Sometimes, Anarchy Is Best ~~ Shadows

9.) Rune

Rune jolted awake suddenly, the feathers on her charcoal gray wings ruffled in fear that was ebbing much too slowly for her taste. She couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't make sound. She'd been having these sorts of night terrors for ages now. It'd started with waking up in a panic, but after so long of being bound, her body got used to waking up unable to move, leading to this sort of sleep paralysis now.

For a disorienting, terrifying minute, she didn't recognize her surroundings. Then as her mind slowly stopped racing and her heart rate came down a little, it all started coming back to her. Ewe, the base, her room with her bed and books and pillows. Relative safety.

Home.

What? No. No, not home. What in the world...

She didn't want to continue down that path in her mind. That word, home, had been in her mind for days now. Of course, she never got further than that word. After all, the word was a lie.

This wasn't home.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to move. Her body relented, letting her sit up and look around properly. In the dim orange lighting of the small lamp on her nightstand, she could make out the whole room semi-clearly, along with light peeking through the bottom of her door. Stretching her wings, she hopped off the bed and peered outside, making sure the coast was clear before slipping through. She couldn't hear anything, which made it kind of odd for all the lights to be on, but it didn't faze her too much as she walked down the hall, absentmindedly flexing and ruffling her wings just to let the soft dark gray feathers settle again. It'd been so long since she'd properly stretched them.

As she walked, passing door after door after door, all identical to each other, she didn't notice Gray apparently materialize behind her. "You're up late," he commented, making her jump and spin to face him before relaxing again.

"Oh, uh, yeah," she said quickly, "Just woke up and couldn't fall back asleep. I thought a walk around would help." she lied, but he seemed to believe her anyway.

"Mind if I join in?" he asked, to which she shook her head, turning to keep walking down this darned hallway--

They were both silent for a minute, Rune walking with Gray trailing behind her. She was vaguely aware of his tail swishing in many different directions, some of which she had never seen before, but it was behind her and she had just woken up and who am I to question his tail?

"So..." Gray finally started, speeding up slightly to walk next to her. "What do you think of it here so far?"

Rune shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's all just so new still, I don't think I've even really let down my guard."

Gray shook his head. "No... no you haven't," he murmured. "Do you not trust us?"

Rune tilted her head, the feathers near the fold of her wings fluffing out slightly. "Of course I trust you guys! Archer is super funny and nice, and Ewe is caring and notices everything, and you keep it all clean and know everything about everything and have a super floofy tail."

"What about Al?" Gray pressed, his tail twitching slightly.

"Alastair..." Rune considered her words for a moment. "I don't know how to feel about him. He seems to care a lot about you guys and want to keep the group safe, but also doesn't like me because of it."

If they knew who I really was....

Gray nodded sympathetically. "Yeah, he's like that. I think that you know how to get past that block in his head already though." he said, giving her a small, confident smile.