Wings

Chapter 5

Heather flapped her feathered wings, leaning to one side lopsidedly. It was beginning to get dark and Heather's back was beginning to ache. 

Heather, Finn nudged her slightly, we're losing altitude!

Heather hadn't noticed that she and Finn were slowly sinking towards the ground. Sorry, she panted, trying, and failing to rise up. I'll go higher.

We should rest for the night, Finn suggested. I know you're tired, I can feel you, don't deny it. 

"Alright, so now it's time to sing rhyming poems is it?" Heather wheezed aloud. "'Cause I have a good one! Finn is lazing on my back, he might just have a heart attack!" 

That's mean! Finn sighed. Just land on the ground now, so we can rest.

By now Heather's wing tips were brushing the canopy of the forest below. She spotted a clearing and flapped awkwardly down. The landing wasn't very good and, in the end, they were both lying spreadeagled on the undergrowth, winded. 

"I definitely need to work on my landings," Heather grimaced.

"Uh, yeah!" Finn got slowly to his feet, now in human form. "We'll work on that tomorrow, but now, we have to work on a shelter. Try your magic!"

Heather concentrated and thought of a small hut-like structure. She heard Finn gasp and guessed that her spell had worked, then added two single beds inside for them to sleep in. She opened her eyes to see a cute little hut made of sticks, logs and large tree foliage to fill the gaps. She walked in to see Finn spread across a bed.

"This is so comfy!" Finn breathed. "You," he pointed to her, "are my favourite person in Hyswæ!" 

"Why, thank you!" She sat on her own bed, sinking into the duvet's softness. It sure was comfy!

"What I said before about you was an understatement, you are my favourite person in the universe!" she glanced at Finn, and he was holding up a thick book.

"Where did that come from?" Heather asked.

"It was on my bedside table!" Finn flicked through the pages. He immediately buried his head in the book and wouldn't look up. Heather looked at her own bedside table and saw to her delight, the book brought to Hyswæ by an explorer from earth, The Wind in the Willows. It brought memories of Melanie flooding into her head. Tears ran down her cheeks and fell onto the book in her hands. 

"What's wrong?" Finn sat down next to her.

"Mel-" she managed to sob and then fell into his open arms. He held her tight, and tilted her head towards his face, looking her in the eye.

"Everything will be okay," he said softly. "We'll go back to her." He leaned in close to her, their faces almost touching and, hesitantly, touched his lips to hers. 

Heather pulled away, shocked. "What... was that?"

"A kiss," Finn tried to pull her back into his arms, but she held back. "I've been wanting to do that since I met you."

"Come on," Heather shook her head slightly, a little confused. "We have to sleep." She shoved him off her bed and he stumbled into his own. She lifted the covers and got into the warm bed, closing her eyes.

Her mind wandered, she didn't know Finn liked her the way she liked him...

Maybe he just did it to make me happy, she thought.

* * *

The next day Finn taught Heather to hunt without magic. She mastered the snare, but couldn't kill an animal in it - Heather was rather fond of animals. In the end, there was a nice sized rabbit on their fire. 

"How long till it's done?" Heather asked Finn, completely ignoring what happened the night before.

"In five minutes," Finn answered, "not long now."

Heather waited, stomach growling, for the remainder of the five minutes. Then Finn took the rabbit off their makeshift spit. He handed it to her and she shrank back.

"You want to cut it up?" 

"No thanks," she pushed his arm away, disgusted. "You do it."

He cut up the meat in front of her, his slices elegant and even. She stared at him as he worked.

"Hello?" Finn waved his hand in her face, and she blinked slowly. "Yoo-hoo! Hyswæ to Heather! Your breakfast is ready!"

"Oh, thanks," she took the meat gratefully and put it onto a long piece of bark. She took a bite -the meat tasted a lot better than it smelled! 

"Righty-oh!" Finn got up and threw away the remains of his meal. "We should get going!"

Heather didn't want to leave their cozy hut behind so she enchanted it to turn into a small handbag; that, when you unzipped it, it would fold out into the hut with all their belongings.

Once she was done, she bent down and lowered her wings; gesturing for Finn to hop onto her back. He scrambled up in his furry wolf form.