Beast Soul

Pain.

Noah felt searing pain on his shoulder, and a loud buzzing noise ringing in his ears, as he came slowly back to consciousness. He opened his eyes, and saw the branches of trees high up in the air, waving at him.

"Wh-What happened...." Noah murmured to himself. He couldn't remember why he was lying on the ground, and he didn't have an answer for why he felt an excruciating, dizzying pain coming from his shoulders. The last thing he remembered was the…

"M-My hands...." Noah tilted his head and looked at his hands, and the sight made him gasp in horror. His hand, which was completely normal the last time he saw it, had now been transformed into something horrifying. His arms were completely covered in scales and his fingers looked as if they were stretched out in length, bearing sharp claws on every finger.

Noah wanted to scream, but his voice wouldn't come out of his mouth, which only terrified him even more.

BAM!

He heard a loud noise. It was similar to a gunshot, but not exactly the same. This was different from what he had seen in the movies.

RAAAAWR!

And then he heard Wolfe's ear piercing roar, followed by a loud 'thud'!

Noah turned his head, and saw the dragon lying on the ground, and he could feel the large creature's hot breath hit the back of his neck. It was panting and wheezing.

'Is he injured?' Noah scanned his body for any visible wounds, but found none. Relieved, he let out a heavy sigh. He then turned his gaze towards the tall grass, and narrowed his eyes. He had heard the sound of the object moving through the air before hitting the dragon, and he knew that it originated from somewhere in the tall grass.

But he couldn't pinpoint the exact location of the enemy, which made him frustrated and scared. He then stared at his shoulder. There weren't any visible wounds on him. However, Noah could feel an excruciating amount of pain passing through his body every time he tried to move even an inch.

WHEEEEEOO!

The dragon began emitting strange sounds using its nostrils, and Noah shifted his gaze back to the creature.

Then all of a sudden, it was as if something had changed within Noah. He could feel his surroundings become slow. He could feel the cold wind brushing against his face, the sweat dripping from his forehead, and he almost did not mind the sharp pain on his shoulder.

Whoosh!

Noah scrambled to his feet, immediately sprinting towards Wolfe, moving with incredible speed and agility as he emerged from behind the furry beast's corpse, grabbing tightly onto the tail of the dragon.

WHAM!

His huge leathery wings sprung open from his back, stirring the cold air. He flapped his wings and a cloud of dust filled the air, as he took off with frightening speed, carrying Wolfe along with him.

BAM!

Behind him, he heard another loud noise, presumably the enemy shooting with his weapon again. Whatever it was, it didn't hit him, and Noah and Wolfe flew away, vanishing from the view of Richard Edgerton, who cursed out loud. "Motherf*cker!"

He then pulled out his phone from his pocket, dialled a number and held it up to his ears. "Yeah, it's me. Keep an eye on the streets and in the air. I let two slip away. Both have been hit with the Harbinger rifle, so they won't be up in the air for too long."

Richard's gaze then shifted to the body of the dead furry beast that was lying on the ground and said, "I'll meet up with you at the precinct in one to two hours."

He then hung up the call, looked at the corpse of the beast, and sighed.

--- Right outside of Hallinger Street ---

"Richard said that the two creatures took off from Arayal Hills." Special Agent Alan Fischer placed his phone back in his pocket and turned to Detective Harry Stone.

"Alright, I'll immediately call for backup." Detective Harry Stone nodded his head and leapt into his black sedan, grabbing hold of the police radio. "What are we searching for?"

"They'll know it when they see it." Special Agent Alan replied. He then snapped his fingers and said, "Increase the radius of the search area to one mile outside of the Arayal Hills. Apparently, these things have wings."

"Wait, wings?" Detective Lewis tilted his head at Alan, who shrugged his shoulders before entering Harry's black sedan. "Wings, tail, claws. They've got everything. Keep up, Lewis."

"Easy for you to say." Lewis muttered to himself before jumping into his blue convertible and the two cars drove away into the night.

------------ BEAST SOUL ------------

"Ugh...." Noah felt the searing sharp pain returning to his shoulder blades, and he clenched his head with one hand while gripping tightly onto Wolfe's tail, gasping due to the intensity of it.

He had been flying with the large dragon in his hands for quite a few minutes now, and the pain he felt was only increasing as time passed. He felt as though he could lose his consciousness at any time. And that wasn't good, especially considering they were both high up in the air.

Noah didn't know if his newfound superhuman abilities would help him survive a 10,000 feet drop, but he certainly wasn't willing to try and find out.

"Ugh.... I have to land.. someplace soon..." He squinted his eyes and looked ahead. A few metres away from them, Noah could see the giant sequoia tree popping out from the dense jungle.

"T-The sequoia tree… I can land there..." Noah mumbled under his breath. He was certainly finding it hard to speak now. His body was a mass of pain. Every flap of his wings was tiring. His balance was not good at all and he was very, very sleepy.

He had to land. Fast.

As Noah narrowed his eyes and aimed for the sequoia tree, he felt his consciousness slowly slipping away. His vision was becoming weaker, and his strength was dwindling. Noah said aloud, "Oh, sh*t..."

And then blackness.

BAM!

A loud crashing sound, followed by the crack of branches. Noah had collided with the trunk of the large sequoia tree and crashed down through the various branches and landed on the ground with a loud noise, followed by Wolfe, crash landing right next to Noah!