Page 13 of Ruby
So I stop and look around.
I can tell I’m in the middle of a forest, with the canopy above nearly blocking out the stars.
This does not resemble my home planet; I have never seen trees like this before, only occasionally while flying low and at the time they all looked the same to me—a solid layer of green-brown that spelled danger due to the predators lurking within.
I start to feel caged but the air is cool. There is occasional rustling not too far from me. My body is still but my eyes follow the sound through a thicket of bright, feathery green. It moves too fast for me and I only see a wiry tail scurry between bright-green bristly bushes.
I let out the breath I was holding as I immediately recognize that I have been dumped in the understory. A place none of us willingly go.
Nnaiv’s warning of trespassers echoes through my head and I remember that he is dead.
As much as I want to call out to whichever of my brothers might be around me, I know that it is unwise. The trespassers might still be lurking somewhere close by, and although I know death will come, I do not want it to be by their evil weapons.
From where I am lying, I push apart the leaves in front of me and see that it is a clear path.
I look upward and see that the trees in this area are sparse. If I fly up to survey, maybe I can find somewhere to settle and soothe the near blinding ache in my wings. I brace myself into a sitting position and shut my eyes tightly, willing my wings open.
The pain forces a sound from my mouth and immediately I know that something is wrong.
My wings, they feel lighter.
I turn to look at them and I see that they have been cut off. Where once spanned beautiful wings of blue-spotted yellow, with flashes of red, now only messy stumps remain. They were not kind with their removal. I reach my hands out to touch them but I cannot bring myself to.
For fear of finding out that I am not still slumbering.
My wings, my pride as a member of the flock, have been cruelly ripped away from me; where they once spread wide, they have been shortened by the hateful hearts of greedy trespassers. I cannot help the woeful tune that escapes my lips at the rush of memory just before all of this was taken from me.
I am no longer complete.
Leaping off the aerie and flying with my brothers, things I will never experience again. The sky was my domain and the ground was barely ever a thought in my head. The hills that I once traversed, my eyes will never see again. My freedom has been taken from me in a way that I would never have imagined possible, and there is no one to blame for it, not even myself.
Still, I want to survive.
I am weak and my throat is dry, so I allow my thirst to move me to my feet, quietly making my way through the brambles and bushes, holding them apart so that they do not harm my already damaged wings.
I stumble toward the clearing but just before I enter it I hear the familiar scurrying again and a beam of red light pointed in the same corner I saw the slim tailed creature run into. It is followed by a sharp crack that makes my left ear start to ring.
I draw in a pained breath and retreat farther into the strange forest, standing as still as I can manage.
Something big moves toward me and I close my eyes tightly. My nose catches a scent that is familiar and I realize that it is a trespasser, one of the ones who are responsible for killing my brothers and removing my wings.
Before I can let rage consume me, I remind myself that I am not strong enough to fight, and I do not want to lose the last of my honor at their mercy. The alien hesitates for a moment before saying something to itself in its own language and moving away.
I shimmy backward until my back hits something solid and I am scared that I have run into further danger until I turn and see that it is just a tree. I sink to my knees and sit at its base, wrapping my injured arms around myself and feeling the dark ground cool against my legs.
A warm, gentle wind blows against the feathers on my head and it is the first soothing thing I have felt since I woke up so I sit init and allow it to wash over me. It is so much more humid down here than I am used to but I have no choice but to focus on the first non-panicked thought I can.
The momentary peace allows me to take in my surroundings more readily.
I begin to notice the overwhelming purple-ness of everything around me; thick, overly bright-green foliage hangs all around me, sprouting out of massive brown trunks themselves covered in wiry purple vines; the floor itself being a deep brown-red color tinted by browning fallen leaves, a stark contrast to the intense yellow and white of the skies and mountains I am used to. Even the almost stagnant river that lazily wound its way through the alien forest to my left is tinted a purple color.
It is going to take some getting used to.
I know that I must move before the trespassers return but I don’t know what direction to start heading in. I am not built for the ground so I have to think and listen for signs of predators. I vaguely remember the conversation I had with Nnaiv earlier concerning the aliens on the ground and my heart bleeds some more at the memory of what was lost.
My drums thrum with the sound of a heavy thud above and I look up to see a silver container lodged in a branch of another monstrous tree a small distance away from me.
I am not curious enough to check what it is because some part of me knows that it must be a trespasser. The machine is small and unmoving and I catch myself wondering whether the alien within it is still alive.There is no need to find out,I tell myself.
