Chapter Text
Jimmy runs through the forest, panting and stumbling over roots and loose foliage. He glances behind himself, his eyes widening with fear when he sees just how close the soldiers are to catching him.
He turns to face forward again, pushing himself to run faster.
Tears begin to stream down his cheeks. He just got away. He tasted freedom for less than five minutes, and yet he can't even think about going back.
Back to that dungeon. Back to those cages. Back to being paraded around and touched like some sort of pet.
No, he can't go back. He won't go back.
He forces himself to run even faster, the yells of the soldiers starting to fade behind him.
The deep and dense part of the forest, the place where one can truly get lost or away, comes into view.
Jimmy powers on, freedom within his grasp for once in his life.
Freedom.
Free.
Two words Jimmy never thought could possibly ever apply to him. Ones that soon would, if everything went right for him.
And then, his foot catches on a loose root, and he trips.
As the ground gets closer and closer, time seems to slow. He feels himself falling, feels the wind rushing past him. He tries to stretch his wings to catch himself, but they are still bound, which he is reminded of from the pain that shoots through his wings and body as he attempts to move them.
Right before he hits the ground, before his newfound freedom is ripped away from him, he feels someone grab him and tug him behind a large rock, out of view of the soldiers.
Before he can make any noises of protest or surprise, a hand slaps over his mouth to keep him silent, and he is too shocked to do anything about it.
The soldiers pass by and immediately disappear from view as they enter the dense part of the forest.
“They're gone.” A voice murmurs quietly from next to Jimmy's head. “If I remove my hand, are you going to scream?”
Jimmy shakes his head, still not fully comprehending what's happening. He hears a sigh of relief, and the hand is removed from his mouth.
Whoever's beside him stands up, pulling Jimmy up along with them. Jimmy snaps out of his confused state and pulls away, stumbling backwards and looking for the first time at his, what, savior? New captor?
He is a tall man, shorter than Jimmy, but tall nevertheless. He's got teal hair, icy blue eyes, a pale complexion, and… wings? White wings speckled with gold feathers, similar to those of a snowy owl in shape and build.
Jimmy blinks at the man, who also seems to be around his age. Jimmy's own wings twitch in response to seeing another pair of wings, free wings at that, and he winces in pain as the bindings cause them to stay in place, sending another burst of pain through his back.
“Oh, let me help.” The stranger says, walking behind Jimmy and reaching for the ropes binding his wings together.
Jimmy panics and flinches away from the touch instinctively, and the man pauses, taking a step back and raising his hands to show he means no harm.
“Sorry, I should've asked first.” The man says with an apologetic look. “Is it alright if I undo the bindings on your wings? I'll be extremely careful.”
Jimmy bites his lip in thought, knowing how sensitive his wings are, before giving the man a small nod.
“Okay, I'm going to undo them now.” The man calmly announces his actions, making sure Jimmy knows what he's doing, before carefully touching the ropes tied around Jimmy's wings.
Jimmy instinctively tenses, but he stays still as the man pulls at the knots in the ropes, slowly untying them.
After a few minutes of silence, Jimmy hears the man murmur, “There,” as the ropes fall away.
Jimmy turns to face the man before cautiously stretching his wings, wincing at his stiff and sore they are.
He freezes when he hears the distant hollers of the soldiers. His eyes widen and his breath quickens to an alarming pace. His vision goes blurry and he tucks his wings tightly to his back, slumping against the rock as his mind races.
They've probably discovered he's not in the denser part of the forest. They're probably on their way back.
They're probably going to find him.
Jimmy starts to hyperventilate, his eyes welling with tears. He sinks to his knees, his entire body shaking as his lungs start to burn from how shallow and quick his breathing is.
He's too lost in thought to notice when the man kneels in front of him, though he jolts and curls in on himself when he feels a hand on his shoulder.
“Hey, hey, you need to breathe.” The man murmurs softly, the words sounding like an order as the man tries to hide his own worry.
Jimmy doesn't listen, his lungs seeming to close up even more at the words. More tears fall down his face as his breathing somehow quickens even more.
His life in captivity flashes before him as he realises he's going to go straight back to it, only he'll have even more punishments because he tried to escape.
No
He’ll never have the chance to see his sister, who escaped a few years ago. He was going to search the world as many times as he needed to until he found her.
Chance
He was going to find a way to go back for his cousin, who is still stuck as a captive, a toy, a plaything. He was going to go back, he was going to save him, but now there's no chance of that.
