The Winged

22- Rescue (2)

The boy's eyes suddenly fluttered but did not open as air tried to find its way inside his body. I could barely breathe myself, eyes shimmering with thick tears. The tiniest moan escaped his mouth and his brow furrowed under the locks of fair hair that were cast about his face.
He was breathing.
I had to repeat it a hundred times, he was breathing. I didn't dare believe what I was seeing. The boy's fingers twitched, as if he were trying to move.
My hands were numb against the jar, "Aspen! Az-"
His dry lips parted on a raspy breath, as if he was trying to speak, but my friend could emit nothing but a soft moan. Even that hushed sound seemed to crack with the effort.
But I had never been happier to hear his minuscule voice. It was more of a shallow breath than actual words, but I still heard it, echoing inside the glass prison.

My head sunk forwards and fell against the jar. He's alive.

"Azure!"
I jumped out of my skin, the world smashing back into me, ripping me from my momentary bliss.
Blinking, I turned.

Nothing had changed. There were still dozens of people trapped and terrified, all staring at me with their wide open eyes. Among them, my own brothers, probably just as scared as the rest. My pitiful whining hadn't changed anything. Even if Aspen hadn't been killed at the hands of the monstrous humans, all of us were still trapped in their camp, him included. And, as I gawked back at the overwhelming amount of eyes staring at me, I realised just how many people there were. Faces fixated on me. Relying on me- to help them. And at the front of it all, Rosin.

Our eyes met and she too blinked like she didn't quite believe that I was there. Her face was alight with a frenzy of emotions. She wasn't quite sure how to react. Her mouth was wide open with shock, yet her eyes seemed almost angry. Had her hands not still been tied up as she half glared, half marvelled at me, I wondered if she would have been pulling them into fists.
"You... followed him!" She almost shouted, voice wavering between anger and relief.

I nodded frantically and moved to stand up, "Rosin, oh my gods, I'm so sorry, did he hurt you? I saw him take you back at the Hollow, I came as fast as I could! Are you alright?!"

I didn't know where to begin or what to even say. The terrible image of her being struck by the debris that Sam had flung at her was eating away the back of my mind even now. I could see the gashes and cuts on her bare skin, her pink petals ripped from the terrible force of the impact. There was a scary dent in her right shoulder where a chunk of skin or... muscle or... or whatever was missing.
She sort of laughed, "Me? Perfectly fine. That oversized beast hardly scratched me."
I almost let out a laugh at her words. She's the same as always, so proud and strong. That, and probably reluctant to admit how badly she had been beaten by the human.

She cast a fretful look behind my shoulder, "But Aspen?"
I didn't look back for fear that I might rush to his side again. Then I wouldn't be able to break away from him.
"He's breathing, he's alive," I spluttered, "He's alive."
I almost didn't believe it myself, but it was somehow true.
Rosin nodded, stony face softening just a little, "Thank the gods for that..."
Then, she was straight back to scowling at her surroundings. I could see her mind already working behind her eyes, desperately searching for the next course of action, but she was panicked, rightly so more than me. After all, she was the one that was trapped, not me, and I could see that she was struggling to find a way out of the perilous situation.
All I could do was rack my brain, acutely aware of how exposed I was standing out in the middle of the table... and painfully familiar with the fact that we were running out of time.
"I don't suppose you can get me out of this, can you?" My friend muttered gravely when her thoughts led to nothing.

Rosin had always assumed the position of leader, even when we were younger, but it seemed now that as she turned her pink eyes to me, she was at a loss. I started a little under the wide-eyed look. You're... asking me? Well, of course she was. I had come here to help everyone, hadn't I? Aspen's ordeal had shaken me a little, but the facts remained. The scouts were trapped and so was she. I was the only one in the tent that wasn't caught within glass walls... so, I was going to have to help my family.
Instead of letting Rosin remain in the crystal prison for a moment more, I remembered the weapon I had dropped in my haste.
"Oh- oh, your spear!" I cried, beginning to dash past rows of jars, "I have it!"
She called after me, "What?"