7 lives, no way out.

Chapter 7. Apologies and Stress

Needless to say, Martyn was worried. They already had one person down to five lives and the deaths seemed to be multiplying. Maybe the thing with Ren wasn't that important, but Martyn wanted to know where they stood relationship-wise after their conversation yesterday. Ren was his best friend and if something as silly as an argument over sacrificing himself had broken up their friendship, Martyn would be absolutely devastated. Ren meant a lot to him and he couldn't lose him like that. Etho seemed to have noticed Martyn's uneasiness, despite not knowing what it was about, and had decided to do something about it. To which Martyn desperately ignored.

"Martyn, what's wrong? Just tell me, please?" Etho asked, from where he was sitting on the crafting table in the corner of the room.

Martyn shook his head for what felt like the 30th time as he responded, "I already told you it was nothing Etho," 

"It's clearly not nothing, you seem upset. I want to help you, Martyn," Martyn just continued to sort the storage system. "You can't ignore me, Martyn," 

"I can and will," Martyn said, standing up from his spot and walking out of the base.

He felt kinda bad honestly, he didn't mean to be a dick to Etho he just didn't want to have to deal with Etho's mother-bird instinct. Martyn was very familiar with wolf hybrid instincts, one of them being that if a person in your "pack" wasn't feeling good, or was upset you would take care of them and make sure they were ok. It's quite a nice instinct to have but Martyn didn't really care at the moment.

He didn't know where he was going he was just walking through the forest aimlessly, as he passed under a tree he heard crying. Martyn paused and looked up, seeing the unmistakable red, yellow, and blue feathers that belonged to his friend.

"Grian?" Martyn asked, the wings he had seen jolted and shook, obviously startled.

"Martyn! Hi!" Grian jumped down from the tree, his face was flushed, eyes red-rimmed, and tear tracks very evident on his cheeks.

Grian, however, smiled at Martyn, obviously trying to hide his emotions from the Listener. Martyn didn't say anything he just opened his arms and motioned for Grian to come closer. Grian sighed sadly and fell into him, clinging onto Martyn's shirt like a Koala. Martyn was maybe 3 or 4 inches taller than Grian so his face was buried in Martyn's chest as Martyn rested his chin atop the avian's head.

"What happened Gri?" He asked.

Grian sighed again, "I almost kissed Scar..." Martyn smiled and pulled back from the hug, hands resting on his friend's shoulders.

"That's great! Why are you upset?" Grian looked down at the ground.

"I ran away from him...." He mumbled.

"Why did you do that?" Martyn asked softly.

"I got scared, I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to hurt him again, I-I didn't want to be the reason he died again," Grian said, he looked like he was about to cry again.

"Oh, Grian," Martyn pulled him into another hug.

This time Grian's wings wrapped around the two, caging them in a wall of feathers. Martyn recognized this as a way of showing Grian felt unsafe, scared, or in this case; panicked. When his wings wrapped around someone in a hug it was a sign that he was trying to protect the other person from the emotions he was feeling.

"I fucked up, Martyn," He said, "I really fucked up,"

"Grian, I think that in this sort of situation, you need to jump on the chance to be with him," Martyn pulled away again and Grian's wings rested against his back once more. "We could die. Like, actually. I think you need to forget about it before because if you don't you'll regret it for the rest of your life," Grian wouldn't meet his eyes but he nodded.