Claws

Cold Comfort

APOLLO

     Two days passed until the pain in my backside subsided. A day after that, and the gouges in my calves healed over and became scars. In total, a week elapsed before my ribs healed.
     In that time, I was on complete lockdown. Luka didn't let me leave the house at all; I was instructed to spend my days reading the likes of Edgar Allen Poe, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, etcetera. It was really, really boring. I could appreciate a good classic novel, but not when it was being shoved down my throat.
     Luka told me that the reason I was being contained like a prisoner was because I needed to "detox". According to him, I had been subjected to a spike in testosterone from being exposed to Blizzard's heat, which only exacerbated my behavioral issues.
     I finally saw the light of day again after seven days of confinement.
     When it came time for me to reenter the world, Luka made a modification to my bird collar. I watched with interested from the couch as he replaced the strap featuring a standard buckle closure with a strap adorned with a lockable mechanism.
     The new strap was made of thick, faux snake skin. Inside were two steel cables, one on the top of the collar and one on the bottom, which made it impossible to claw through.
     The scales of the faux snake skin were black with red accents, matching my plumage well— I felt very stylish as Luka affixed it to my neck. My master produced a small silver key, which he used to permanently secure the device to me.
     "I like it," I hummed, "but is it ever coming off?"
     "Maybe in the future. Right now, though, you'll be keeping it on twenty-four-seven." Luka disclosed.
     All I could do was nod. It was fair, after all. Maybe if I hadn't been a monumental prick, I'd have a little more freedom.
     "Hey, I see that sad look in your eyes." Hummed Luka, and a kiss was placed on my cheek. "You're a good boy. You just need some tough love right now."
     "Do you mean that?" I whispered back. I didn't feel like a good boy at all.
     "I do. You'll always be my good boy." The human ruffled my hair as he spoke. "Even when you're pushing my buttons."
      An hour later, Luka was guiding me through the blinding light of the outdoors. I hadn't seen the sun in a good week, and my maladapted vision proved it. With time, it adjusted, and eventually I was able to walk besides my Master.
     "Where are we going?" I questioned, and the human shrugged.
     "You'll see." He replied unhelpfully.
     Twenty minutes passed as we traversed what felt like the entirety of the ranch. We passed the birds' barn, and ended in the very back right corner of the ranch's property.
     Ultimately, we arrived at what appeared to be a metal warehouse. At first glance, it looked like hay storage; yellow bales were positioned sporadically along the outside of the building. When we entered, however, it became apparent that the inside was a sports ring.
      Careful white lines were measured on the concrete floor, bleachers lined the left and right walls, and the center was enclosed with floor-to-ceiling plexiglass featuring small holes for ventilation and sound transfer.
     "Hey, Luka!" A familiar voice called out from inside the plexiglass. When I spied the source, I noticed he was dressed head-to-toe in black and burgundy protective padding, locs just barely peaking out from the baseball catcher's helmet he wore.
     "Hi, Kye!" My Master called back from the door, "Thanks for meeting us here on such short notice!"
"No problem, Lu!" Dr. Lawerence's voice grew softer as we approached the padded metal door of the plexiglass cage. "I'll never turn down an opportunity to be an assailant."
"A what now?" I asked cautiously.
Both Dr. Lawerence and Luka laughed at my wariness. Opening the cage's door and ushering me inside, Luka answered, "We're going to be doing some protection work today. Kye will be helping out in the next step of your training."
Practically vibrating with excitement, I exclaimed, "I love protection work!"
The two humans chuckled again. Luka entered the cage behind me, and added, "Fall is protection season— You know, because of all of the padding— so we only have a few months to train before trials."
     Luka placed a hand on my shoulder, continuing, "For this session, you'll be defending me against Kye. This is less about form and more about instincts since it's the first lesson in real protection; use your claws and teeth, punch, kick, head-butt, whatever you have to in order to keep him from touching me."
     I nodded.
     "What do you say?" Luka egged me on.
     "Yes, Master." I murmured.
"A little louder, please." He seemed to enjoy this.
