Saheel peered down at the endless abyss beneath him. A drop of perspiration rolled off his face and plummeted into the swirling clouds. He hadn’t decided whether he was panicking or just being cautious.

"Come on," shouted Eirlys, clinging to the marble like a lanky monkey. The woman looked like her limbs had been stretched out on a medieval torture rack. Her angular body, while perfect for climbing, was apparently incapable of empathy. She shook her head and took off down the tower. 

Indeed, she'd railroaded them onto her plan, pulling a face when Saheel pointed out that he'd never abseiled before in his life. 

"We're called Team Fear for a reason," she'd said.

She over-rided his every objection with a frown. The more she panicked, the more she adhered doggedly to her plan, which was probably why she'd just thrown herself out of the door that used to lead to his ensuite in order to evade a creature that could fly. At least Greer had done it because she thought it would be fun.

The question now was... did he continue to go along with the plan, or did he follow his gut?

Saheel didn't get time to answer. The Giga-Raven quite literally exploded up the stairs. The corridor pressed in on it from every side, but every time it got stuck its feathers glowed a bright white and let out a blast that obliterated the marble.

The shockwave boomed deep in Saheel's chest. Shrapnel sailed towards him just as he ducked for cover behind the support strut, and it continued on to burst the water-cooler on his desk. Water flew in every direction, soaking Saheel from head to toe, and the Giga-Raven jumped backwards, startled, sheltering behind its wing.

He had to hide. His PhD study-cum-bedroom was admittedly spartan, and as much as he'd tried to liven up the place, he lived in perpetual fear of invalidating his deposit. Right now, he could crawl into the foot space of his desk or duck behind the water bed, but which option would save his life? Oh, cruel indecision!

CAW, said the Giga-Raven, quite definitively. Its eyes wobbled around in its sockets as it searched the room. The beast barrelled into the support strut and speared it with a machete-like talon that jutted two metres out the other side. With a twang, Greer's safety rope snapped, all fifty meters of it slipping straight out the doorway.

Having bolted under the desk, Saheel muttered a prayer of protection for her as quietly as possible, but he feared the worst.

"Woaaaaah, woah, this just got a little outside my comfort zone, lass!" Greer's voice came screaming out from under Eirlys. "I can't say 'look ma, no hands' if I actually have to use them!"

And Eirlys shouted back, "Then don’t use your mouth! Keep climbing down."

"Saheeeeeeeeel! I'm clinging on for dear life here and by gigabirds do I have sweaty palms! Help me if you're the man of god you say you are! I... I'll even mull over the idea of popping my head into a church in the next decade!"

Saheel winced. What could he possibly do against such a terrible creature? Could he afford to wait, to hope it would just move off and get distracted, or should he throw himself at it now to cross dying off his bucket list? Under his priest's gown, he was a mass of perspiration. He wasn't up to this. He needed what every religious person needed. He needed a sign.

CAW, said the Giga-Raven, tilting its head in the uncanny manner of birds who seem to know too much. Its eyes followed Saheel's rope from the pillar to his desk. It hopped towards him, punching holes through the ceiling tiles with its head.

Saheel soiled his robes.

"Saheeeeeeeeel!" wailed Greer, still holding on for dear life. "I'm begging you! My hands are getting slipperier than a greasy pig!"

"If you're going to cry, cry silently," said Eirlys.

There was a sharp jab of pain in Saheel's back, and after nearly hyperventilating at the thought of being stuck by one of those talons, he felt around to find Eirlys' ice pick prodding into him. She must have dropped it when she was spinning in his chair.

He looked from the weapon to the encroaching bird. Although it felt like an obvious thing to think, it really did look a lot bigger the closer up it got. He couldn't fight it off with this thing, could he?

CAW, said the Giga-Raven, rearing up with its talons like a warhorse of the apocalypse. It was going to spike him through the head with all its body weight.

No. There had to be another way. That was what Eirlys didn't get about committing so dogmatically to one set of plans and assumptions. She was twenty years his junior, and she hadn't gone through such an extensive search for the truth behind the creation of the world. Just now, he'd assumed the ice pick to be a weapon. But an ice pick wasn't a weapon, it was a tool for piercing. And, a little gleefully at the amount of words he was spending on his thought processes, he realised he was right next to something he could pierce.

Saheel launched himself out of the way just as the Giga-Raven crashed down behind him. It banged its head against the wall, momentarily dazed. His desk was crushed flat.

"Oh, brother, this is going to lose me my deposit," he said.

And he shunted the ice pick straight through his water bed. The resulting blast felt like he'd stuck his head into a washing machine, and he fell flat on his arse, completely deafened.

The Giga-Raven reeled and screeched as it struggled to get away from the incoming torrent. It slammed its body against the wall, once, twice, and only on the third time broke through, dropping under the clouds like a stone.

Straight towards Eirlys.