//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Reward // Story: A Bird's Cage // by Ravenpuff //------------------------------// The pony had been quiet for a long time now. He had heard her move about, making a few noises to herself. He wasn’t sure what they meant; they were just noises to him. But it at least didn’t sound like she was trying to break anything and she was being relatively quiet. He could have ignored what little noise she was making at this level, but found himself listening in just to try getting an idea of what she was doing. After a while she was quiet again. He waited further time before getting up and making his way to the door to the locked room which used to be his bedroom but was now functioning as guest room. Expecting to find her resting he moved the key in the lock very slowly, to try make the click of unlocking less sharp and noisy. Slowly creaking the door open for a peek inside. He used a moment, as the times before, to adjust to the dim light in the room. He usually kept the rooms in his home dark, as it was his retreat from the world outside and not even the outside light was welcome to invade it. There she was, resting on his bed, curled up like the times before he had watched her sleep. Details and colours were hard to tell, but her eyes were closed and her wings folded without looking tense. He scanned the room from his spot in the door to see what she had been doing. Finding the empty bowl by the door. The pale pink pegasus had been attempted a light cleaning it seemed, just as she had been told to. She had been kept relatively quiet too. Looked like the pony was finally learning to listen to what she was being told. Of course he realized it wasn’t much she could do without being provided the tools needed for a proper cleaning. But simply showing she was listening instead of talking and demanding and being so noisy was an improvement. She had earned herself another treat, when she woke up again. *** Sunny Rain stirred in her rest before slowly opening her eyes. Awake again to nothing. The light from the crack was high on the opposite wall. Morning? Evening? She wasn’t sure, hadn’t figured that out yet. Once again she couldn’t tell how much time had passed. Her mouth was as dry as ever as she tried to move her tongue around, making her grimace. She needed something to drink so bad. Food wasn’t as important anymore. Just something to drink, anything. She sighed heavily slowly rising from the bed to stretch her sore limbs. Another glance over the familiar room. What she wouldn’t do to get out of it, out of this dreadful hut and back into the open sky. She doubted she had much strength to fly with at the moment, but then just out on an open hill or something. Feeling the wind through her curly mane, through the feathers of her wings. She wanted to scream and buck and kick and destroy the whole hut surrounding her and keeping her from the freedom outside, but she knew that would be rather pointless. It would only anger him. To try and cope with the feeling of going stir-crazy again she get up and leaped off of the bed to move about a bit and properly stretch out her limbs. Her landing not as graceful as originally planned - she found herself face planted on the floor with a thud. Had that been too much noise? She stayed there, flat on the floor, afraid to move. Then she felt it, a light vibration through the floorboards. Movement. Steps towards the door. In a panic she scampered back up on her hooves and back away until her rump was pressed against the bed, oh no! The clicking of the lock, the creaking of the door opening. And there he stood, like times before, upright on his hind legs and blocking the door with his harsh eyes locked onto hers. She waited. For anything really. Was he going to be mad for that noise? Would he be mad over how little she had managed to actual clean the room? All she could do was stand there and wait for the judgment. No place to run, no place to fly, no place to hide. Then the gryphon bent down and placed something on the floor by the door. Picking up the empty bowl she had left there. Nothing was said, just those eyes keeping her frozen in place. He slowly backed out of the room again and closed it – the clicking of the lock. The pegasus mare didn’t dare to move the first while until she was sure he was gone. Her eyes finally moving down to the items he had left. New bowls, bigger ones. With… with water! Sunny Rain stumbled clumsily in her eagerness to make it to the nearest bowl, dipping her snout in deep to drink as much she could in first go and immediately found herself gagging and spitting it out. Soap water! That was… that was just horribly! That… wait, how about the other bowl? Carefully she sniffed the content of the other bowl on the floor, carefully licking the surface of it. No. No new soapy taste other than what had already been on her tongue. At least she thought so. Then her snout dived in and she began drinking and slurping up the content. Oooooh, wonderful water, wetting and clearing her mouth and throat oh so wonderfully. Forget the carrot, this was how heaven tasted like. Soon licking the bowl clean for every drop of fresh, wonderful water. Her stomach expanded lightly from being filled quite more than just a single carrot, she sat down with a heavy and very happy sigh. Just what she had been needing so badly. It took her a while of just sitting there in bliss before finally returning her attention to the first bowl, the one with the soap in the water. What was that for? It even had a small piece of cloth in it. Clearly it was given to her to do some more proper cleaning. Of the room or… of herself? She was suddenly aware of the mess she was herself. With her worries over other things it hadn’t been high up on her list of things to worry about for the time. But she really could do with a bath. She turned her head to look in the direction of where she had tried to clean up the vomit. That spot could definitely need some soap and water. So could she. She would have to ration it properly. Starting with herself, carefully grabbing the cloth in her hoof, dipping it into the water and twisting it. Slowly she tried to clean herself up the best she could without wasting too much of the soapy water. Spread it out as much she could to make herself feel fresher. She could tell how much of a mess she was without a mirror. Her wings too, the stress had made them start to moult. Small downs hanging loose and ready to drop off without having to tug them. Not how a pair of proper pegasus wings should look like. She would have to look at that later, at least she would have something to do. Feeling she had done what she could with a piece of cloth and some water with soap, she pushed the bowl over to the spot on the floor needing to be cleaned properly. The smell of soap was a relief compared to what she had been living in so far. When done she regrettably pour the rest of the water into the bucket in the corner. She knew she couldn’t drink it, no point in trying again, and perhaps it could help on the stank from the stinky bucket. The now empty bowls were gathered by the door for when he decided to come back and pick them up. The light had moved on the wall while she worked, seemed like it was a sunset as it was changing colour and slowly disappearing. Once again she retreated back to the bed without anything better to do. With all the resting she did to pass time she didn’t felt so tired at the moment. The cleaning hadn’t been so much activity to tire her out again already. So she began preening her wings to get rid of the loose down and try get them to look somewhat respectable again.