Ohayo, friends.
I return with more drabble. The subject turns to Hyuuga Neji. Might be a continuation of my little angst spree. (You'll have to read to find out.) Don't forget you will earn my undying love if you review.
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Neji sat, lotus, in the mess of dead leaves that came with fall.
His eyes were open. His mind was meditative.
Somber clouds hung over the village, giving the sky an appearance of almost-dusk. The trees reached their bare, knarled branches toward the ashy sky, as if praying for the return of the leaves at their roots. The forest was sad of the coming winter, it seemed. It lay silent but for melancholy warbles of songbirds too late in flight south, and the sporadic and heart wrenching calls of some wolf, distant and alone.
Neji watched a tiny figure thrash in the crumpled leaves. A bird, beautiful, furled and unfurled its useless wings, wriggling its ruined body against the unforgiving earth and scraping its scabs against the ground. The animal did not cry out at its pain, for its throat was tired and could must only the tiniest of anguished chirps, as shredded as the wings that bled away its joy.
The Hyuuga marveled at the being, so perfect and so simple was its misery. It nearly surprised him how poetic it was—a broken bird. It seemed lovely, in a terrible way. It calmed him, such wretched perfection, and being with it, Neji felt a pain that he could not place.
Perhaps it lay in his wings.
Before he knew what he was doing, and more tenderly than he thought he could, he reached out with pale hands to scoop up the tattered creature, and it fell still at his touch save for the trembling breath that fluttered about its tiny chest. Neji cocked his head, ever so slightly, at the hauntingly beautiful bird, and strangely, he closed his eyes. He felt the feathers against his fingers and listed to the little creature's whispery voice, and to his wonder, it told him what he already knew.
It told him of being broken.
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I felt a bit bad calling the little birdie "it" through the whole thing, but there really wasn't a way for Neji to know if if was male or female (even if he knew enough about birds to know how to tell, I don't think he would bother... seriously), so alas. Please review. I love reviews.