Wishing I could Fly Far Away...

[Striker]

It must have been nearly a week or perhaps a few days more than that since they'd brought him to this place; this prison that wasn't a prison. The first few days had been the very worst, they'd hardly left him alone the entire time as they examined him or threatened him but even the few times he'd fought back or the times they'd broken his bones being to rough his thoughts had been on Domerin. It was torment to not know where he was or if he was alright; his only comfort was knowing that his mate must be alive, he would know in his heart if he wasn't. The past few days he'd been quiet and the horrible elves that kept this place had let him out of the windowless room they'd been keeping him in, the enclosure almost to much after the time spent there. He'd be able to see the sun but they'd made sure he wouldn't be flying away anytime soon, chained with magic to keep him grounded and watched nearly all the time. But some fresh air would do him some good, he had to make the best of things until Domerin came.

The child had been there for a very long time. She must have been, because she no longer remembered how she had gotten here. She only remembered that she had been here for almost as far back as she could remember. She knew there was a time from before, a time before she had come here, because she could recall it vaguely. She could remember blurred images and things that she never saw here. But here she had been for so long that her world no longer extended beyond it. Thus it was immediately noticeable to her when she caught sight of something that was, quite obviously, not from here. Or rather... some one. Like Sesha, the child was being watched very carefully. When she approached him it looked as though their mutual captors were going to stop her, but when it was obvious neither of them were trying to make trouble they backed off and let the child make her way to Sesha. She stopped just before him and stared up at him. She was worn and weary, dirty and it looked as though she must have been beaten at one time, or several, in the past. Her eyes had somehow lost their innocence. But she had the curiosity of any child her age. She pointed up at the black feathered protrusions from Sesha's back and said in a slightly hoarse voice, "Why do you have wings, Mister? Are you a bird?"

Sesha had a slight new adornment to those black wings of his now, a very faint blue glow clung to the very edges of them, the sign of the magic that kept him from using them to escape as he so wished too. He'd been quietly taking in the air when the girls voice broke him out of his thoughts and he blinked down at the young girl, something he never thought he'd see in a place like this. And she was so dirty. Where had she come from? A single glance at one of the guards told him she must belong here but didn't they take care of her at all? But his natural like for children pulled a small smile onto his face. "No I'm not a bird. I'm an avariel, a winged elf."

It was clear from the look of the child that she was not of the same race as her captors. For one thing, while her ears seemed elven at first glance, a second look showed that they were actually much longer than normal elven ears. In fact much of what the child seemed to look like at first glance was shattered by a second, very good look at her. Her hair initially seemed grey, but was in fact silver, so much so that it glittered where the light hit it, despite the streaks of dirt that ran through it. But it was her eyes that were the most disconcerting of all. They didn't seem the eyes of a child at all but rather the eyes of something far older and far wiser. But she seemed to be a child, for she had the same reaction any child would have had to discovering a man with wings; sheer and utter awe. "Does that mean you can fly?!"

Sesha did notice those things now that she was closer to him and he could get a better look at her. He'd been around enough children in his time, even the odd ones and those that didn't quite belong. There was something strange about this young girl though somehow it didn't really seem to surprise him that she was here now, he was very much out of place too and just thinking that gave this prison a far more sinister light then it had before. He kept those dark thoughts off his face as he spoke to her though, his smile faltering just the slightest but perhaps not enough to warrant notice through her awe. "Yes I can fly. I would show you but I've been told I have to stay on the ground right now."

The girl's face fell and it was clear that her very next question would have been for him to take her flying. She was just a child, after all. Though she was not foolish or stupid, she had a love and awe of simple things. Not only that, but if he had been able to fly with her, she would have been able to leave this place. "I have to stay here too." She said, her expression sad and dejected. "I don't like it here very much sometimes. Sometimes everyone is mean." 'Sometimes' being most of the time. "Sometimes I want to go somewhere else. I haven't seen anywhere else in a long time."

Sesha didn't like to hear that sort of thing coming out of a child's mouth, even if she wasn't quite what she appeared to be. He rubbed one arm absently with a hand, reminders of his own experiences here in the first few days when the elves had been 'mean' to him; he was inwardly glad they hadn't taken away the use of his healing magic. And he tried not to let her words get him down either, he didn't expect to be here for a long time, not when Domerin found him, and his mate would never stop until he did. "I'm Sesha. What's your name?" He offered out a frail hand to her.

The child clearly had to stop and think for a moment before she could tell him her name. Her guardians didn't tend to refer to her by name, and she did not often have people to talk to, or at least not for very long. But she knew she had a name... she knew she liked it too. After a moment she blinked and seemed to cheer up a bit. She had remembered her name, after all. "Athabaska!" She declared brightly, holding up her hand and letting him take it in his much bigger one. "It's nice to meet you Sesha bird!" she giggled to herself. At least it seemed her captors had taught her some manners... or her parents had before they'd gotten ahold of her.

"Athabaska. That's certainly a very pretty name." He didn't seem bothered at all by the little nickname she added onto his own. He'd been called bird many times before now but never in quite so positive a way. Sesha gave her small hand a little shake before letting it go. "So what do you usually do out here?" He hesitated to say fun, not thinking that was something they allowed in the place but it was good to keep the conversation going for as long as their captors allowed them to talk.

Athabaska frowned. Clearly whatever she usually did out here, she didn't like it very much. Her captors had been very careful to keep her healthy, but they didn't care very much if she was happy. "It's hard to explain. They... want me to do things but... I can't do very many. They get mad because I don't do it very well. They say I need to try harder."