Of
Him and his cousin are going to be stuck there until they died, likely of torture from their captors, or even of their own volition, as many others in their positions had done, not wanting to continue with the horrible life they're forced to live.
Freedom
Jimmy's vision starts to go black at the edges, both from his thoughts and from the lack of proper oxygen entering his lungs
The man swears under his breath as he sees Jimmy spiral deeper and deeper into his panic attack. He hesitates for a moment before sitting down fully and pulling Jimmy against him, the panicking man's back against his chest.
Jimmy freezes for a moment, though he continues to hyperventilate, the shock of the man pulling him into a hug of sorts not enough to pull him out of his panic. He starts to struggle against the man's grip, though it just becomes tighter the more he struggles.
“You're alright now. Just listen to me breathe and copy it, okay?” The man murmurs next to Jimmy's ear. He takes a deep breath through his nose, holds it for a moment, then releases it through his mouth.
As the man repeats the action over and over, Jimmy starts to calm down, his breath instinctively starting to morph to match the man's.
“That's it, in, and out. In, and out. You're doing amazing.” The man murmurs to Jimmy once he feels the panicking man’s breathing returning to normal against his chest.
The man suddenly goes still and silent, shrinking back against the large rock, pulling Jimmy beside him to keep him as hidden as possible.
Jimmy stiffens as well, hearing the troops of soldiers walking past their hiding spot and discussing him.
“I can't believe that damned bird got away. His Majesty is gonna kill us if we don't bring his prized plaything back to him.” One of the soldiers grumbles. A few others make noises of agreement, and Jimmy curls against the man's side, hiding his face in the man's shoulder.
The man wraps his arms around Jimmy in a tight and comforting embrace, staying as still as possible as the soldiers pass by. His heart sinks when Jimmy flinches slightly at his unexpected touch.
“They're gone. We need to get out of here.” The man says quietly a few minutes after the soldier's voices faded away. “Can you stand?”
Jimmy lifts his head and nods, his expression still one of fear. His entire body shakes as he pushes himself to his feet with the help of the rock, spreading his wings slightly to steady himself.
The man stands as well, watching Jimmy carefully to make sure he stays upright.
“This way.” The man whispers, leading Jimmy into the dense part of the forest.
Jimmy hesitates for a moment before following. His mind races with horrible scenarios of this man not doing this to help him.
Maybe this freedom isn't real. Maybe this man is going to betray him.
Maybe he's not getting away after all.
Jimmy blinks away the tears that appear in his eyes and pushes the thoughts away.
This man has done nothing suspicious yet, there's no reason to not trust him.
“Jimmy.” Jimmy says quietly, his voice hoarse from disuse.
“Hm?” The man turns to look at Jimmy with curiosity.
“My name's Jimmy.” Jimmy clarifies after clearing his throat to try and get his voice back to normal.
“I'm Scott. It's a pleasure to meet you, Jimmy. I wish it could be under better circumstances, but it's a pleasure either way.” The man - Scott - replies, smiling warmly, obviously glad that Jimmy has decided to speak.
Jimmy nods softly and continues to follow Scott through the woods. He radiates curiosity, of who this man is, what he's doing here, why he saved him, and where they're going.
“You'll see where we're going in a few minutes.” Scott says as if he read Jimmy's thoughts.
Jimmy stops paying attention to where they're walking, starting to think again, getting lost in his own thoughts. He stumbles as he walks into Scott's back, not noticing that the other man had stopped walking.
Scott chuckles and turns to look at Jimmy, steadying him by gently grabbing his arm.
Jimmy flinches at the contact, visions flashing through his mind of his previous captors.
Rough hands touching his body, stroking his wings.
His mouth moving, words coming out. Stop, he’d say. That hurts, he’d complain. Please, he’d beg.
It didn’t work. It never worked.
After all, their hands and touches always grew more confident and their laughter became louder when he asked them to stop.
Scott quickly lets go, understanding filling his expression almost immediately, though he doesn't dare say anything about it, not wanting to ask Jimmy to talk about anything like that just yet, when it’s obvious the wounds, both mental and physical, are too fresh.
“We're nearly there. Are you able to fly?” Scott asks, glancing at Jimmy's wings.
Jimmy stretches out his wings again, wincing slightly less this time.
“I- I think so.” He says quietly.
He gives an experimental flap of his wings, and nods slightly when it doesn't cause him pain.
