Naive
Returning from the ocean with a fish in her jaws, she saw that the two-legs were waiting out of their dens when she arrived. The two-legs had also left an open space where she had been dropping the fish. They could see her since she was not faded. It was as though the two-legs were waiting for her to land.
Some of them had their long-sticks in their paws, probably for their protection. Was it safe to land there? Probably not. There was danger in trying to meet them on the ground, but she could easily escape if they tried to do anything twisted. Danger and risk were part of doing anything new!
She tucked her wings and swiftly dove, circling above the nest. She touched down in the open space between the dens, and folded her wings away. There was bellowing, probably of fear, from the two-legs, but none of them tried to attack or do anything threatening.
Most of the nest began to gather in a large circle around her. Large males and females stood in front of all the others. Her life-organ beating quickly, she remained alert for any sudden movement. Escaping would be easy if one of their Fighters tried to attack.
One of the big males stepped a pawful of paces toward her. This was probably the Alpha since it was very big, had a lot of face-fur, had a long false-hide, and made gestures with its paw.
The two-leg Alpha barked a command, and another two-leg approached. The two-leg walked forward with a fish in its paws and gave the fish to the Alpha.
A fish-gift!
The two-leg Alpha understood that she was not here to hurt it or the pack!
Very pleased, she slowly walked toward the Alpha without showing any teeth or claws. None of the other two-legs moved or did anything threatening.
Still at a safe distance, she tossed her fish-gift before the Alpha two-leg, and it did the same with its fish-gift for her.
Several wingbeats passed without either of them moving. There was danger in trusting, but someone had to make the first move, so she would do that.
She toothlessly grabbed the fish-gift, ate it, and purr-growled in thanks and approval.
The Alpha slowly crouched down and picked up the fish without looking away from her, but the Alpha did not eat. The two-leg might not know that it should take a bite of the fish-gift to show acceptance and peace-making. Instead, it slowly backed away, barked at its packmates, and made a waving gesture with a paw. What was that for?
Two-leg signals were strange and unknown. The pushing down and then helping up was probably not a good idea, since it might look like an attack, so what else was there to try? If only one of them would freely approach and offer a paw to nuzzle, she could nuzzle the paw to help make more trusting. Sharing a fish from the belly was more of a gift than a not-eaten fish, but that might only be true for kin. She had not seen two-legs share food from their bellies.
Had the rest of the two-legs gotten closer, still holding their long sticks, false-vines, or flat circles of wood in their paws? Wary, she looked around at the rest of the nest and confirmed that they were all approaching. Closing in on all sides, only one pounce away from her.
Too close!
She leaped and landed on top of one their tree-dens, settled in place as the tree-den creaked under her weight, and looked down at them. They were pointing up at her and shoving each other to get closer. Was it possible she was the first kin they had ever seen? There were no other kin in these ranges, so these two-legs would be curious to see her up close. Their interest was liver-warming.
Satisfied with the brief meeting and gift-giving with their Alpha, she took flight and flew off over the forest toward her distant cave-den. Slow steps were necessary to avoid scaring the two-legs too much. Maybe next time she could touch one of them in bonding.
Back in her cave-den after dark, she stretched, yawned, and flamed the cold ground to make it warmer to rest on. The dark-cycles were always cold in this hidden world. Was it correct to even think of this as a hidden world? Probably not to her anymore. Maybe this was a hidden world to other kin though. Kin below had no way to know about this world or what was in it.
With the ground warmed again, she lay down to return to sleep. A bad and twisted sleep-vision involving the two-legs had woken her up earlier. What had it been about? A trap, the stick-weapons they carried, the large tree-dens, or something else? The fear that had flared to life in the liver had felt twisted and unnecessary. Two-legs were not so dangerous at all. Ignore that flare of fear.
She started in surprise at sudden noise from outside the cave-den. No four-leg hunter would dare threaten her or approach.
Why was it growing brighter outside the cave-den? It was far too soon for a new bright-cycle to start.
Wary and curious, she yawned, got up, and went to leave the cave-den, but she paused in the cave-den mouth when what was outside came into view. A pack of two tens of two-legs, all covered in their false-furs, were out there with their sharp sticks, sticks with big rocks on them, burning sticks making fire, flat wood-circles, and other unknown things.
What were they doing here in the cold and the dark? They had to have come here because of her, having somehow learned where she was resting.
Great lights, now what?
Go out and meet them, or growl at them to go away? Distrubing a kin sleeping in their den was not kind or warming, but they probably would not leave. They were already pointing their paws at her. The two-leg which she recognized as the Alpha stepped forward from the large group. He had a large fish in his paws, and he tossed it on the ground outside the cave-den. None of the other two-legs moved.