[Striker]

Sesha frowned softly to that; he would have thought she'd at least be allowed outside to play, if she did things like that though her condition didn't make him think they cared very much what happened to her afterwards. He lowered his voice just slightly with his next question. "What kinds of things?" They'd already asked him how he did what he did and was still sure they didn't believe him when he told them his wings were hereditary.

Athabaska glanced over her shoulder but her guards were simply murmuring to each other and crossing their arms and glaring at her. So she found herself a patch of grass and settled down in it, making herself somewhat comfortable. She wore a serious, thoughtful expression that was unsuited to a child of so few years. "They call it magic. Sometimes I can do it, but I don't understand how or why they want me to. I can't do very much, but they tell me that I should do more. Alot of it, all the time!" She gestured wildly with her little arms. "But I don't really understand how I do it at all... so how could I do it more?"

Sesha glanced over at the guards as well but so long as they were staying over there... He followed her and sat down on the grass, wings opened slightly backwards so they didn't trail to much on the ground. "If they really want you to do magic they're certainly not going about it the right way. In order to really use magic whenever you want you have to be taught, otherwise it doesn't do what you want. They must not know that."

Athabaska shrugged her little shoulders. Sesha, her new bird friend, probably knew more about it than she did. After all... he was an adult, and the adults seemed to be the ones who knew everything. "They say that I'm just not concentrating long enough or that I just don't want to cooperate with them. Sometimes they get very mean because I don't do a good job." She frowned darkly. "I do try really hard, they just don't believe me."

Sesha knew what portended in that dark look, one that, in his opinion, should never be seen on the face of a child. "That's because they can't do it themselves and because they're just plain nasty." There was no getting around it and it really made him want to do something uncharacteristically rash. They'd already accused him of being uncooperative too and the consequences from that hadn't been terribly pleasant.

The girl pulled her knees up to her chest and curled herself into a small sort of ball. Athabaska had learned not to question the way things were. They wanted her to do things, she couldn't always do them. But sometimes... sometimes she did things even she didn't understand. "I don't know." she said the way a child always does when they aren't certain if an adult is telling them the truth. "Some of them can do it.. but they say I should be able to do it better than they can. They want to learn to do it better, I think. I don't really understand." The child finally admitted. "I just do what they tell me to."

It wasn't right to demand a child do magic when they'd had no training in it, or to focus it at all when they didn't even know what they could do. "Then they should be teaching you instead of demanding you do things you don't know how to." Sesha reached over and laid a hand gently on her shoulder, offering what sort of comfort he could to her. "It's not your fault."

But Athabaska wasn't so sure. As far back as she could remember she had been with these people and they had told her all sorts of things that she had learned to accept as true. She could do magic, she knew that she could because on occasion she did exactly what was asked of her without any trouble at all. But other times... "I wish you really were a bird." the child said sullenly, "So you could fly me far far away to somewhere new."

He could sense her hesitation about his words and wished he could do more to help and convince her but he was as much a prisoner here as she was. Sesha leaned in closer, whispering to her even if there was very little chance of them being overheard. "I can't fly now, they won't let me. But someday very soon I will and I promise I'll take you with me." It was a hasty promise but he refused to see her kept her like this, being used by those terrible elves.

Athabaska glanced up at him, her wide eyes glimmering with tears. But she quickly glanced over her shoulder again and hid her expression of surprise and awe. She had apparently been here long enough to know that if she allowed any sign of what had just passed between them to reach their guards, neither of them would be very happy about it. "Your right, flying doesn't sound so fun any more." she said in response to something he hadn't said at all. "But I still think your wings are pretty, Sesha bird."

That brought a proper smile to his face and for the first time since being brought here, if only for a few moments, he felt like himself and happy to be in proper company. "Why thank you Athabaska."

Athabaska rewarded his proper smile with one of her own. She might have been sad and worn, but she could still smile with real joy. "I'm glad you came to meet me, Sesha bird, even if this isn't a very nice place."

"I'm sure you didn't come to this place willingly either, but I am glad that I was able to meet you, no matter what might happen." He didn't want her to think that he disliked her. And it wouldn't last forever, he knew, one day those walls would come down and whatever their captors really did in this place would be done with.

Athabaska only shrugged in response to Sesha's words this time. "I don't know how I got here." She admitted. "I've been here a long time. Almost as long as I remember. I don't remember much about any place but this one. Are there lots of nice places outside here?" Sesha seemed like he would know, since he had just gotten here. He seemed like the sort of person who had maybe seen alot of places other than this one.

Sesha lifted a brow. Didn't know how she'd gotten there? He meant to ask her more about it but saw to her own questions first. "Oh yes, there are many very nice places. "Where I grew up was a beautiful place and I've passed through lots of them before I was brought here." Most of what made the traveling special was because he was with Domerin though it didn't make them any less lovely.

[Striker]

Athabaska's eyes shined with eager excitement when Sesha started talking about places outside of their prison. She must not have been exadurating when she had said she could barely remember anything outside of this place, as she seemed extremely interested in the other places Sesha had seen. "What was it like where you grew up?" She breathed, clearly anticipating hearing every little detail he was willing to share.

But the child glanced away before he had a chance to answer and looked in all directions as if she was trying to be sure that no one was listening. Then she leaned closer and gave Sesha a conspiratorial glance. "When you fly away to those other places," she whispered, her voice barely more than a breath on the wind. "Will you take me with you?" The look in the eyes she turned up to him was one of desperate pleading.