Sorry the update took so long! Stuff's been going on IRL ;w;
Molly stared down at Liam. Now that she had gotten used to the idea that he was still alive, he looked less dead and more…asleep. Peacefully. His chest rising and falling, his arm involuntarily sliding over the sheets and tightening them around his shoulders. She felt the tears come again, but forced them away.
Molly had no idea how long she sat there, waiting for him to awaken until the door creaked open and rays of sunset shimmered through. Molly looked up in surprise to see Alli.
"Is it over?" Molly croaked.
Alli nodded. Her blue-scaled face was ashen. She just leaned by the doorframe and observed the house.
"Did we lose anyone?" Molly asked tentatively.
Alli's face contorted with grief. "Yes. We lost Buttons, Liz, and Pironkon."
Molly nodded. Saying that she'd never seen any of those gators in her life was probably a bad idea.
"Whats up with him?" Alli asked, gesturing to Liam. Molly bit her tongue.
"His head. An alligator caught him and bashed it against the pavement. Twice." she said the words much faster than normal, wanting them to be out of her mouth.
Alli's eyebrows hitched themselves up. "Really? Let me check it out."
Molly obeyed and sidestepped. Alli rubbed her claws around his head. "He has a concussion, alright. Pretty bad one. But he'll live."
Relief drowned Molly like an ocean wave, and the water threatened to spill out through her eyes.
"Right now we ought to wrap up his head. Have any cloth?" Alli asked, her eyes flicking up to Molly.
In a couple minutes, Liam's black hair was poking out under a wrap of bandages. He still was unconscious.
"Alli, what will the concussion do to him?" Molly whispered. "Will he be the same?"
"What do you mean?" she responded quizzically.
"He woke up when I reached him, but…I don't know. Something was wrong."
Alli frowned. "Well…he could be disoriented."
And suddenly, Liam moaned. Molly jumped before calming herself and assuming it was voluntary; when he shifted and she saw him blink.
"Liam!" Molly exclaimed.
Liam's head turned towards her, and his gaze flitted over Alli. But there was that thing again; his eyes were different. They didn't seem to belong to him.
"Liam," Molly repeated. "How are you feeling?"
Liam's gaze dropped back to her and he frowned. "Why are you…" his voice was raspy and he trailed off.
"What, Liam?" Molly asked with a frown.
"Why are you a duck?" he asked sleepily.
"I haven't had my last memory told to me yet, Liam, so I'm not a human yet."
His face bent with confusion. "How do you know my name?"
That sentence made everything crash, the walls tumble, the sky fall.
"W-what?" Molly barely managed to stutter. Alli's eyes widened.
"Oh, no," she murmured. Molly whirled to face her.
"What do you mean?! Whats wrong?! How come he can't remember me?!"
Alli's eyes glittered and she didn't respond.
Molly faced Liam again. His eyes, his jet-black, wide, beautiful eyes were gone. There was someone else entirely reflected there. For some reason, her mind went back to what Gayle had said.
"You aren't kids. Kids don't struggle with their minds to become someone they don't remember. Kids don't risk their lives every day trying to do so. Kids don't get hunted down for trying to be who they once were. You two are adults. So kindly act like it."
And Liam had been right; that wasn't how it worked. They were kids. No amount of what had happened could change that; they were innocent. And Liam had still been robbed.
Then a horrible thought hit her. If he's lost his memory, how can he tell me my last memory?
Liam rolled over so his head faced the ground and threw up over the side of the bed. Molly was still stunned and she just awkwardly stood there.
And then the clouds cleared. "Molly," Liam breathed. His eyes narrowed and he frowned. "Molly?" he repeated.
And then everything was fixed, the walls went back up, and the sky climbed to its original position.
"Holy crap, Liam, you scared me," Molly gasped. She couldn't fight them now, the tears were coming. "Holy crap."
"It's okay," he mumbled. "I just don't get…why am I here? What happened?" his eyes were still confused, but they were his, they were his, they were his.
"The alligators, Liam, they…" Molly trailed off.
Liam winced. "Damn, my head hurts." He wiped his mouth and rolled back into a comfortable position.
"…They hit your head. Against the stones." Alli filled in. Molly sighed with gratitude; she didn't dare risk speaking, for surely her voice would shake.
Liam's eyes widened. "What? That sounds like it would kill me…"
"It could," Alli responded. "But it didn't, luckily enough."
"What do you remember?" Molly said quickly, furious at her voice for quivering. Luckily, the alligator and human both had the grace to not acknowledge it.
