Vikk's P.O.V.
With a sigh of relief I unwrapped the bandages from around my chest, feeling my wings stretch out behind me after almost 12 hours of being bound to my back. I flapped them gently, pulling one of them around in front of me so I could preen the feathers and let myself relax in the privacy of my locked room.
The wings, those of a red tail hawk, stretched almost 6 feet in diameter total, each wing a little under 3 feet in length and it took at least an hour to properly groom them, what with them being hidden for the majority of the day.
Although I hated having to hide them, I didn't want to risk people finding out about them and turning against me. It had happened before and I didn't want it to happen again, so since the age of 7 I had kept them bound to my back in an effort to keep them from the world.
I continued to groom my wings, preening the feathers and letting my wings stretch of their own accord. My back was aching from having them tied down all day and even for as long as I had been doing it, it still hurt when I untied them at the end of the day.
I lay back on my bed, turning onto my stomach and tucking my wings in behind me. Normally I would sleep for a few hours and then wait for everyone to fall asleep so I could sneak downstairs, go outside and fly around for a little bit, giving myself and my normally hindered wings a bit of exercise.
Yawning, I closed my eyes and started to drift off. I didn't think I would go out that night, I was far too tired and needed the sleep more than I needed to stretch my wings, as I could go for a run in the morning even if it meant not stretching my wings.
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I sighed, squeezing my wings into my back. Picking up the ace bandages I had, I started to wrap them around my chest and then around my wings, binding them to my back so they weren't visible when I was wearing clothing.
I avoided wearing t-shirts as much as possible because the outline of my wings were normally visible, and people questioned me when they noticed it, so I tried to wear sweatshirts or thicker clothes whenever I could. I could tell whenever I wearing clothing that was too thin, because I got confused and sometimes awkward stares.
Just as I finished wrapping the bandages around my chest and was tucking it in so it wouldn't come undone, one of my wings suddenly clicked and moved down, making me almost scream. I muffled it with my hand, quickly undoing the bandage and letting it fall to the floor.
Tears were falling from my eyes, the pain was unimaginable and incredibly strong and I fell to my knees on the floor, bringing my injured wing in front of me and cradling it gently. I was wheezing in pain through my teeth and as I brought my hand through my feathers I felt something sticky.
Pulling my fingers back I almost screamed again when I saw that my fingers were covered in blood, coming from somewhere near the top of my wings and I closed my eyes, realising that this could be permanent. I didn't know anything other than the very basics of medical care and nothing about to care for wings when they were damaged.
I sighed to myself, reaching around to try and find where it was bleeding from.
As it turned out, it was bleeding from one of my joints where the feather met bone, and I wouldn't be able to fly for a while. The skin under the feathers had torn and I had to wrap a bandage around it before tying it back to my back, this time making doubly sure that there wasn't going to be any more injuries.
It was still incredibly painful, and it hurt to move around much.
Going downstairs I ran into Lachlan, who was heading up the stairs with a cup of coffee in his hands and a frown on his face. He looked exhausted and almost fell over as he passed me on the stairs, my hand going out to catch him before he did. He gave me a tired smile.
