"Eat up little one," Kigen had successfully brought back some fish, as well as other types of animals both for the mother tree and the baby eagle. By now, the eagle had grown to recognize him as one of its own, a parent of sorts.
Meanwhile, the little bud had been steadily growing, and it was starting to form a fiddlehead. Kigen would often pay the bud a visit every other day, making sure that everything was going well.
As for his exploration, Kigen had already mapped out quite the circumference around the mother tree, extending all the way to the cliff where he found the waterfall. He had explored the river front quite some time, finding fish occasionally, alongside other kinds of meat.
He had made quite a territory for himself, establishing himself at the top dog. Everything in his territory was under his purview. Standing on his perch on the mother tree, Kigen felt like a king.
However, something had encroached on his territory. A new predator. This one was a hawk, specifically, an osprey.
Perhaps hawks and the like had been kept at bay by the existence of the golden eagle, but since they were no longer a threat, the thing felt comfortable to move in.
With a new predator around, he would have to share the mice, mere cats, squirrels and other kinds of rodents in his territory. Even the little birds would be threatened.
Worse still, what if the bud developed into a little sibling. That little one's life would be in jeopardy if he allowed the new threat to remain.
With his mind made up, Kigen set off the perch. By now, he moved through the air effortlessly. Fluttering all his wings, he had gotten quite good at flying. He could move in any direction at a moment's notice.
Moving through the wind, Kigen quickly approached the spot the hawk usually perched. Since the hawk was new in the area, it had not had a chance to make a nest.
Kigen wondered if he should let the hawk make a nest, then make his approach as he did with the eagle, but he didn't feel that patient. He also did not know whether hawks made nests.
As it happened, the hawk had gone off for a hunt. Kigen was not aware how long it would take before it came back, so he decided to wait. Since he was quite close to the mother tree, he could stick around indefinitely.
He had seen the hawk go off on these hunting trips. It never took that long for the hawk to find its target.
Perhaps it was due to the absence of predators, but there had been an influx of prey in the area. This would explain why the hawk would always get its prize.
As Kigen was hovering around, he noticed movement in the horizon. The white osprey seemed to have something on its claws. Kigen knew the target was coming home, so he quickly climbed and found a good vantage point. Up in the trees, he looked nothing more than a branch in a tree.
True to form, the hawk came and perched right where Kigen had been. On its claws was a small armadillo. Kigen was not sure where it had gotten the thing since he had not seen any armadillos in the area.
Soon, it got engrossed into the business of tearing apart the armadillo. It's tough, scaly, and armor-like covering did not extend to the belly, and that was where the talons were tearing into.
As it did its thing, Kigen slowly let go of the branch he was holding. The next moment, he dove down towards the hawk.
Almost as though it was expecting, the hawk turned quickly and reached out at the invader, its beak wide open as it readied itself to decapitate the new arrival. Seeing this sudden danger, Kigen suddenly changed course, narrowly dodging the attack.
However, the hawk was not done with him, as it followed through. Its wings were less massive, but this meant that it was less bulky as it tried to penetrate the foliage, following Kigen through the dense forest.
Seeing this, Kigen started fluttering about in the forest. With his wide array of multifunctional wings, he was like a fish in the river, even better. He bobbed and weaved his way across the forest, taking the hawk on a tour around the various twigs and branches.
Once he was deep enough, he saw the hawk pulling away. This gave him room to maneuver himself around and open him up to counterattack. Zooming up the trees, he made it above the treetops, where he had more space to move around.
Once there, he angled himself as he turned to look at the hawk. From where it was, there were still a lot of foliage obstructing it, limiting its movement.
Breath in, breath out. Kigen readied himself. He was going to pull a form of attack he had been practicing a lot but had never used it in a combat situation. He was not sure what to expect, but it seemed appropriate at the moment.
Zoom!
Propelling himself forward, Kigen shot towards the hawk at a fast pace. However, this time, he started twilling around, rotating around himself like a ballerina. He extended his fists forward, above his head. In that moment, he looked like a bullet being fired from a gun!
Puchi!
Before the hawk could even realize what had happened, Kigen had already torn through one of its wings, breaking the bone inside. Luckily, birds had hollow bones. Meanwhile, Kigen felt disoriented and slightly nauseous.
The move was extraordinarily powerful, and it produced both speed and momentum. This would then turn into attack power, assuming he did not splatter himself in the attack. However, after the attack, he had to take time to stabilize himself.
Turning around, he saw the hawk coming back at him again. This time, it was enraged, but did not have the previous attack capability. As he watched, he saw the hawk reach forward ferociously.
However, this time, he did not dodge. The hawk, turns out, was not as fierce to take down as an eagle. Seeing its act, Kigen was not impressed. Moving forward, he went forth to meet the attack. Swinging his arm forward, Kigen's clenched fist met head-to-head with the hawk's beak.
Bad idea, terrible mistake. Someone had gotten cocky!
Just from the initial impact, Kigen felt his entire arm had fractured in several different places. A sharp pain whacked him all over his arm and entire side torso. Pushing up with his hind wings, Kigen decided to put some distance between him and the hawk.
Looking back, Kigen was shocked to see the hawk also writhing in pain. Something about its beak, or head, or neck must have been seriously hurt.
Emboldened, Kigen decided to make another approach. Since he was quite some distance from the hawk, he made another approach. This time, he had only one hand out.
Moving like a bullet, Kigen shot forward. This time, he was going in for the kill. If he made this attack and the enemy was still standing, then he would be at risk.
Critical moments passed as Kigen gained ground. The poor hawk had no idea the danger coming at it, nor could it do anything about it.
Crack! A strange crunchy sound was heard as Kigen whizzed through the hawk's neck, breaking several bones and plucking a bunch of feathers. Kigen was sent tumbling through the foliage.
The hawk, however, was never going to see another day. Its neck was severely broken, and it fell off the tree, hitting the ground with a thud.
The entire fight had taken place in mere minutes. Kigen was severely injured, but his lifeline, his wings, were still fully functional. Somehow, he felt he could take whatever damage, as long as his wings were safe.
Then came the feasting part. As he consumed the hawk, Kigen felt his body piercing itself together. It was as though he had taken a super drug. He was already used to this, so he made a quick work of the meal, and when he could not consume further, he flew the remains to the mother tree.
Just as he was about to set down the bird's carcass on the tree branches, he noticed a silhouette in the forest, just at the edge of the clearing encircling the mother tree. Looking closer, he noticed the silhouette's outline was that of a human.
Drawing closer, Kigen noticed that this was indeed a human, a gigantic human. In this forest where everything was supersized, the human was just the right size to be normal, which meant to Kigen, the human was a terrifying giant.
However, Kigen still plucked up his courage to draw even closer. He noticed the outline of the person that the figure was a woman, one of advanced age, or middle age. Closer still, Kigen found that he could make out her face.
Shock!
How could it be her? The same woman who raised him, who also ended up killing him. How could she have appeared there of all places?