The Forest

-37-

"-trapped in here!"
"Since when?!"
"Days ago."
"Then where is he now?"
"I don't know!" Wren despaired, "He took him, I don't know!"
Kovu's eyes shifted restlessly beneath his hair all through their exchange, snapping from person to person like he might find his little brother hiding behind them. He had slumped to his knees, composure a thing of the past. And not an arm's width away from him stood Wren Agraulis, the Elder he inexplicably loathed— bare-armed, licked in filth, and stripped of the finery that should have perpetually decorated the tanned skin. Now was his chance to speak his mind and release whatever bottled-up hate he had. But he didn't spare them so much as a glance.

Aspen finally stopped his onslaught of questions. Panic flowed richer than blood as he raced to make sense of it all. Ronnie. Everything they had assumed and feared was true— the bastard had set the trap, he had Ronnie. And he was going to do something horrible to him.
He ran for the hulking metal door just to smash into a wall of glass. Aspen slapped his hands against the barrier in furious, yearning despair. Trapped, reduced to being helpless, again. Everything they had trekked across Ernwood for was on the other side of this glass, but he was powerless when it mattered most.

Rowan stared open-mouthed at the two Winged, unsure of where to direct his eyes. After the initial horrified back and forth of what are you doing here?, Wren had filled them in on everything. Yes, Ronnie and Fleur were in the building, though they hadn't seen Fleur; no, nobody else had been captured alongside them. But a few days ago, Daniel had dragged Ronnie away without any explanation, denying him and Wren a chance to say goodbye to each other. Wren hadn't known at the time that it was goodbye. They had been there when the three humans discussed what was to become of Ronnie— they knew what had been said to the human girl. Now they recounted the conversation to Aspen.
Days had passed, and Ronnie was nowhere to be seen. It could only mean one thing.

Aspen hit the glass again with the same result. It was no use. And even if he could somehow escape the prison, a tremendous door stood between him and his friend. Please. They couldn't have come this far to fail now.
He summoned his breath, "Ronnie!"
The jagged split in his arm shone brutally beneath the glare of the overhead light. He had felt the savagery of humans. And now they were going to hand Ronnie off to one of them, like a toy to be played with.

Rowan was the most collected of the three of them, if his erratic breathing could be called that.
"Where's Lyn?" He asked Wren, when Aspen didn't have the sense to.
"Lyn." He remembered. His hands fell still against the glass. He had forgotten in his panic, but now the full despair of their predicament came crashing down on him. He pivoted back to his right, to where Wren stood in the container, "Alder said that he and Lyn were here together. Don't tell me it's true."
Wren folded their delicate fingers over their mouth. The lack of words was answer enough, but still he shook his head. "Wren. Please no."
The amber eyes were haunted. Wren spoke almost too quietly to be heard. "He took her."
Aspen's legs wobbled beneath him. No. No no- it couldn't be true. He felt the weight of her head on his shoulder as he carried her to bed, the creak of the bowstring as her little hands stained to pull it to its curve. He reached blindly for the glass to steady himself as everything swooned around him. He took her.
"What the hell do we do?!" Rowan paced aimlessly from one wall to another, hands deep in his tresses of damp hair. "Aspen, what do we do?"
And before he knew it he had spun, and his fist was hammering against the glass, and his knuckles were numbing as he drove force down through them, through every muscle and every breath, his body totally senseless aside from the feeling that he needed to get to her.

"What's he doing?" Someone mewled.
Wren ignored Rowan, eyes on him. "Stop. You'll only exhaust yourself."
But he didn't stop. His breathing dragged heavier and heavier as he laboured on until the gasps were wet with exertion, and he didn't stop. Every blow was caught by unyielding glass.
"Aspen." Wren pleaded.
The veins in his arm swelled. The scar glinted with sweat, sneering at him. A promise of the marks that were going to be put on Lyn. He drove his fist against the wall and screamed.
"Would you stop?" Kovu spoke huskily, eyes glued on nothing. He had gone pale, sockets sunken in his face. He put his face in his hands to escape from the sound.
Seeing Kovu reduced to such a state only thickened the fog in his mind. The humans had his boys—  Ronnie, Alder. And Lyn. His friend and little scout, his starlight. And they had taken away his ability to protect any of them. It was Azure and Sam all over again.
"You bastard humans!" He hollered at the door. His boots squeaked along the glass as he changed his stance and balled up his hand anew. Knuckles cracked against the wall. Again, and again, and again. The only sounds were his yells of effort— until finally, there was a change in the unbreakable barrier. Muddy smears began to bloom beneath where he was landing his punches.
Rowan stopped pacing, his breath catching. Wren pressed their hands over their mouth. He hardly noticed.
"Kovu." Rowan was pleading, his voice quickening with fear. "Kovu tell him to stop."
A rustle as Kovu lifted his head to look at him, a sharp intake of breath when he saw.
"Aspen." He breathed. A faint and distant part of him heard clinking as the boy got to his feet, "Stop."