Part 2: Drowning Softly, drowning deeply
Leif slammed against the sides of her cage, crying out as her wing bent. Water sloshed mere centimeters below her. She clutched to the cold hand holding tight to the small cage, her eyes fearfully watching as the boy kept his foot pend to the ball, keeping it against the small stone ledge on the other side of the hole, one hand gripping the bars and the other her cage.
If he let go of her, she would fall into the water and die.
If he let go of the ball and it slipped then the weight would rip him down into the vortex of water and they would both die.
If he slipped and let go of the bars then they would both die.
His teeth chattered so hard in between hard-won breaths that Leif herself shook. She pushed as much of her magic into his hand as possible, trying to warm him even though her own body could not generate heat.
They were both exhausted and Leif wondered how the Jagged Tooth human could curse in all of this, how his foul words filled the empty air above them like a beacon screaming 'I am here,' because she herself did not have the energy to do more than cling pathetically and gulp in air as if it were being dragged from her body. They both could hear Miss. Hufflepuff's nails digging into the stone next to their own hole, but Ron could not hold on that way without drowning her.
They could not hear the Old Man at all.
Her eyes met the young ones. Terror. Bone deep exhaustion. A will to live. All the things she felt shined bright in his eyes. Ron weakly pulled himself a bit closer to the bars, further out of the chilled water and gulped in a breath of air not polluted by drops of water and fog that lingered around them. As if even in the slip of space above the vortex and below the bars wanted to kill them through drowning. Just more slowly.
The dew clung to her wings and she wondered if they survived if there was any chance she would ever fly again, or if the damage was too great. Ron came back down and the cage him, just a bit. Water sloshed into the cage and she did not even possess the strength to move away from it. The cage jerked upwards, hitting the bars.
"Sorry."
She shrugged. The small gesture all he could manage. She didn't know how this young one still had the strength to hold on. She rubbed his fingers in a soothing fashion, concentrating all of her focus on the rough callouses on his skin and the freckles, the swirling scars around his wrist, sneaking down into his soaked through shirt. She didn't notice when she started to hum, but she did notice when some of the tension drained out of the young one.
She hummed long into the night.
It took three days for the water to fully drain from the cells again. There was a large ledge about halfway down that the young one was able to rest on late into that next morning. Ron pressed the cage up against the wall and slept with his back to the drop. Leif kept watch, waking him whenever it looked as if he might turn over.
When the boy had rested enough, she took her turn. Curling up in a ball leaning against his damp chest, as much as the bars would allow. The wet cloth was an itch against her skin, but the contact with him helped to make her feel safe while sleeping so it was worth it. A half rotten apple was dropped down into the hole at some point. Ron let her eat her fill before he finished off the rest of it. Rot and all.
"So…" The boy said lightly, tired and weary, but a glint in his eyes. "My old Care of Magical Creature's teacher was sort of a 'the scarier it is the more adorable I find it' type of bloke. We only briefly went over fairies and I was hoping you'd tell me about them?"
She slumped against the cage, her wings still drooping from the excess water, but agreed. Talking was a great way to pass the time in this pit of miserable human filth.
'We are elemental creatures,' she began. 'Neither light like the Phoenix nor dark like the Thestrals. We nurture the earth and it nurtures us.'
"Do you trust me?"
Leif peered down to see the boy… her boy looking back at her. Eyes a brilliant glittering blue, shining like light off of newly forged metal.
'Yes.'
He nodded.
"I'm going to get onto the ledge up there and then pull your cage up," Ron told her, ripping more cloth from his shirt and tying it carefully around his hands. "Then I'm going to use this ball to hit your cage. It's magical, so I won't be able to break it, but I can bend it. If I can shape it so that its thinner than the bars above…"
Oh.
Then she'd be safer when it flooded and her boy would be safer. She nodded eagerly, letting out a squeal of excitement like a fledgling might and not feeling even a touch of embarrassment for it. Her young one gave her a half grin.
She watched him, his back muscles straining, his ripped shirt revealing more of the swirling silver scars across his waist. They reminded her of Silving trees, whose silver roots sprang up from the earth to swirl around the forest floor, providing nooks and hideaways for her kind. The Silving Trees were sources of healing magic and protection and she found it entirely too appropriate.
'Careful!' She called up.
Her young one nodded to show he heard and that was when Leif felt dread fill her. Oh dear. He could hear her. That was… not so good. She bit her lip as she wondered what her mother would say if the fairy matriarch learned her magic had become attuned to a human boy. Such close relations with humans was looked down upon as unnatural and grotesque.
Her mother was gone though.
And her papa.
There was no more family to look down on her or condemn her. Only her boy. Leif watched with a more solemn air as Ron made it to the ledge, shaking and trembling, dragging the ball of stone after him with obvious effort. More gingerly he pulled her up, setting her down carefully before tilting the cage on its side.
"You ready?"
Leif looked up at this human, face smudged with dirt and hair flat against his head from grime, fingers shaking and cut up. Freckles barely discernable in all the filth and clothes torn beyond recognition. A strong wind could knock him over, this boy, a small push from her own tiny hands could cause him to fall over the ledge they now sat on.
Yet…
She'd never witnessed a soul crafted from such resilience. There was a fire in this boy. It burned bright and brilliant. Sharp blue eyes stared back at her expectantly, waiting, not dulled in the least by all of this.
'Ready.'
He brought the stone ball down upon her cage.