Who's the real monster?

Swift

          Talen was getting a headache, like rocks were clashing together in his head. He had been hearing a high keening sound whenever he closed his eyes. He had hidden it from the others once he noticed they weren't hearing it too. He didn't want to worry them since it would probably abate soon anyways.

          As they walked further, Talen was getting more and more irritated. It only lessened when he stopped moving but they hadn't stopped walking since they paused for lunch. Fed up, he abruptly sat down and shut his eyes tight, intent to get a few minutes of silence. Pixie quickly noticed and flew to alert Isabel.

           Talen sighed in relief, sweet, sweet silence. Suddenly it started again, louder than before. Before he blacked out he belatedly realized, this wasn't an ordinary headache.

          Pixie flew back, Isabel hurrying behind, and landed on his shoulder touching his temple in concern, flinching back when sound filled their head.

          Isabel crouched in front of him, "What's going on, are you ok Talen?"

          Pixie shushed her and whispered in her ear, wings fluttering in distress "I don't know what's happening to him, but it's something magical. We need to watch for anything odd."

          Sure enough, Talen stood up, eyes closed, and began walking unsteadily away from their original path. He seemed to know exactly where to go. Isabel with Pixie on her shoulder hurried after him. After a couple minutes they emerged into a small clearing where an abnormally large swift lay in the middle panting, their beak repeatedly closing and opening.

          As Talen approached it he startled awake, and opened his eyes looking confused, "What? How did we get here, I don't- what happened?" Glancing down he noticed the bird that was now looking at him weakly. He strode towards it and crouched down, "Hey little buddy, are you ok?" Without fear he reached out and combed through its feathers, trying to comfort it.

          Talen hadn't expected to be led to a sickly bird on this trip, he did have a little experience with them though, as the birds he had helped hatch sometimes came back if they were injured. He combed through the swifts feathers, looking for anything out of the ordinary. As he reached the left wing he felt something sharp, looking closer he saw a dart had been shot in the wing, a shot that thankfully missed its chest.

          "Isabel, can you please bring me my bag?" He called, looking closely at the wing, the bird was lucky, the dart had passed through the wing so not much poison could have been injected. It also meant he could pull it out easily.

         Isabel handed him his bag, he pulled out his knife and cut the dart in half, pulling it out. The bird seemed to sigh and promptly fainted, turning into barely clothed man with a gash in his arm.

Pixie muttered to themselves, "Well, at this point I'm not surprised."

          After the shock was over, Talen took up the duty of carrying the man to their next resting spot. He was surprisingly strong and heavy for how bony he looked, for a while he had been thrashing about in his sleep, he even almost knocked Talen over a couple times.

         Talen reassured his friends that his head felt better as they sat near the fire. The mysterious man had been bandaged and was laying behind them on a sleeping cloth. He guessed that the man had called to him somehow, unconsciously asking him for help. Although it was in an annoying way, he couldn't blame him.

          After they had finished dinner, Isabel and Pixie sat talking and Talen went to find a river. He had gotten blood on his scales when he was helping the bird and it needed to be washed off. Luck was on his side as he found one just downhill from their camp. He kneeled by it and began washing the day's sweat off.

         Talen always cleaned his second pair of arms last, he had to be careful with them as they could easily be further damaged by simple things. As he unwrapped the limp arms from around his torso, he heard the crackling of leaves behind him. He whipped around to see the man from earlier standing a few feet away with a blanket draped around his shoulders.

          He was staring at Talen's arms sadly as they hung lifelessly from his sides. The scales were dark and dusty from lack of light exposure and proper cleaning. Talen quickly turned around, hurriedly wrapping them back up around his torso, wincing when he moved too quickly.

         Once he was covered he turned back to face the man and snapped defensively. "What are you doing here, you should be resting."

           The man raised his hands peacefully, "Sorry, sorry, Isabel asked me to find you when I woke up, she was worried. I also needed to wash my arm." Gesturing to the now bandaged gash. He tilted his head slightly, "I apologize for catching you like that, I know how it feels to be caught so exposed."

         Talen loosened a bit at that. He supposed he had lost track of time, he hadn't meant to worry them. He pulled on his shoes and nodded to the man as he began to walk back up the hill, "Thank you for checking on me. About my arms, can you just not mention them to Isabel?" The man nodded seriously and turned towards the stream.