A Bird's Cage

by Ravenpuff

Chapter 1: First Impressions

She met her savior unexpectedly next time she was awake. Unexpectedly mostly because he was not what she had been Expecting.

***

Her head more clear and less aching, enough so that she could raise it from the pillow this time. Rubbing a temple with her hoof she felt the bandage around her head. Well, by the pain and nausea she could deduct that she had probably hit her head pretty bad so that was no bed surprise. She did not feel as sick this time, but her stomach growled and rumbled to tell her enough time had passed for her light breakfast the day she flew off on adventures just did not do it anymore.

The pegasus slowly sat up, a bit dizzy from the movement. Whether that was from the concussion or hunger she could not tell. She had no idea how long she had been stuck like this and it did not feel like she had been fed while she was knocked out cold. Well, could not demand full service, this was no hospital not some super fancy hotel for the rich and lazy.

The beam of light from the closed window was much dimmer this time. Moonlight, the day had given in to the night. It did not offer much light to see by but it helped her eyes to adjust to the darkness better. A little by little the room came back into view through the darkness. A small room, she saw a chair besides the bed. Rather big one, the bed was big for a pony too. Not that she was a very big pony herself.

Moving around a bit the bed felt like it was just a pile of hay in a wooden frame with a sheet put over it. She had tried better but also worse. The ground always made a worse mattress.

Besides the furniture the room seemed bare. No painting, no pretty curtains, no items. Nothing to live up the place. Nothing to tell her about who lived here and who had been taking care of her.

Rather than sit and wait in the bed she scooted over to the edge to leave it and have a look around. She needed to move around a bit anyway, after staying unconscious for the goddess knew how long. She made it off of the bed, it did not seem to be standing on legs like most beds - it was just the frame with hay, so it was not so far down.

She stretched a little, dared to test how much movement she could do without her head protesting too much. Stepping in something on the floor she brought her hoof up to her nose and grimaced at the stench which immediately made her regret it. She had been vomiting during the parts she could not remember and it had not been cleaned up. She quickly stepped away from the drying pool, not intending on checking how old it was. She was not THAT curious about how long time she had spent in this room. She scraped her hoof clean against the floor, hoping the owner would not be too mad about that. She would offer to help clean it up when she got access to the proper supplies for that.

She made it over to the door and pushed at it with a hoof to open it. It did not budge. She hoofed the handle just to find the door was locked. Who would lock it and why? When she stopped trying the handle she heard the sound of movement on the other side, creaking of floor boards. It did not sound like hoofsteps against wood though. Hearing the sounds nearing the door she stepped back. The lock was turned and then the handle pressed down.

She had not been expecting the creature now standing before her. Not a pony but a gryphon had saved her. Well, gryphons liked to live around mountains, at least so she had heard. Never really thought they lived in huts. She always just imagined them to live in caves or nests up the mountainsides. Never really researched that much on the subject and realizing how something like that could possibly be taken by others she blushed lightly, despite never airing such thoughts.

She managed a smile to the creature standing before her.

He was big. She knew gryphons were bigger than most pegasi, had seen a few visiting her hometown. But this one was really big. He was a dirty, dark brown colour, both in his coat and his feathers. Just one colour. Even with his wings still folded she could tell by the size that he must have the most amazing wingspan. Quite scary to think about. Lion backside and legs, a tail with a fluffy tip. Feathers covering his from and head. The feathers on the top of his head were short and looked messy, like they needed a good grooming but she was not going to question the feather grooming habits of a gryphon, at least not one of that size. His beak was… impressive. Big. Stumpy. Looking like it could chomp her leg clean off if she should decide to do so. He was big and bulky but it was not just the muscles that made him look that big, he just was. Explained the size of the bed.

She kept her smile although feeling more nervous around this impressive and rather scary gryphon. All this time had not said a word to greet her or to ask about how she felt. He just… glared silently at her. Those dark eyes, his expression was harsh yet hard to tell what he might be thinking. No worry about seeing his patient up and about nor relief to see she was awake and fresh enough to walk about. His eyes scanned her, looking her over but he did not say a word.

“U-Uhm, hi, I… I guess I should thank you, you must have seen me crash back then or found me after. Uhm, so, thanks. Heh, wouldn’t want to be stuck out there, knocked out cold and all. I really should have been more careful.”

Her mouth blabbered uncontrollable, uncomfortable about the eerie silence. The gryphon still did not say a word. Did he even understand her, could he be a foreigner? If there existed ponies all over the world speaking all kinds of languages, why not gryphons.

