Bird Eyes || Tomtord

Where

The days went by in a blurred setting of trees. Green above as he hunted and slept and green below as he flew. Hopes of finding humanity filled him. They would teach him where he was and where he needed to go in order to find his love. He had the plan in his head. He knew what to do.

He was barely watching where he was going. With a stomach full of rabbit and thoughts of Tom floating around his head, he didn't notice that the trees had turned into wires and the dirt had turned into gravel. The bushes had melted into trash cans and logs had become benches. He had made it to civilization.

Fumbling slightly with his wings, he noticed. He let out a noise in joy flapped his wings excitedly. He lowered his feathery body to the ground and stood atop a telephone pole. He looked down at the unfamiliar territory.

He noticed that he was in a town, but that wasn't saying much about where in the world he was. There were so many towns that looked identical. None of this was helping him on his way to find his boy.

He leaped from his perch. The wind kindly rubbed through his feathers and he flew to find more clues, until he heard voices. Surprisingly, it was English. There was his next clue. He was somewhere that people spoke English. Good, then he could understand them.

He didn't pay any more attention to the voices, and continued on his way. Then he saw a flag and his heart plummeted down his stomach. His eyes welled and he violently hit the air to push himself away, as if the flag would attack him. His fight or flight instinct was reacting, consuming him in the need to get the fuck out of there.

It was Canada.

He was in Canada.

And there was an entire ocean separating him and his lover.

He lunged away, cutting the air harshly and swooping towards the safety of the forest. He needed to be surrounded by familiarity again. Then, he hoped, the thoughts would become less rapid and scary. He just needed security. He suddenly felt a wave of homesickness from leaving the nest, then from leaving Tom.

He cried out loudly as he dove under the cover of leaves. He crashed through the branches which sent small strikes of pain upon impact. His wings grew weak. He lost his balance. Tumbling through the thicket and crashing onto the ground in a fast blur, he felt lost and hopeless.

Tom was so so far away. He had never felt such unbearable lovesickness, it tore him up. It buried itself into his him and infected his veins, his bloodstream. Tom was so far. Tom was so goddamn far.

Then a match was lit inside of him. He could still go. He could still go to him. He could fly. He could travel across the sea. He could. He made himself believe it, but even through that there was doubt. There was always doubt.

He could fail. He didn't know the direction of Europe from his standing point. He didn't know how long it would take. He didn't know if he could fly that long, or fly that long without food. He didn't know where in Canada he was. He didn't know anything.

He let himself lie on the ground with one wing under him and the other spread, caressing the ground. He let his thoughts come to a close as his brain eased into unconsciousness. His breath lessened to a steady pace and his mind wandered away into a dream.

||

As he slept silently, a lynx wandered over to him with an aching hunger that clouded her mind. A chubby stomach held pups that she needed to be alive to care for. The great bird on the ground would be a lovely meal.

She smelled the owl carefully, seeing that it was alive. Normally, she would have left the being but starvation made one do things they would never normally do. She whined in hunger and glee and got ready to sink her teeth into the neck of the bird when Tord awoke.

At first, he felt the warmth of the lynx on him and concluded it to be Tom, drowsiness deciding that fact. Then he opened his eyes and saw forest ground and still felt the warmth. He panicked and pushed himself off the ground only to feel a sharp pain in his back in two places where her canines had pierced.

Adrenaline shot him up and he somehow found the right angle to get out of her mouth without much further damaged. He swung his wings violently into the air and beat them down, getting distance between him and his attacker.

She leapt at him and struck his back with her paw but only pulled him down slightly before he slipped away up into the sky. He landed hard on a branch and before looking back at the lynx. She growled at him and he made his own angry noise back at her. She paced for a moment and then lumbered away.

His back held a dull ache and his mind was still buzzing with adrenaline, but he was safe again and he was alive. That was enough for now. He the lifted himself into the air and directed his momentum towards the town.