"Yes, Master!" The words left my mouth as a shout.
"Good boy, Apollo!" Luka praised loudly before adding, "There's one stipulation."
I cocked my head.
"Kye, do you have it?" My master asked.
The aforementioned human produced a neon yellow, full-body harness, and I blushed something terrible.
"Don't tell me I have to wear that." I grumbled.
Luka guffawed at my humiliated expression. Wiping tears from his eyes, he said, "Bad news, you do."
My master took the strappy restraints from his love interest, assisting me in put on the confusing garment.
The thick, three-inch straps started at my groin, where they formed a circle that I stepped into with each leg. Suspending the leg pieces was a strap on the outside of either thigh near my butt, that ran all the way up to the spot between my wings, where they connected to form an X shape and went to opposite sides to loop over my shoulders. From my shoulders, they came down to connect over my sternum. Then they split again at a waist belt, which connected with a sturdy carabiner so that I could get in and out of the harness, and terminated at the circular leg pieces towards the front of my legs.
I felt claustrophobic and tangled in the garment.
Luka fished a braided leather leash out of his pants pocket.
"Woah woah!" I startled him into dropping it onto the concrete floor, "You are NOT putting a leash on me!"
Luke didn't budge as he retrieved the leash from the floor. "It's non-negotiable."
Griping and groaned, I argued, "I'm not a damn dog, Luka!"
"That is Master to you." The human growled as he hooked the latch of the leash onto the X-shaped piece between my wings, where an O-ring was situated.
"I'm not a damn dog, Master." I spat.
Painful, arousing jolts of electricity traveled through my body, and I whimpered with two-parts discomfort and one-part pleasure.
     "Apologize, or I'm turning the dial higher."
     The fire in my heart made me hesitate. At that hesitation, Luka did exactly what he threatened.
A tortured sound of pain exited me as my Master pressed the button, and this time it was all agony as I fell to my knees. From the corner of my eye, I saw Dr. Lawerence shift his weight around uncomfortably.
"What the fuck, Luka?!" I exclaimed, "How high did you turn it?!"
"As high as I needed to in order to get your attention." He remarked calmly, "Now apologize."
A groan left me as I clenched myself teeth tightly. "I'm sorry, Master."
"Good boy, Apollo!" Luka hummed happily, "What an improvement!"
I couldn't help but feel a little bit of happiness squirming around in my chest at the praise.
My Master ruffled my hair before saying to Dr. Lawerence, "We've been working on his attitude. He's got a lot of it, as you can tell."
The other human laughed awkwardly. "I don't know if I could do that."
"I didn't think so, either, but it's become necessary." Luka replied, "He's grown rebellious since gaining more freedom."
"You know I'm right here, right?" I reminded the rude humans.
"I see what you mean." Dr. Lawerence chuckled at my bad attitude.
Luka commanded, "Up, Apollo." and this time I did exactly what I was told.
"Good boooooy!" My Master sang. Again, I felt a twinge of happiness dance around my chest like a wiggling worm, and let a huge smile decorate my features.
"See how happy he gets?" Luka chuckled.
"That's so cute!" Dr. Lawerence said as he laughed with Lu.
"Okay, okay, we need to get to practicing!" My Master waved his hands as he spoke to get us back on track. "Apollo, Kye is going to try to hurt me. You need to use everything at your disposal to protect me. Remember, this session is about instinct, not technique."
"Does that mean I get to bite him?" My teeth clacked together in interest.
"Yes." Luka responded simply. "Now channel that attitude, Apollo!"
Channel my attitude? Okay!
With my Master's encouragement, I took a power stance, extended my wings to their full length, bared my claws and fangs, and roared with my mouth wide open.
Dr. Lawerence shook off his fear and charged us. When he got within biting range, I struck.... and missed as he dodged backwards. My teeth clanked together jarringly and I hit the end of my leash, throwing me off balance.
The assailant rushed us again, this time stopping just shy of the bite zone. Whipping around with my clawed hands, I snarled and spit attempting to reach him. My claws narrowly missed their target, and I lunged forward to close the distance between us.