"Umm…It's foggy. The last thing I remember was going into the alligator's lair," he said. "But everything after that…it's just nothing. I don't know how i just completely forgot everything a second ago, but I remember it now. Molly?"
Molly's tears had finally broke through and were sliding down her oily feathers.
"D-do you remember waking up before?" she asked huskily.
Liam shook his head. Then his mouth cracked into a grin. "Hey, kind of funny, right? After all this, trying to get your memory back, I'm the one who loses it. Go figure."
Molly smiled, knowing he was trying to make the situation better. He coughed and sank back into bed. "But really, I feel like crap, can I sleep now?"
"Of course," Molly whispered. Liam nodded and his head sank back into the pillow, and he quickly lost consciousness again.
"Molly, you ought to go outside," Alli said after a while. "Get the villagers back and all."
"I should clean up…" Molly mumbled, staring at the pile of filth on the ground.
"I'll take care of it." Alli shooed her away, and Molly was grateful. Cleaning up the floor was the last thing she wanted to do. Molly nodded towards her and left the home. Outside was a battlefield of alligator bodies; Molly shuddered and reminded herself that they were all evil. She spotted a few alligators putting some into wheelbarrows and others stuffing them into bags. Molly decided to look away.
She was aimlessly wandering around when she bumped into an alligator that wasn't asleep. She looked up in surprise.
"Oh, sorry," Molly stammered.
"No problem," replied a deep, throaty voice. "I'm Sly. You must be Molly."
"Yup," Molly said, then trailed off, unsure how to continue.
"Where's the boy? Liam, was it?"
Molly frowned. "Concussion. But he'll live."
"Ah, good. I thought it was quite foolish of Alli and Gayle to send him into battle. After all, he's the last human left! Would've been terribly inconvenient if he died."
Molly recoiled at this. He's not an experiment! He's not some trophy to observe!
"I'm kidding," he added at Molly's annoyed expression, nudging her with his large shoulder.
Still unsure of what to say, Molly gestured to the bag he was handling. "Who's in there?"
Grief shadowed Sly's face. "Pironkon," he replied solemnly. "He lost his life in the battle."
"Aren't they invincible?" Molly replied skeptically, then backtracked. "I mean, uh, thats what Alfonso sai-"
"Thats what we all thought, too. Nobody knows how it happened. Maybe it was a lie. Who knows?" Sly shrugged. "Bah! I'm glad it's over. I don't remember my past life, but I sure know I hated the whole Operation idea. Working with the government was not fun!"
Molly blinked and widened her eyes. "You worked for the government?"
"Hah! Of course! All the gators worked for the government. Thought you knew!"
Molly's jaw dropped. Liam's father!
"R-right. Nice talking to you, Sly. I have to get the villagers," Molly stuttered, abruptly ending the conversation. Sly grinned and patted her on the head, and continued off.
Molly turned, flipped open her wings, and took off rather ungracefully. She flapped her wings, heading for the island. And as she got closer, the sun blazed into the water, a flaming ball of orange-purple heat. The ocean reached for it, its desperate fingers glowing white as the sun slowly descended down. The clouds watched the show, glimmering pink in the sunset. Molly stopped moving for a moment and observed the beautiful scenery from high in the sky; the scent of saltwater and the crashing of waves, combined with the view of Solaris was enough to take her breath away. She looked at her wings, the feathers fluttering and the muscles pumping to keep her aloft. She loved it, the feeling of wind in her feathers.
But it would all vanish soon. When Liam woke up, and if he still remembered her last memory, then it would be gone. Molly's heart twisted. DId she really want it? Would she give up her heightened senses and flight to be a human again? What purpose did it serve? She had promised Liam; would he understand? She bit her tongue at the memory of Liam, clutching the train seat, yelling at Gayle and Alli.
"No, I didn't do it for the human race. I did it so I could see her again. She could've been happy, and I took it, because I want to see her again."
After all this, could she take it away from him?
But as Molly continued flying, she realized something. This body, these wings, these senses, they're not mine. And they don't have good memories associated with them. This body carries the burden of pain, being chased, fear, and helplessness. This body is not me, and I am not this body.
Molly flew faster over the ocean. My abilities have saved me and my friends many times. But it's over, and I'll never have to use them if I don't want to. Molly looked forward, and yelled out loud into the night, "My name is Molly, and I am a human!"
I just realized…over the course of this story I have learned quite a bit about duck anatomy. Several times I've had to search up the average weight of a duck, if ducks have lips, how far a duck can fly, etc, just in case any of you guys out there are duck professors and are alarmed by my minuscule knowledge on ducks. Oh the irony.