The youth lifted his chin and stared into the dark.
Never while he lived in the cave did he manage to see what It looked like. Back then, It would appear suddenly, blocking the entrance of the cave, and in the next moment It would be on the youth’s back, crushing his limbs with its wings and talons, piercing him between his bones with its sharp beak.
Like previous times, It tried to climb on his back. Realizing that the youth was not a child and was wearing clothes, It, as if mocking him, ripped away at his tunic. The talons slicing through his flesh as well as his garments made him want to scream, but he held his silence.
It never pierced him in the same place twice. There were scars along his back, limbs, and ribs where It had violated him before, and if It wanted to find an unspoiled spot, it would have to spend some time looking. The youth was counting on that moment.
It finished ripping off his tunic, pressed down on his neck, and positioned its beak. The youth, tense with the fear of what might happen next, briefly closed his eyes.
As expected, It saw the scars on his neck and drew back its beak. As it followed the scars down his back and along his arms and ribs, It tried to rip his trousers. The youth twisted his upper body and swung the chain connected to his right handcuff.
In the dark, the chain made a heavy, threatening sound as it whipped through the damp air and smashed against an unseen object. The youth couldn’t tell what it had hit, but he heard a hard and clear shattering sound and a scream that shook the interior of the cave, followed by a hideous smell. Aiming right below the source of the odor, he swung his chain once more.
The resulting scream almost deafened him as it shook the walls. And in the very next moment, his chain was wrapped around a talon, and he was flying through the air.
It was beautiful. He couldn’t help thinking so when, for the first time, he could clearly see It by the light of the sun. It was truly, monstrously beautiful.
In the sunlight, It was not black but dark gray. Its ashen feathers gleamed like well-forged iron, a cold and lifeless sheen. Its talons and beak were silver, and in the middle of that silver beak was a short but deep, red gash. The youth surmised this was where his chain had hit.
Beside the beak was an icy blue eye staring down at him. That shade of blue, to someone seeing it for the first time, was shockingly deep and clear, and cruel.
He wound his chain tighter around its feet and tried to hoist himself up. But one of the links of the chain he dangled from came into contact with the sharp talons and was sliced into two. Even if he survived the fall like the time he escaped from It, there would be no point in having come all this way if he let It fly off to somewhere far away. He desperately clung onto the silver claws of It and tried to climb up on the monster without getting scratched.
Just then, It lowered its head and bit down on him.
When he felt the steely beak close down from his ribcage to his legs, he was certain he was about to die. But It did not swallow him or shake him off into the air. As painful as it was, he wasn’t being bitten down on strong enough for his bones to break—this could only mean It was trying to take him somewhere.
The minute he thought this, It tossed him in the air and caught him again in its beak. Now the youth lay on his back facing the sky and staring straight into the blue eye of It.
If beasts could show emotions in their eyes, the emotion that the youth would have discerned at that moment would have been clearly one of satisfaction. But being different from people, beasts do not derive satisfaction from scaring or torturing others. The question they ask of any other animal is whether it will kill it or be killed by it. As long as they can prevent themselves from being killed while having prey in their grasp, animals don’t need to concern themselves with the feelings of their prey; simply the fact of having prey in their grasp is enough satisfaction.
It made a wide arc in the air. It was flying back to the cave.
Without hesitation, the youth swung his right arm, hard. The chain connected to his right cuff smashed directly into the icy blue eye of It, and the half-sliced link gave way, leaving a fragment of the chain lodged in the eye.
It gave out a shriek that shook Heaven and Earth as it banked to one side. In its sudden, blind pain, It darted toward a cliff on the mountain where the cave was and crashed.
XXI
He couldn’t understand how he was still alive. But buried as he was in broken branches, scattered leaves, grasses, and brambles, his breath still hadn’t left his body.
As he tried to get up, he felt a jolt through the right side of his body. He couldn’t move his right leg. Grabbing one of the thicker branches around him, he used it as a crutch to slowly and carefully stand up.