What was he doing? Nothing threatening. Perhaps he wanted her to go outside and eat the fish, but why? While she was not hungry at all, this was another opportunity to display trust and hopefully learn more about two-legs.
'Foolish.'
Alarmed, she glanced at the darkness where the voice had come from, but there was nothing there except her own shadow on the wall.
Ignoring that twisted voice, she slowly started walking outside, one step at a time toward the fish. The two-legs were keeping their distance.
She stepped out the cave-den and saw the Alpha make a gesture with his paw. What was that? Why was it-
Vines, weighted down with rocks, fell on her back and head. She reared back in alarm, only for more weights, several two-legs, to fall on her with shouts. How did they fall? What had just happened?
The two-leg pack roared and charged.
Clarity.
They had been hiding above the cave-den mouth, waiting for her to leave so they could strike.
Fear flared to life in her liver. It was a trap and a trick from the start! She should have known that two-legs were false!
Panicking, rolling and thrashing, only getting more tangled in the vines which caught on her spines. Bucking and swatting at the two-legs on her tail and neck.
She roared and tossed her head, knocking a two-leg through the air. Another two-leg was thrown from her tail.
The line of attackers was close. She shook her head free and flamed at them, but they raised their flat wood-circles and blocked her flame. More vines flew at her, catching on her claws and making her stumble and fall.
The two-legs were piling onto her, holding her down while the Alpha roared commands. Too many. Too many.
Kick, bite, fight! Kill the monsters!
Something struck her head.
Everything started spinning, swirling, fading into darkness-
Confusion and awareness returned.
Her eyes were too heavy to open, and there was no strength to get up.
Too tired to wake up. A faint throbbing in her head. Indistinct movement and voices. Strange scents filling the musty air. A constant crashing sound echoing from all around.
The ground shook and rolled.
Where was this? What was happening?
She forced open her eyes, blinking away the tiredness and confusion. Nothing made any sense. She was in what looked like a cave, except the ground and walls were wooden. A little brightness burned in what looked like a cave-mouth.
False-vines were around her back, pinning her wings tightly to her sides. Her legs were tied together. Even more false-vines bound her jaws closed.
Trapped.
TRAPPED!
Memories flew back in a terrible wingbeat. The two-legs appeared at her cave-den in the dark, tricked her to come out, and attacked, trapping her with false-vines!
Out! Out! Out!
Struggling, growling, stretching, anything to break the false-vines. Nothing worked. The false-vines were too strong and did not break. If only she could bite at the false-vines, but her jaws were tightly closed. The two-legs planned for that.
Motion got her attention, so she froze and stopped fighting the false-vines as a pair of two-leg males appeared in the cave-mouth. She glared at them, daring them to come closer even though she could not strike them.
If only they came close enough for her to claw at them, she could gladly-
Claws. Maybe those could cut the false-vines. It was possible the two-legs did not think she knew to cut false-vines. They probably thought she was small-thinking life, which, well, she had walked straight into a trap by meeting them.
Twisted curiosity and trusting had led to this. Foolish.
What have I done?
One of the two-legs roared something, and another two-leg appeared later with a fish and a holding-thing filled with water. Two more two-legs came through the cave-mouth.
The two-legs approached while pointing sharp sticks at her and holding the fish and water-thing. They looked like they wanted to give her the water and fish. The two-legs did not want her dead, or they would have already killed her. That much was clear and a slight relief. All there was to do was stay alive, and that meant not fighting the two-legs.
Remaining motionless, she let three of the two-legs hold down her head and slowly take off the false-vines holding her mouth closed.
Bite, flame, tear, kill! Snap her jaws around their heads and bite them off!
No, wait until later if there was a good opportunity. Be patient.
The fish and holding-thing with water were placed before her, so she drank all the water she could and ate the fish. After she finished, the two-legs tied her jaws closed again with the false-vines, and she did not fight them.
They left through the cave-mouth, leaving her alone in the trap. Where was this trap? This was not the cave-den she had been resting in. The air smelled of the ocean, so this was probably one of the tree-dens in the two-leg nest, somewhere near the water.
Okay, wait a while to be sure they are gone.
She did nothing, no thrashing or growling as she stared out the cave-mouth. What was out there? How many two-legs were there? Why was the ground rolling slightly? Questions to think about later after her escape.
