No Longer Freedom

12. Who am I?...

Tom's POV

After we ate ourselves full, we went outside into the chilly air. Wind bit my cheeks and nose. Leaves danced their last dance in the air. Dead flowers hang from their rotten stems. White, gray, brown, yellow, orange and red mushrooms decorated the dead grass and tree's trunks. Acorns and cones rolled on our feet's as we walked to the backyard where the last berries still hang stubbornly by their buds.

The dead yellow burned grass crunched under our feet like hay as we walked towards a little wooden box. Paul, the leader of the group, opened the box up effortlessly. "Just like I thought. It's here!" Paul turned back towards us. He held something white in his hand "A ball?" Patryk smiled. "It's been a while since I have seen that." He continued.

"Tom, kick it!" Paul shouted. It were a bit of a weird request from him but I did as he told and kicked Patryk on the knee. "OW! What the hell dude!" Patryk growled as he held his left knee. "NO, NOT HIM! THE BALL!" Paul yelled as he threw the ball at me. "Ohhh yeah." I chuckled nervously to myself and jumped after the ball.

The ball rolled fast, but not fast enough to escape from me. I kept kicking it, throwing and squishing it. It kinda reminded me of a horrified little prey that tried to escape from me. Then that same blood craving instinct started to wake itself inside of me. My vision started to get sharper and more sensitive. I saw colors differently, the little bugs in the mushrooms glowed and rippled of air exposed their hidden but living souls around me. I felt everything more clearly, like I would just had washed all the dirt off of my brain. Just when I was about to shove my claws inside the muddy ball a piercing dry cracking noise stopped me. It ended my flow immediately and my senses came back to normal. Then I realized, I wasn't in the backyard anymore. I was on the edge of the forest. I had run way too far from Paul and Patryk.

But... A thought crawled into my mind. I moved my gaze to the calling forest. If I would had been brave enough, I could had ran. No one would had stopped me. Though, what would had happen to Paul and Patryk...They would surely get hanged by Tord. Would he be that evil? "Of course he would!" I yelled and turned back towards the town.

As I was running towards the pointy fence I decided to took a final glance at my natural habitat. I couldn't tell if that were the cleverest decision I had ever made of the worse, because after a few seconds, I saw a dark figure looking at me behind the trees with something long and slim on his hand... "Huh!?" I spread my wings and flew over the fence as quickly as I could. "What was that?" Was I going crazy? Was there someone? I laughed nervously and made my way back to Paul's and Patryk's house.

As I got closer, I heard them calling out my name. How long was I missing? It felt like five minutes? "I'm on my way!" I responded and landed on top of the dead flowers. "Where the hell were you?! It's been like 30 minutes!" Paul ranted. "Sorry sorry I got a little too excited and ran almost into the forest." I chuckled. Maybe it were the best that I wouldn't had told them about the figure. They would probably say that I would be out of my mind, or so I thought.

"Should we go back inside? I want to learn the letters." I continued. "Yeah, sure.." Paul nodded as he put his hands into his pockets. "I will stay for one smoke, you can go." He took a cigarette out of his pocket and lifted it up on his lips. "Do you want help with that?" I asked and walked closer to him. "What do you mean?" A man with a cigarette tilted his head curiously. "Don't move." I bid and snapped my fingers. When my fingertips touched each other I felt how the air between them got warmer and warmer, finally creating a small blue flame on top of them. Slowly I moved my hand closer to the cigarette and lit it up with the extremely hot flame. "There" I shook the flame off as both of them went speechless. "Can you set yourself on fire even though you are in that form?" Patryk wondered. "Only the parts where I have scales to protect my skin." I clarified. Of course I had weaknesses too, everybody had.

As Paul inhaled his now crackling cigarette a frustrated sigh accompanied the sound. "When are you gonna stop that?" Patryk mumbled, he clearly were pissed off about Paul's habit. "I'm trying, dear." His voice didn't had any hints of truth nor honesty. He spat white lies just to please his partner. Such a cruel way to comfort someone whose worried about you. "I hope so." Patryk turned away and walked toward the front door. Just when I was about to follow him, Paul's gasp stopped me. "What-!" Both of us turned towards Paul who were staring horrified at the place where I had landed just a moment ago.

I felt how my own eyes widened on their own as my chin dropped. "Weren't they dead?!" Patryk pointed at the now beautifully blooming red roses, that were all dried up and dead just a few seconds ago. I couldn't believe my eyes. It came back from the dead in seconds. I couldn't help but get closer and bend down. Carefully I reached and slid my pointing finger down the pretty rose. It was real. A flower with all in its glory. Nothing out of ordinary, but how was it able to bloom again so fast?

"It's real." I looked over my shoulder at the two men behind me, who were staring back. "What are you?..." Patryk mumbled as he stepped back. "I-I didn't do this!" I shook my head violently. Why would they think that it was me? Yeah I stood there but nothing else. I thought and moved my gaze to my hands. "I suppose..."

"Let's just head back inside." Paul shook me off and lifted me up. "Come here." He rubbed my shoulder as he walked me inside.

Edited 27th of April 2025