Ravenwings (Imaged + Completed) [1st in Trilogy]

Part I: Chapter 2

He's not saying anything... Please don't let this be how I die... I thought desperately, pinned to the ground by this winged, scarred stranger.

The moment he saw my eyes beg for mercy, and heard my plea that he not hurt me, he looked away, as if both were all too familiar. He gulped, grabbing the knife from where I'd dropped it and releasing me.

I scrambled away, clumsily kicking up leaves as I pressed myself against a safe-looking tree trunk, trying to catch my breath.

Oh my god... I had legitimately thought I would be murdered. I was still coming to terms with what had happened as he freed himself.

This guy was muscled and almost animal-like, not to be rude but with wings and refusing to talk to me this guy was like a flying Tarzan, so believe me it was terrifying to stare him down, to be buried in that terrifying thought I would die... 

Breathe. It's okay now... I...don't think he's going to do anything... I hope...

He grabbed a handful of the rope netting trapping him and held it up, sawing at it with the blade, never breaking paranoid eye contact with me. 

I gulped, still in too much shock to pull my eyes away from his. Those deep black eyes... 

But he didn't look angry, or mad, or aggressive. He looked desperate. Scared.

As soon as he had cut a hole large enough for him to escape, he burst through it and scrambled away from me, grabbing a tree branch to help him stay standing up. He leaned on the branch heavily, trembling with the effort already.

He looked even weaker now, out of the net. I was surprised he had managed to put up such a fight. His skin, covering once-prominent muscles and veins and bones, was thin as paper. He looked starved, like he'd been out there for days, and underfed even before. He was covered in bruises, scrapes, burns, lesions, and so many cuts...there was even what I guessed to be a recent bullet hole in his shoulder. Oh my god...

He looked like he'd been shot out of the sky before getting caught in a hunter's trap, and had fallen through the tops of all the trees and branches to get all those scrapes, but then, he would've taken a several-story fall... That sorta thing would've killed him.

Finally freed, I wondered why he didn't just fly away. But then, just to stretch them after however long he'd been trapped, he unfurled his slick, black, feathery wings. And that's when I realized how he survived the fall.

He'd landed it on his wings.

They had scrapes and burns on them too, and they were wrinkled and ripped. Both of them were bent funny. Twisted and broken, they looked like they would've once been an awesome marvel, but now they had been reduced to shreds. In full view, I could no longer deny they were real.

"Oh my god," I gasped aloud. "They're...beautiful."

At the compliment of his wings, he once again gave me his confused and suspicious stare. He self-consciously tucked them back a little, still processing my words. If they're beautiful now, I thought, what were they like before?