It was so warm... and I felt like every ounce of strength has left my body. But I still managed to open my eyes after a few moments. I was lying on my left side in a bed, soft and warm.
I noticed a hand lying on the pillow near my face. Then my eyes focused further and I saw a nightstand, a familiar crystal shining on it beautifully, reflecting narrow sun rays...
I then realized, that the hand was mine. I moved it a little and frowned. I propped myself on one hand and tried to sit up. Wincing, I carefully tried to turn around, because the quilt slid downwards in a different way, that I would have expected...
And then an uncontrolled, terrified scream escaped my lips, when something big and black jumped out on me from behind.
"Sian!" I suddenly heard Yanka's voice along with the sound of a door opening. I turned reflexively and unintentionally hit something, but the feeling of it and the slight pain came from a place, where I've never before felt anything...
Suddenly a cold hand grabbed exactly that grazed spot and I heard another scream: "Sian!"
I froze instantly. I felt Sril him hold tightly... not to my wrist, but... I turned my head hesitantly.
There was a strong, black arch of a wing, jutting out from behind my own back. It didn't feel real... I tried to pull it towards me a bit. It jerked a little, but Sril held tight and I stopped, scared, that I might unintentionally hurt him.
"Yanka?" I suddenly heard a familiar voice. It took me a moment to remember, that it belonged to Kaan, Sril's generous acquaintance, who was now standing at Yanka's side. "Are you alright?"
"Yes..." she looked at her hand, that she was rubbing her head with, as if checking for blood. Luckily, she didn't find any and looked at me reproachingly. "You don't hold back even on a woman, do you!" she then sighed and asked more gently: "Are you alright?"
"I... well... I think so..."
Sril slowly loosened his grip and traced the edge of the wing carefully. "You feel that, right?" he asked, his voice soothing.
It was hard to believe that I did. Sril pulled slightly at the edge and I lost my balance. "Don't worry, try to relax it," Sril's voice was totally casual, as if nothing was really happening. I took a few deep breaths and slowly allowed the tension between by shoulder blades to fade. It was ridiculous. The expanse of dark, thin skin reached almost all the way to the wall.
The slight push of Sril's hand brought me back to the moment. With a bit of his guidance I managed to retract the wing and fold it behind my back. I then shifted a bit on the bed and repeated the whole process with the left wing. He then proceeded to explain how various parts worked, confirming my comparison to a palm.
Yanka, who watched us silently in fascination, suddenly asked: "How do you know so much about it?"
He stopped his fingers right above the curve of the leading edge. "Well... I've been reading a lot..."
Yanka came closer, took another look at my wings, top to bottom, and turned to Sril, staring closely into his eyes. I wasn't sure, but it seemed like he was almost blushing. "I knew it," she finally said.
"Sorry?"
"You already have wings!" she declared cheerfully. "Admit it, you do have them."
Sril just blinked a few times, but finally a sheepish smile appeared on his features. "How did you know?"
"You can't learn this amount of detail by just reading. And besides, you had a similar look to the one Sian had, when I asked him if he knew what happened to the bird I captured on the second morning..."
"Come on, I just thought it was too cruel to make dinner out of something that small..." I tried to protest.
"And I told you I was just going to use it to send a message. Honestly, just because we live in the wild doesn't mean we eat everything that crosses our path..."
I just averted my gaze, having run out of arguments. But then I remembered something. "Wait, Sril, was that the reason why you..."
"Yes. That was the reason I arrived at your village a bit late and was so exhausted. I'm sorry, that I didn't tell you the truth. All this time I was wondering though..." Sril carefully took my sath from the nightstand, "why didn't you press me for answers? You must have known..."
I didn't answer, when I took the crystal from his hand, not looking him in the eyes. "You said I will be able to make them disappear. How can I do that?"
"You just need to concentrate and think about it intensively enough."
I repositioned myself on the bed to sit more comfortably and closed my eyes. For a while I repeated my wish in my mind, even imagined myself without them, normally, like always... I shot a death glare to my right after repeating it for the thirtieth time. "I can't..."
"You're tired," Sril tried to calm me down. "Besides, you just woke up, you must still be dizzy. It's been two days after all..."
I raised my eyebrows. "Two days...?" I whispered.
"Yeah, I think that's what you call being dead to the world..." Yanka tried to joke. "That reminds me, you must be terribly hungry, let me fetch something for you." And before I could answer she gave me a sweet smile and disappeared through the door. Kaan silently followed her.
I sighed.
"Does anything still hurt?"
I have no idea why Sril's voice made me jump. When there was just him nearby, it always felt like there was noone around. It seemed like his presence was melting with the surrounding silence.
"No, I'm fine... just a little stiff," I answered finally and shifted on the bed again.
Before I could stand up though, Sril soundlessly came closer and extended his hand, as if offering help. "It's not easy, believe me," he said, seeming a bit amused. "Your balance will be totally off now, you need to be careful."
I accepted it and slowly stood up. At first he only held my hand, not applying any pressure in any direction, wanting me to feel everything on my own. And everything seemed perfectly fine until I straightened up all the way to stand in front of him. It was then that the room suddenly swayed and I felt myself falling backwards, but at the exact same moment, or maybe even a split second before it, Sril's hand tightened around mine and firmly held me in place.
"It's alright," he soothed. "It's good though, that you instinctively knew what to do."
I looked at him again, confused. "I did nothing."
"You just flapped your wings."
"... really?" I was completely unaware of that fact.
"Yes, but please try to watch it next time. Arranging an interior like this surely wasn't easy."
I smiled bitterly, and he started to lead me across the room. To my relief, getting a hang of it didn't take very long. Sril had to dodge my reflexive flicking of wings less and less, until I managed to get from one end of the room to another without his help.
Soon after that achievement Yanka returned with a whole selection of dishes, which she and Sril had to help me with. When we were done, I made another attempt at hiding my wings - a completely futile one. While Yanka tried to convince me not to worry about it that much, Sril noticed, that the sun outside was already setting. They both retreated from my room, allowing me to rest some more.