Fly With Your Heart

Chapter Five

     I cawed angrily, and snapped at the talon it reached out. "Leave me alone!" It frowned and moved behind me. I shrieked again, and turned my head to see what was going on. "Get away from me!"

     I was picked up, and the Featherless Creature walked out the room. I was taken through a long, narrow, passageway, ending up in another four-walled room. Another Featherless Creature was there, and it looked at me. It bared its teeth at me, and I hissed, "why can't you leave me alone!"

     "Heh, she's a feisty one. Do you need help applying the ointment?"

     "Yeah, probably. It nearly bit my hand off when I tried to pet it."

     What a silly language, I thought, they don't know Eagle. They must not be very bright. I felt scared because I didn't understand what they were saying. Were they talking about eating me? I hope not... The one holding me took me to another room, and the second one followed. The Featherless Creatures set me face-down on another ledge and started stripping the white casing off.

     "Alright, let's get you patched up, then we'll bring you to your cage."

     What do they want from me?

     The Featherless Creatures pulled the casing off fully, and I immediately bent to see how my feathers looked, but one of them stopped me. It held my head gently in its talons, and held out my wings with its other. I didn't like it touching me, so I squawked at it.

     "Aw, she's so cute. Do you think she'll breed with the others and make some chicks?"

     "Hopefully."

     I turned my head to look at my wings and gasped. The beautiful, new feathers were blackened and charred, and my skin shone in places. The Featherless Creatures were caressing a paste made out of the new colour onto me. It was very cold, and smelled odd. But it helped soothe the pain, so I didn't complain.

. . .

     Eight sunrises later, the routine changed. Each day, the Featherless Creatures in the white furs would come to renew the paste. Today, however, they didn't do anything. Instead, they chirped happily to each other. One of them put a brown fur on their talon, and placed a piece of meat in it.

     "Come here Ella, come on." I had also learned that they had named me. They must've been mistaken, because I already had a name. Kîsik. I was very hungry, so I didn't know what else to do but waddle up to her talon. I reached forward with my beak to grab it, but she pulled it away.

     "Ah, ah, ah, onto my hand, or no jerky." I didn't understand what she wanted. When she brought the meat close, I reached out again. "No, no, no, silly bird. Here," she held the meat out in a different hand, and I walked forward to take it. She moved her hand back, and somehow I ended up on the brown fur. Then she let me eat. It was disgusting, old, and way too salty. I almost retched, but I swallowed it down. I hadn't eaten in what seemed like forever, and I was starving.

     The fur I was standing on felt wrong, even though it was soft. I didn't like being held so naturally, I tried to jump off.

     "No! Bad Ella, very, very, bad." The Featherless Creature held onto my talon and wrapped a string around it. I tried to step out of it, but it was fastened on. She chuckled, and started walking with me firmly in her grasp. She took me through the white walls, until we ended up outside.

     Outside!

     I hadn't seen proper sunlight in sunrises, and once what I had left of my feathers touched the air, I screeched in joy. The Featherless Creature seemed happy too, and she walked down a stony path. She neared odd structures made of what looked like gray sticks wound together. She walked through a passageway in the mesh, and went to the centre of the space. She dumped me on a brown cylinder and promptly left, locking the hole shut.

      I realised something, just then. I was trapped. I was a prisoner in a cage. No matter what these Creatures did to heal me after my crash, they trapped me. I looked around what I thought was my new home. Brown sticks were scattered here and there, and I could walk along them if I chose.

     I stayed where I was. In a corner, was a smaller cage made of the solid brown material. I looked up at the sky, and sighed. This is what has become of me, a prisoner in a cage. Stripped of my freedom, stripped of my will. I'd rather die, than stay here. Looking at the sky hurt. It hurt my pride, and it hurt my soul. Oh, how I wanted to be free. It was like the sky were taunting me, waving the prize just out of my reach.

     I started softly crying where I stood, remembering my family I had left. I would forever regret my choice to fly, however innocent it seemed at the time. I could never forgive myself. I was tired and hungry, and I needed rest. Just as I was almost asleep, a scratchy voice sounded from the smaller box behind me.

     "Now what have we here?"