Chapter 10
Karlis trembled on their knees with their hands behind their head, eyes fixed squarely on the crossbow currently pointed between their eyes.
They hadn’t been able to utter a single syllable as a man stood in front of them and jutting out from his back was the biggest pair of wings they had ever seen, dark as though they had been dipped through the pure essence of the night herself.
An Avian.
They’d never seen or heard of any other Avians besides themselves before, they were stunned speechless.
The Avian in question, however, wasn’t as starstruck as his steel eyes sharpened so much it felt piercing, more so than the crossbow.
“What are you doing? How did you get past the border?”
Once past their astonishment, Karl lowered their gaze to the ground placatingly.
“Sir please. I swear I mean absolutely no harm to you or anyone else who lives here.”
They bit their lip as they thought, the mans unrelenting gaze was unforgiving.
Karlis thought but they couldn’t admit that they could cross the barrier since they were a hybrid.
“Me and my siblings were on the run from hunters, and we managed to lose them, then we found a hole in the barrier.” The first part at least was true, they had been evading them for the past two weeks.
“Hmm” He hummed consideringly, not moving the crossbow an inch. Karl took that as permission to continue, so they rushed out the next sentence.
“Unfortunately some of my siblings are sick, and my youngest has a nasty injury caused by a hunter’s weapon during an ambush.”
“Well then, if you are telling the truth, what are you doing out here rather than being with them?” He asked in a judgemental tone of voice.
“I promised to protect them, so I came out here firstly as a scout, and to get rid of any possible monsters like skeletons or zombies. I was also looking for some medicinal herbs to help my brother. Honestly, we’re kinda cut off, and we only have each other.”
They saw the Avian’s gaze soften slightly, and they held a breath as he lowered the crossbow and placed it over his shoulder.
“We can assume that you’re not alone then?” came an unfamiliar voice. Karl jerked their head to the side and paused as they saw several people, hybrids. One had fire in place of fire, another who appeared to be transparent, a guy who looked like a spider, two people who were really tall, completely black, except one had violet eyes and the other’s was completely white.
The voice from before had come from a guy with tusks and an appearance resembling that of a boar.
“I-no. No, I’m not. We set up camp near some caves close to the border. They’ll be worried if I’m not back soon.” They quipped, hoping to guilt-trip someone.
“What to do, what to do…” mumbled the Avian, who had begun pacing back and forth. Karl was still kneeling on the ground, hesitant to move, but lowered their hands to their lap.
“We could put them in a cell under the house while we figure it out.” Piped up a voice from behind pigman, which appeared to be a younger Avian, his bright blue eyes screaming distrust.
Karlis had to push down the coo that threatened to come out, as their bird brain saw the fledgling to calm him down, before his words registered.
“No.” Karl’s voice dripped with venom and their lip pulled back as everyone focused back on them
“No. Absolutely not, I don’t care. I’ll go if I have to but you won’t put my fl-family in one of those. They are not going through that again.” Again, they cursed themselves for almost slipping up again and saying flock instead of family. They also cursed their luck because they couldn’t contact any of them through their mental link, rather that be due to lack of energy available because of healing, the after-effects of the block–and–shock collars, as they were affectionately called (sarcasm), or due to the magic contained within the barrier.
Everyone had frozen at their little ramble, particularly the ‘again’. The implications didn’t go past most of them, including the older Avian.
“How old are you all?”
“I’m 18, then it goes 16, 13, 12, and 10.”
“What about parents?”
Karlis simply shrugged, “Haven’t seen ‘em in years. Been just us for a couple years, unfortunately.”
The guy in front of Karl hummed again, a finger and thumb on his chin and his brows furrowed.
“I suppose we could let you stay for a bit.”
- Cue some protests and arguing before agreeing –
“Now do you remember where you left your family?”
“Err….actually, it won’t be a problem.”
Karlis thought about it and thought that if these hybrids were willing to trust them, then they could offer the tentative frayed thread of trust back. Ignoring the confused looks, Karl turns slightly to face the opposite direction than previously, cupped their hands around their mouth and let out a series of short, shrill chirps saying – I’m okay- - please come here-
They turned around and almost laughed at the confused looks, which increased when they heard 4 replies. – We’re on our way –
They then turned back around on one knee, preparing themselves for the onslaught of questions, a sheepish smile on their face.
The older Avian was in shock, his wings drooping, mouth agape as he stares unbelieving at them.
“I – what!?”
“I’m sorry” Karl started “It’s hard to trust, even if you’re hybrids as well.”
Karl then tried to stand up, but their back was playing up again, and the sudden sharp pain caused them to stumble as their face scrunched up, a whimper leaving their throat.
Before they hit their ground though, they were caught, now leaning against a firm and steady chest.
“Those were Avian bird calls…but what about..?”Karl simply hummed, their Avian instincts already claiming this older Avian as guardian, as flock, in desperate want and need to be taken care of, so they don’t have to worry about bearing all the responsibilities.
Karl was tired and their instincts were washing over their mind, so they mumbled the answer to his question, not fully thinking about being careful.
“We were on the run for a reason.” They slurred, not noticing how he freezes as the pieces put themselves together in his head, and he gently places a hand between Karl’s shoulder blades, chirping in distress when he could feel the barely there stumps.
Karl couldn’t make sense of anything else as they fell unconscious, not seeing the 4 smaller figures racing towards them.
It was a day later, during mid-afternoon, when Karl was huddled in the middle of a cuddle pile with the rest of their flock, nursing a hot cup of tea between their hands, grounding them.
The other two Avians, Phil and Tommy, along with the phantom and pigman were there.
There was silence for a bit when Phil asked as gently as possible, “May I see?”
Not needing to ask for clarify, Karlis turned around and pulled off their cloak, armour and hoodie, revealing the two stumps. The other kids started cuddling more aggressively, desperate for comfort as unpleasant memories haunted them.
Karl saw Phil’s fingers twitch minutely, knew that as a fellow Avian, who were naturally very social and flock-based was desperate to touch and comfort, even if they were practically strangers, because most Avians had been hunted and now were nearly extinct. There were a few hidden settlements but they were, well, hidden.
Karl saw their eyes slide over their flock, and ignored the pang that came from wanting to puff out feathers in defence, only for their muscles in their back twitch because they’re gone.
“Not theirs.” Karl said sharply.
“Only – only mine were taken. We managed to escape the…lab eventually. Mine were the only wings that had manifested at that point luckily.”
They bit their lip, sighed, and continued despite the small part of themselves arguing otherwise.
“We’re all late bloomers. Mine only came 3 years ago” – lie. They’d had their wings for nigh on 50 years – “but I made a deal with the hunter”. Karl stared resolutely at their bare feet as they felt gazes lock onto their tense frame.
“They promised not to touch my brothers or sisters if I gave them my wings.”
They gave a forlorn smile and laughed brokenly.
“It was never much of a decision really. Even if the lying bastard was going to go back on his word.”
Without another word, Raiden reached up and pulled Karl down into the cuddle pile and they were aggressively cuddled on all sides.
It didn’t take long before Phil, Tommy and surprisingly the phantom and pigmen also joined the pile, and Karl ignored how it made them feel all warm and fuzzy.
= stupid bird brain = They thought
= I’m sorry = Raya said
= I told you to never apologise. It was my decision, okay? I never regretted it. Of course I miss it but I don’t regret it. =
Then came the voice of Phil after he pulled back from where his wings covered all of them like a protective blanket.
“Mate……What if I told you there was a way for you to regrow your wings?”