User:Triskelelynx\Flight Chapter 1

As Shay walked through the pines, the tense knot in between her shoulder blades slowly began to unwind. The last few weeks of work were hell. If customers weren't demanding the impossible, her supervisor was lashing out with sarcastic criticism. Still, all that was 200 miles away, and two weeks in the woods would hopefully restore her soul.

She was crossing a hilltop clearing, reveling in the feel of the sun on her shoulders, when a large, scruffy man stepped out from behind a tree, holding a large hunting knife. She instantly lashed out and kicked the knife out of his hand, and followed up with another to the face. The scruffy man when sprawling. She was grabbed from behind and slammed to the ground. Two other men pinned her to the ground. Even with black belts in two martial arts, she couldn't wriggle free or land a blow.

"That's gonna cost ya!" said the scruffy man as he recovered his knife. He cut her shirt off, followed by her bra, then went to work on her jean shorts. Soon she was naked except for her hiking boots.

Something large and dark flashed in the corner of her vision. Scruffy started fumbling with his belt, when the shadow returned. This time, it went directly overhead. Shay had a sense of immense wings and teeth, and it was gone.

So was Scruffy's head. His blood spurted all over her and the other two men. She got a hand free, and slammed a fist into the side of a knee. The knee's owner screamed and collapsed. The flash returned, and the other disappeared. A few seconds later, his body tumbled out of a tall douglas fir, with several branches protruding from his torso.

Behind her, the man with the sprained knee screamed, then the scream was cut off with a crunching sound she recognized from a dojo accident - the sound of ribs breaking. She turned around to find a huge clawed foot grinding him into the the ground. Each claw was the size of her hand.