Lightning Dust was always meant to be a leader.
Perhaps it was her bravado, or her overconfidence, or her complete lack of ability to admit defeat. Or maybe it was all of those things. Or maybe it was the fact that it took her more effort than anything else not to punch someone who had the gall to try and tell her what to do.
Lightning Dust was rarely ever a follower.
So why did she feel like
she was the one
being left behind?
She gnashed her teeth as her wing beat harder. She forced it back against her side, muttering an apology to Fiddlesticks for nearly smacking her with it.
“It’s fine,” Fiddle said absently.
Lightning pressed her head back into the pillow and tried to close her eyes. But something was pounding against the back of her skull, in time with the wing beats from her remaining appendage. “Hey, Fiddle?”
“Hm?”
“Do you remember, after the tornado, when that doctor told me I might have a case of that one thing… What was it? Ghost wing or something?”
Fiddlesticks blinked. “Oh. Uh… Phantom limb, was it? The one where you feel like your wing’s still there.”
“Yeah. I just… I remember how it felt like I could still feel it. And how it was like, itching and burning.” Lightning licked her lips, throat feeling very dry. It was never easy to talk about her accident. “I… It’s like I’m feeling that now, but… Different?”
“How so?”
Lightning paused to reach for the glass of water beside her. The water lapped against the sides as she raised it to her mouth, as her body refused to stay completely still. “Uh… I don’t know. With this wing, it’s like I can feel something pulling on it. Like it’s telling me I have to… well, go.”
Fiddle furrowed her brow. “Go where?”
“I don’t know! But it’s like… It’s like restlessness. Like…” She tapped her hoof against the bedside table. “Like something’s on the tip of my tongue but I can’t remember what it is. But I’m feeling that here too,” she said, pointing at her other side. “Even though it’s gone? It… It’s different from before. Before it was like my brain wouldn’t accept that it was gone. Now it’s like… It’s like something’s trying to call my wings, but half of them can’t pick up.”
Fiddle leaned in and hugged her. “Why is this happenin’?” she whispered.
“I…” Lightning hugged her back. “I wish I knew.”