Bird with a Broken Wing...
This takes place before Ululani, Olivia and Boris join the family and before Jay takes the Sikeri exam and gets Archie
\Jay’s POV/
Sitting underneath a set of trees that were alongside our lake, I watched all of my friends hanging out and having fun under the sun. Today was our monthly bonfire day, where we all slept outside, made camp foods… It was also when we told stories around the fire and our singers would take turns singing songs at different points of the day. I sighed as I watched Credere and Quarter run around and singing a song together. I closed my eyes and tried my best to see if I could hear what they were singing. If anything, the good thing about these days, is that all our singers raise the volume of their voices for them. I could very faintly hear them singing for a change…
[Credere, Quarter, Both]
"There’s no place I’d rather be~!
Then on my surfboard out at sea~
Lingering in the ocean blue~!
And if I had one wish come true~
I’d surf till the sun sets, Beyond the horizon~!
A wiki wiki mai lohi lohi~
Lawe mai I ko papa he’e nalu~
Flying by on the Hawaiian roller coaster ride~!
Hang loose, hang ten, howzit, shake s shaka
No worry, no fear, ain’t no biggie braddah
Cuttin’ in, cuttin’ up, cuttin’ back, cuttin’ out
Frontside, backside, goofy footed, wipe out
Let’s get jumpin’, surf’s up and pumpin’
Coastin’ with the motion of the ocean
Whirlpools swirling, cascading, twirling
Hawaiian roller coaster ride~!"
I opened my eyes and looked over at them, seeing them completely happy and having fun. I frowned and placed my head down on the ground. “I hate being deaf…” I just want to hear everyone’s voices… Hear them clear as day, as if everything was normal… But then again… I chuckled sadly to myself as some tears started welling up in my eyes. “Me…? Normal…? Ha… Yeah right…” I slowly got up off the ground, taking one more glance at the others before walking into the forest. I sighed once more and closed my eyes, causing the tears to begin rolling down my cheeks. It’s a very good thing I walk this path so often… I’m almost positive I would’ve walked into a tree by now if I didn’t have this path memorized. Feeling some sunlight hit me, I opened my eyes and saw that I made it to a mini field that was right on top of a cliff. Looking around the field, seeing quite a few patches of Harebells. I carefully walked over to one of the patches and pick a Harebell, just staring at it for a bit. After staring at it for a few minutes, I quietly start singing to it, and the cliff as well, I guess…
"I’m sick of the past I can’t erase…
A jumble of footprints and hasty steps I can’t retrace…
The mountain of things that I still regret…
Is a vile reminder that I would rather just forget…
(No matter where I go…)"
I sighed then walked over to the edge of the cliff and sat there. Looking out at the view, seeing the entire town that was right outside of the forest that both my friends and I called home. I smiled slightly, seeing a specific house that I’ve visited so often, it’s practically a second home to me. Not that I could really stay there, even if for one night… The others wouldn’t let me live it down… I looked back down at the flower in my hand and twirled it in my fingers. “Hm… Maybe she would like it…? Well… Only one way to find out.” With my mind set on my new goal, I got up from my spot of the cliff… Except, I was a bit more careless this time. While I was getting up, one of my feet slipped off the cliff and a piece of the cliff that I was standing on broke off. With my slow reactions and no hearing, I didn’t completely realize what was happening until the field of flowers vanished from my sight and all I saw was the rocks and tree branches of the cliff. I let out a loud yelp, that actually hurt my throat a bit, tried to turn myself but ended up looking down and seeing the, long way down to, ground at the bottom of the cliff. I instantly closed my eyes and spread out my wings to try and slow my descent even just a little bit. “How the hell does Credere do this all the time..??” I mumbled to myself. However… Since my eyes were closed, I didn’t see anything else around me. As I was falling, my right wing got hit by one of the branches sticking out of the cliff and it caused me to ricochet a bit. During that, my head hit the cliff and everything turned black.
After what seemed like ages, I weakly opened my eyes and everything was bright and white. My whole body felt like it was on fire… There was so much pain… Once the whiteness disappeared, my vision finally showed me some colors, but everything was a giant blur. Looking around, I could, sort of, make out that I was at the entrance of the forest next to the town… At the bottom of the cliff… “JAY!!” I faintly heard someone shout out my name and following the direction that the voice was coming from, I saw a tan, black and red blur before everything went black again.
