(Flashback) Raptor Sky

by **Jackson LaCroix** on July 9th, 2010, 2:46 am

Cresting over the spray of moisture that tipped stone peaks like torn silk, a single animal flew above the clouds and into a clap of blue. It was a vigil hawk wrapped in dark feathers dipped in the same cobalt that painted the wet cliffs below. The raptor was sleek and mysteriously larger then the other silhouettes which seeped into the expanse beyond. Wind ran it’s fingers through tactful plumage, casting a cool immediacy through the moment that briefly tore at all the concentration it took to maintain such a form. Jackson LaCroix had to push higher. Higher into the atmosphere, till he could not even breathe. It was perfect. Closer to the end of grazing blue till the push of wings felt like lithe limbs in water, with thin frost scathed over the surface of his pinion. Higher. So high till the pressure and cold emptied the updraft, leaving him with only the body of a man. Looking down..

There was nothing but clouds while trees and lakes lay below like freckles to veins on an arm. Glancing over the bird let out a shrill call, then in a quiet formality spun round till he dropped like a black stone. Fell like a human, arms and legs flailing as he laughed with a flourish.

Soaring head down, Jackson embraced his abandon like a banquet. Hunger and satiation. A weightless liberty that could cost every spinning coin. His pants fluttered smoothly as he dropped with the sound of sliced thunder, tearing open the fabric that clothed the sky. Nothing could likely slow him, no force, no object, no sound, and certainly not the lined bed of clouds below.

His cheeks flushed subtly as he aimed for the outline of the shapes that had been chasing him upward. A mass of wings and riders leaped out to snatch his body tightly before the ground could dare.

Howling like a wolf that severed it’s own paw to empty a trap, the free falling man pushed both arms down in front of him now, summoning a fresh reserve of boiling djed that melted his fore-arms into dual pincers of horrifically sharp bone. Caving through the foremost armored figure below, Cross impaled the assailant with the absolute velocity of his fall. The vulture like mount that bore the scourged rider nearly turned away from the blow on the fresh gust of a blustering wind, but the blond warrior’s right arm laced through it’s shoulders with a heavy stitch. It's former passenger had been swiftly tossed aside, screaming not in exuberance as Jax did, it’s body lost like a wicker man to the elements.

Falling down and down again, the laughing man’s weight rolled with the vulture, barrel rolling till Jackson’s bare feet finally hit the surface of it’s back and reigned the creature level with the force of his sharp embedded arm; glimpsing it’s original rider disappear into the earth far below. Immediately swooping upward, both man and beast looked in surprise as their trajectory ricocheted over a flock of similarly trailing black wings, hooked swords and stretched skin.

by **Jackson LaCroix** on July 9th, 2010, 2:54 am

With a limping torn appendage, the creature he surfed on crashed through another of it’s convocation as LaCroix began to leap out while contorting both hands to their original form then snatched onto the knotted legs of a new mess of ominous feathers. Soaring upward, the bird screeched loudly as Jackson used the lightness of his momentum to sling his body over the creature’s harrowed call. In the seeming emptiness between their unmatched speeds aligning for the second time, the two creatures gazed briefly into the chaos and haze that separated them, then the man winked.

Pulling his water gourd from a wrapped cloth belt, he tossed the object into the opened crack of the vulture’s horrid beak. With the appearance that he was going to escape, the warrior noticed five ferocious vultures swoop into the escalation of their drift. Instead he rolled upon the neck of the choking bird, avoiding the rusted sword blade belonging to it’s rider while seizing the buckle of it’s harness. The scavenger’s master cleaved it’s toothed weapon into the flesh of the very animal that carried it’s awkward weight, but Jax’s returning touch was smooth yet never soft. Gripping the rope harness by it’s metal end, he yanked the cord while crushing the heavy rider over it’s saddle, driving it’s spiked helmet through the eye of the one that bore it. The pair screamed in discordant harmony while fighting the fall but the grim man himself seemed to float as if at peace with the rotation of the closing ground below. Speed blurred the lines between the feathers and steel seeking to cleave him in two or maybe nine pieces while the sun spun round and round his head like a steel ball, blinding him to all but base colors and the stark tones of contrast.

