Human Feathers: Black and White

Chapter 5: The City Underground

Damien woke the next morning on his stomach in the matted-down grass. The cold morning wind blew over his feathers that were covering his body like a heavy blanket. A foot away from him, Rebecca moved in her sleep. That’s when he realized to his terror that his other wing was draped over her body.

Slowly, Damien tried to lift his wings off of her so that she wouldn’t notice. Not only did Rebecca grunt and shiver at the change in temperature, but she also opened her eyes and looked down at his wing, then suddenly locked eyes with him. But before she could say anything that could embarrass him more, he quickly sat up and sighed deep.

“So, uh,” he grumbled groggily, pretending to be oblivious to the awkward eye-contact Rebecca gave him. “Will we be there soon?”

“Um…” Rebecca responded, shutting her eyes tightly. She was still mostly asleep, yet was quickly coming to. “I don’t know. We have to walk… it would probably take an hour… or less.”

Damien sighed again, gently rubbing the dry blood off the side of his eyebrow. “Perfect,” he mumbled as he slowly worked his way up onto his sore legs. As he bent down to dust his knees through the new holes in his jeans, he saw the long streak of dark soil and torn up grass in front of him, about ten feet long. He immediately was grateful that he had passed out before he had to endure that, though he was definitely feeling the aftermath at the moment. His head was aching severely and the front of his clothes were filthy with dried sweat and with streaks of soil matching the ground. His elbows and knees were scraped and looked like they had been bleeding last night, and his right shoulder felt like it had been dislocated. All this, and last night he hadn’t noticed at all. Goes to show how exhausted he had been. And still was.

“It’s not a hike or anything,” Rebecca commented, feeling the sarcasm in his voice. “Just a flat, slightly downhill walk across the field.”

“Walking anywhere is going to be a pain,” Damien grunted, delicately brushing the dry dirt off his forearms.

Rebecca looked up at him and chuckled. “I’ve landed worse. Everyone has those days.”

“Hopefully it won’t be much longer that we have to endure landings as horrific as that one,” a voice flew from the bush, aimed rudely in Rebecca’s direction. The sour robin rustled in the orange leaves, then hopped into the air, gliding to a stop on the branch of a small, almost bare tree a few yards away.

“Good. While you’re up, why don’t you fly ahead of us and see if you can’t find something that will shut you up?!” The voice of the cardinal erupted into the air.

“Ok, everyone up!” a different voice started. “We start the day early now that the two buddies are up and at it.”

There were a few tired groans and moans, but then the bush burst with life as the group of birds simultaneously took off from the leaves and rose into the sky, stretching their wings in the morning air. Then, they landed in all different places on the tree, beginning to primp and preen their feathers for the day.

Damien stared at them and blinked a couple of times. “Um… which way?” he said, looking in all directions. Everywhere he turned his gaze looked the same.

Rebecca yawned and stretched before she stood slowly. “We’re going that way,” she said, pointing forward and stumbling on the sharp grass with her bare feet. She wavered and leaned closer to Damien for a second to adjust her footing.

Damien stared at her, forgetting his question for a second to watch her fiery-red ringlets bounce in the morning sunshine as a breeze blew them in his direction. He took in his breath, but looked away suddenly when she looked up at him, pulling a strong blade of grass from the hem of her pant leg.