Whumptober 23 Day 11: Animal trap | Captivity | "No one will find you."
For articuno13 who politely asked on AO3 if I had forgotten to upload chapter 3.
When Scott next awoke he was in a large indoor cage, easily bigger than the basic square footage of the villa. He could fly from one end of the cage to the other and still have enough space to stretch his wings. If he so wanted to.
He hopped around the base of the cage, determined to stay in his eagle form as long as possible. Scott couldn't risk anyone finding out about them, it would put his brothers in grave danger. But he'd never practiced staying in his alternate form for long periods and he wasn't sure of any long-term issues it could have. Staying human for long periods he could do – had done before – but this was uncharted territory.
The floor was covered in a layer of dirt. There were trees and boulders and plenty of perches. At one end was a building of some sort. Curious, Scott hop-jumped over and peered inside.
It was a house. Living room with open plan kitchen, small toilet off one side, double bed in a small room on the other. And the main wall was glass. One way glass for sure – Scott may not be able to see what was on the other side but he knew what he was seeing.
There would be no privacy here for him. Not that that really surprised him.
There came the sound of a door opening and the click-clack, click-clack of heels on concrete. Scott stayed where he was, just inside the door, and waited. Sure enough, the woman who had bought him came into view. She was carrying a platter and the smell of fresh meat hit him hard. He didn't know just how long ago it was he last ate but it was at least two days, maybe three, by his reckoning.
She came into the cage via a two-door entry system Scott hadn't noticed before and up to the largest boulder near the front and scraped the meat off onto the top. And then she left.
Puzzled, Scott listened out for the sounds of her leaving the room but the noise of her shoes didn't come and he couldn't see her from where he was so he cautiously and as quietly as he could moved out of the house and back into the cage.
The woman was seated in an armchair. There was a little side table with a bottle of wine and a plate of food on it. So she was going to wait here for him to eat in front of her like some kind of exhibit? There was no way he was going to give her any kind of satisfaction. He was about to retreat back to the house when she spoke.
'You might as well come and eat, my dear. I know that auctioneer wouldn't have fed you.'
Scott froze.
'Come, eat. Then you and I can talk about our future.'
A cold feeling of dread came over Scott. So he hadn't been mistaken, she did know what he was, the house wasn't a fluke. He hoped that didn't mean she knew *who* he was too, but that was a fear for later. Right now, though, her words about 'their future' unnerved Scott more than anything.
A laugh floated across the cage.
'You are a very determined birdman. I like that. I think I shall call you Aonghas. Do you know what that means? No, I'm sure you don't. It's an Irish name meaning 'one choice'. It's a bit of a mouthful, though, so I'm going to call you Gus.'
She paused.
Scott's heart clenched at the familiarity of the nickname, his thoughts turning once more to his brothers. He may not have remembered initially what had happened before he'd woken up in the cage at the auction house, but when he'd woken up this morning – morning? Was it morning? – Scott had remembered that he had been out with Virgil.
He needed to get out of here!
'Oh, there you are! So, Gus, you do have one choice. Show me who you really are and we will discuss your…living arrangements.'
Scott hadn't realised that he'd unconsciously moved forward as thoughts of what could have happened to brother had flooded his brain. He squawked angrily at her and hopped back into the cover of the house, ignoring her sigh.
'Gus, I can see you're still uncomfortable. I'm going to leave you now but I encourage you to eat. You're going to need to keep your strength up. Oh, and Gus? I'm not a patient woman. Don't keep me waiting, not like the last birdman I had. And remember – no one will find you here. No one found my last pet, no one will find you.'
He listened to the click-clack of her heels as she left and shuddered. As much as he didn't want to listen to his captor she was right, if he didn't eat then he had no chance to stay strong enough not to change back to human.
Slowly he made his way over to the food. It took a lot of effort to not bolt the meat down there and then, he was so hungry.
It was shredded, making it easier to eat. There was some kind of powder on the meat, and Scott carefully picked a piece up, testing it with his tongue. It didn't taste of anything other than meat so he carefully ate one piece and waited to see if anything happened.
Nothing happened.
It took a lot of self-control to eat slowly, but Scott was determined to stay vigilant at all times. The powdery stuff on the meat worried him, but the woman was right. If he didn't keep his strength up Scott wasn't sure how long he'd manage to stay in his bird form.
Once he'd finished the meat Scott settled once more in the doorway of the house. It seemed to be the most private place. Beside the entrance there was a large bush and he used its shelter as cover and went to sleep.
Scott couldn't be a hundred percent sure of the passing of time – he had no way of knowing how long he'd been unconscious – but his inbuilt clock was usually fairly accurate. Three days is what he thought.
Three days the pattern held.
The woman would come and sit and talk to him. She tried to get him to fly, to show off. She brought food and water twice a day. Scott resolutely refused to change, even when she was gone, for fear of what she might see, and she became increasingly irritated by his lack of cooperation.
Today the meat had a thicker coating of flour on than usual. She'd told him she floured it to stop it sticking, and while that sounded odd to him he was aware that that was a standard cooking procedure.
But this one wasn't…something wasn't right…
Scott staggered away from the boulder. He tried to take flight but his coordination was shot and he ended up crashing to the ground.
His last coherent thought was a cry of dismay as he felt himself changing back to human as his body seized. As darkness overcame him Scott could swear there was the sound of laughter coming from somewhere.
'Oh yes! We *are* going to have fun.'