Bird Wings

Chapter 11

(Pssst: Trigger warning, this chapter mentions self harm. Please proceed with caution)

Hawk's injury proved to be a real inconvenience. His arm was now almost useless and that meant that he carried Wren to the clifftop by wrapping his good arm around her waist and having her rely more on her own strength to hang onto him. This made her feet dangle freely and that alone made her tighten her hold around his neck so much that she nearly strangled him.

What's more they decided that he should probably avoid the village at least for that day, as the residents could be on their guard now.

"How did you avoid being caught for all the years you've been here? No one's seen you up close before, right?" She asked him when she got back from her bath. They sat together in the clearing at a ridiculously safe distance from the cliff edge.

"Well, I didn't used to steal so often actually. I didn't eat every day." He admitted.

"You starved?"

"Obviously not, I'm very clearly not dead right now. I was hungry a lot though." He put a hand on his stomach thoughtfully. "I'm surprised how quickly I got used to regular meals. Hunger didn't bother me this much before."

"Well you're healing right now! You should have food."

"Why don't you go kill us a bear, then?"

"Don't sass me when I haven't eaten."

Hawk chuckled and bumped his shoulder into hers. The day had dawned on a different, more relaxed dynamic between them. Wren couldn't quite put her finger on it, but there was a layer of something there now that hadn't been there yesterday. Her pain over home had shifted too, it had become less of an urgent problem now and more of a grief. Had she really decided to leave it behind? Is that what Hawk thought, that she would never leave him now? Wouldn't she?

"I figured out why I was so mad yesterday." She said, conversationally.

"I thought it was because you hadn't eaten?"

"No, I was angry that you got hurt."

Perhaps it was dangerous to bring this up when she felt so unsettled. If she had the chance to leave him, would she do it? Didn't her family deserve that, even if she no longer wanted her life with them?

"What do you mean?"

"Just, you've been hurt so much. I've seen the scar you have on your ankle, from the shackle. And you have to live in that cave and survive on stolen bread... It's just not fair, you know? It's not fair that you've had all that and now you have this stupid gash in your arm too. It never really ends, does it?"

He studied her face for a moment. He was sitting with his good arm stretched out and resting on his knee, both a barrier between them and a source of temptation for Wren. She was fighting the urge to rest her head on his shoulder, it was right there and she kept getting distracted. The look in his eyes was so quietly sad too, he knew- had been knowing - what she was just learning now.

He just looked down after that, her question didn't really need an answer. She turned her attention to the sky in front of them. At this angle the tree tops were blocked from view by the cliff edge, making it look like the ground in front of them stretched directly into the distant blue. It was a peaceful blue today too, and uninterrupted by clouds; Wren had never felt so inside the sky before. She remembered how she had used to stare at it from her front step and think how lucky she was to live in a more open part of the village, where she could see so much of the sky. It was funny to think how luxurious she had found it now, when she could compare that view to this one.

It really was a beautiful day. The sky, the grass they sat on, and a small breeze that played with tendrils of her damp hair. The only thing missing was a stomach full of food.