Flight

by wkblack

The Cage (★)

A cutting pain brought Canary to her senses, laying on her stomach, limbs pulled in tight. The ground under her chin felt smooth, chill, and damp. Her eyelids slid open, revealing a wall of a wall of stalactites and stalagmites—a thousand tiny columns running up to the ceiling, lit by barely fluorescing moss. She shivered.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

An arc of pain shot up her legs as she stood—dark iron boots suffocated her chafing hooves. She kicked instinctively, but the tapered metal bit into her ankle, binding her to the smooth cave floor. She could barely rotate her legs, much less lift a hoof. Canary felt like she was breathing through a single piece of straw. She bit down on the cuffs and tried to wrench off the metal. A sharp fleck hit the inside of her mouth and Canary spat it onto the cave floor. The pegasus cringed, recognizing it as a chip of her tooth. Not one dent marred the metal's sheen.

Canary's heart thumped heavy in her chest. She tried to push out her wings to fan the air—moving air always helped her think—but she could hardly move a feather. Looking back she saw a metal loop pinning her wings to her back. Her wings flexed unconsciously and her breathing grew erratic. Fixing her attention on the door behind her, she tried to control her breathing. It was tantalizing—just a few wingspans behind her, yet completely out of reach.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Could this be that leatherwing prison from the war? Blitz had been skeptical of it, since only stories of stories had survived. “Core-polis? Corpse-alis? Korporis?” Canary nodded. Naming something is the first step towards defeating it.

Canary rested her head between her hooves and stared at a metal ring bolted to the floor, a half feather from her nose. As she tried to discern its purpose, her stomach growled. They wouldn't just let me starve—would they? She exhaled slowly, trying to calm her heartrate. If they wanted to kill me, they could have done it already. She shook her head lightly. They're keeping me alive for a reason.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Wisps of memory drifted through her mind, lingering like fog on a winter morning. Her heart turned icy, remembering the leatherwings first entering town. Only a few pegasi had joined the Lightbringers by that time, but restriction breeds curiosity—the patrols and interrogations brought in dozens more pegasi to their rebellion. Canary tried to imagine her flights with Aether as vividly as possible, searching for the scent of Woodburn's forested mountains. Tears climbed up towards her eyes.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Canary nuzzled her head between her hooves and wept.

Click.

The door behind her swung open and a leatherwing entered the cell. The noctal guard could have been mistaken for a pegasus, were it not for her bat-like wings and cat-slit eyes. Her irises were bright pink and shone out against her charcoal coat. Her lip curled up in a sneer, revealing her pointed canines. Canary shuddered. No matter how many times she saw leatherwings, their nearly-pegasus anatomy set her on edge. The guard's voice was as sharp as her teeth and coated thinly with nectar.

“Welcome to Korporis.” The guard vultured around Canary, sizing up the pegasus.

Canary stood up, besting the guard by a featherwidth—the leatherwing didn't need any more of an advantage. “Why are you keeping me here?”

The guard headbutted Canary's jaw, spun around and landed a hoof on Canary's jaw. Over Canary's scream the guard hissed, “You will speak when spoken to, prisoner!”

Canary growled, but a stab of pain kept her jaw closed. She knew well why she was here—she just wanted test the guard's limits, and she had found them. As Canary's tongue sat still, her eyes wandered over to a bridle hanging from the guard’s side.

“You'll wear the bridle each plucking.” The guard drunk up Canary's fear. “Move one feather when I'm putting it on and I'll add a sister bruise on your jaw.”

Canary weighed her odds, inspecting the leatherwing's muscular form. As the guard took the bridle in her mouth, Canary imagined headbutting the guard back but couldn't imagine it properly. The guard's eyes were synced to Canary's with a flawless focus that only comes from practice. They pierced her, making her wonder whether Pink-eyes could read her thoughts with that stare. It petrified her.

The bridle's metal slipped over her face and cinched onto her head after Pink-eyes jerked the cord. Dangling beneath her was the end of the bridle's lead, which had a clip at the end. The guard pulled the clip over the metal ring in the ground and stomped, latching the two together.

The leatherwing brought her face uncomfortably close to Canary's. Her breath was sour, like rotting fruit. Canary's wings tensed and her wingtips splayed out as much as her restraints allowed.

“What was your relationship to the pegasus Aether Wind?”

Canary glared into the leatherwing's slitted eyes. “Just a friend.” It had been true, once.

“We already know about your little group. 'Lightbringers' you call yourselves?” The guard spat. “Nature kills her rebels.” The guard circled around Canary's back. The restraints fought Canary's instinct as she tried to kick the guard. Panic grew in her, though she knew it was only reflexive.

