Broken in Half - Avengers

Chapter 10 - The Woods

Trees shimmering with the evening sun towered above her. The sun hovered just above the horizon through the tall, brown trunks. Elytra blinked, looking around for a clue of where she was. Her hands skimmed rough tree bark, and her wings brushed against low branches covered in autumn leaves. A small dragon rustled the leaves of a bush as it ran out in front of her, staring at her with its glass-like black eyes. "Hello?" She said, putting out a hand to stroke it, but it backed away. Turning around, it darted across the leaf-covered ground, before turning to look at her. El followed.
Leaves crunched under her boots, as the dragon led her to a familiar clearing. She had crossed it some time ago, when she had first been caught and taken to the labs. It felt like a lifetime ago. El knelt down beside the small creature, who was circling the ground. Elytra reached her hands down into the dirt, and after a few minutes of digging, hit a small blue box.
She had dropped it when Cameron told her to run, not noticing it was gone until later. They hadn't taken it either, leaving it to get buried under dirt and leaves. "Oh my god." Elytra breathed, pulling off the rubber band she had used to secure it. "This is a dream though," She thought, "does that mean it's still here?"
Elytra woke up in her loft, and looked over at the little lump on the other side of the bed, indicating that Mavi was sound asleep. She moved slowly, careful not to wake the sleeping child beside her. Mavi hadn't slept since she came to Midgard, insisting on finding a cure for their remaining siblings. El had started developing more severe symptoms of the sickness as well, getting frequent headaches that kept her awake long into the night. Her frost had almost completely come off, peeling off her skin like paper. It left irritating burns trailing down her arms in the same pattern, leaving her skin stinging and raw. Steve had decided to wrap her arms up to keep her from scratching them, but now the itching was even more unbearable.
Elytra hopped down from the loft, walking over to her closet. Under the dim light of the moon, she put on a black dress that cut off just below her knees, shorts under it, and a messenger bag over her shoulder to carry the box and her other belonging that were more than likely scattered around the area. The treehouse the two had lived in for a short time was only a few miles away from there as well, so she would try to go there if there was time before anyone got too worried. This was the only way she was ever going to get out of the compound.
El slipped an apple and bandages into the bag, braided her hair back out of her face, and slipped the cloak over her wings. She stuck her wings through the slits in the cloth, and fastened it below her neck. Snatching a piece of paper out of her sketchbook, she wrote a quick note saying she was going out, but leaving out where, just in case the Avengers were feeling extra overprotective this morning. El ran with silent footsteps down the hall, taking the elevator down to Steve's floor. She was leaving the note with him.
He was sleeping like a baby when she turned the knob to his door, peeking in through the small crack. Tiptoeing over to his nightstand, she set the piece of paper on the wood and was about to leave when a groggy voice coming from the bed made her freeze. "El, where are you going?"
"Out."
"Will you be careful, not get spotted, and come back immediately if you get another headache?" He asked, aware she could handle herself, "Yeah. Night, Steve."
He yawned. "Night, El."
She hadn't told him she already had an excruciating migraine, but thought nothing of it as she raced down the stairs to the front door. The security cameras whirred to life behind her, casting its metal gaze on the figure in the doorway, but Elytra was already gone.
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Several hours later, the clearing came into view, covered in autumn leaves. Elytra placed her bare feet on the ground, letting the grass brush up against her ankles. The large tree on the outskirts of the clearing loomed over the spot where her belongings were buried, and she rushed over to it. A leaf lodged itself in her hair as El dug her hands into the soft dirt of the field, pulling up out of the hole. She continued digging until her fingers grazed the rusted blue box. She smiled, letting out a choked laugh, as she pulled it up onto the grass.
Tugging the rubber band off of the box, it let out a metallic creak as she pried the lid open. El pulled out the stack of photos Cameron had taken with his camera before it broke, flipping through the old memories. Her first ice cream, sharing a slice of pizza in the tree house, playing on the snow.
Something shiny caught her eye as she set the pictures in the pocket of her bag. Cameron's necklace. He wore it everywhere, she had never seen him without it. It was a small blue stone, with a black symbol carved into it. The stone glowed as she reached into the box, shimmered as she held it in her hand. El put it around her neck, but quickly took it off. It felt too much like a collar. She wrapped it twice around her wrist, making it into a bracelet instead.
Peering down, she took out a small carved dragon. It was wood, chipped and molded by her brother's pocket knife. Elytra put that into her bag, and closed the box, reburying it beneath the ground.
The treehouse came into view a few short minutes later, the roof barely visible through the tree canopy. She dove, sliding through the glass-less window. It was smaller than she remembered, but El was four the last time she was there. Two little blankets were crumpled up in a corner, a pillow laying on top of them. A backpack lay in the other corner, and a collage of posters were nailed up on the walls. She quickly looked up at the sun through the crack in the ceiling. Noon. She hurriedly took down the photographs off the walls, leaving the faded posters. Opening the backpack, she found a compass, a few clay animals, and Cameron's camera. She stuffed those, along with the photographs, neatly into her bag, and flew back to the compound.