Enslaved

Chapter 27

Kaida watched Ryuu until he disappeared, flying straight to the falls before going directly up and vanishing from sight. She stared at the space he disappeared for another minute before she turned around and looked at the same tree Ryuu had picked her up from and shuddered slightly with the memory. He had saved her again, she realized. She shook her head and turned around, scanning sleeping forms along the treeline until she spotted Valik and headed over to him, making sure to walk around the sleeping hybrids silently.

She reached him and sat down on his right, tucking herself tight into his wing and laying her head on his shoulder, her eyelids dropping shut after just a minute of sitting there. Her thoughts drifted to Ryuu as she tried to fall asleep and she remembered his promise to her, all those days ago. The promise rang though her head anyway and her chest warmed with the memory of his deep green eyes. She was glad she told him that she thought of him as one of her friends. She did, after all and she was beyond grateful for that. The last thought that ran through her mind before she lost consciousness was how Ryuu had found her when she thought she would never be found again.

***

"Kaida wake up, it's time for the first flying lesson." Valik's voice drew Kaida out of her blissfully dreamless sleep and she blinked herself awake, squinting in the light for a few seconds before her eyes adjusted. "You slept through breakfast already."

She opened her eyes finally, stretching her arms above her head and her wings out behind her as she tested her muscles and joints. Her eyes met Valik's as she folded her wings back in and dropped her hands back to her sides, noticing how he was standing and holding out a hand towards her in an offering, looking much better than he had last night. She took his hand and he helped her to her feet, the muscles in his right arm straining slightly before Kaida got her feet under her and stood, lifting her wings off the ground.

Valik dropped her hand and she looked around, noticing how almost all of the hybrids were walking towards the edge of the lake away from a bunch of tables that must have just been put up this morning that were covered in food. Kaida glanced at Valik before walking quickly in the direction of the tables, the aroma of food getting stronger and stronger with every step. She heard stumbling steps behind her before Valik was walking at her side with a slight limp and his left-wing drooping in a peculiar position.

"Kaida, you slept through breakfast." His voice was slightly breathless but with an undertone of mirth. "It's time for the flying lesson and Ryuu put one of his other soldiers in charge of it. I overheard Kajeel talking to them and they seemed like somebody we don't want to mess with. I don't think that either of them will take lightly to our skipping; I wonder what they would do to us, actually. Maybe put us on dish duty?"

Kaida paused at that thought, the harsh crack of a whip against skin reverberating through her ears down to her very soul. What kind of reprimanding did they give here? Was it dish duty? Or did they follow the slavers and use the whips they took off the dead humans? She felt sweat prick up on her skin, sticking her hair to her forehead after barely a second and making the scales along her cheekbones slick as her vision turned into a tunnel of black with only a pinprick of light at the end. Her chest heaved and she felt her knees start to wobble as she strained to remain standing amidst an onslaught of memories, circling around punishments that could occur if she was found missing the flying lesson. A hand clasped over her left shoulder and her head shot to the ground, staring down that long tunnel of black towards the grass as her wings dropped down to the earth that blurred back and forth between stone and grass.

"I'm s-sorry." She stuttered, her voice as quiet as the wind. "It won't h-happen again."

Her ears were ringing louder than her voice and she felt something warm and wet fall down her face, feeling for all the world like blood and causing her to shudder again. Suddenly, another hand clasped over her other shoulder and shook her, causing her eyes to widen and her head to jerk up, her tunneled vision locking onto Valik's face that looked so far away.