The next time I opened my eyes, my vision was, once again, greeted with blinding light but this time, when the light disappeared, everything was much clearer and I could tell that I was in a hospital room. The room was colored with whites and a few shades of teal. I blinked then carefully lifted my head up, even though it hurt like hell. Looking around the room, it was as plain as I remember it being. I sighed through my nose and when I looked to my left, my eyes widened in shocked. Sitting on a chair, with her arms on the nightstand and her head on top of her arms, was Talia, sleeping. I glanced over at the nightstand, expecting to see her goggles, since she never wears them when she’s resting, but I didn’t see them anywhere. I carefully tried sitting up and looked over the edge of the bed, seeing them on the floor between the bed and nightstand. I gave a small smile as my gaze went back to Talia. She looked so exhausted… More so than usual. I rolled one of my shoulders, still feeling the burning pain sensation all over. At least it had lessen since I was last awake. I went to stretch my wings, since they felt very stiff. But when I went to do so, I felt immense pain shoot through my right wing, causing me to yelp out loudly from it. It must’ve been very loud, cause it startled Talia awake and she fell out of the chair she was sitting in. I covered my mouth then looked over the side of the bed again to look down at, the now slightly disoriented, Kat. Slowly removing my hand from my mouth, I spoke quietly. “Are you okay, Talia..?” I watched her shake her head then look at me for a few seconds before her eyes widened and she instantly popped right back up, sitting down next to the bed I was on.
“Jay!! You’re okay!! Oh thank goodness!!!” She booped her snoot against mine and her voice got a bit quieter. “I got so worried when I saw you lying there… Just completely bloody and unmoving…”
“Bloody…?”
“Mhmm… You had so many cuts on you… What even happened to you?” I moved away from her for a moment and looked down at my body, seeing that most of it was covered in bandages. I turned to look at my right wing and see that it was wrapped up in more bandages than the rest of me.
“What…?” I felt a light tap on the bed and turned my attention to Talia who signed to me.
“Your wing is broken.” I just stared at her with a look of shock and quietly stuttered out.
“B… Broken…?” She nodded, a look of sadness in her eyes. I took a deep, shaky breath then looked back at my right wing. I gulped and looked down at the bed. “Well… Its… Its a good thing that I don’t… actually use my wings for anything…” I chuckled sadly before sighing. “Great… Another thing that’s wrong with me…” I mumbled. I felt a hand put on top of mine and I didn’t need to look to know it was Talia’s. I unfurled my fingers and held her hand, tightly. Glancing up at her I asked. “Does anyone back home know…?” With her other hand, she signed the letters of the only other Kat I’m truly close to.
“Quarter.” I slowly nodded and took another shaky breath. After a few minutes of just sitting there in silence, I let go of Talia’s hand and moved over to the right side of the bed. I laid down there and nodded my head to her, asking her to join me. She complied and laid down next to me and nuzzled her head against my own, proceeding to speak. “Do you remember what happened?” I nodded again.
“I do remember… But first…” She hummed in response. “Have I ever told you about my past? Before I met Quarter, Rue and Diva…” She shook her head.
“No, Quarter said you didn’t entirely want to tell her about it, so I didn’t push. I figured you’d tell me when you felt ready to.”
“Thank you…” I pecked her cheek, hearing her giggle quietly. Nuzzling my head against hers again, I took another deep breath. “Well… This might be a bit long…” She just nodded and waited for me to start. “Alright… Well… I’m actually from a town a few hundred miles from this one… Where everything was overly classy, everyone lived sophisticated lives and most were aristocrats.”
“That explains your accent.” I hummed in response. I have a… I think if I were to compare it to another accent, it would be close to the accent of some British folk on Earth. “Although, your words don’t fit that lifestyle anymore.”
“Ha… Yeah, that’s true. I’ve got the others to thank for that.” I smiled slightly. “I do keep some of them though.”
“Such as?” I chuckled and kiss her cheek again.
“I do call you my love, don’t I?” I heard her make a quiet squeak and shifted slightly. “Heh… Glad to know I’m not the only one that gets embarrassed easily.”
“Ah, shush you.”
“Absolutely never.” I nudged her head with my own and continued my story. “Anyway… My parents were a far higher class and they were constantly gloating about me when my mother was pregnant with me. However… I ended up getting genes that they had but never exhibited. The growths… The second set of horns that cause me my biggest problem… My pupils… “ I frowned. “Just about every single about me, made them hate me even more. And since they were shouting at me, I could hear them just fine. I didn’t actually realize I was deaf till I went to the library to check out some books to read. The librarian was trying to talk to me and I started to panic cause I couldn’t hear a word she was saying, but I could hear my own voice just fine.. I’m honestly very glad that she was so kind-hearted. Once she realized why I was panicking so much, she helped me out with everything, got me books about deaf Kats, sign language… She was prolly the only Kat in my hometown that was actually nice to me.” I breathed a heavy sigh. “Once word spread that such a high class family had a deaf child that didn’t resemble either of the parent’s, things just went down hill for me… Got disowned, just about every name under the sun was shouted at me… I even got stones thrown at me…”
“Last I checked, there was nothing wrong with being deaf and not looking like your parent’s. We know a few Kats who are related and don’t even look like they’d be siblings. Sogni, Auguri and Credere are perfect examples of that.” I nodded.