Sure that the two-legs were gone, she curled in on herself after flicking out her forepaws' claws. Her foreclaws started cutting the false-vines around her hindlegs, but it was very slow work, especially having to remain alert. A two-leg came back to check on her, so she quickly stilled and closed her eyes to pretend to be sleeping. The two-leg grumbled to itself and went away. Good. She still waited many wingbeats before trying anything else, just to be sure it was gone.
It finally worked, and the false-vines came off her hindlegs. With her hindlegs free, she started on the false-vines around her forelegs. Progress was very slow and difficult, leaving her limbs aching from exertion.
The false-vines holding her forelegs eventually broke, letting her get to her paws. Her wings and jaws were still bound, and those false-vines were thicker and tighter than the others. Far more time was necessary to get those off. Could she get away without flight? There were two-leg voices coming from outside the cave-den. Maybe they were distracted and would not notice her escape.
She slowly started for the cave-mouth, her paws on the ground making the wood creak. Why did the tree-ground sound like that? Out the cave-mouth, ready to run for the distant forest into which she could escape, and-
She pulled up and froze, seeing in one terrible wingbeat where she was. There was nothing but water out into the distance. This was a floating-tree-den out on the ocean. With no land or ground anywhere to swim to and no ability to fly, there was no escaping this floating-tree-den.
No!
Six two-legs appeared around her, all pointing their stick-claws while roaring to each other. At least there were far fewer two-legs than before. Fighting was possible, so she crouched to pounce.
Again, false-vines fell on her from above. The vines tangled in her spines, limbs, and tail as she spun and thrashed. The two-legs were shouting, jumping, piling on her, and holding her down!
Attack! Fight!
It did not help. Kicking one away changed nothing since another jumped in its place, roaring commands. One of their heavy rock-sticks flew toward her head and-
She awoke on her side, mouth-water dripping from her jaws. Her head pounded and throbbed with pain where she was struck. A brief struggle and glance confirmed that the false-vines were back around her legs, only there were far more of the false-vines. More false-vines attached to the cave-wall held her down, preventing any attempt to roll or thrash. A two-leg stood across from her, a stick-claw in its paws as it stood on guard, watching her.
Trapped even tighter now.
Waste pile!
Seeing that she was awake, the two-leg shouted something. One of the two-legs, likely the flight-leader, appeared in the cave-mouth and approached with a long stick-claw in its paws. The two-leg poked the sharp stick-claw against her neck and pushed, not hard enough to break hide and spill life-water, but hard enough to hurt.
Whining in fear, there was nothing to do but listen to its hissing and growling in threat-display. Then the two-leg was gone. The meaning was a clear warning to not try to escape again.
She took several deep breaths to relax and slow her racing life-organ. There was nothing she could do except wait, stay alive, and hopefully not make the two-leg trappers angry with her. The only reassuring part of this very bad, wrong, and twisted situation was that the two-legs did not want to kill her or greatly hurt her. They had not broken her wings, given her any hurt-marks, or done anything worse than hit her head to knock her out.
Why did they do this? Where were they taking her?
She had just returned from a very long flight to distant, strange ranges. The flight left her very sleepy, so she was resting in warmth by a light-rock. There was nothing else to do now except rest until the next waking-cycle of work.
She closed her eyes to go back to sleep, but sleep did not fly to her. Something was not right. Instead, she felt a very twisted, whispering wind tickling her from behind.
A quick glance revealed a dark cave beside the light-rock. It felt like the whispering, hissing wind was flying from the cave. Where had that cave come from?
Curious, she got to her paws and strolled into the cave. The cave narrowed and darkened, then widened and brightened into a cave-mouth which overlooked an ocean without any ice.
There were floating-tree-dens on the ocean. Why were those floating-tree-dens familiar? Why did seeing them spark fear in the liver and a feeling of wrongness?
Looking closer, she saw something very bad and wrong! There were kin on the ground of the floating-tree-dens, and the kin were trapped in false-vines. Two-legs walked on the floating-tree-dens, covering the kin in more false-vines to trap them.
Alarmed, she jumped and flew to help the kin! They needed protecting against the two-legs. She had seen them before and had not warned them.
'Your fault. You should have known.'
Countless floating-tree-dens. Countless kin in traps. Too many to help.
There were ten two-legs on the floating-tree-den. Their scents were eventually clear enough to tell apart. The waking-cycles that had passed had also let her learn more about two-leg pack-orders.
The six males were the biggest by far, not that they were big compared to any kin. The biggest and loudest male was the flight-leader, though it was not the pack-Alpha from before. The five other grown males were normal workers obeying the flight-leader's commands. The females, both of which appeared to have status in this group, brought meals to the males and also spoke much to them. The last two two-legs were younger males, or at least they were smaller. Maybe they were on this floating-tree-den as a pack-ceremony or a type of work, since they did as much work as the larger males. Two of the grown males occasionally greeted the younger ones with bonding-displays. Those ones had similar scents and were probably related.
