Sitting on her bed in her room, Airya watched Hethei fly around. She couldn't tell if he was excited or frustrated as he flapped his wings and went to one wall and then hightailed it back to the next one over and over again. He then landed on the ground and turned into a little puff of feathers. Her heart broke a little. He was agitated.
She got off her bed and bent down to scoop him up, "I'm sorry, Hethei. I was hoping that my room would be perfect for you, but I didn't think about the fact that you may feel trapped again. I promise you’ll never be trapped though. I won't ever let you be." She bent her face down and lifted her hands up to try to nuzzle the puffed-up bird.
Hethei relaxed his feathers. They were smooth and sleek as he nuzzled her back.
"If you want, you can just go outside. I don't know if you can fly well in the rain, but I will be here for you if you want to come back. I would go with you, but my dad said that I have to rest." She sat back down on her bed and set Hethei right next to her.
Hethei pushed out his feathers once more, so she stroked him to smooth them out again and yawned.
"How about tomorrow we find something for you to be able to sleep on?"
Hethei hopped to one of the sticks that her bed was made out of that was sticking out and made himself comfortable. He lifted one leg and closed his eyes.
"Or that works," Airya said yawning once more. She pulled her covers over her. Right before she fell asleep, she heard the frantic flapping of wings again around the room.
Loud panicked screeching woke her. She sat up and then jumped out of bed searching for Hethei. He was flying in front of a small warping blue and black hole that had placed itself just in front of one of her walls. Mesmerized, she took a step toward it.
Noticing that Airya was now awake, Hethei flew over to her and sat on her shoulder. His wings fluttered irritatingly at the hole. Airya took another step toward it and he screeched again, the sound ringing in her ears. She was too curious to listen to him though. She had never seen anything like it or anything so hauntingly beautiful. She put her hand out to it and Hethei jumped on her hand and hopped to face her. His fear was enveloping his wide yellow eyes as he screeched at her while flapping his wings. She ignored him. She knew she should be worried and scared, but she wanted to figure out what it was. She moved her hand in closer, her fingers buzzing with static and a pull as her hand got nearer to the floating object.
Hethei jumped to her fingers and off her hand as if to attack the floating small hole. But then in a flash, he was pulled inside of it and was gone, leaving behind the small hole for an instant as it wrapped itself up and disappeared too. Airya stood there breathing heavy, her nerves on edge, her body begging her to move.
She ran to the wall and put her hands against it even though she knew that wasn't where the portal had been, but she needed something to do and something solid to touch. A tear ran down her cheek. Her nerves sizzled right before she let out a cry and fell to her knees.
"Hethei!" she yelled, "Hethei!"
All she could think about was the poor owl trapped once again when she had promised to keep him safe. She just wanted to know where he was. She needed to know. She felt her body, her heart, calling out to him. She was desperate to hold him in her hands once more and feel the calm stroke of his beak on her ear giving her the sense that all would be OK. Her nerves burned on the edges of her skin as she cried and began to shake. She had lost a friend that she had thought she would have forever. Her heart was breaking a little inside.
But then in front of her there was another hole. A bigger one than before. Blue, black, and mesmerizing. It was widening in front of her. Shoving her heart back into one piece as hope and courage coursed through her, she reached for the opening and felt the static and the pull before she was lifted from the ground and dragged inside.
She had been inside the hole for only a second. She imagined if she wanted to really get the taste or the feel of it, she would have to go through it about a hundred or more times. But for that instant, it was a buzzing shock on her nerves.
Now she saw bright green as fresh air landed on her skin. There was grass beneath her knees and the vastness of an open field. Looking behind her, she saw that the hole was gone. Around her was lush green grass and to her side a huge lake. Way bigger than the lake she grew up with. She couldn't see the other side of this one. Only the edges as it swerved around in a curve going off into the never-ending distance.
There was an excited hoot overhead and Airya looked up to see Hethei flying in a circle above her before circling down to her. He landed in front of her and nuzzled against her elbow hooting excitedly. She let out a long outtake of breath and sat down on her knees to take in her beautiful surroundings.
"Where are we?" she asked no one in particular. Hethei tilted his head and stared at her for a second like he was thinking deeply about something and then took off in flight again towards the wooded forest that was a few feet from her. He disappeared overhead.
She sighed and grasped herself into a cradle not knowing where to go or what to do. There was a big orange ball in the sky that hurt her when she looked at it. She didn't know what it was. This place felt so big and foreign on her skin.
There was the sound of flapping wings as Hethei landed by her side again with something in his beak. He held three feathers that were brown and grey just like his. Her eyes widened and her heart skipped a beat, "Is this where you’re from? Is this your home?"
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Hethei dropped the feathers and hopped up and down hooting twice excitedly.
"From beyond my eyes, Hethei! This place is so magical and calm! It’s beautiful!"
Hethei hopped toward her and rubbed his beak on her cut up leg.
"But how did we get here?"
Hethei puffed out his feathers.
"Yeah, I don't know either." She got up and let the sweet wind rustle her long hair for a moment, taking in the view. She looked over the lake, "It’s breathtaking though," she walked towards it, "but how do we get back?"
She began to feel an ache inside when she thought of her dad and then her mom and wondered if she would ever see them again. She had no idea how she got where she was now and found herself not caring at the moment. All she wanted was to figure out was how to get back. She had enough adventures for one day. She didn't even get a chance to fully rest like her dad had said.
A tear danced down one cheek, her eyes failing at holding them in. Hethei flew back onto her shoulder, "I love your home, Hethei. I really do. But I'm scared and I want my dad."
Hethei nuzzled into her neck and hair in understanding.
