Chapter 1: A Golden Bird

"Let me have the window seat!", my little sister shouted.

"Haha no.", I replied, in the most annoying tone I could muster.

"Pipe down young lady, it's just a 2-hour-long flight. You'll get the window seat while coming back.", my mom said to my sister.

"But mom-", my sister protested.

"No ifs or buts, you'll get the window next time. I promise."

"Argh… fine", my sister grumbled as she sat on the middle seat. I just grinned at her in the snarkiest way I could. The reaction on her face was priceless. She looked like as if she wanted to sock in my jaw.

The plane was starting to take off. Finally! a vacation, I thought to myself. Although the actual vacation hadn't even started, I already felt relaxed as is. I started to doze off, as the buildings and roads kept getting smaller.

...

By the time I woke up, not even an hour had passed. My mom and sister were fast asleep. We were above the clouds, and so I looked through the window to see the scenery.

What I saw outside the windows was not a group of clouds, but a large, fat bird, the size of a bus, approaching the left wing of the plane. It was red, and orange, basically looking like a mythical phoenix. It was a beautiful bird in all honesty, seeming like the very embodiment of royalty, high and mighty beyond all means.

I must be dreaming, I thought to myself. Dinosaurs went extinct a long time ago, and there is no way an oversized chicken like that can exist, right? I pinched my cheek as hard as I could.

The bird kept approaching the wing of the plane. Each flap of its wing seemed like a dance, and it was in the sunlight, making it look slightly golden. Everything about it seemed… otherworldly. Like as if a god had descended on earth.

It took me a few seconds to realize this wasn't a dream. This was real alright. I looked at it once more. Was it a hallucination? The bird was surprisingly fast, catching up to the plane. It started to get closer and closer to the left wing of the plane.

I leaned towards the window to see the bird in better detail. I still couldn't believe my eyes. There was no way this was real, right? Hallucination or not, at that very moment, it was a sight to behold, and I sight I have engraved into my memory.

When it was close enough, it opened its beak, and to my horror, bit the entirety of the wing straight off. Thank god it didn't rip a part of the main body off, else I would have been flung outside the plane, and my story would have been buried into obscurity.

I just stared at the now non-existent plane wing, still thinking it was a hallucination. That was until I felt the plane tilt towards the right. Alright, it wasn't a hallucination. I started to frantically open my seatbelt.

The moment I opened my seatbelt, I heard an announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen, we request you to reach out to your life vests and wear them, while heading towards the---", the speech was then interrupted, and the sounds of screams were heard over the speaker.

"OH GOD WHAT THE F*CK IS THAT THING?! HELP ME---", I heard from the speakers cut off abruptly.

Sounded like a textbook horror movie if I'm being honest.

But that wasn't even the weirdest part of this situation. Normally there would be mass panic, people shouting to get out of the way, as everyone would try to go towards the exits, and keep pushing each other, causing a budget stampede.

This time, there was no one rushing towards the exits. I got up from my seat and looked around. To my utter shock, I realized that everybody on board, was asleep.

I tried waking my sister up. No response. I checked her heartbeat. Yup, still beating. Then why wasn't she getting up??

Panic and dread started to set in. I was less scared of the fact that we were about to crash and more scared about the fact that I was about to die alone.

I wore a life vest as quickly as possible, and got off my seat to go to the middle of the plane. Now what? I opened the upper compartment of my handbag area and took my luggage out, along with another random one by mistake.

My ears started to hurt like hell. I took one look out the window and saw the forest unusually close to

BANG.

I heard the airplane creak. It was probably the noise of something happening in the cockpit. It was definitely about crash-land. I flung open the exit area, which was surprisingly unlocked, and jumped.

In all honesty, that was an awful idea. I didn't even know how high up I was. I should have looked for a parachute or something, but unfortunately, my dumbass thought we were just about to crash.

If I got unlucky, I would have probably died from the height I jumped at. And yet I took a leap of faith.

I should have died. It was a jump from 100 meters give or take, and yet there I was, sitting on the jungle floor, with nothing more than what seemed like a sprained ankle. How the hell did I survive that?

I got up and started to limp around the place. This place was like a rainforest. There were trees everywhere with moss covering their barks, and the ground was covered in green leaves. A pretty good tourist spot, if my leg wasn't sprained.

What was I supposed to do? This was the first time I was in a jungle. I had watched a few shows that kept on blabbering about securing water, et cetera, but in my current state, I was about as good as dead.

I kept limping around the place, for only god knows how long. There were bugs everywhere. I just kept limping. The most surprising thing about this jungle was the fact that there were no animals near me. Neither on the ground, nor on the trees.

I was still in shock at the whole situation. I had two bags with me, right? Where were they now? I thought to myself to keep my mind occupied.

Were my parents and sister still alive? I wanted to believe, yes, but deep down I knew there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell they survived that. They were sleeping while the accident happened, how would they have survived?

I wanted to stop thinking about that, so I just kept limping. My legs already felt like lead.

Just then, I heard the rustling of leaves behind me.

I turned around as quickly as I could. There wasn't anything there. I am usually not one to get scared easily, but when you are alone in a forest, with nothing to protect you, fear naturally decides to bless you.

I just stood there, right where I was. Should I run? Where should I run to? Can I even run while limping? What was I running from anyway?

Many thoughts ran through my head, but I didn't execute any of the ideas I had in my head. I just stood there stupidly, almost like as if I were a goat, waiting for my demise.

After some time of no movement around me, I got the courage to keep moving forward.

The forest was eerily silent. Not a soul in sight, neither an insect nor an animal. But it also felt like the forest was alive at the same time, waiting to devour me alive.

My limping leg didn't help my anxiety either. It had basically cut off the option of running away completely. The rustling of leaves also started getting more and more frequent. So did my silent panic.

I kept on moving forward, constantly looking behind me. The rustling of leaves got closer and closer. I didn't want to look back. But I did, out of curiosity, and thinking I must be imagining things.

To my horror, there was something behind me, approaching me slowly but steadily...