“I'm pretty sure I can.” He confirms, his voice still quiet.
“Can you handle flying for about ten minutes? We can take as many breaks as you need, and I can help support you in the air.”
Jimmy nods hesitantly, and that's all it takes for Scott to spread his own wings and take off, waiting for Jimmy around nine feet in the air.
Jimmy doesn't move immediately. Instead, he stares up at Scott in awe. He's never gotten to see an avian hybrid flying freely, only ever in captivity.
He thinks of his sister, remembering her wings. They were like those of a flamingo, bright pink and white at the bases, the pink matching her bubblegum hair perfectly. He pictures getting to see her flying free rather than in captivity, the only way he'd gotten to see her fly before she escaped.
He thinks of his cousin with his colourful parrot wings, still captive in the palace. Maybe he'll never get to fly freely, only with the ever-present ropes and audiences. That thought makes Jimmy's heart sink even more, wishing he could've brought his cousin with him, but his escape from the palace had not been planned.
Jimmy notices Scott gesturing to him, and he tries his best to clear his thoughts as he shakily spreads his wings. He takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and takes off.
He opens his eyes after a moment and realises he's alright. He's suspended in the air, his wings flapping to keep him up there. He wobbles, a lot more than he would've thought he could while flying, and Scott reaches out and grabs his arm to steady him.
Jimmy manages to stop himself from flinching this time and just gives Scott a weak smile.
He still doesn't trust the man, but he has nowhere else to go.
Scott smiles back and lets go of Jimmy's arm once the other man looks stable enough to stay in the air.
“Follow me. Just tell me if you need a break and we'll stop for a moment.” Scott says, waiting until Jimmy nods to start flying.
Jimmy follows Scott through the air, still pretty unsteady, though it luckily doesn’t affect his flying too much.
He hasn't flown in a few weeks, and even then, he hasn't flown for more than five minutes at a time in a long while, which means that Jimmy gets tired very quickly, but he doesn’t want Scott to think he’s a burden, so he stays quiet.
They fly up through the treetops, breaking through the leaves and into open air. Jimmy's eyes widen as he takes in the world from above.
He can see the palace in the far distance, along with one of the larger cities a bit further. Other than those two things, all there is is forest stretching as far as the eyes can see, until it reaches the large, looming mountain that's right in front of Jimmy and Scott.
Jimmy looks up at the mountain, one so steep it would likely be impossible to climb without wings. No, it would definitely be impossible to get up there without wings.
Scott waits for Jimmy to finish taking in the view before he continues to fly, now directly towards the mountain, though he continues going up.
Jimmy follows closely behind Scott, getting increasingly more exhausted as the minutes pass, but he pushes on, not wanting to bother Scott and deciding that he'll be able to rest soon if the other man turns out to actually be trustworthy.
Once they're high enough in the sky that Jimmy begins to feel lightheaded, his breathing getting more labored due to the low air pressure, Scott stops flying upwards, and flies straight towards the mountain instead.
“Watch what I do very closely, and then follow me. Make sure to fly in a straight line.” Scott instructs, looking like he desperately wants to make some sort of joke at the word ‘straight’, though he holds off, knowing it's not the time.
Jimmy nods and watches as Scott flies directly into a particularly foggy part of the mountain - and disappears.
Jimmy blinks a few times, before taking a deep breath and doing exactly what Scott did, deciding he might as well trust the man, at least until he proves he’s untrustworthy. He closes his eyes and braces for impact, but rather than hitting the rocky edge of the mountain, he passes right through the fog into a tunnel of sorts.
It's extremely dark, but he can see some light at the end of the tunnel, along with Scott's silhouette. How poetic.
He continues to fly through the tunnel, ignoring the way his wing muscles protest from how hard he's overworking them.
He bursts through the end of the tunnel into a very bright area.
Jimmy blinks in wonder as his vision adjusts to the light. He looks down into what seems to be a bustling civilisation set up in the large valley in between multiple mountains, leaving no possible way for someone without wings to access it.
There are houses of all colours and styles everywhere - along the sides of the mountains, on the ground, some even suspended in the air from trees or rocky overhangs.
Along with the houses, there are avian hybrids everywhere, the bright colours from their wings and hair dancing and blurring together through Jimmy's tired gaze.
Scott watches Jimmy's fascination with a grin, happy he gets to be the one to show Jimmy this place, this sanctuary.
“Jimmy,” he says in a proud voice. “Welcome to Gaelwinn.”