at the human. I silently begged it to spare me, to not kill me, I did not want to die, I did not want to be meat.
The human stared back at me, determination in its eyes.
With a wail of despair, I closed my eyes and waited. Its tooth would not kill me instantly, it wasn't large enough. I was going to die slowly, probably painfully, and I was completely powerless to stop it.
But the bite never came. I heard the hatchling mumble something and back away for a moment.
The next sound I heard made me snap eyes open in confusion. The human was using his tooth not to kill me, but to bite through the bramble that had me trapped. The noise grated on my ears, but with each ff-ff-ff-snap!, I felt my limbs stretch with newfound freedom.
When the human had chewed me free, I pounced.
I had my paw wrapped around the human's throat. The smaller creature was panting, whether from fright or a lack of air I had no idea. It seemed to shrink undeneath my gaze, my anger burning away whatever bravery the human had.
That's when I saw it. Its eyes. Those two green orbs, almost identical to my own in colour. I saw my reflection in its eyes, a look of fury and bloodlust on my face.
That's when it ocurred to me, had the human not looked at me with that same look not long ago? Was I, not long ago, laying on the ground, just like it was, terrified that I would die?
I saw myself in this human. I was like it, and it was like me. And that, in itself, unnerved me.
I couldn't bring myself to kill it. So with a deep breath, I roared in its face at the top of my lungs "STAY AWAY FROM ME!" and flew away.
I never got far. My wings were stiff, and my tail felt off. I crashed into a large cove.
I tried to take off again, but something was wrong, I crashed again. Again I tried, again and again, to no avail.
My tail felt wrong. The balance was wrong. I inspected my tail, and I howled to the sky with despair.
One of my fins was gone. Torn off by the human bramble trap. It now only had one fin, like a fire-skin.
I spat fire at the walls in frustration.
I leaped at the cove's walls. I had to get out, I had to get back to the nest. I had to leave.
I never got out the cove that day, or the day after that.