Flames And Feathers

chapter 5 - imposter syndrome

Caleb woke up, not expecting to be greeted by the sun blasting in his face.

"God DAYUM I thought I closed my blinds!"

Caleb then remembered the events of the previous day, he somehow forgot that he wasn't back in his room. Caleb also found out he slept perfectly fine while sitting up, which surprised him since he could barely even sleep normally.

Caleb just now realized how hungry he was, which probably wasn't good as he didn't know how he'd even get food here in the first place. Caleb didn't even know what kind of economy this place had. Would he have to work for food? Would he have to go into slavery or something? No, he wasn't THAT desperate.

Caleb came up with 2 options: either take food from whatever trashcans they had anywhere near the front of the city, or outright steal food from others. Caleb was too socially awkward to ask others for food, and also thought he could possibly get beaten up for this.

Caleb flew to a place near the front of the city and prepared himself to completely destroy his dignity, like he had any it the first place.

Once Caleb landed, he searched for an alley and quickly found one with a lot of trashbins. Caleb just now noticed how much taller the buildings were than he expected, they were about the size of a skyscraper, which made sense. Having the ability to breath fire and fly would likely make constructing much easier, even with lower end tools.

Caleb went into one of the alleys and started rummaging through the trash, hoping for something good. He actually was able to find a decent meal of some thrown away baked potatoes, which tasted pretty good and were still in their pots.

Caleb walked out of the alley decently full, this food would surely be able to make him back to home-

"Hey redwing!" OH SHIT KYPER WAS THERE.

"Jesus christ can you PLEASE NOT SNEAK UP ON ME LIKE THAT ANYMORE?!?!" Caleb snapped back. It seemed he had met his match in the annoying contest.

"I can't help it!" kyper said with a grin. "Anyways, I came to ask you if you want to go to the special royal announcment thingy happening today! I have front row seaaaatsssssss"

"I didn't expect you you be into politics." Caleb said, confused.

"Well my dad IS part of the royal gaurd, so I'm kind of obligated to go to them. It'd be nice to have friend there."

"BRUH WE LITERALLY MET YESTERDAY IM AT MOST AN ACQUANTENCE" Caleb yelled in confusion.

"Well too bad you're the only bird in this city who hasn't outright rejected me!" Kyper yelled excitedly.

"Wait... so he's been rejected by LITERALLY EVERONE HERE?!?!? ok now it makes more sense as to why he immediately latched onto me. Well, I see no reason not to have more friends, and he can help me learn more about their culture!"

"Alright, I'll go with you to that royal announcement thingy. I hope it won't be too boring." Caleb said after his thoughts.

"Great! Come on let's go!" Kyper grabbed Caleb's wing and started running, knocking Caleb off his talons and makin him fall flat on his face.

Kyper eventually lead Caleb to a large stage with a ton of seats. There were already quite a few pheonixes already there, waiting for the royal family to come and announce whatever they were going to announce. Caleb and kyper sat down In Their front row seats and waited patiently.

"So kyper, do you know what they're gonna announce-"

Caleb was immediately jumpscared by the loudest trombone ensemble he had ever heard in his life, he honestly should have expected the royal family to have a loud entrance like this.