New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

In the middle of the night, while Alexander was sleeping tightly, his mana constantly feeding the small fire beside him, a slight buzzing sound started echoing.

It gradually grew louder, as a pair of lights appeared in the sky.

"Kuujjuaq Tower, this is Cessna two-nine-two. Calling in to inquire about a light in the bay, over," the small aircraft pilot called out.

He was flying over the wild expanse, where no one should be around, and had caught a flicker of light in the middle of the mostly empty James Bay. Usually, when one saw a light, they would inquire if there was a lost plane, or person, a possible land to rescue.

"Cessna two-nine-two, this is Kuujjuaq Tower. There are no reports of a missing plane or person. Are you sure it's not just your lights reflecting on a pond? Over," the tower controller called back.

The pilot clicked his tongue loudly before pressing the comms again.

"Kuujjuaq Tower, this is Cessna two-nine-two. Negative. I have been flying this path for five years; I would recognize a reflection from a fire. This is a fire. Requesting permission to land and investigate. Over."

Usually, the pilots wouldn't overthink about this. But September was rolling around, and the rain had been pretty scarce in the last two months.

The grass was extremely dry in the cold weather, and even the smallest of uncontrolled fires could cause a plain fire. This was not something anyone would want.

The control tower flagged him for landing, and when he did, the flicker of flames on the ground vanished.

"What the…" the pilot said, looking through his side window.

As he circled around, trying to see if it was maybe a rock hiding the flame from him, a loud crash echoed, and the sound of metal shearing resounded.

Looking in front of him, the pilot realized what had made that sound.

His engine was gone. Something had torn away the entire front of his plane, ripped it off.

With no engine and already not flying fast, since he was looking at something, the airplane quickly started losing speed and dropping.

Smacking the comms button again, the pilot shouted out in panic.

"Mayday! Mayday! Cessna two-nine-two engine loss! Crashing into the Bay! Mayday! Mayday!"

He didn't have much more time and never heard if there was a reply as his plane crashed into the ground, gouging out a large swath of dirt and stone before coming to a stop.

His fuel tank ruptured, spreading its contents all over the rocky ground, but luckily for him, there was no more engine to spark a flame. He was safe, for now.

The problem was that he was hundreds of kilometres away from any other village, and he was now wounded.

Looking down at his abdomen, the pilot cursed.

"Mm! Fuck!"

As the plane had smacked into the ground, now that the entire front part of it was missing, the cockpit had taken the brunt of the hit. This had caused one of the transversal bars to tear and pry, and it was now jammed into his stomach.

Luckily for him, there was almost no blood, and what little there was, it was clear. This meant he hadn't hit a vital organ.

But his situation was not good.

"What the fuck hit my plane? It was clear skies, I swear…"

As he started looking around to see if any of his tools were nearby to help extricate himself from the wreck, a rumbling growl echoed near him, freezing his blood over.

Turning his head back to the front slowly, he saw something that would cause him nightmares for the rest of his life, however short this would turn out to be.

Standing before the plane, with horns a foot high, a body already reaching over six feet high without them, and bat-like wings stretching out its back, a tall humanoid figure was looking at him.

The moon was barely lighting up the plains, as it was close to a new moon, but it still gave enough light to see the silhouette.

However, one thing was glowing brightly.

The red irises of the thing.

They looked at him with hunger.

Taking slow, measured steps toward the plane, the growl echoed again.

The pilot looked at the thing, fear gripping his heart.

He was still inside his cockpit, which should protect him, but with how long the limbs on this thing seemed to be, he knew it would still reach him. It could tear him to pieces, anyway.

As the thing reached the plane, it gripped the front of the aircraft and pulled.

With another resounding screech, the side of the cockpit ripped open, like tearing tin foil, exposing the scared pilot.

"What in the fuck?!" the man exclaimed, realizing it was useless to stay calm anymore.

With how easily this thing had opened his aircraft, he could only assume that it was also responsible for ripping his engine away.

And now, it was going to eat him.

"Stay back!" the man shouted, hoping the loud voice would scare the thing away.

But who was he kidding?

Stepping closer again, the thing straight out of Edgar Allan Poe's nightmares looked him dead in the eye as it licked its lips.

It plunged one finger next to the transversal bar, making the pilot scream in pain.

Pulling the finger back, it licked the blood off of it, grinning in satisfaction.

"God almighty, if you hear me, now would be the time for a miracle! Banish this hellspawn so that I may live another day!" he screamed, tears rolling off the side of his face.

A guttural laugh left the creature's mouth.

"Your god can't hear you," it whispered with its reverberating voice as it closed its face with the pilots.

"Your god has never cared anyway," it added before laughing maniacally.

"Rhakhakhakha! It's so easy to control now that he is getting used to using my body! How liberating!"

The pilot pissed himself, thinking this was it. His life was over.

As the creature suddenly jerked forward, maw open, aimed at his throat, the pilot whimpered.

Then silence followed.