"You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality."
- Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

The world fell away as an all-encompassing, mind shattering, pain-racked the mangled remains of my body. Every nerve ending burned as if fire were being injected straight into my blood. The soul whose body I wore drowned with me in the pain, somehow sharing in my torment as our connection passed control involuntarily between us in rapid succession. There was no sight in the burning blackness, all sound was muffled and the only other sensation was a sort of vertigo as the world seemed to shift to and fro. Gradually the pain levels out as the warm wet fire around me finally manages to outpace the constant regeneration of my body, destroying nerves before they can send their signals. The numbness gives me an opening to concentrate and at my command Chakra pours forth from the wreck my human body had become. A river of power courses through my body, so potent and dense as to burn my flesh from the inside just as it was being burned from the outside. The chakra cloak shrouds my form leaving only a small portion of human trappings safe inside.

With a roar of triumphant victory my claws, my TRUE claws, rend the flesh from the creature that had dared swallow me. The end result was not a pretty sight and it was safe to say that the creature was dead by the time I was through. The only problem was that the beast had apparently been flying when I had made my bloody escape and I was now free falling to the ground that seemed miles away.

It took nearly a full minute to reach the ground, tree branches broke a majority of the fall and when I finally smashed into the earth I allowed myself to relax. The pain was gone and my body was more chakra construct than it was flesh and bone at this point, its shape resembling my true form only an order of magnitude smaller.

The core of my being still had the annoying bit of human flesh that was constantly trying to pull itself back into shape. At the moment my constant outflow of destructive chakra was just enough to halt the overtake and I know that any lapse of focus would send me straight back into the fragile form of Karns body. Speaking of which…

What the hell was that all about! Why didn't you give me any warning on what was going on!

Karns presence within me was greatly weakened and thoroughly traumatized by the experiences we had just shared but eventually after a few minutes to compose himself he eventually answered.

"I-I don't, there wasn't time. I-I just reacted, they ambushed us and...Oh shit, do you think they got Arya? Shes fast so maybe she got away but goddammit everything is just so fucked up." Karn whimpered pitiably

Those creatures, you know what they are. Tell me and then we will figure out what to do from there alright. I reply stoneley to the traumatized human soul

"Alright, okay. I think those things were the Razac. They are a sapient species whom hunt humans and willingly serve Galbatorix. They are nearly extinct though, I heard rumor that there are only half a dozen at MOST throughout the kingdom and I think there might actually be fewer than that given how unreliable the sighting reports tend to be." Karn manages to whimper out

Alright good to know. Now, do you have any idea where we are or even how long we were inside that beast?

"No clue, everything was just one long blur of pain for me. My best guess is that we were taken south toward the interior of the empire but I can't be sure. Also what have you done to our body, it feels off somehow and...are those tails?"

Indeed, though not my full set sadly. This is close to my true form, and I have to say it is so much better than that wreck you call a body. How do you humans even live like that, so few appendages and so many distracting sensations. I don't think I will ever become accustomed to the level of pain you humans experience and-" I pause a moment when a realization strikes me about what will occur once my control slips.

"What? Sounded like you were going to say something else but-"

I've just realized how much it's going to hurt when we have to regrow nearly the entirety of your body.

"...Ya know I could get used to tails, can we just not and leave things like this?" Karn pleads with trepidation

I'm having to constantly force chakra through your body to keep from reverting back. If I lose concentration we will revert and I will have to sleep eventually.

"Lets...let's just get our bearings and worry about that when we have too. Today has been bad enough and I really don't want to think about this right now. Although I have to ask, how long can you go without sleep?" Karn asks with a sign

A handful of days, perhaps a week or two if I stretch it. Until then just get yourself into one piece and stay quiet for a while. This may be the last time I enjoy this form for a long while, even reduced as it is.

Blissful silence follows my words and I grudgingly heave myself from the ground and start climbing one of the nearby trees for a vantage point. What I find are just endless trees in every direction with no indications of any kind of civilization or reference point. It was going to be a pain orienting ourselves but at least I'd be enjoying a facsimile of my true form while I was at it. It almost seemed like the world was angry at my having thrust responsibility on Karn, and now karma was forcing me to be in control lest I fall back into that insufferable human shape.

As my gaze drifted lazily about the trees something odd drifted into my awareness.

Why in the name of the sage do those trees in the distance have negative emotions flowing through them?

AN: Why does my muse keep making me write this when I want to write a chapter for 'Monsters in Us'?