Rosin

6- Home

The forest had never looked so beautiful.

After spending that hazy stretch of days stuck in the greyness of the city, the leaves somehow seemed greener than before. The earth was damp and loose, she realised she had already forgotten the smell of it all, the flowers and the pollen in the air, the way dew dripped from the plants. Above, the wind flurried free through the canopy and stirred up the waters of the distant lake. All so familiar, and so different to the rigidity of the human world. Nothing here was fixed in stone, everything swayed. Everything was as it was meant to be.
She was back in her forest, she was home, finally. And the only thing more wonderful than that was when Aspen smiled.

The two of them hated her. She knew that. Even though she still couldn't bring herself to accept it— there was a stopper in her aching chest that just wouldn't let her get past the fact that these two had once been little children that adored her— she could at least understand it. But that was irrelevant; seeing Aspen's bruised and pale face be softened by his smile made her feel so tremendously wonderful. She had begun to fear he would never smile again.
It came after Lucius accidentally did the one thing he had been trying so hard to avoid, he frightened Aspen. They had been walking along, Aspen had given Lucius some directions when asked, and the human boy had thanked him. But moved a little too quickly. Rosin's insides twisted when she was forced to watch the way Aspen recoiled from the human hand, the way his whole face went white with horror, fear, his cry as he gripped Azure.

Lucius being Lucius had made such an immediate, tearful apology, and it had been impossible for Aspen to hold onto his momentary fear. How could you be scared of Lucius? He was soft as cotton clouds.
The two boys had looked at each other after that. Aspen spent a moment cautiously studying the human, the human meanwhile regarding him with a regretful cringe lingering... and Aspen's bruised face had been tickled by a smile.

It really was so wonderful. It changed the whole mood of their walking party— Azure looked happy instead of morose for the first time in months. She leant her head on his shoulder and moved her hand across his sore arms; Lyn started chattering to them in her innocent, heart-melting way, and that did wonders for the boy's mental state. Lyn really was a little white star dropped down to earth. And Lucius, even he looked happy. He traipsed on and carried them, spoke to her in a considerately soft voice, never interrupting the introduction that was going on between Lyn and Aspen. Rosin was getting the feeling he liked talking to her just as much as she liked talking to him. How could a human be so... likeable? She didn't know. But she was thankful he had stumbled into their lives.

But of course, Rosin wasn't allowed to be happy. The gods wouldn't allow her any peace for more than ten minutes. Whenever something started going right, it then had to go wrong, so long as she was somehow involved. She was beginning to wonder if she had a curse.

They walked with Lucius for maybe forty uninterrupted minutes before the boy suddenly made an ow sound, a cry of sudden, sharp pain.
"Lucius?" She clutched his thumb between her hands and felt the throb of concern bubble up, "Are you alright?" Not even a reply. Before any of them knew what had happened he was melting of strength— falling, crashing down. And it was like her momentary happiness fell with him.

———

When they fell, Rosin purposely took the brunt of the impact. Air whistled through the rips in her useless wings, she couldn't stop her and Lyn from plunging down, but she did manage to break the little girl's fall with her body. Thank the gods. Where Rosin cracked down against the packed dirt she took in nearly all of the impact, and Lyn only suffered a minor jolt.

Her breath came heaving out of her when she hit the dirt, the world fuzzed white. Agony split through the skin of her back. But she hadn't cracked anything, although it felt that way. The pain in her back was just her rotting wings reminding her they were there.
"Rosin!" The girl gasped. Despite Rosin's best efforts, she had let go of Lyn when they collided with the floor, and as a result the small girl had been flung into the nearby bushes. Now, she came crawling to Rosin's side. There was dirt in her white hair. In a funny way, it was a good look. A little of the natural word smeared over that perfectly clean paleness.
"I'm fine." Rosin groaned. She pushed herself up off her stomach. Ow. What in the blazes was that?! Had the boy fainted? Lucius.
"What happened?" Lyn voiced her exact thoughts. Her words were strained with a horrible worry, "Lucius- is he-"
Rosin got to her feet and took the girl's hand. "Come on." She dragged Lyn through the ferns without wasting another second. Ow, even speaking sent a jolt through her insides after that meteoric fall. But Rosin was aware that Aspen looked one flick away from falling into a state of unconsciousness. Gods knew what a fall like that could have done to him. They sprinted in the direction Lucius had fallen, then stopped dead.