Airya walked around part of the lake not able to take in its beauty in its entirety because of the tears that kept falling down from her eyes and the ache that was growing more and more in her chest. How would she eat? She didn't know how to catch rats to boil them in this lake at night. She didn't see any berries in the trees or swalak in the water. Maybe Hethei could catch her something if he didn't eat it all himself first. She wanted nothing more than a nice big hug from her father, enough to where she could feel his arms wrapping around her. She could even smell the sweet berries she crushed with her mother on the wooden plate and hear the laughter of the children by the mountains when they danced. Her body hummed with an aching desire for her home. Her nerves awakening and tingling on her skin as her heart began cracking to pieces. She stood and looked out over the never-ending body of water.
A hole appeared in front of her. She jumped back. It was the same hole that had taken her here. It shimmered like thick gunky water, a brilliant black and blue intermingling making her hairs stand on end. Hethei flapped his wings in her ear.
"Stop that,” she said sternly, "I know it’s scary, but this is what brought us here, and what if it can bring us back?"
Hethei flapped his wings again, flustered and nervous, but she ignored him and went toward the hole. With the same static electric pull and then push, she was outside the temple, the air calm, and no giant ball in the sky.
Running into her dad's room after having searched all over the temple, she finally found him. Hethei followed behind her in flight.
"Dad! Dad!" she tried to yell.
Her dad startled for a second and then turned to look at her, "What’s wrong, Airya?"
"We just... we just..." she tried to catch her breath her cheeks flushed. "We just went to Hethei's home!"
"You went back to the tree you found him in?" Her dad asked.
"No, no. The place he’s from! Remember you said Stilk said they just kept showing up, well I went to where he showed up from! Almost like the other place you and mommy came from that you can't get back to!"
Her dad stood there in silence, a stern look of disbelief in his eyes, "How?"
"There was this big hole that opened up in our room and it took us in and took us to this place with a big lake that you couldn't see where it ended and a big orange ball in the sky that hurt!"
Her dad stared at her in bewilderment, "You mean a sun?"
"A what?" Airya asked confused.
"Never mind. How did the hole appear?"
"I don't know. There were two. One was a small one that took Hethei in and the other was big one that took me in. It happened when I was sleeping and Hethei was flying around the room."
Eyes widening, he looked to the owl like he was magick, "Did you do that?" he asked.
Hethei puffed out his feathers.
"I don't think he did, dad. He was scared."
"Ok. I want you to tell me all about it."
Airya started from the beginning from when Hethei wouldn't sleep to the feelings she felt inside the hole and the place that it took her to. Then she explained how she had the want to come back home and how the hole reappeared before she was shoved back to Ausrine.
"You felt an ache and a pull to get somewhere and then a hole showed up?" her dad asked in a cautious whisper.
"Yeah, I guess."
"Do you think you can try to do that again? Ache to be somewhere else?"
"I would like to show you that place!" Airya said excitedly.
"Ok, let's try that." Hard determination was written across his face.
Airya thought hard of the beautiful lake and the calming feeling she got from it and the happiness that had seemed to flow off of Hethei from being there. She closed her eyes and remembered Hethei bringing her the feathers and jumping up and down. She felt that same pull. Her nerves started to tingle.
Her dad gasped right as she was opening her eyes. The hole was in front of her again.
"What’s that!?" Her mom called out.
Airya and her dad whipped their heads to the doorway and the hole disappeared. Her mom was standing there.
"Eos! You won't believe it!" said her dad standing up. "Our daughter can leave this world. She can adventure! She can find our home and our family!"
"What?" Her mom stood still, frightened, dumbfounded.
"It seems like somehow the owl and her got these powers or something that can take them other places!"
Airya smiled at her mom. Her dad's excitement was awakening hers and pushing away any fear she had had about the experience before.
"No." Her mom said flatly.
"Eos. But... What about?" Her dad was stammering, his mood quickly dropping.
"No," her mom stated again, "No. No. No. No. NO!" the last one she screamed.
Airya cowered away, tears forming in her eyes. She had never seen her mom so upset before. Her dad stepped in front of her to shield her from her mother.
"Eos. Let's talk about this," he tried to reason.
"Why, Delak? Because you want her to go off on some suicide mission like we did? Do you want our daughter to die?!" Her mom had tears falling to the floor.
"Airya, please go to your room so your mother and I can talk."
Airya didn't need any prodding at all. She ducked under her dad's arm, around her mom, and straight out of the room sobbing all the way to hers.
She fell onto her bed in tears as Hethei landed on her back. She tried to shrug him away, but he just stayed where he was.
“I just don’t get it!” Airya yelled at him. “No matter what I do, my mom cannot stand it. She can’t stand me!” It was too much. She had found this amazing thing she could do that scared her a little and all she wanted was comfort. The kind of comfort her dad was giving her, but why did her mom ruin it? Why did her mom seem to always make her feel bad about herself? She hated it. She was tired of feeling bad about herself here, and of course, her dad would take her mom’s side. This was just another thing that her mom would ignore about her. This was just another thing that was going to keep her mom from accepting her.
She needed to get away. She needed to run away.
But where would she go?
She couldn’t go anywhere around here because no one would understand. Everyone thought her mother was the most amazing thing. They would say that she was wrong to be upset if they saw her crying. She couldn’t go to Atta again because she was not wanted there either.
She flipped over onto her back making Hethei fly off of her. She found herself staring into another warping hole floating above her. She wanted to reach into it and touch it, but a part of her was too frightened to do so. She stared into its interlacing depths as it stared into her. Until slowly, she reached up into it and let it pull her in.
Anything to get away.