The Winged

19- Pain

Escape.
There was no alternative- or not one that my panicked mind could invent in the second I had left to act. With a racing heart and breaths that rushed through my lungs in bursts, I did the only thing I could think of. I kicked away from the giant hand.

The air was suddenly filled with the sound of ripping materials. I found the strength from somewhere to push through the layers of woven leaves on my shoulders, tearing them apart before I had even realised what I was doing.
I plummeted down and away from Sam's prying hands; Aspen's cloak simply shred itself into scraps and ribbons when I threw my wings out to the sides. A shudder shot up my back but I fought to keep control over the red flappers. Ignore the pain. Still, it didn't help much— the stone path was already below me before I had a chance to catch the wind.

My knees made a cracking sound when I collided with the floor and I yelled out, not meaning to but unable to keep quiet, and I sprawled down over myself without the slightest hint of control. A second to gasp through the pain needling through my legs. Just a moment to recover....
It was only then that I realised what I had just done.

I ripped it.

I zipped back round to face... him... and I sat up, already crawling backwards. I ripped it. There was no hood to conceal me now, no leaves to hide the redness of my hair or the blue of my eyes. And, as the last of those lime scraps settled to the floor, the human's startled gaze finally settled on me.

I simply froze.
My face might have grown paler as our eyes met, but I had no space in my mind to worry about that. A single, rasping breath was all I could manage. No.
It took him a moment to understand that the cloak had been destroyed in his hand, thus revealing what was underneath it; the person underneath it... and to my complete terror, that just so happened to be me.
Sam's eyes seem to shine as he realised who he was looking at.

Run. My hands were already shaking as I staggered into a backwards run, scrambling to get to my feet and put distance between us. Run! It was the only thought in my mind, what else could I do?! The idea of 'fighting him' now seemed just as ridiculous as it did when Aspen said it earlier.
I almost tripped over my own feet in my haste, just barely managing to catch myself. It took only a few seconds of my stumbling for the human to process what he had uncovered. I was yet to turn my back on the giant human, simply unable to tear my widening eyes away from him.
Until a smile began to curve his lips.

Run, run NOW! Blood was rushing through my ears as I drove my legs into the floor and hurtled away. All I could do was will myself to run faster, to plead with my exhausted wings to carry me for just a moment! But even as I turned my back to the human and broke into a bounding sprint, I could see that his arm had already stretched forwards, reaching out with a terrible ease. My legs weren't even the size of just a single one of the human's fingers. I could try to run away as quickly as I liked, but it didn't change the fact that a hundred of my steps were barely equal to just one of his.

Before I could even react, there was a crushing grip around my ankle.
Wait- Sam simply yanked my leg up off the floor and out from under me.

My stomach lurched as my entire being was suddenly swung the wrong way up. The front of my head smacked down on the cold stone with an impact that sent stars throbbing through my head. Ears ringing and blinded by the sudden migraine, my attempt to escape was over before it had even began, ended by one swift grab from the giant person.

Gods... I could barely keep my eyes open as I swung softly from side to side, knowing nothing other than the fact that I was dangling upside down... and that there was a hot tingling on the top of my head. Hot? No, it was burning- burning with a dull throbbing as if a hammer had been slammed deep into my mind. Was I bleeding?
I opened my eyes into slits, groaning weakly when the light seemed to dazzle me.