Passing through the ancient temples of stone and ice, Jon searched tirelessly for a book he had never seen. He did not really know what he was looking for, but all of the books in all of the temples he had been through were frozen solid and probably completely destroyed if they ever thawed again.
Finding nothing of value, Jon continued on with the sense that he was going in the right direction. Hiking through the frozen plains and up the icy slopes of the Svey mountains, Jon really started to appreciate the beauty in the silence and the greatness of the mountain. The rocks breaking through the stark white snow, were a gorgeous contrast as they were dark blue, like the sky at dusk.
As soon as he was finished taking in the beauty of the mountains, he came to a ridge where he could see for miles in all directions.
There!
On the horizon Jon saw a great building of gold and bearing the head of a serpent. "This must be an ancient temple dedicated to an Old God! If I hurry, I can make it before sun down!" Jon thought. With that, he was off, determined to make it there before the day was up. As Jon was crossing the icy field, he noticed there were prints on the snow. The prints looked almost human, but not quite, as where a human's toes would be, there were sharp claw marks cut deep into the hard packed snow. Not knowing what this beast could be, Jon was ready to get into the relative safety of the temple, still at least a mile away.
As Jon got closer, he noticed the fine craftsmanship and carvings on the head of the serpent. He noticed how the serpent was not just a head, but an entire scaled and gilded serpent would around the building many times. On the serpent were many ravens, clawing and tearing at the serpent's flesh.
Swoosh!
From out of nowhere a dark figure swooped down, landing quite close almost in the blink of an eye. The beast appeared to be the one who left the claw marks in the snow. Jon felt that this creature was trying to keep him away from the temple and would kill him if he weren't careful. The creature stood there, wings open breathing hard, a cold look in the beady, black eyes of this man-bird.
Jon grabbed the bow off of his back and grabbed an arrow from the quiver on his back. Quickly nocking the arrow, Jon knew he had to strike first. Loosing the arrow the beast flew into the air, faster than Jon anticipated, his shot missing completely.
The dark angelic figure streaked high across the sky, closing its wings and shooting down towards Jon, he focused his energy and time began to slow down. Shooting 3 arrows almost instantly, the bird almost did not have time to react. Only one of the arrows found its mark and stuck into the beautifully black wing of the creature. The creature shrieked and Jon felt as if he were going to pass out from the ringing in his ears. He felt the cold trickle of blood coming from his ears and immediately was enraged by this bird's cry. Shooting his gilded arrows one after another, they were like golden lightning bolts streaking across the sky. Only an occasional arrow would hit the target, but always in a wing. Jon almost struck the beast in the chest, but it closed its wings to protect itself. It was fast and smart, but judging by the gleaming talons on its humanoid feet, it didn't need to be too strong to impale him and seriously wound him in a single strike.
Knowing the reality of the situation, Jon kept moving and loosing arrow after arrow. Eventually the bird got tired of playing with Jon and came down at him with its talons first, ready to end his life in one move. Immediately Jon shapeshifter into a bear, time slowing, he swatted a great paw at the bird, which did not know what was happening, this tiny man was now a large, bristling bear. With no time to react, the bird had to take the hit, while also trying to rip into the muscles and disable this great bear.
SLAP!
Taking the full force of the hit, the bird was knocked almost 30 feet away, sliding and tumbling in the snow, leaving a bright red trail of blood and broken arrows. As the bird struggled to get to its feet, Jon chose to push his advantage and charge full speed at the bird. As he was closing the distance the bird suddenly squawked the loud shrill noise and with his enhanced hearing, Jon was on the verge of passing out. Taking this opportunity, the angelic bird leapt into the air, trying to beat its wings and fly. Jon was seeing double at this point and felt sick to his stomach, he watched as the bird flew right towards him. Not able to fully fight back yet, the bird opened its hooked feet and grabbed at Jon's face. Upon realizing that the bird was still so fast, Jon had no time to defend himself, instead he raised his paw and struck at the bird as hard as he could.
POP!
Jon smacked the bird in the head with all the force he could muster. The bird's head exploded under the force of Jon Berskaggr's paw, grey matter and blood streaking the air. Just as he smacked the bird, its talons had reached his face, slicing into his nose, above his eyes and over his lips, the blood was beginning to flow.
As blood streaked down the black bear's face, slowly Jon started to return to his body. As soon as he finished the transformation, blood filled his sight, the bleeding was so fast that Jon felt lightheaded. Quickly ripping off a piece of his sleeve, Jon attempted to bandage his bleeding face.
Drip, Drip, Drip
His blood was gathering in pools on top of the compacted snow. Steam coming from the blood, seconds before it was frozen solid to the ground. "Gods this hurts like Hel!" Exclaimed Jon who was in borderline excruciating pain. He put pressure on his wound as he stood and went over to search the corpse of the bird person.
Finding nothing at all on the body, Jon stumbled towards the golden temple. The blood quickly began to seep through his make shift bandage and every time it did, all he could do was shred another piece of fabric from his clothes and pack it onto his wound.
Eventually, after repeatedly packing the wound with cloth, he was able to stop the blood flowing from his wound. Jon was so close to the temple now, that he could feel the energy coming from it. Excitedly, Jon began to quicken his pace towards the temple.