“Believe me, Talia… I’m fully aware of that. But how that society was, it wasn’t. You had to be…” I bit down on my lip, feeling the tears welling up in my eyes. “...You had to be normal… A thing I have never once been. Not once in my entire life.” I felt Talia gently nudge her head against mine again and keep it there.
“Jay… That was how things were there… You know very well that there is no such thing as normal here. I mean, you live with 18 other Kats that are nowhere near normal, in any way. I’m not even normal.”
“Compared to them, you certainly are.” She giggled at my comment.
“But you see what I’m getting at?”
“I do… My appearance has never bothered me. But… Just once, I’d like to be able to hear everyone talking and not just… A numbing silence…” I felt Talia move closer to me, pretty much snuggling right up next me.
“But you can hear me just fine when we’re like this…” I gave her a small smile.
“That’s different.. You’re the only one that’ll get this close to me and…” I looked down, slightly embarrassed. “...You’re the only one I’d let through my bubble and get this close…”
“Heheh… Well, back on the previous track..” I looked at her and nodded.
“When I finally had enough of it all, I ran into the forest and just kept running. Ran into several trees, tripped over enough rocks and roots to pretty much give me about as much cuts and bruises I have currently.. Even got attacked by some of the animals that lived in the forest. It’s… It's certainly been a very rough time. About, what seemed like, a few weeks later, Quarter found me and invited me to stay with her and her two friends… And, well… Here we are now.”
“That’s how you ended up with the friends you live with now. But, once again… How did you end up getting so badly hurt?” I let out a small whimper and looked away from her.
“I, uh… I fell off the edge of the cliff…”
“WHAT?!?!” I flinched at her shout. “How did you fall off the cliff?!” I looked at her for a moment and, in a quiet voice, said.
“I… My mind was focusing on… something else and… I lost my footing…” I saw her sigh and shake her head.
“What exactly was your mind focusing on, so intently that the rest of the world disappear?” I just looked away from her once again, not really wanting to give her an answer. Then the next thing she said made my heart sting ever-so slightly. “I just hope it wasn’t anything stupid…” As soon as those words left her mouth, my gaze was locked with hers in an instant.
“You aren’t anything stupid though!” Her eyes were wide and staring at me. I blinked, confused for a moment then my eyes widened as soon as I realized what I said. I quickly put my head onto the bed and placed my hands and arms over my face. “I… I, uh…” I slowly started stuttering out my reasoning. “I… There’s… A field of Harebells, a type of bellflower… Up on the top of the cliff… I had picked one and… Was gonna go and see you and… Give it to you…” I gulped and kept my face hidden. For a few minutes, I didn’t hear anything (not that that’s unusual) or feel her move. I slowly started to panic on the inside, thinking I might’ve screwed up badly, but was proved wrong when she moved my left arm off my face and nudged her head against mine. I let out of breath of air that I didn’t even realize that I was holding. Nothing was said for quite a while, we just stayed there, enjoying each other’s presence. At one point, I realized something and just let out a quiet chuckle.
“Hm? What’s so funny?”
“I just… There’s this song that I really like… And now that I’ve got a broken wing, it’s practically fitting for me.”
“Oh? May I ask what song?” I cleared my throat then quietly started singing a part of the song.
“So I walk alone, down the darkest roads
‘Cause I’ve always known, how the story goes
When the curtain falls, I’ll be wearing thin
Clawing at the walls, as they’re closing in
In this twisted plot, I was destined for
I’m an astronaut on the ocean floor
So misunderstood, ‘till the bloody end
How I wish I could, do it all again
It feels like I’m a lone survivor
Forgotten in a dark and deadly world
And on my own, I walk alone
To see the sun again, I’d give anything
But life demands a final chapter
A story that we all must leave behind
It’s do or die, and this is mine
The anthem of a bird with a broken wing..~”
After I finished singing, I ended up coughing a bit. “Ow…”
“You okay?” I gave Talia a small smile.
“Yeah, I’m fine… Just not used to singing is all…”
“Well, I thought it was absolutely beautiful.” My smile became a bit brighter and I purred happily, nuzzling her cheek as thanks. “And yeah, the song is pretty fitting. But, can we please try to avoid hurting yourself like that again? You’ve had me practically worried to death this whole time..”
“I’ll try not to… Although, I do enjoy the spots being switched this time as opposed to the usual.” I watched her roll her eyes at me.
“There is no need to worry about me though.”
“When you work yourself to exhaustion most times, you give me every reason to worry.”
“This sounds familiar.”
“Very much so.” I heard her start laughing and, even though it was faint, it sounded absolutely beautiful to me. I grinned and placed a kiss on her snoot, causing her to let out a little squeak but continue giggling. “Thank you… My love…” She stopped giggling and tilted her head. “Just… For everything… That you’ve both done and said…” She closed her eyes and I saw her tails swaying, showing her happiness. She booped her snoot against mine and I heard her hum happily. I’m so glad to have her in my life… And I absolutely love her...