Strong talons suddenly wrenched through the man’s back, cutting a letter off the tattoo that bore it. Falling faster then torn clothing and trails of vivid blood, he sought to steady his body by the direction of the clouds and earth. LaCroix re-orientated himself head facing up, sending a burst of focused energy coursing through the knuckles and bone of his crimson stained hands. Faster then normally possible his body coasted left within the expanse as the man deftly avoided a second encounter with the absolutely largest winged beast he had ever seen. The massive condor was restrained only by the trailing trophies of dried skulls that knocked together in the wind like chimes. Screaming, it’s powerful lungs bellowed forth a fusion of hot current and hatred, lining to reach the flux of his limbs as would a hungry spear.

Jackson’s right arm reached out like a claw mimicking the same talons that hit him while avoiding the presence of the barbarian rider’s wicked axe head with a redirection of air flow. He twirled up snatching the imposing duel horns of the rider’s helmet with vigor, nearly being blown off but reorienting his feet toward the hair covered neck of the beastly figure below. With a sharp shiver, LaCroix’s heels summoned penetrating hooked spurs which entered the base of the rider’s skull through the chain of it’s helmet guard, severing the spinal cord. The bone grinded wickedly with clean violence before forcing the barbarian lord to go limp from the dispatch. Too bad there was a second rider strapped between the shoulders of the screeching bird. Leaning back, an aging soldier slashed a runed longsword through the belly of Jackson LaCroix, catching more wind then flesh, but imparting the implication of death all the same.

“Weak, bounty hunter..”

by **Jackson LaCroix** on July 9th, 2010, 2:57 am

Jax’s hands sped forward with the poise of a snake, boring into a nerve cluster near the right elbow with a twist and pat. The aging barbarian’s arm went limp as Jackson steadied his rapidly falling and bleeding body enough to stand. Above it’s twisting form the man reached down with a fist over a stunned humerus and another near the joint socket and wrenched terribly hard, shattering the bone while twisting the limb unnaturally against the clavicle like a noose around the white haired rider’s neck. Then smashing him once in the face to stun any further onslaught, Jackson coiled the broken wrist behind the head and snapped the elder’s neck with his own dead arm. Kicking him free from the harness both barbarians fell into the sudden slaughtering surge of Sanea Labyrinth below. Several other vultures swooped down to seize him yet all the warrior did was put both feet in the emptied stirrups and pull the giant condor’s reigns hard against the saddle.

Gravity hit the ground but a mess of massive stygian feathers and taunting muscle swooped upward to but graze the treetops. Screaming loudly Jackson stood up and pressed the reigns left to send both young rider and bird careening hard against the gravitational force. Peeling it’s belly over the peaceful surface of Priskil’s pond, the great bird was surprisingly responsive to the man’s demands, even tucking in it’s wings while casting it’s body through a thinning chasm and making an irrevocably taunt move straight up the rock face beyond crumpling two of it’s followers into a bag of leaping bones below. Jax's focus soared fiercely into the air while three remaining riders shot burning arrows past his mount’s singed plumage. He slipped against the animal’s shoulders suddenly, the loss of blood and magic causing him to black out as a razor sharp arrow pierced into his left tricep and out the mass of his bicep. Growling low, the man responded.

“Turn beast or I shall end you as I did your masters..”

The pair jackknifed into a 180 reversed roll, turning to meet the last barbarians head on. The animal seemed to instinctively know what to do as it feinted left then grinded right to crush the foremost archer between talons and cruel animosity. Jax smiled as his stomach turned upside down, their bodies facing the trees below, finding a whistle embedded into the lecherous jaw of a skull molded into the saddle’s pommel. Slipping the object between cloth and wet skin the man skimmed close enough to the next rider to cut it’s naked torso in two with the discipline of anamorphic transformation. As the final rider sent another arrow through his torso Cross fell from the saddle into the bask of free fall and plunged under the serene waters of the lake below, leaving the giant condor to fly away on the lift of wind. Unable to breathe nor see he swam beneath the shadow of the trailing archer to a shore of shale and slippery stone. Dragging himself up along it’s banks of wet moss, it was obvious the final monster would come in for the killer's bounty. Landing with an ominous thud before him, the last barbarian slowly unhinged it’s self from the saddle of it’s leering pet, walking towards the dying man while twirling it’s hooked sword against the limestone that separated them causing both sparks and drama. Jackson looked up quietly, a small object between his bruised lips. He blew the wooden whistle and the lights went off with the outline of blessed black wings.

“...”

Both executioner and vulture became swept up in the vault of talons and welcome horror.