Two days had passed since the night of the kylid encounter, and despite the initial hysteria, the village had mostly relaxed. Even Percy, worn out from the fearful bickering of his tribemates, had little energy left to put into worry. The two intruders had been escorted out of the territory, as the coverts who returned earlier today reported. However, the third kylid- who Percy was unfortunate enough to run into- was nowhere to be found. By the day's end, Fhreyisk made the claim that he was no longer in the territory, having probably fled before they arrived, and sent word of the incident back to the remiges in Dubonyth.
As the storms of the past three days finally dwindled, the forest was left damp and chilled. Percy laid in his nest, shivering and watching as the dim, grey light of day dipped beneath the windowsill of his hut. For the past two days he hardly left the hut, let alone the village itself. He wasn't necessarily fearful, not with the admiral's reassurance at least, but the excitement of the village exhausted him. What was even more exhausting was the lack of sleep he had gotten the past two nights as well.
Even as the rest of the village fell silent under the night sky, Percy grumbled and writhed in his nest. Every touch of his feathers against the fronds of woven bedding made his skin itch; Somehow his bed grew more uncomfortable in the recent nights, almost pulling at him. Finding the right position wasn't the end of it- eventually he felt cramped. Even as he finally slipped into rest, the tightness lingered and grew. His wings twitched and his tail lashed every so often, and the only comfort was his own paws gripping his arms. But as the troublesome feelings persisted, the cloudiness of his mind grew in his sleep. The feeling of his feathers between his claws faded, and their absence was warped and twisted until his claws only gripped smooth and cold scales. His usual lofty and stretchy nest became constrained, and the phantom squeezing around him forced another low, booming, and rhythmic sensation. His soft breaths became distressed, quiet whines. His claws clutched the imaginary coils that grew and strengthened around him, and that familiar booming pulse quickened, as if being pressured by a new sound- hissing. An eerie, guttural hiss that rose without falter, forcing his heart to thrum faster and faster. The tension grew until a sudden pain ruptured through his chest.
Percy shot awake with a choked gasp, his claws unlatching from his arms. His nest rocked as he trembled, grasping his chest in an attempt to soothe his vigorously pounding heart. However, through his troubled breaths, a subtle crash interrupted his moment of respite, and as he jerked his head up to see, he was met with a couple pairs of glistening eyes in the hut with him.
Frozen at first, the intruding creatures quickly squawked and scrambled about, startling Percy as he jumped to his feet. Kolér- small and arboreal beasts with heavy heads and beaks, long tails, and shaggy feathers. They bounded across the thatch floor before clattering atop the counters, knocking off plates, frames, and parchment. Percy yelped and stumbled over to him, swatting them down from the countertops. "Hey- out! Out, out!" He demanded, shooing one kolér towards the window of the hut, but rather than leaping back out into the trees, it crashed onto the windowsill, spun around, screeched, and darted back into the hut, leaving him hunched by the window. Percy watched frantically as the two pests squabbled and scrambled up the far table, cabinets, and finally shelves on the opposite wall, where trinkets and heirlooms were affectionately displayed. His feathers bristled as they slowed, the glistening metal prizes catching their eye. "No... No, don't touch those...!" Percy barked, storming toward them, "Leave them alone, get out!" One kolér eyed the reedacon with a hiss, before it quickly snatched up a rusted, leather-bound flask. Percy's heart dropped as both leaped down the shelves toward an opposite window, tails flicking just out of his reach as he lunged for them.
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