ORIGIN

The great howling of existence was growing more noticeable by the day. Fewer and farther between were the periods of time he couldn't account for as he drifted away into nothingness only to come back into awareness of the tumultuous sound. Vibrations rocked throughout his awareness as from the great unknown outside objects of unknown mass collided with his the place he knew. His fortress was strong though, it would protect him.

More days passed, and a greater awareness to the world came with them. The cracks were getting louder, more violent as piece by piece parts of his abnormally thick shell were struck by unknown objects and cleaved from the whole they had once been a part of. He knew he wouldn't have long now.

So there he resided, helpless inside a failing cloyster, until with one loud resounding crack a particularly large object struck and through a hairline crack that wrapped itself a quarter of the way around his shell exposed him to the outside air.

This was it, he knew he had no more time. If he was to survive he had to abandon home. Awareness of limbs sprung to life and instinctually he placed a taloned forepaw on the opposite wall as the crack had formed on and pushed.

A beautiful and wondrous feeling rose up within him as his forearm burst into light, illuminating the endless white around him and the yellow claw pressed up against his world’s side. A wave of explosive force shot out from his hand, completely shattering the wall of white and sending it flying into the darkness beyond. The howling roar became deafening as he activated previously dormant legs and leapt into the great unknown.

Claws gripped into the ground as a new force immediately took hold of him, pushing him forward, trying to take him away. He had to get through this, had to find safety!

Instincts roared at the new being as he gripped with all his might to the smooth stone below him, talons finding the smallest of imperfections to cling to. Danger, this was dangerous, had to get out! Wind pounded against him and miniscule pieces of debris gashed into his fur and feathers like a sandblaster. A loud wordless screech echoed from his throat as his grip failed and panic overtook him.

His young body tumbled forward along the smooth surface, carried along by the tornado's winds. Pain from the gale's merciless flying debris subsided as he started going with the current, but was replaced instead by the battering and bruising of the young creature tumbling along an unyielding surface.

Whatever he had done to get out of the protective shelter would do nothing here, he knew that instinctually. Perhaps one day it might but in order to reach that point he had to survive this new experience. A sharp jolt against the ground sent aches down the length of the left appendage on his back, reminding him immediately of its existence.

His time in shelter had been one of immense knowledge gathering, but the ideas and images were so jumbled together it was hard to make sense of any of them. He knew that he had six appendages, and further knew that most creatures would only have four. Furthermore he knew that the ones on his back were useful for defying the force that tied most beings to the ground. The ground was exactly what was hurting him so much at the moment, so perhaps if he managed to avoid it he would have time to come up with a better plan.

Even if it was probably stupid this would be better than doing nothing and dying at the hands of the very forces of nature. The new being pushed a claw down as he tumbled to try to correct his positioning and unfurled his wings to catch the full brunt of the wind. Like a kite he sailed high into the air away from the damaging stone below. Even the bite of the wind lessened even more as his speed picked up moving alongside the stream.

Again by instinct he knew that this was insane, that he shouldn't be flying yet, that he wasn't strong enough to support his own weight by his own power. Still, with the air as violent as it was and as easily as it had moved him even with wings tucked away he was using very little of his own strength to keep aloft. This wouldn't last forever though, and the endless dark around him gave him no clues to the best way to steer to try to escape this torrent of howling fury.

The blasting of the wind was deafening, the sensation of hurtling through the air terrifying, the debris still flying by painful, but despite all this the new inhabitant of this world found a strange kind of thrill in his circumstance. Wings shifted and caught the gale at just the right angle to send him hurling upwards in the pitch black environment. For just a moment, a happy moment, the gryphon nearly forgot he was in a life-endangering situation.

Mind snapped back to attention as something large and blunt zoomed past him, skimming the very tips of his feather. Had it been any closer it likely would have broken a bone and that would have been the end of his flight and quite possibly his life as high up as he was. Getting more of a feel for his position and how to actually use his wings the gryphon started to make a plan of escape. Even if the whole world was almost deafening there was definitely more noise on one side of him than the other. More noise probably meant more wind. if he angled away from the noise perhaps he could go where there was less wind. His flight might be more limited that way, but at least he wouldn't have to worry about getting knocked out cold.

The attempt at switching angles was rocky; between being freshly emerged and taking damage from bits of sand whizzing by his wings were not fully flight capable. They were, however, sufficient enough to allow him to angle himself slightly away from the noise. The roaring continued on even as his back muscles screamed out in pain, but little by little the fury stilled and the effort required to escape lessened. He had no way to know how quickly he was descending, but he knew he would hit the ground eventually. He could only hope that he would survive the upcoming impact.

Through the darkness the catbird-looking creature plummeted, his currently undersized wings helping only slightly in slowing his descent. Without light it was near impossible to judge any kind of distance or any features of the landscape, but something was definitely changing about the world around him. The sounds of the deadly twister which had once been clearly audible to one side of him shifted position to be echoing all around him from above. The fury of the winds in a single moment subsided to a moderate zephyr, causing him to drop altitude at an alarming rate.

The newborn creature braced himself for impact just in time for his chest to hit the ground and start skidding. To his eternal luck the terrain was smooth and littered with rounded pebbles of unknown origin, almost marble-like in size and shape. Later on he would look back at this moment and deduce the objects to be rocks which had broken off and been smoothed down by the blasting winds before escaping the tornado. For now though all he could comprehend was the breath escaping his lungs in a sudden jolt, the sensation of rolling along the ground before coming to a complete stop amidst a pile of stones, and the moment of rest just long enough for his adrenaline to run out and pain to fully set in.

Discomfort flooded every part of the gryphon's being, but he knew at least for the moment he was safe. Wherever he had landed was larger than his previous fortress and seemed much less likely to break. Without immediate danger and with energy reserves spent on the previous actions a great fatigue took over, prompting him to shift ever so slightly and rest upon the pile of rubble. He would figure things out when he awoke again; find a way away from the tornado, tend to long term survival solutions, perhaps even discern less pressing matters like that strange light or his own status. All would come in the morning, whatever that was, and this was the time to just try to recover.

-End Thread-