“Uhm, I think I left a mess on the floor, I-I’ll help clean it up. I don’t want it to look like I’m taking the hospitality for granted. Which I don’t, of course. I was thinking, uhm, if I could have anything to eat, I’m kind of hungry. How long have I been out, I can’t really tell.”

Again the eerie silence. This was getting really unnerving now. He was not acting threatening or anyway and he had been taking care of her, she had no reason to feel so… scared of him. She should show the grace of not letting his appearance freak her out like this.

Just as she opened her mouth to speak again and let out yet another stream of babbling nonsense in desperation of ending the silence between them he suddenly backed out through the door again and closed it. She heard the lock click.

Okay… that could have gone better. And why the lock still? It could not be that he was scared of HER, gryphons and pegasi had no reasons to fear or distrust one another. Sure there had been wars about territory in the past but that was many generations ago. And she was a very small pony still recovering from a concussion. Was the lock for her safety? Safety from what.

Confused she sat down on the floor, waiting.

***

A short while later the lock clicked and the door opened again. The smell of food had her stomach rumble loudly, oh sweet Celestia, food!

She instinctively back away from the door at the sight of the figure standing in the doorway as the door opened. Much bigger than before, now standing up on his hindlegs. He barely fit in the door at all. He stepped forward, holding a bowl in his hand. Was he walking upright like this to better carry the bowl without a spill? How odd. Even pegasi could balance a tray with food on the back without spilling, but she was not to complain. She did not want to seem rude.

He slowly leaned down, like one would do when not wishing to scare an animal away, and placed the bowl on the floor. She realized she had kept backing away when her flank suddenly pressed against the bedframe. No wonder he moved so slow and carefully, she was actually acting like a scared animal. Not her fault really, he was pretty big and scary. Walking around on his hindlegs like that without saying a single word.

He stepped back, out through the door and once again closing and locking it. She really needed to ask him about that next time. But now: Food.

She stepped forward towards the bowl and breathed in the scent. It smelled delicious. Looked like some kind of stew. Carrots, peas and other things all mushed together in some deliciously smelling sauce. The mixing giving it all a brown look and it didn’t look too appetizing at any other time but right now she did not care. Forgetting proper manners for now she dug her snout into the stew and began eating. A bit hot but it was durable. Most of the vegetables had been overcooked and gone a bit mushy bit and other parts, things she could not really identify, were stringy and chewy. Chewing on those parts made her head complain about the working of her jaws so she simply spat them out back into the bowl to focus on the mushy bits instead. Eating as much she could, licking some of the sauce up from the bowl until all that was left were those unidentifiable bits of something.

With a deep sigh she sat down again, rubbing her belly. She might get a stomach ache now after eating so fast on empty stomach.

But for now, all was good. Maybe she should have asked for something to drink too, but she really did not want to disturb him again. Right now she just wanted to rest for a bit. Get a better talk with her host after a good rest, maybe he was just grumpy from getting disturbed this late.

She went back to the bed, climbing up to find rest on the sheet covered hay. Her stomach now rumbling as a result of working on digestion her meal. Her head throbbing from her moving about and chewing so viciously on the food. She sighed and closed her eyes, hopefully tomorrow would go much better. She hoped she had not giving off a too bad first impression.

Author's Note:

And first real chapter is up. I'm a bit out of habit writing proper stories, so let me know what you think and what you feel is missing. I'm up for any suggestions and corrections you offer.

Enjoy

****
Corrections done with help from ErraticOverlord and L_Wolf

Comments

[L_Wolf]

Pretty good first chapter, though it might be good idea to give the pegasus a description.

[Ravenpuff]

4686451
The description is planned to be added through the story, since it's told through her perspective and we rarely think out loud about our own looks unless comparing ourselves to others. It'll come.

[ShadowsInTheDark]

hmm interesting

[ErraticOverlord]

unexpecitingly

Unexpectedly is what I think you were going for there.

I would advise you to use a few more contractions. Really the only times you shouldn't use contractions are for heavy emphasis, characters a bit out of time, and androids.

I'll be keeping track:
~Your Erratic Overlord

[L_Wolf]

4686928 Ah I see, that is an interesting idea.

4686940 It does help make it easier to follow along and shorter paragraphs don't run together so bad if they get the extra spacing between them. It's more a matter of personal taste, but most fics with the extra space between paragraphs are easier to read.

[Ravenpuff]

4688679
Thanks, I got that corrected now. English isn't my first language so I might slip a few times during writing, so I'm happy for the corrections I can get to help me learn