Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Departure

My thighs tried to clench to his sides, but slid off his sleek pelt. His feathers slipped through my hands.

I opened my eyes in time to see him above me as I plummeted towards the ground.

My mind went blank. The day around me turned into night. The wind tore at me. Tore at every scar and my mind, rending my mind into ribbons.

I screamed.

I fell.

I clawed at the air. It didn't help.

How could you...

Gusts of air sent me tumbling ass over head. I screamed again, and my body suddenly jerked as something caught me. I choked. Pain lashed into my thighs and breasts and hips. My shoulders jerked as my arms kept travelling a second after my body stopped, and then something else gripped me and supported me while the air smacked me around.

Korr and Ethat lowered me slowly to the ground, Korr cradling me in his front talons while Ethat's vines secured me in a crude net. I crumbled belly-first onto the hot, packed dirt.

I kept screaming. My scars were on fire. They were tearing.

"Get off, get off!" I shrieked, smacking at my face and arms and body and everywhere else. "Get off, get off!"

"No one is touching you," Korr's cold voice cut through everything, and then a touch of pure ice jolted my body.

I gasped, arched, and my brain snapped back into the present.

I hugged myself, on my knees and doubled over, face inches from the ground. Tears wet the dirt. I shook so hard the tears jiggled off my eyelashes.

Itek alighted next to me, shifted, and said, "See? You won't fall unless I intend for you to fall."

I hugged myself and sobbed.

"Theia," Itek said, crouching dow.

I curled into the tiniest ball I could manage and wept.

Korr nudged me. "Get up."

My mind was black and foggy. I saw the bright summer day, but my brain saw darkness, heard things, noises, and I was—

I hugged myself tighter.

They nudged and pawed at me for I don't know how much longer. Then negotiated something between them where Ethat wrapped me up in vines like a cocoon to fly me back to Haven dangling from his neck like a living Trinket. Because that was so much better than riding on Itek.

My mind shut down, and didn't start again until Ethat's wingbeats woke me as he slowly lowered himself onto the balcony, then set me down on the hot stones.

Korr pawed the vines away from me, his claws easily rended the vines. He shifted into human form, his veils fluttering around us, and his Trinket flashing in the sunlight as it swung back and forth.

I dragged myself upright, still shaking. Itek alighted on the balcony, and I shuddered in revulsion. I pushed myself to my feet using Korr's shoulder. "I'm leaving."

"Leaving? You're not leaving," Korr exclaimed.

"I'm leaving. I'm done. Fuck this. I'm not going to be your pet. This is stupid. I'm not doing it," I said, voice trembling as I tried not to start sobbing uncontrollably. "You dropped me off your back!"

"To prove you weren't going to fall unless I let you," Itek followed me into the main room.

"And that makes it okay?!" I was shaking so hard the room might have been shaking instead of me. My body burned like all my scars were fresh and real, and I kept feeling like I was tumbling and falling still. "I'm leaving!"