A name? What is a name?

I am.

...

I am...restless, perhaps. Or maybe I am angry. These words are new to me. I am new to me.

...

...

I am hungry.

//

Het'Riva saw something coming.

Het'Riva flew over a tree top, shiny black wings glinting in the afternoon sun. It had rained in Kelunbar forest for two weeks straight, and they had decided to take a flight to shake off the dampness in their feathers and in their soul. The something that was coming appeared to be a large creature, and so they alighted on the branch of the next tree, not wishing to be seen by it.

The creature was large, and could have been bird like except for six long legs that dangled beneath itself recklessly. It flew haphazardly, with no control of its limbs, and barely any control over its wings. It tilted to the side suddenly, and crashed into the forest. Branches snapping echoed toward Het'Riva and birds scattered up from the wreckage, screeching.

From their second body, Het'Riva watched the creature crash to the ground in an explosion of twigs and branches, just a few yards away. They slithered away from it and across the forest floor sluggishly as a few splinters and leaves bounced off their scales. They felt sluggish from their last meal, but they did not want to be within reach of the things huge beak. It looked as if it could swallow both Het'Riva's boa body and raven body in one bite.

The creature stumbled to its feet and screeched, causing any other creatures that had not already scattered to do so. A rabbit bounded past Het'Riva's head, heedless of the snake. With it's two front...legs? Arms? It started to tear at a nearby tree, before losing patience and grabbing it with its massive beak revealing serrated teeth. It pulled the tree out of the ground, upheaving clods of dirt, roots, small plants. Het'Riva felt the tremble of it beneath their belly. It dropped the tree, stirring a foolish, young mountain lion who had not run sooner from its hiding place. The creature snapped it up and swallowed it whole, just like that.

Het'Riva felt as though they could not move fast enough. There would be no distance far enough from this thing.

Their raven self flew directly above their snake self, wishing to go farther but unable to bear leaving one half of themself.

The creature's eye landed on the snake, too large to go unnoticed, and it lunged forward clumsily and grabbed them with one of its hands. Het'Riva flung themself wildly, trying to escape the tight grip, but its hands were strong. They attempted to coil itself around the creature, knowing that they would need to be three times as long to have a hope of killing it. They bit the creature, and in response it slammed them against the ground once, crushing their spine.

Het'Riva felt their consciousness leave the snake and could now only see what happened from above. They screeched in shock in pain. The body was only unconscious, not dead, but not for long.

The creature launched itself in the air, holding the snake, and Het'Riva flew at its eye, bigger than they were. Het'Riva screeched and jabbed their beak into the monster's eye, but it bounced off with not much more than a scratch. The creature opened its maw and screamed.

The sound was horrifying, and more birds flew out of the forest tops, terrified of this unknown thing. Het'Riva maneuvered to the clawed hand holding the snake—their body—and scratched and pecked, trying to get the creature to drop them. It knocked them aside with another hand, causing Het'Riva to fall back and crash against a tree. Something snapped. A stick? They tried to take flight, flapping their wings hard, and instead they lurched to the side and nearly crashed against the tree's trunk. The snap had been their wing.

Clumsily, the raven landed on the ground. They would have to find help somehow.