The Winged

7- Captive

Time passed all too quickly. It seemed only a few minutes had passed before the human's voice rung out, "Mike! I'm back!"
I quivered inside the jar. We were back at his camp already? My mind was ablaze as I awaited his next movement. Was he going to tell his friend about me? No, no, not more humans. I wouldn't be able to take the fear.
"You're back already?" I recognised the loud sound as Mike's voice. He sounded as terrifying as ever, "Anything interesting down there?"
The sequential thumping of Sam's feet stopped as he came to a halt, jolting me forwards as he did. There was a pause.
"... no, not really." His voice eventually boomed in reply, calm and un-telling. Those words made me curl my knees to my chest when I heard them. That answer meant that he was keeping me a secret from his friend. Keeping me trapped in here.
Mike's footsteps echoed as he moved around, "Serves you right for being so annoying all day. Don't worry, you've got a whole week to find some cool stuff." The voice paused, "By the way, are you going to do food, or are you making me do that too?"
Sam's voice vibrated the glass of the jar, "Stop moaning. I'll do it in a minute, let me at least put my stuff down." That was met with a laugh that sounded distant.
I fell backwards as my captor began to carry me somewhere. The footsteps were faster than they had been on the walk to get back to his camp... he obviously knew exactly where he was going now, no need for thought. I could do nothing but hug myself tight, dreading when he was going to take me out of the bag. Aspen. Az, don't let him hurt me...

Outside, a loud zipping sound filled my senses. My heart skipped a beat when I heard it, my mind jumping to the conclusion that it was the bag being opened, yet no sunlight hit me just yet. The bag stayed shut. So this noise was coming from somewhere else. It sounded for about a second before Sam carried on walking.
The sound below his feet changed from the familiar crunching of the forest into a kind of silky fabric noise. My eyes widened when I realised he had taken the bag into what the humans called a 'tent'. I had seen tents before, of course... the peaked structures that appeared and disappeared around the forest whenever humans were around... yet never had I dared to go near them. Or worse, inside them.

My stomach abruptly lurched, hair raising off the back of my neck. Some sort of impact shuddered through me just before the scream escaped my throat. Walls like ice connected with my body as I was sent tumbling around the little prison, helpless against the shove of gravity. The split-second it took for me to open my eyes again felt like an eternity. The human must have dropped the bag to the floor. With me still inside it. Hence the painful impact.
Once again, the zipper shrieked as the human sealed the entrance behind him.

I picked myself up with a small groan, rubbing the bruises I had got on the journey here. The jar's walls were anything but soft. You'll be safe in there, he had said to me. That nonsense promise had never calmed me to begin with, but knowing that I was now sore and bruising made it obvious that the human really didn't have a clue of how easily he and his giant things could hurt me.
Maybe he didn't care.
Another little spike of fear pricked my heart. I gulped a few times to wet my dry throat. I had to be calm— I had to find a way to escape.
Looking up at where the top of the bag was, I tried to adjust my eyes to the darkness, searching for the lid of the jar or maybe the top of the bag. Escape. There had to be a way to get away from the human. But looking up seemed to be pointless— there wasn't a single stream of light at all. I lowered my head in defeat. I would just have to wait until he decided to release me from the darkness... I had no idea of how long that would be. How long would the human leave me in here? Minutes, or hours? Maybe he had already forgotten me. Maybe I would be left to shiver against the cool glass until it was dark outside as well as inside the bag...
I shut my eyes like it would make the thoughts stop. I shut my eyes and pressed my face into my knees and begged, pleaded that the stories I had heard about humans were all lies. Because if those awful rumours were true...