Upon Feathers of Change

Chapter 6

When I came to, I took a deep breath and raised my head to look around. Oh no, I thought, my blood turning to ice as I saw the four glass walls enclosing me and my mate. I'm in a cage again.

I glanced at Vincent and saw that he was still sleeping, so I left him alone to let him rest. Standing up to check out the bowls of fruit, I looked at my selection. Apples, strawberries, raspberries, some nonnative alien ones, and, is that pineapple?! I hadn't had pineapple since I was human! I quickly ate all of the pineapple presented to me, along with some of the other fruits that I liked. I drank some water out of the dish and dragged it closer to Vincent so that he wouldn't have to get up to drink some when he woke up.

Taking a better look at the room our cage was in, I saw several couches and chairs arranged around a medium sized coffee table. There were a few small tables in each corner of the room, and the cage was on one of these end tables, the door facing the couch next to it.

There was no one in the room currently, and I took the opportunity to see if there was any way I could get out of the cage and hide somewhere in the room. I scratched at the door, trying to see how it was latched, to no avail. I sighed, and began feeling the effects of drugs again and went back and laid down next to my mate.

When I awoke again, I saw that nothing had changed beyond the bowls being refreshed with water and fruit. I huffed and ate again, and drank some more water. Vincent was stirring when I went back over to him. When I tried to mindlink him, it didn't work, so I spoke out loud.

"Vincent? How are you feeling?"

He was still waking up, and didn't respond for a moment. "Everything hurts and I'm dying."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, nice try. You already did, don't give me that."

He snickered and got up to eat and drink, and I began feeling the effects of the drugs again.

"I'm going back to sleep," I said, laying down to do so.

He snorted. "Leaving me already?"

"You'll be joining me soon enough," I said, rolling my eyes again and laying my head down on my front paws.

His laugh was the last thing I heard before falling asleep once more.

Waking up once more, I looked around to see that Korik and Cecily were in the room. I growled at them, on principle. Korik glanced over when I did so.

"Really?" he asked softly. "Is that how you repay us when you came to us for help?"

I grumbled and glanced away, putting my head back on my paws. "Yeah that's true, I shouldn't growl at you," I said, knowing they couldn't possibly begin to understand.

Cecily laughed slightly. "It's almost like she understood you, Korik."

I snorted at her. She's too perceptive for her own good. I looked over at my mate and saw that he was still sound asleep, so I stood, stretched my wings and shook out my feathers. Walking over to the door of the cage would bring me closer to Korik, who was sitting right by the cage, so I instead sat down at the other end of the cage, in front of Vincent, blocking Vincent from the Kymaris' view. I snorted at them again, almost challenging them. To what, I didn't know, but I wanted to see what Korik would do.

He didn't do anything. He just sat there, almost staring at me but not quite. I stared back at him, wanting to win this impromptu staring contest. Spoiler alert, I didn't. Korik, realizing that I was staring at him, held still and didn't make any sort of movement at all until I gave up and had to blink. At that moment, I snorted and looked away, giving in to his patience and respecting him for it.