You could feel the creature pulling on your arm, a rather worried expression on his face. You gazed around for a bit, uncertain before you quietly looked at him. "Do you... Do you want to come with me?" You pointed at him, then at yourself, doing your best to indicate it. He gave a small nod, glancing back at his captors before his hands held tight to yours. You winced as you could feel his talons poking a bit at you, scratching you like fingernails as you moved. "Right... First things first. Let's just get out of here."
You carefully held on to his hand, holding it and pulling firmly as you picked up your things. Your bow was useless now, but it looked like most of your other things were intact. The two hadn't even bothered digging through your pack. You didn't have time to check, so you grabbed what you could before nodding to your companion. You firmly held on as you tried to lead him through the brush, hoping to get out fast.
Thankfully, you managed to get out of range. Your heartbeat was still a bit quick, and the stress of it had caused your breathing to get a little loud. However, you were out and away from the slavers.
"Thanks for your help." Your companion was still next to you, but he seemed oddly calm. He looked at you quietly, but gave a small nod to you when you stopped to try and catch your breath. "We should try to get far away enough that it's safe to rest... I don't think we can travel during the nighttime that well.
He looked at you with some momentary confusion, but seemed to wait for you to start moving again, quietly following along. You were a little nervous with the way he moved, and though he tried to keep his eyes out, he seemed to stare at you a fair length of the time. He made very little noise as you walked together, and it felt a little weird to try to guide him when it felt like he might take off at any moment.
After a few hours of traveling, you had finally just sat down and put your pack down. The Krethid seemed to catch the idea, stopping and looking at you.
"I'm going to try to get some rest, okay? I don't know about you, but I don't think I can do that much right now."
He seemed to vanish from your view when you began to set up your tent. You were a little disappointed at losing the company, but there wasn't that much to think about. Perhaps you had just misread his intentions, and he only wanted to get far away enough to be safe.
Whatever the case was, you didn't think too much about it. You quietly worked, trying to get a fire going and taking care of a few things. It didn't take too long, and you were already feeling like you might collapse. By the time you were ready, you simply took out your blankets and tossed them onto the ground. You didn't care too much about if it was comfortable, since you simply wanted to go to sleep.
As you turned and looked at the sky, you could barely catch the Krethid's body perched in one of the trees. He seemed to just be leaning back on a branch, his eyes half-asleep, but gazing quietly at your campfire. You smiled a little bit as you saw him watching, his expression a little lighter than it had been hours ago.
___________________
You gave a yawn and pushed off your blanket as you woke up. The sun was only beginning to peek out, and while it wasn't a full night of sleep, you were too used to getting up at the break of dawn. You looked around quietly, stretching out a bit as you did. It seemed as though the night had passed by without incident. You glanced around the area you packed up your blankets, and it seemed as though nobody else had been in the area during the night.
You glanced upwards at the tree that Krethid was still resting in. You had to smile as you saw him leaning back, the sun only starting to show. Now that things were a bit more peaceful, you had a chance to get a better look at him.
His arms were laying at his sides, his wings folded in as he slept. His body had a thick, feathery coat, and his muscles seemed to curve around, his build clearly stating that he was constantly active. His hands were pressed into the branches, a few yellow, extremely sharp nails held at his sides. His body was slouched over, and his legs seemed a bit thicker than you had expected. A few, thick talons topped off the ends of his legs, currently clinging against the branch as well. Most of his feathers were brown, but in the light of the rising sun, you could notice a few topped off with a bit of grey.
His head was tilted back against the trunk of the tree. His eyes were closed, but they seemed to flutter around in his sleep. His beak projected sharply from the lower half of his face. Even in his sleep, his expression seemed sharp and aware. His body seemed tense even as he tried to rest, and his feathers seemed to hold tight against him as a breeze caught the space you were in.
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author