Of Thorns and Glamour

Pigeon

They all stare down at me, surprised.

Fly, I need to find nest, I need to find food.

I flap out of Kievs lap and his hands brush my wings but he misses on catching me.

"Shit, she needs to change back, she'll loose herself as an animal!" he yell at the others. "Lil, you have turn back," he calls out to me and I hear the rustle of feathers coming closer.

I look and see a big crow, or maybe it seemed big because I was so small. I feel my heart race as I fly through the trees and try to loose him. Another being flies near me, he is a man with wings and horns. He tries to catch me with his hands as I fly near him, but I turn too quickly.

I can hear cackling below, "She's too quick!" I see a man with white hair appear suddenly in the tree I am flying towards. He holds his hand up for me to land on. He was safe, I can be safe with him, went through my head as I landed on his hand. "You are adorable as a bird my star, but you need to change back." The man with white hair and scars across his face tells me and I see bright glowing symbols around me.

I change too quickly and he catches me in the tree. My arms are still pigeon wings and my hair is made out of feathers while my legs end it birds feet. I try talking again but it's the same as before where it comes out as gibberish, "Damn it," Caleb says and hovers over us, inspecting me, "she's too unstable."

I flap my wings, I want to eat. I'm so hungry.

I turn towards Inchiki, "Hung-" I manage to get out as my teeth sharpen. I flap my wings on him and he looks down at me and chuckles.

A crow changes next to us on the branch, "Let's feed the pigeon then we can duke it out who gets to breed her next," Kiev says and pats my head but I try to bite it. "You know I taste bad." I nod my head. He did taste bad.

I flap my wings again to fly off, but Inchiki holds onto me, "Calm, you will be at a nest soon. If you fly looking like that someone will spot you and kill you, silly bird." I feel hands touching my wings and I draw them back while I rest my head on Inchiki's chest.

My mate.

I nuzzle into him and he smiles down at me until he takes a giant jump to the forest floor while holding onto me. My feathers ruffle around and Kiev and Caleb follow.

"Crowlings do this sometimes too, when they loose their minds they can become too much like a crow," Kiev says and looks at Inchiki. "You're going to have your hands full, are you sure you don't want me to take her to Malphas's home?"

"No, she will stay with me." And that was that as Kiev puts up his hands and spins on his heel.

I blink and realize what I've done, "Inchiki? What happened?" I look at my arms, and feel my face flush. "I'm a bird! Why do I have feathers!" I push away from him and he sets me down as I try to brush the feathers off and change back, "No. No. No." I didn't want to be more like Malphas, I didn't want to be a bird.

Kiev grabs my shoulder, "It's alright, you're safe, we just have to make sure you don't turn into an animal when you're like this." I didn't understand and he explains what happens to crowlings.

I shudder, "I'm so hideous!" I cry and cover my face with my wings to weep into them.

The three of them say "No!" in unison and try to comfort me.

"Lil, you are adorable, and crows are pretty fond of our feathers," Kiev tells me. "A lot of crowlings like to keep half between forms, it's natural."

"But I'm not a crowling!" I cry out at him and run away from the group and fly off into the trees. I perch on a branch above them and continue to cry.