I hit the end of my leash, pulling my master forwards some, but managed to hook my talons into the chest of Dr. Lawerence's bite suit. The human thrashed, grabbing my hands and attempting to pull them off, but I was locked on. Yanking him forwards, the man fell off balance and into my arms, where I sunk my fangs into the padding on his neck protector. I shook him back and forth violently, snarling and growling and chewing the entire time.
"OUT!" Commanded Luka, and I dropped my prize.
Said prize tumbled to his knees where he shook and struggled for air.
Luka appeared to be having less fun than I was. Tone rife with concern, he exclaimed, "Holy shit, Kye! Are you okay?"
Dr. Lawerence took a second to breathe before answering, "That was so fucking scary. Let's do it again!"
My Master helped the larger human up, patting him on the back and smiling all the while, before turning to address me. "That was good. Next time, please try not to drag me. You're a lot stronger than me and you could knock me off my feet."
"Yes, Master!" I replied, excitement seeping through my voice, "Can we go again?"
Luka chuckled through his words. "Yes, hun, we can go again."
The second time was much cleaner. Dr. Lawerence darted to my right, where I knocked him over with my wing, and was on him like white on rice. Or at least, I would have been if I hadn't hit the end of my leash. Luka held me fast as I strained against my harness and snarled at the assailant, who rose to his feet quickly.
     Dr. Lawerence and I played a cat-and-mouse game. He would come just within striking distance, allowing me to lunge at him, and dart back out before getting caught in my grasp.
     It was incredibly frustrating.
     About a minute into our dance, I growled in a tongue he couldn't understand, "Come at me, you bastard!"
     "What, did I make you angry?" Dr. Lawerence teased, taking a step forwards and waving a finger in my face, "Too bad bir—"
     Chomping down on his forearm, I shook back and forth as hard as I possibly could, knocking my target off of his feet. I dragged him towards me and slashed against his chest piece with my claws, pretending to disembowel him.
     "Jesus Christ." Luka mumbled from behind me, before shouting, "OUT!"
     Disgruntled, I grumbled as I backed away from the subject.
We continued training for about an hour until Dr. Lawerence had a call for work. Atlas had a nasty gash on his leg, and the human was quickly on his way to sew it back up.
Now sitting on the bleachers, I looked on with interest as Luka watched him leave. A little sigh left my Master as his love interest closed the metal door of the building behind him.
"You must really like him." I hummed to the human, my chin resting on my hands and my elbows on my knees.
Luka turned to me with a slightly puzzled expression. "Why do you say that, hun?"
"I see the way you two look at each other!" I teased, "If either of you were in rut, you'd be boning."
My Master's jaw dropped. He flushed a bright pink, but had nothing to say.
"I'm right, aren't I?" I purred to Luka, "Well why don't you make a move? He likes me, and you like each other, isn't that all that matters?"
"Liking you is a requirement?" Luka chuckled.
"Oh, absolutely." I said with faux seriousness, "Otherwise, how will you know I won't eat him?"
Luka gave two fake laughs.
We spent the rest of the afternoon running drills and practicing obedience. Since Dr. Lawerence could no longer assist us, Luka tethered me to a hook in the wall and donned the bite suit, taking on the role of the assailant.
Just like Dr. Lawerence had, he darted around me, getting me increasingly frustrated. Eventually, he would make an error— and that's when I struck. Pulling the human down to the ground, attacking like a wild animal, and then helping him back up was all part of the game.
All of the play-hunting was making me hungry. "Luka," I asked as politely as possible, "Can we stop and get some lunch?"
"Dinner is in an hour, hun." My Master declined, "Why don't we go home and get a shower, then we can eat at the dining hall?"
"Yeah, about that...." I scratched the back of my head, and Luka watched me expectantly. "I don't think I'm welcome in the pack anymore. Is eating at the mansion really a good idea?"
"You have to face them eventually." The human imparted, "Better there in front of their Masters and Mistresses. They won't hurt you there."
"Are you sure?" I asked charily.
"Positive." Luka assured me.