Primal

Chapter Five

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Chapter Five

 

I doubt if a single individual could be found from the whole of mankind free from some form of insanity. The only difference is one of degree. A man who sees a gourd and takes it for his wife is called insane because this happens to very few people. ~Desiderius Erasmus

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Either someone was watching her, or she was going crazy once again. Noor had a constant sinking feeling in the back of her throat, clawing away at the back of her mind in a warning. Sometimes, out of the corner of her eye, she could see movement. Whenever she looked out her window there was no one standing there, and she only felt like she was farther away from sanity after each small glance. When she was done talking to Yuna’s band like a madwoman, she placed it within a heavy wooden box and hid it under her dark wooden bed. She would keep it there forever. It was easily accessible, and she could talk to Yuna whenever she felt lost. No one would ever find it there to take it away from her. With all honesty, Noor would rather have been labeled as crazy than have someone monitoring her outside of her vision. The idea of being stalked had always played at the back of her mind, but it had never been an actual threat to her life. She blew out the small flickering candle, allowing darkness to fill every crevice of the small room as she fell into her bed and drifted off into sleep.

 

Days passed by quickly after that night, and her feeling of being followed never faded away. The hairs on the back of her neck were now at constant attention, and her joints were constantly tense. At times she would see a dark figure pass in the shadows, but no one around her made any mention of it. Maybe Yuna’s ghost was haunting her. If it was, she completely deserved it. Though it was a complete accident, she had been the direct cause of her sister’s death. If it was the other way around, Noor was sure that she would be the one haunting Yuna. The only person she was in consistent contact with was Zander, and that was only because they knew the pain that the other one felt. Their interactions were surprisingly not as awkward as she had imagined them being, but she still couldn’t look at him without her heart only hurting more. They were able to distract each other for a short amount of time, but eventually they would have to part and go home to their own residences.

 

The dreams of her death had not stopped, and they were somehow actually getting worse as the nights went on. She was actually dreaming now, stuck watching her own body kneel on the edge of a cliff overlooking a rushing river. The air was cold, and the snow was falling all around her body. Her feathers were falling from her wings, shedding, falling into the water. The brown pieces of herself were swirling around her body with the wind before they left her. She reached out to try to grab each and every one, but they just flew through her fingers as if she was never there at all. Soon there was only a single feather left, dangling gently at the end of her broken wing. Both versions of Noor watched the last feather fall, and the dream Noor propelled herself into the icy water without a second thought to follow it. The real Noor yelled, desperately running forward as she tried to save her, her hands stretched out into the water to catch her falling figure. It was too late, her body drifting along with the steady stream before falling where the river fell.

 

All of her dreams were coming true, one by one. The latest dream terrified her the most, and as she woke up she felt a sob fall out of her lips. How could she ever avoid this destiny? Her skin was quickly growing numb, and whenever she closed her eyes all she could see was that final feather falling. What would she be, who would she be, once she loses her feathers? Who could she talk to then without being overwhelmed by their concern for her well-being? She knew that if she lost her feathers, she would want to die. Just as the dream version of herself had done, she would propel her broken body into the waters, finally ending her own life.  

 

She had to try to fly again. If she were to stay in the air, she would know that she could overpower these odd dreams and create her own destiny. If she could fly, she would live through anything that life could possibly throw at her. Noor rushed outside into the dark, pushing past a shadowy figure and whispering a quick apology before running into the trees below. The walkway went straight for a few feet before turning sharply, and if she were to just keep going straight there would be an open clearing. She’d be able to fly if she just jumped off; she knew it. Her feet moved faster, her body bursting into a sprint as her feet pounded against the rough wood under her. The jump was right ahead; she was nearing it quickly now. As she reached it, her feet kicked off, and her wings managed to spread open. Her toe caught on the same gentle hole as before, the slight indent causing her to stumble over. The open wings managed to slow the unavoidable fall, but it didn’t help prevent her from falling. Her bad wing crippled under her while the other wing struggled to keep her airborne, and her body began to spiral towards the ground headfirst. A death sentence, she had written her own end. At least the thought of that end sounded far better than something else creating her end.

 

As she spiraled, strong arms suddenly wrapped around her, flattening her body over theirs so Noor’s body would fall atop of their own. She didn’t have time to react, and as soon as she opened her eyes they were both on the ground. The air around them was dark, and she couldn’t see their facial features despite being inches apart. “Thank you.” Noor whispered before the body gently set her aside and stood up.

 

“You’ll stay alive. You’re brave.” He, she could now tell that it was most likely a male because of the rough voice, said before his shadow climbed swiftly back up into the trees. No Nocarae would move like that, they would simply fly off. So who was that? It had to be a Felamus. No Fauneck would ever climb a tree, let alone put their own life in risk to save that of another. Her thoughts on her walk home were flying wildly, full of different theories on who the identity of the man could possibly be. She was so involved within her own mind that she didn’t notice a single feather fall off of her wing, drifting through the air behind her and disappearing into the darkness.