The bird’s wings rush relentlessly to escape the doom it sees.  The hawk dives from above but the bird still tries desperately to escape.  As the hawk gets closer  the view goes from wide and open to condensed with the outside black like a tunnel.  No peripheral.  The sight is forced onto my eyes.  I am forced to watch.  As the hawk gets ever closer and closer a noise like a violin playing the highest note it can crescendos in my ears giving me the same tension as my eyes.  My blood boils as I want desperately to look away and block my ears but I can’t.  I am held here staring at the hawk catch the bird and kill it.  I wake up screaming from this horrible nightmare in a pool of sweat.  It has been twelve years since I arrived at this human settlement.

After the great defeat of the scavengers they did not go away.  They got angry and every time we fight them off they get angrier.  It takes more and more fighting to fend them off each time.  It also takes more lives each time.  Twelve years ago nearly three hundred strong warriors lived at this large village.  That number has been chopped and sliced down to a mere fifty six.  Last week during a skirmish with the lizards,  forty three were lost.  We are moving North today at noon in hopes of confusing the beasts.  I polish my scared antlers so the blood stains aren’t as vibrant red.  The supplies I need are set out before me.  My collection of books, my rifle, my colt .45, and pack of survival supplies.  I have been the leader of this camp ever since the past leader died in the great battle.  I step into the hot sun of this July morning.  My eyes sting and ache as they adjust to the light of day.  

When I regain my sight, the village of tents and campsites is now dismantled and being pulled away by horses.  My cave here next to them has no value to me anymore so I light a handmade torch and throw it into the cave.  All the possessions I need are in my pack.  I run across the field where the campsite was and into the wild.  I am the scout for this nomadic migration to a new camp.  I run ahead deep into the forest where I excel.  The birds sing the morning song while the sun breaks through the leaves in shivers of golden light.  I stop to take in the air.  The smell of a deer herd is nearby but they will be moving off as they can anticipate our presence.  There is another smell though.  This smell is unfamiliar to me though.  Then a figure from above casts a shadow over where I stand.  I whip around to see the creature.  Then in a tree I see human eyes look back at me.  These human eyes are surrounded by a face that has a beak and feathers but the same expressions as a human.  It stands, balancing with the long talons on its feet that are wrapped around the branch.  its hands are human but the arm from wrist to shoulder is covered in beautiful white/gold feathers.  Protruding from this creature’s back are two huge wings that take a beautiful brown color.  He nods and I look behind me and four of them who had guns aimed at me now lower their weapons.  It seems I am not welcome here but I could be wrong.

“This is Flight territory. What is your business here, horned beast?” the creature says in a booming deep voice that seemed to cause shivers in my body.
“I am from the village twenty miles South.  I help and lead the people who are human.” I reply hoping that he is friendly with humans.
“I have had good ,and bad, experiences with those who are unaffected by radiation.  These for whom you speak though, are infact welcome here as they have never disrespected the land.  I assume you move North from the lizards?”
“You would be correct in assuming that.  My name is unknown still to me but I am known by many as Redeemer.”
“I am Quila.”

I follow the birds on foot as they fly slow for me to follow.  Quila stops to walk with me and we discuss our settlements.  Flight is the country that Quila’s kind have created.  Quila is a warrior with many accounts of bravery in fighting the lizards.  When we finally arrive in the capital of Flight I am greeted with stares from above homes in the trees.  The whole city is above in the trees only accessible by the birds.  I can climb quite well so I grip the bark of one sturdy looking tree and ascend to the city.

The light from the now setting sun illuminates the whole city of treehouses.  The light is golden and pure like that of Quila’s feathers.  Quila shows me to a guest apartment where I am asked to stay the night.  All the people here sleep in hammocks which I don't see as a problem yet but my horns could get stuck.  I don’t care, I am tired from today’s long walk.  I lay down and close my eyes as I fall asleep. 

Smoke fills my nostrils and wakes me in a sudden panic.  An orange-red glow shines through the dark of night.  My eyes open to see fire scorching its way through the trees.  Screams for help and falling tree branches ring through the night like gunshots.  I try to rise to my feet but I can’t as my antlers are caught in the web hammock.  I turn and wriggle, trying desperately to break free but the smell of smoke and feeling of heat approach closer and closer.  I can feel the heat scalding my feet and suddenly I am free I rise and look for an escape.  There is none.  I run as fast and hard as I can towards a wall in an attempt to break free.  The wall gives way to open air.  I fall nearly forty feet.  The ground meets my body with an enormous impact and I shudder in pain from the initial crash.  The blow seems harder than I know it is.  I slowly rise in to my feet, recovering from the fall.  I peer around into the woods.  Fire still burns through the city above And down here on the floor of the forrest.  Through the smoke arises another familiar smell.  A smell I resent so very much.  A smell I loathe.  A smell of scaled creatures come to kill and pillage.

The scavengers followed the men here and now they ambushed us in the night.  I run towards the smell that I recognize so clearly.  I pull out my hunting knife from the sheath on my thigh.  I have to stay quiet and in the shadows.  I need to keep the shadows on my side.  I come up quick on the first scavenger.  I take him down quickly and silently.  Then I see Quila step out of the shadows, happy to see me alive. 

“My people left through the air. I have a handful of warriors ready to fight.” He confides to me in a way that suggests a battle is about to ensue.  I respond:

“I am not sure where the human warriors are but they could be of great help to us.”

We set out into the center area of the blaze.  The scavengers greet us with gunfire and battle cries.  I bring my revolver to aim but then I duck down and somersault into the center of a group of the vermin.  I surprise them as I quickly spin around pulling the trigger six times, letting fly the six bullets from the gun.  Six bodies fall.  I reload the first revolver and pull the second from its holster.  I run ahead shooting left, right, above, behind hitting each one in the head or the chest with a lethal blow.  I am now out of bullets in both.  One final scavenger pulls a sword from a sheath on his back and hisses at me.  I buck up and take a charge with my horns aimed down at him.  I feel a whack into my horns by his sword but it doesn't stop my from impaling him up against a tree.  I back up, peeling his body of my antlers.

I turn around to find the warriors finishing up with the many dead scavengers.  We now run away from the fire which has grown to an unstoppable size.  We arrive at the rally point of the people who escaped the fire and scavengers.  Quila helps me unlodge the sword from my horns and thanks me for my part in fighting the lizards.  I assure I will stay here to help in the future as well.  While most celebrate, the thought of all the dead is almost unbearable.  The only thing to focus on in this moment is that the scavenger deaths far outnumber our own.  The soldiers from both races now hold their fists in the air, showing apporval and start to chant “Redeemer”.  I throw my own fist in the air as a roar from the whole mass of them deafens.  I am the great warrior their prophets have foretold will come.  I am the Redeemer.