Splendid Fall

Ch.36 Home

Chapter 36

Pain.

It was all Birdie could feel as she fought against the pressure in her chest to take in air. Her eyes fluttered open every few seconds but she had no strength to keep them open long enough to see where she was. All around her were the screaming voices of jinn and fey, their magic colliding against one another like gunpowder.

Birdie wished she could curl up into a ball and squeeze out all the pain from her bones. She wanted to open her mouth and scream as the scolding hot sensation travelled up her arms and spread all over her body. Her tears were seconds away from reaching boiling point as they slid down her face. She felt her broken body weep as someone lifted her up and began to move.

"Why didn't you let him finish?" Someone asked.

"I'll be damned before I have one of his kind touch my granddaughter," Ira spat through her teeth.

"She doesn't look so good," the first voice spoke again. "'Will she make the trip?"

"There's only one way to find out," Ira said.

Birdie's eyes watered once again. She could feel her grandmother's hand holding her as they moved, the ground suddenly sounding different beneath their feet.

"She's not going to make it," the first voice said once more. "You should give her back to that boy-"

"I need to return her to her father," Ira said sternly. "Open the gates."

Baba...

Birdie tried to part her lips to call for her father, but she could not move. The heat in her system continued to frizzle like a chemical reaction, making her break out into a sweat. Her stomach turned as she suddenly began to feel droplets of cool water against her face.

With every ounce of energy in her body, Birdie forced her eyes to open and focus. She caught a glimpse of a crowd, green mountains, grey skies, her grandmother, Azad, and some others she could not recognize.

Wren...

Birdie felt her heart shrivel up. She flinched as she thought about his pleading dark eyes right before Taft's palm had swallowed her.

"She's moving," someone said. "Ira, she moved."

There was a rustle and suddenly Ira's voice was much closer.

"Birdie?" She took Birdie's hand once more. "Birdie, can you hear me? We're going home."

It hurts, Birdie wanted to cry.

The way Ira held her hand and the way she was carried through the rocky grounds made her body scream in pain with each step. Birdie began to feel blood trickle down the inside of her throat as the booming down of rushing water grew and grew.

"We're going home," Ira said once more.

Birdie wanted to push back the agony and ask her grandmother where they were, but she stood no chance against her stubborn body. The pressure behind her eyes built until she could no longer tolerate the pain. Her mind fell unconscious to save itself from the hell it was in.

Ira, unaware of the immense pain her granddaughter was in, held her hand tightly. She knew they were leaving a trail of Birdie's blood as they moved closer and closer to the Splendid Falls. But they had no time to stop. They had to get their people home. And once Birdie was home, she would be taken care of.

"I can't believe it's happening," Azad said, as they neared the cave's entrance.

Ira remained silent, always holding her breath and ready for the unexpected. She did not want to utter a word until her feet had touched the solid grounds of the Tyveer Court.