Darkness surrounded him, there was no sound, no light, no feeling at all.

He never fully understood what happened then to his senses, suddenly there was sound, a deep sound, a beating that would stay with him for his entire life, the beat of his own heart. Everything else followed shortly after, light, the feeling of glass at his shoulders, a strong pull down towards the bottom of the tank he had slept in.

When he opened his eyes the light blinded him, pain shot through them as he tried to see. His mind began to work on deciphering the information all his senses sent to his brain, his muscles spasmed as light electrical shocks were sent through them.

“Seems like this one is ready for release. Send him to the others, we need at least another thousand if we want this batch to be complete.” A voice sounded, he understood it even though he had never heard it before, something in his mind recognised the words and the meaning.

Then the bottom of the tank opened and he dropped through the opening and onto a floor, metal pressed against his flesh and the cold came as all liquid surrounding him fled through cracks between the metal rods.

The sudden weight of his own body was painful, his joints ached as he tried to move.

“Now, now. Where do you think you are going? Stay still, I need to check something before we send you off to bootcamp.” Claws dug into his shoulder, pain shot through the small marks in his skin, as he was pulled upwards slightly and a bright light blinded first his right and then his left eye.

“Shit, this one has some sort of shock, should we keep him anyway? The confusion could be temporary and we are behind anyway.” A higher voice called as the claws in his shoulder retracted and he sunk back to the ground. The pain however had made him aware of his muscles, he began moving.

Flexing his muscles and slowly scrambling to his knees, the world spun for a few moments as he tightened his head.

“Hey, look at that, this one is quick! Get him to the transport before he starts to make things difficult.” The voice from before, this time he managed to get a look at the thing that spoke. It was smaller than he had expected. Two large wings sprouting from its back and feathers covering all the body parts he could see, it was wearing a white piece of cloth, open at the sides it covered only the middle part of its body.

Arms grabbed his shoulder, not the claws from before but flesh and skin like his own limbs, when he turned he saw familiar faces. He couldn’t understand why he felt the way he did but they seemed to reassure him.

The two other humans dragged him to the side and then pushed him down a slope, he cried out as he fell onto a belt.

There were more people on it, all of them confused and making sounds, they weren’t talking just grunting and screaming incomprehensible things at each other. He wanted them to quiet down so he opened his mouth.

Instead of words he managed a couple of squeals before his throat clogged up and had to cough, what was happening?

The belt continued to wind through turns and more and more people fell through openings on the side onto it, he decided to sit back and collect his thoughts, whatever was happening had to have a reason.

The others on the belt were all about the same height as him, men and women alike. None of them had hair or the ability to communicate, fear was the most common feeling among them.

He closed his eyes, the movement of the belt shook him left and right as he began to slowly flex the his muscles, whatever was to come standing upright might be a usual feat.

When he opened his eyes again he managed to crawl a couple of lengths and to raise to one knee before a turn knocked him over again.

The belt was now nearly completely filled with humans, luckily no more were dropped onto it from the sides.

He turned towards the direction they were heading and saw the end of the tunnel, a wide opening. Another slope was visible and the belt disappeared underneath it, they would need to get away quickly if they did not want to be shoved against each other.

He turned to his fellow humans and signalled them with some yells and arm movement to look to the front, most of them nodded as he made parting movements with his hands.

Quickly they moved up to each side and and began to ready themselves for the impact, or did the most they could with the movements they had learned.

Once they were sent over the edge, he saw a couple of people waiting on the other side, standing tall and all dressed in similar white robes as the bird creatures had worn when he first woke up. They began pulling people up as they got into reach, the attached ropes to their hips and sent them down one of eighteen lines, the ropes kept the people from falling over.

He tried to croak and ask them about something but the woman that pulled him up just sent him down the line without as much as looking at him, the rope allowed him to learn on how to move his legs and how to carry his own weight.

At the end of the line another human waited, carrying something that beeped as it was pressed against skin. Then the human would say something, a word, something the person was supposed to remember, a name.

When he was the one at the front he stretched out his arm without the other having to grab it, he had observed and seen that the thing would be dragged over his right forearm and was going to show the other that he was not like the remaining humans in this line.

The man raised an eyebrow as he looked him in the eyes.

“Another leader, this batch has some potential by the looks of it. Your name is Rake, remember it well, we are nothing without our names.” He pressed the small thing against his skin and a burning pain shot through him as a symbol was printed into his skin.

He tried not to flinch and moved past the man as he was done, no longer nameless he began to make sounds, silently not to disturb the others he trained to say his own name. It took him a couple of minutes before he managed to pronounce it right.

“Rake” He said and smiled “Rake” he said again with more confidence.

This was his name, the first thing he managed to say right then he decided that it would also be the last thing he would say.