Chapter 3
I normally didn't dream during biostasis. Normally the light flashed and the next thing I know I'm on the floor of my cage again. This time was different. I actually dreamed the whole time I was under, or, was it even dreams? They were flashes of visions, and weather they were dreams or memories I didn't know, but either way they were entirely convincing. Because when that light flashed, I wasn't on that table anymore.
I opened my eyes and glared at the alarm clock buzzing in my face. I made a half hearted swat at the off button and missed. I sat up and quelled the barrage of sound. Using a hand on the wall to guide myself I wandered down the hall to the kitchen. A lady was sitting there at the counter with her coffee, our dog laying by her feet and smiling up at me. I wandered over to the cabinet to pull out some cereal and looked out of the window.
We lived on the edge of the state park, almost in the mountains, but not quite, and I would usually watch for hawks and deer and things wandering into the open or flying over head while I ate breakfast. Usually I wouldn't see too much. Today was different. As I sat there eating my Life a hawk's lazy circle came into view through the window. I leaned over to watch it. It seemed to be looking for something, which was weird, because it looked like a buzzard or a red tailed hawk, and those raptors usually hunt from trees. I watched it combing the forest with its piercing eyes, and then to my amazement, it folded its wings and plummeted into the woods. I sat further still on my seat, hoping to see the result of its fall, and to my joy and horror I saw what it hit. My eyes followed the path of the hawk until they came upon a… I didn't even know what to call it. It was tall, green, muscular, and had blades all over its body. It was clutching where eyes would be with both hands, and green blood was seeping through its fingers. I saw the hawk again, now using it's momentum to carry it away from its victim, a distinct green color on it's talons. Seeing this bizarre chain of events, I did what anyone in their right mind would do. Forgetting my breakfast I dashed out the back door towards the forest, where the monster had wandered back into. Once outside I could hear much more. There were cries of pain, roars, the screech of the hawk, and even the crack of what sounded like a bull whip coming from the woods. Hearing the sounds I stopped, but there was something telling me to go on. Something urged me into those woods. The noise was dying down now, as if the battle that had raged so recently had subsided, and out of curiosity I pushed thought the underbrush so see the remains of the battle.
There were many of those monsters, lying in various positions on the forest floor. Most of them had claw and teeth marks on them. Some had clean cuts, even through their long necks or arms. There was a rustling besides me and I turned to see a wolf and grizzly bear, side by side, running off into the woods.
I woke up from these images to pain. Scorching, burning, mind numbing pain coming from ever corner of my body. It was so intense I could barely breathe without pitiful sobs escaping my throat. I curled up into the fetal position, and I heard the Hork-bajir guards laugh. I began to black out and the last thing I remembered was a voice in my head saying, Well well well, so he was worth kept alive after all…