Academy Island

Run

My scalp still ached.

I touched at it tenderly, sucking in at the sharp tingling doing so incited. Two days hadn't done much to dull it.  Hadn't done much for my patience with getting carried around everywhere I had to go either. The guys had been nice about it, dropping everything if I so much as glanced in the direction of the small hut they used as an outhouse, but it would probably be only a short time before they tired of my helplessness. I knew I was. Even if I had helped bag a crab, it was accidental. I saw how hard each of the guys worked. I was eager to pull my weight too.

I rocked first on one foot, then the other. Finding an opportune moment had been near impossible to try my feet out, the guys making the rounds in my general area often. I kept the gasp of pain inside, knowing the tenderness would subside if I walked it out. There was a hut just twenty paces from where I tottered, nothing but soft sand between and the rare chance that not one boy was in sight.

I took the first tentative step, gave myself a second before taking another and another until I was more than halfway and nearly sprinting. I giggled towards the end, getting away with it would be my victory against all the mortification my cheeks had burned through my first week here, the shame of not being able to take care of myself when every hand was needed.

"Hey! She's up!"

Kota had caught me. Not surprising, but I'd wanted to finish. He leaned from his window and smirked, just a bit. "Guess you won't let us taxi you around anymore. Oh well. Well done."

I blushed under the praise, cheeks still hot from how I'd rushed. "I should be fine now."

"Let's get a second opinion before we rush into anything."

He escorted me, extending an arm but letting me do the walking myself. We walked, or better said he walked and I tromped with the grace of a newborn colt over to the doctor's hut. I was glad to be let down to rest at a table that had been dragged outside. I inspected the grooved paths the table legs had made in the dirt from the front door while Kota knocked for me. The door mocked silent. He sighed and nudged at his glasses.

"he's gone off again. Let me go ask around to see where he went."

He left with a stiff warning to wait, and I had a minute to myself again. I snorted. Strange that being alone had become a rare thing to me. I lifted a foot out in front of myself, spreading my toes and crunching them in a few times while I waited. I'd done it. Now all I had to do was prove I could be useful. I glanced around, hopeful that Kota and the doctor would be back soon so I could get the okay to walk around. It was about then that I noticed him, peeking around one shaggy corner of the hut.

I could tell it was a him, probably, only because of the brighter than usual plumage painting his head jewel green. The bird, easily taller than I by a good foot, brought it's head down to my level and eyed me, a brilliant orange inspection. I was entranced, breath held. He was overwhelming, beautiful, a treat for the eyes. My fingers twitched thinking of the softness of the dark feather plume gracing as tail. The movement made his iris suddenly sharpen down, a black hole collapsing in on itself; a reflection of me in it's center. Neither of us blinked as I slowly lowered my foot down, the pit in my stomach telling me I'd made a grave mistake.

The rest happened too fast for me to realize anything else than I was being attacked. I'd grabbed at the edge of the table I'd been sitting on, yanking hard and pulling it sideways so it was between myself and the beast. Then I ran, stumbled, snuffed sand up my nose, had my hair pulled as I tried to get up and run bent over, wings beating my shoulders and head. The shrieking wasn't mine, or more, I couldn't yell with all the feathers hitting me in my face. They fell away suddenly, and I looked up through the arms I had crossed protectively over my head. He was getting ready to go after me again, crouching, wings and tail quivering rage, madness in his fiery eyes.