Deep breaths, Canary told herself.

“Your silence won't save them—Nightwing's century should arrive at your valley by tomorrow.” Canary's eyes flashed wide, making Iris smirk. “Yes; we know where you all have been going. You thought you could hide from the Cloud?” The guard let out a lone high-pitched laugh.

“How?” Canary whispered. She sifted through their ranks, imagining who could have betrayed them. Not Cirrus, not Lilac or Coral or Skye... They had all seemed so loyal—Woodburn was small enough of a town that she had known most of them well even before they'd joined the Lightbringers.

A memory surfaced, of her last moments before waking here in Korporis. her capture. Blitz had come home completely expressionless. Canary had tried to speak to him, but two noctal guards burst into the house before he could answer.

“Interrogation brings out personality aspects you'd never imagine. That's why I requested this position—you get to see their true nature. When you get down past all the fancy ideology, you see that we're all just whimpering weaklings at our cores.”

Canary glared at the bat who had resumed circling her. You loathe most in others what you see in yourself. Blitz had told her that once.

“Who is your leader?”

“You already know: it's Aether! My leader, my teacher, my—” A pain from her wing made her swallow her sentence. The guard dangled a yellow feather in front of Canary's eyes and let it fall to the stony floor.

“The Cloud are your only leaders. Following others causes you pain.” She paused, a smile flickering across her face. “Can pegasi fly?”

“You know we can! That's why you—” Canary winced as she lost another feather but continued through the pain. “—That's why you arrested me! You're afraid of what we can do!” Another feather floated in front of her nose.

Pink-eyes glared into Canary's eyes and spoke slow and clear, as if to a child. “Your wings were not made for flight. The Cloud are the true flyers of Avondale.”

“Then why arrest us‽” The guard headbutted her again, forcing Canary to hold her tongue.

“Speak only when spoken to.” She gripped another feather between hear teeth. “Who is your leader?”

“Aether!” Another feather. A trickle of blood ran down her side.

“The cloud are your only leaders. Following others causes you pain. Can pegasi fly?”

“Stop asking that! Of course we can! We—” Canary inhaled sharply as she lost another feather.

“Your wings were not made for flight. The Cloud are the true flyers of Avondale.”

“Why are you—” Another hit to the face.

“Speak when spoken to. Who is your leader?”

“It's…” Canary bit her lip. “The Cloud,” she mumbled. Canary jumped as a jolt of pain ran down her wing. “Hey! I said what you wanted!”

The guard moved her face level to Canary's. “I didn't believe you. Try for more conviction if you want to convince me. Now tell me, can pegasi fly?”

Canary squeezed her eyes shut and shouted “No!” She tensed, expecting another bolt of pain, but the only sensation she felt was a sinking in her heart. What am I doing‽ Aether and I fought for this! I can't just abandon the Lightbringers like this! Feathers grow back!

“Passable. But you'll have to—”

“Pegasi don't fly; we soar!”

The guard scowled. “Pegasi—” She plucked a feather. “—cannot—” A second. “—fly.” A third. “Your wings were not made for flight; the Cloud are the true flyers of Avondale.” Pink-eyes snorted. “Back to square one. Who is your leader‽”

Feeling the guard's grip on one of her primary feathers, Canary took a deep breath.

Feathers grow back.

Feathers grow back.

Comments

[Racingwolf]

Very interesting so far. You did a good job setting the scene and I really felt for Canary. I'll be reading more of this soon!

[wkblack]

7842108 Thank you so much! I'd love to hear your thoughts as you read on.

[ookacha]

7 month late comment is 7 months late.

HWTA A REPMISE!
I'm dislexic because of the amazing writing!

First and foremost, excellent job of a blurb. Very catching. The way it's set up for a dystopia, and then the subtle clue that changelings are involved as well. Helps bring in thoughts of a crazy cast of kooky characters, very entertaining. Especially as it's a dystopia, can't wait to get emotionally hooked into the characters. Please don't do a game of thrones though, I like most my characters alive at the end of a chapter.
(But hey it's your story :P)

Next up we have the lack of a long-winded exposition, and a very nice set-up for an excellent memory scene.
Followed by a fantastic flail of our feathered friend (does that make sense? idk it sounds cool), and some wonderful world-building dialogue. It gives enough depth to know that these are not stereotypical characters, and that is only breaching the surface.

I would write more about my love for this right now but I've got MORE CHAPTERS TO READ! And also I'm really tired, was just about to head off to sleep BUT THEN THIS HAPPENED AND IVE GOTTA JUST AAAAAAAAAAAAA