Bat girls

Chapter 2

I heard someone chuckle behind me. "Girl, you fucked up." I tried looking over my shoulder, but my wings blocked the view. My heart pounded in my chest. Was it someone from my camp? It had to be. But I didn't recognize the voice. The possibilities were endless, but none of them were good. A lone traveler who strayed of the path, a monster who could mimic a human voice, or maybe other camps had started to look for me as well.

There was a rustle of leaves, a loud boom, and a thud on the branch where the talons of my wings had gotten stuck. The owner of the voice had somehow gotten up to the branch in one big jump. No, not a jump. One flap of their wings. I looked up to the Illyrian sitting on the branch, looking at me with a smirk. "Need a hand?"

Now that I could see her and heard her voice again, I realized that she was female. A female who dared to fly, and curse, and to be alone in the woods. How was this possible? Absent minded I grabbed her out stretched hand.

She was strong, stronger than any female I'd ever known. With one pull she nearly flung me over the branch. The muscles in my back were in worse pain than I could've ever imagined. I tried to get my talons out of the wood, but in the time I had hanged there they had gotten in to deep.

The female was still looking at me with that smirk that seemed to be branded on her face. "Are you going to ask for my help, or have they cut your tongue out?" she asked me, clearly amused by my struggle while I pulled on my talon with the last bit of strength I had. Everything about her threw me of guard. She reminded me of the males in my camp, after they had gone through the blood rite and had joined a war-band. Like she could take on the world, and she knew it.

"I...I...I can't get them out." I said, my voice trembling. "So you can talk! Cauldron bless us all, that makes things easier." The female said with sarcastic voice. I cringed a bit, part of me wanted to say that I was not some helpless little girl, but I knew the evidence was against me. She did seem to notice though. "I'm sorry, I'm just kidding. Are you okay with me touching your wings?" her voice softened and her hands hovered near my wings, waiting for my consent.

I nodded, and with a gentle but firm grip she jerked my talons out of the wood. I realized that no one else besides me and maybe my mother had ever touched my wings, and only than it had ever been to bathe them. I never really paid attention to how sensitive they were, and even the slight touch of the female sent butterflies trough my stomach.

My wings were free, but I didn't have the energy to tuck them in, and I let them rest on the branch. The female grabbed a pack from underneath her cloak and started talking. "I've actually been looking for you, you know? The others told me I shouldn't, and that I would put myself in danger but I couldn't help it. Those bastards following you made it difficult, and you actually did a good job leading them away from you. I followed the scent of your blood as well, only to notice that you were going in to the opposite direction. How did you manage to do that?" she asked, while unpacking food and a bottle of liquid and putting it on the branch between us.

My cheeks heated at the memory, but she didn't seem to notice "It is my first bleeding." I said with a quiet voice, and I knew I was turning as red as the morning sun. "And I knew they could smell my blood, so I... I tied a piece of the cloth I had used to a stick and threw it in the river."

The female laughed so hard the branch shook. "That's bloody brilliant! Emphasis on the bloody!" she said while trying to catch her breath. "You're a survivor, I like it." She handed me a piece of bread and the bottle of liquid. I was suddenly very aware of the cracks in my lips, the dry scratch in my throat, and the rumbling in my stomach. Without thinking I grabbed it and nearly drank half the bottle in one sip. The female looked at me. "But you are pretty naïve for a survivor." She said watching me swallow the bread without chewing. It was not until after she said it that I realized I had taken food and drink from a stranger. And maybe I didn't even care at this point. I had spent the previous hours dangling from a branch like an overgrown sausage for the monsters in this forest, and I had made my peace with whatever fate would kill me, if it was poison, then so be it. And almost as if in a dare I grabbed the next piece of bread and started chewing while holding her stare.