The two-legs kept bringing her water and fish every two waking-cycles, never letting her out of the trap to see the sky, the ocean, or anything. They checked and tightened the false-vines every waking-cycle to prevent any attempt at escape.
Worst about being trapped was that the den was fouled with her own waste. At least they regularly cleaned up the waste. It could be worse.
They were giving her less water and fish than she needed. The hunger never fully went away, and she felt generally weak and weary, which was probably intended to prevent her from trying to escape or fight back.
She had settled into a routine with the two-legs, and they seemed to understand. They would bring her the fish and water, she would growl softly at them without truly struggling, they would growl back at her in their way, and she would stop growling. Only then would they would give her the water and fish while cleaning the trap of any waste.
The plan was working well so far. None of them had tried to hurt her or give her any hurt-marks. The only ones who gave her any special attention were the flight-leader and the two younger or smaller ones.
She did not know many two-leg signals, but their wide eyes as they looked at her appeared to be signs of awe and curiosity touched with fear. Let them be afraid. They were no different from the grown two-legs.
There were far more sounds coming from outside the cave-mouth. The floating-tree-den rocked back and forth in the water, and she could hear the cries of birds. This had to be near land.
Curious and wary, she waited for something to happen. The floating-tree-den rocked again, everything shaking and then going still.
This was probably important as it was a change from the routine of many dark-light cycles. Trapped for ten cycles? Two tens? It was completely unclear in the haze of repetition and boredom.
Several two-legs eventually entered, several holding their sharp sticks. Others held a dark false-fur and more false-vines. The false-fur was roughly shoved over her head, blocking all sight and making it hard to breathe. The false-vines were tied around her neck. What was this for?
She felt the two-legs take off the false-vines around her legs. The two-legs called to each other and began moving, pulling on the head-covering and the false-vines around her neck, and also poking her flanks to make her walk.
She restrained the growl of anger as she obediently walked, following the two-legs' lead. Blind, she looked around with other sight. There were many life-fires nearby, all two-legs, and many scents, mostly of two-legs but also of prey-animals. This was certainly another two-leg nest.
A terrible thought struck her. The two-legs from that distant nest trapped her and brought her here, so other two-legs might have done the same with other kin!
'Kin! Do you hear me?'
No thoughts flew back to her thought-voice. She was the only kin wherever this was.
The ground underpaw changed from wood to dirt and grass, so at least this was not another floating-tree-den. Her paws got covered in mud as she kept obediently walking, scenting the foul two-leg nest and hearing their strange sounds.
The light and warmth on her back faded. The two-legs leading her pushed her forward into a darker place, forcefully held her down, took off the head-covering, and put on another mouth-closing thing. While not good, it was better than the head-covering which left her blind and made it difficult to breathe. They also took off the false-vines pinning her wings to her side. Having those off was such a relief that that she did not growl at the two-legs or swat at them when they took off the false-vines around her legs.
Finished, the two-legs departed, letting her look around the new place which was very different from the one before. The ground was dirt and rock, not wood. However, there were thick bars of shiny rock, like what the rock-belly-kin could spit, all around her and making an enclosed space. It was another type of trap, unsurprisingly.
A pair of two-legs with long stick-claws stood outside the trap, which itself was inside a larger tree-den. There was no sign of the other two-legs which had brought her here. Shortly, another two-leg arrived, and the guard-trappers made a respect-sign to the new one. The new two-leg might be their Alpha.
Why did two-legs show their teeth when they were pleased? That was a threat-sign, but this two-leg was not being threatening at all. The new Alpha observed her like a kin would glare at a pile of fish. Finally, the Alpha spoke to itself and left the den many wingbeats later.
As for the trap itself, it was at least much bigger than the last one. Glad to be able to stretch since the two-legs had not tied her up with the false-vines, she got to her paws, flicked her tail, ruffled her wings, and rolled her shoulders. Everything felt sore from not being used and from being pinned by false-vines.
The stretching done, she snorted at the two-legs and looked around for anything that might be important or could help to know.
There was not much else to see.
Two-leg things, many made of wood, were all around outside the trap. Different types of stick-claws and other shiny claws were in piles beside prey-hides and false-vines. A fire burned in a place that kept the fire trapped. The fire beside which the two-legs were sitting was the only source of light inside this big tree-den.
