The Lost

35- Fixing

Azure

"I'm warning you now, if you try anything..." Rosin's voice faded off, but nothing more needed to be said. The murderous rigidity to her face was explanation enough. Try 'anything' and she would tear his hand to ribbons, even if she had to use her nails and teeth to do it.

She was knelt on the table with her back to the human. My friend's long plaits had been swept over her shoulders and were hanging down over her chest, some of them even brushing her legs. No longer dripping. After almost thirty minutes of heated discussion between the five of us, Rosin had finally agreed, although extremely reluctantly, to let Mike try to help her. He had jumped at the opportunity. I think that although Mike had the best intentions to help Rosin, he was also doing it a little for his own piece of mind. Maybe treating whatever he was about to do as a way to extend his apology to us.

After running out of this tent to his own one, Mike had returned with some human-y things. In that brief interval when he was gone, we had all considered the same thing; make a run for it. He had even left the zipper slightly open. But no. We could see the rain was still going strong outside, gallons of it pooling on top of the dirt, only made more obvious when Mike returned and was absolutely saturated... and none of us really wanted to try for an escape. Aside from being exhausted, we were very, very far away from Wren's tribe now. And Mike was offering to help Rosin. The truth was that she direly needed it.

Mike was behind where she knelt on the table, sat on the floor and still towering over her tiny body.
"As difficult as it might be for you, I'm going to have to ask that you keep still."
Rosin wrinkled her nose, catching my eye. I nodded reassuringly to her. I doubt it helped much though.
"Alright..." The girl managed, her voice small. Aspen squeezed my hand.

"Alright." He matched. Mike breathed softly, "Before I try anything, can you move them at all?"
Rosin hesitated before replying. "I could before, a little. But they're quite saturated now, so..."
Mike nodded pensively, considering her words. The human paused for a moment before glancing at her, "Would you... let me move them?"
Her face filled with horror and she started to snarl a protest before she seemed to stop herself. Rosin groaned. She looked hopelessly to her wings, her mouth pinching into a grimace. Then her eyes went to Wren. Immediately Wren came to her side and knelt, touching their hand to Rosin's, murmuring something that none of us heard. Whatever it was it seemed to calm Rosin down a lot. She sort of changed from staring blankly at the table to staring blankly at Wren, switching between the two things. Those words, whatever they were, had been just what she needed.
"Mm," was all Rosin groaned after a while, "Very well. If you must. With the utmost caution."
Mike only nodded.

Enormous hands lowered around my friend, each movement strikingly slow. I could only watch from a few steps back as Rosin flinched so deeply that even she couldn't hide it. Even her, with her wings like rose petals and swinging copper plaits, still looked so very tiny once surrounded by a human's claws. My arms stayed tight around Aspen's and I held my breath. She looked fragile in those hands. If he brought his hands together with just a little force, Mike could crush her. So easily. If he was lying about being sorry, she was now helpless against any pain he might inflict on her. I gulped and tried to calm my thoughts. She's fine.

I had to let it all sink in— Rosin: the same girl that had single-handedly scoured the entirety of the forest and fixed the bonds between tribes, the girl that had dared to fight a human to defend us, that indestructible, unshakable friend of mine, looked delicate now. Each of those gashes and wounds decorating her bare skin told a battle. Every drop of water that splattered from her plaits only reminded me of what had just happened. She had thrown herself in front of Wren and been pummelled by rock and wood. Swallowed and inhaled floodwater, then vomited it back up again. Fight the birds in the city, fight the other human when he found us in his bag, fight with me when I refused to come back here.
I wondered then if perhaps my friend looked so vulnerable now was because all she had ever done was fight things. Fight the humans, fight our Elders, fight with me. Everything and everyone was a battle to Rosin. And now she was being forced to do the opposite; submit. Intrust her wings to the hands of a terrifying, giant creature she didn't trust at all.