Bird Wings

Chapter 5

(Part 2)

Walking by the stream on the mountain became a part of their daily activities, a welcome change from the absolute monotony of the cave. The days slipped by, their growing number constantly surprising Wren when she remembered to look back. Somehow the hours kept adding up into a day and then vanishing entirely. Before she knew it there would be another sunset setting little fires of light on the cave floor. The sunsets were fast becoming the only highlight of her life. As she got used to the alarming view, she fell in love with how much of the splendour she could see from up here.

Wren still felt different every day. She was continually at war inside, switching between self pity and empathy. She was full of rage over her stolen life, but her memories had taken on an unpleasant tone. What had Hawk been doing when she laughed with her sisters at their weddings? Had he been watching alone in the trees when she ran from one friend's house to another on her leisure days? Those thoughts always brought her back to an indignant stance of self defence, and she would be rude to Hawk again.

The dynamic between them had returned to stormy and uncomfortable as well. Wren was occasionally tempted to make some sort of peace just so her shoulders would stop tensing up every time he returned from outside the cave.

She didn't know how to adjust to the reality of Hawk. Just his existence challenged far too much of her knowledge of the world. Until now, everything and everyone she knew had been so very normal, so very expected. Even the strangest person in the village was nothing to Hawk. She couldn't make sense of him, no matter how hard she tried. She grew irritated just by the sight of him, because looking at him would send her once again on an exhausting spiral of confused wondering. That was what made her wish she'd never met him.

She hadn't even really believed in demons before this, though that remained her best explanation of Hawk. She had always shrugged off any thought of the mysterious cave monster, or of any sort of mystery that her fellow villagers chose to whisper about on dark evenings. None of these things ever touched her life, so she wouldn't bother to worry about them.

And yet here he was, absolutely unlike anything she was familiar with, and yet so real. She was forced to acknowledge the reality of him several times a day, every time he carried her out of the cave. He had warm human skin and a heartbeat. Whatever reasoning or thinking she did between the times she had to be close to him, everything would be shaken up as soon as he lifted her up again. She would feel his arms around her, watch him take a breath, and feel convinced deep to her core that they were essentially the same - and then the wings would unfold and beat the air around them, and she would get confused again.

It was exhausting to live like this. But, contrary as ever, Wren suspected that there was a part of her that now considered her old life awfully boring. What had she filled her time with, actually? Or more accurately, her mind? She had been busy every day with a thousand little gossips and projects, but she had never had to think so much before. Her memories of her old daily life were already starting to blend together in a monotonous, yellowish haze.

***

Just a 'lil introspection section, I guess.

-Laura