Ideas for this story are flooding so here I am with a new chapter. :D
Chapter 2
"What did you wish?" Galian asked a few minutes later.
The two were sitting beside the other on a log a few feet away from the 'wishing stream'.
Annalaya looked away from the sparrow man. She didn't want to answer him.
"It can't be that bad," Galian encouraged his tree girl.
"I—I wished you could be like me." Annalaya scuffed her bare foot into the dirt with a sniff. "It was more of a thought than a wish. I honest to goodness didn't mean it. You have to believe me, Galian! I'm so sorry for what I've done. It's unforgivable." She was in tears now. There was no way of stopping them. She was horrified of herself. Annalaya stood up and ran into the woods to get away from the mistake she'd made. She heard the foreign sound of human Galian's voice call after her. It was smooth and musical.
She stumbled over a stump and fell headfirst.
She felt the world grow dark and her mind slipped into another world… it was a flashback. She hated having flashbacks. She always had them at the worst times when she didn't want them. She never had a choice when she had it or the memory she was being forced to relive.
"No! Stop!" Annalaya screamed as the villagers through bricks and torches through the windows of her family's cottage. There was no stopping the mob. They wanted her parents dead. Dead for practicing what they thought was evil medicine. Both her parents were doctors of natural medicine. They believed in herbs which they mixed up into concoctions, the village called them potions and thought her parents were witches. It wasn't true! But the villagers didn't know that so here they were burning the cottage and barring up all the escape routes. Annalaya had nowhere to go. She would die with her parents.
"Annalaya!" it was her Father screaming for her.
The tree girl scrambled after her Father, blindly through the smoke. The smoke was so dense and thick you couldn't see. Breathing was almost impossible.
"Ann, you must escape. Your Mother and I can't be saved but you can, my dear girl." Her Father grasped her by the shoulders and hugged her.
Annalaya's Mother was a few feet away, sitting on the floor clutching her throat, breathing raggedly.
"No, Father. I cannot leave you both here. I must stay. There is no way out. The villagers have every door and window barred up." Annalaya sat down beside her Mother and held her as if her life depended on it.
"In the cellar there is a trapdoor that leads out of the cottage. It's under the tapestry by the canned fruit. Go!" Annalaya's Father pulled her away from her Mother and shoved her toward the cellar entrance.
"No! Please! Don't make me!" Annalaya screamed, but it was no use. She was in the cellar before she could finish her words.
There was only one thing to do, and that was escape.
With tears streaming down her face, Annalaya managed to find the trapdoor that led into a tunnel. She ran through it blindly, unable to see anything in front of her.
At last she saw light ahead of her path. Relief flooded through her but it was quickly diminished when she realized what she had done. She had left her parents and now they were dead while she was alive. It wasn't fair and she shouldn't have left. She should have stayed and died with them like she had wanted. Why had they made her survive? There was nothing for her now. She had nothing and no one. She was an orphan now.
Annalaya held her head and moaned as rose up from the mud where she had fallen over a stump. Tears were streaming down her face and she couldn't stop them.
She was so lonely. She had only wanted a human's companionship. Was that such a horrible thing to want? It was… She thought to herself. Galian wasn't a sparrow anymore, and it was all her fault. She had betrayed him. She had always told him that he was her one true friend and she needed no one else. But here she was and wished for him to be human so she wouldn't feel so lonely. What was wrong with her?
"Annalaya?" There was that musical voice that could only belong to her sparrow man.
She felt herself being lifted from the muddy ground and didn't fight it. She didn't have the energy. Her flashback had drained her dry.
Galian carried her back to the stream. He didn't say a word as he placed her in the water and splashed water over her limbs; washing away all the mud clinging to her body.
This brought more tears to Annalaya's eyes. She had betrayed her best friend and here he was bathing her. She didn't deserve his kindness.
Galian didn't ask what had happened. He most likely knew she had a flashback. He had seen her like this before and quite a bit actually. And every time, he was there to comfort her, whether she wanted him there or not.
Annalaya closed her eyes as Galian lifted her out of the water.
It was the funniest feeling… being carried like this. It was so foreign to her and yet so familiar.
In the back of her head a nagging voice rebuked her for enjoying human Galian's ministrations.
Annalaya ignored them and for once enjoyed the comforting touch of another human for once after three years of solitude.
She barely felt herself being carried up into the tree house where she had made her home. She only woke for a few moments as Galian placed her in her bed. She stared up at him in confusion at first, but exhaustion overtook her worry and she fell back asleep. A name on the tip of her tongue…
"Galian…"
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