The thick bars that made this new trap looked strong and too thick to bite or break, but she could test them later when the guarding two-legs were not watching. Pawing at the ground confirmed that there was solid rock under the dirt, so digging out was not possible. Testing her head-covering also confirmed that it was too strong and tight to cut with claws.
She curled up under a wing and faced the wall where her shadow flickered in the fire's light.
These two-legs did not appear to want to hurt her, and they had no idea that she was strong-thinking. Fish, water, and waste-cleaning would follow if they kept her here long. They would think too little of what she could do. Life-will-powers might not be useful with two-legs, but she could possibly learn more about the two-legs while trying to find how to escape.
Even if she could escape, then what? Fly back to the underwater cave, return to the ranges she knew, and forget that this flight even happened? Yes, leave this twisted hidden world of the above, return below with other kin, and never come up here again. Let the monsters have this world forever.
A cold wind poured into her liver as she thought back to the two-legs in the kin-ranges under the ground. What were those two-legs doing? All that was clear was that they were tricking kin by wearing false-kin-hides, and they were using kin to move around, both of which were chilling. What did two-legs want with kin anyway?
She lost count of how many dark-light cycles passed, stuck in the trap which was too strong to break. The false-vines and mouth-closing thing were too tight and strong to claw off, so flaming or biting the bars was not an option either. There was always a two-leg guard outside keeping watch over her.
It was a very tight trap.
There was nothing at all to do except sleep and have sleep-visions. Good ones of adventures with the fledglings in the warm-range or elsewhere in Ice-Water-Pack's territory stuck to her liver and memory the best.
These two-legs, which were always the same ones, behaved differently from the others before. There was no teasing, no poking with stick-claws, a little more fish and water, and less threatening, though her not fighting back or growling at them probably helped. They made sure she was fed and watered, and the trap was cleaned of waste every dark-light cycle. She did not bother them when they did any of that. It was almost as though these two-legs knew how to behave with a kin, other than the trapping.
She grumbled and lay her head on her paws while staring aimlessly outside the trap at the random two-leg things, none of which had any apparent use.
Time was flying so fast and so slow that every dark-light cycle came together into a constant, unending boringness. Something important would eventually happen, and she would be ready when it did. The two-legs would give her an opportunity by leaving open the trap-mouth, losing their hold on her during feeding and watering, or making some other mistake.
It was another dark-light cycle like every other. The same routine happened at first. She got up to stretch and pace as much as possible, which was not much. A two-leg brought her a fish and water-holding thing. All of that was normal.
The difference was that another male two-leg, a new one she had not seen before, appeared outside the trap along with a small group of other males, including the Alpha of this trap. The new male stared at her for a long time, its paws crossed behind its back. This two-leg was a little smaller than the others and had far less head-fur, but it was probably an Alpha or flight-leader of some kind, since the small group looked to it for signals.
In her time in this trap, she had regularly felt the life-fires of the nearest two-legs. Whatever had happened with that young two-leg whom she hurt when trying to link with it, that did not happen with these ones, though feeling sensations alone was different from trying to truly link with them. She had gotten better at feeling the vaguest of impressions from the nearest two-legs, though she could not hear thoughts at all. The guarding two-legs were uninterested by her.
The new flight-leader stepped closer, put its paws on the trap's bars, and growl-spoke to her, which was very twisted of it. None of the other two-legs spoke to her as if it expected her to answer. Why would it think she could understand what it was saying? It was probably just giving commands which she did not know.
She glared at it and reached to touch its life-fire. This two-leg was calm, completely unafraid, wondering, and… something else that was unclear. The two-leg winced, rubbed its head with a paw, and resumed gazing at her. Uninterested, she yawned and turned away from the two-leg, though she glanced at it one more time before closing her eyes.
Soft calls and barking followed as the new two-leg flight-leader spoke. The two-legs moved, picking up the false-vines, wing-trapping-vines, stick-claws, and mouth-closing thing before opening the mouth of her trap.
They were going to take her somewhere else.
She put up a slight struggle, just to be a little more difficult, but did not try to claw, strike, or roar at them. There was no good reason to fight or bite, not when there were so many of them and they could easily hurt her.
The flight-leader watched all of this until she was fully bound and could not move anything but her tail and neck.
She closed her eyes and focused only on her breathing. Just a test. This was one more way life itself was testing her and letting her grow stronger. She had already learned much more than any other kin, any light wing anyway, probably knew about two-legs.
But that led into another twisted question: why had sire-father never told her about two-legs? He surely knew about them. Maybe he never told her the truth because the truth would hurt to learn. The truth was supposed to be good and warming.
Why were two-legs false and tricking and trapping?
What did they want with her?