Chapter Text
Dream couldn't believe his luck. After months and months and months of trying to capture the prettiest bird he’s ever saw, a stupid mistake, an overlook on the creature's part was the last piece of the puzzle to his success. And then it was out like a light, within Dream's grasp finally. The hunter was overjoyed. He couldn't let himself revel in it too early, though, so he got to work.
***
Tommy’s head pounded with pain when he woke up. It wasn’t too rare of an occurrence for him to fly into trees, to be honest, but it never was as bad as this time. Slowly coming to his senses, he brushed his hand across the ground and was immediately taken aback by how it felt. It wasn’t ground, or grass, or rock. It felt smooth and cold, like metal. He jolted up right as this thought struck him and winced at the vertigo that appeared even though his eyes still were closed. He flapped his wings once, twice, and was met by metal bars all around. His heart was racing, breath faltering and becoming shallow. It couldn’t be, it must be a nightmare, he couldn’t have been in-
He opened his eyes sharply. Light from a fireplace assaulted his sight right away and a distressed warble spilled from his lips, but even with that his whereabouts were unmistakable. He was in a cage. Panic settled in his core immediately, he jumped up, fighting the nausea, and started looking around for anything at all that could help in his situation. His claws scraped the golden floor with an unpleasant sound when he stepped from one leg to another.
‘No, no, what the fuck...’ he muttered under his breath, a shuddering sigh leaving his chest as he tried to calm down and think rationally.
What would Wilbur do? What would Phil do? They would be smart about it, find something close by to open the cage and leave as fast as they could, right?
‘Right, okay...’ he answered his own line of thought and looked around again, less frantically. Panicked energy still coursed through him and upon discovering that the room was actually filled with hunting trophies his main desire was to throw himself on the golden bars over and over again just to get the door open and fly away. He couldn’t afford drawing so much attention to himself, though.
The room with it’s dreadful decor seemed to be devoid of anything useful around him. The fireplace, beaming with soft light from the corner, gave just enough of it to see the whole room from the cage. A comfortable-looking armchair of dark leather was standing close, and it seemed that the golden cage Tommy was trapped in was placed right where the second one should’ve been. The little stand with utensils for the fireplace was too far for him to grab. His eyes travelled further, to the well-used rifle on the wall above him. There was no chance he could reach this far as well. A big bookcase was covering the rest of the wall on “his” side, but even this was far away enough for him only to brush his fingers along the wood if he was pressing his body into the metal bars hard enough. The next wall held a glass stand, but he couldn’t see what was displayed there no matter how much he tried. There was a fleering bear head above it, it’s empty eyes observed the room with what felt like mockery to Tommy. The real scare was the opposite wall to where the birdcage stood. The avian darted his eyes back and forth not to focus on too many details on it, because there, on the wall, huge colorful wings were mounted. He could’ve sworn he saw one of his kind with wings like those, and he did his best to extract the image of them being cut off from his head, because he couldn’t for the life of him remember when was the last time he saw this person. There was something else around the wings, but he couldn’t bring himself to look closer, because it felt like bile was coming up his throat any time he looked in their direction for too long.The closest thing he could actually grab was a big heavy rug that was laid out on the floor across the whole room, but he didn’t know how to use it to his advantage whatsoever.
He examined the door, but the lock was too complex to pick, even though he theoretically could try at it. He almost put his claws to work on the lock, when a door that he didn’t even see behind the bookshelf opened and a tall, dirty-blond man walked in. Tommy gasped, letting go of the bars he was climbing at once and flaring out his wings, trying to look more than he was, to compensate for his small frame.
‘Ah, you’re awake, pet!~’ the man’s face lit up with a smile. It almost looked warm despite how his eyes shined in the fleeting light of the fireplace.
‘The fuck?! I’m not a pet, don’t call me that! Who are you? Let me go!’ Tommy bared his teeth, fists firmly balling at his sides.
‘Tsk-tsk, no manners at all.’ the man didn’t seem intimidated even in the slightest. It wasn’t particularly surprising, since Tommy not only didn’t pose a real threat due to his slim figure, but also was securely locked away in case he decided to use his claws to his advantage. ‘I wouldn’t be so quick with my tongue if I were you. You’re not exactly-’
‘Shut the fuck up, prick!’ he jumped closer to the bars and grabbed on them, his nimble fingers whiting with pressure. ‘Let me go!!’
‘I would strongly advise you to stop interrupting me.’ the smile on his face slipped into an annoyed expression sooner than Tommy could notice the change. The blonde strode to the cage and put a hand on one of Tommy’s, pressing it tightly. The squeeze made him let go of the golden bar and cringe painfully, as he tried to slyther his hand out of the grip.
‘Let go- Ouch!’ his eyes widened in shock and pain when his palm was pressed so hard he almost could hear his hollow bones and joints cracking. ‘No no no no, stop!-’
‘Quiet, pet. And listen to me.’ he let go of the brittle hand, uncarefully shoving it back into the enclosure. Tommy quickly tugged both of his hands in and cradled the hurt one to his chest, looking up at the man with a pout. It was easy to read both fear and hate in his eyes. ‘Good. My name is Dream, and-’
‘I don’t care.’ Tommy hissed, cutting him off again.
Dream’s eyes turned into two spiteful slits, he rounded the cage in a few big steps, got the key from his pocket, opened it and dipped in to try and grab the avian by the collar, but the lithe thing was quick to duck, propel himself forward with his wings and try to make a run for it.
Tommy didn’t lose a second getting through a small gap between Dream’s body and the bars, out on the normal floor and to the door. He didn’t know the layout of the house so he dashed forward on luck, past a few doors that didn’t look like the front one even in the slightest, looking for anything, even a window, heart pounding in his throat and wings beating behind his back. He could hear the man sprinting behind him and just prayed to be quicker, more agile than him. The turn of the corridor lended him a promise of freedom, there were a few windows and if he just was fast enough he could get out of the last one and fly away from the wretched place…
He vaguely knew there should be glass, so he made an effort to boost himself with force into one of the windows. The awful sound tore through his ears and the shards did, too, through his skin, but it didn’t matter as long as he could be free.
He was half-out of the window when a cruel hand gripped on his thin leg and yanked him back in.
Sharp glass pieces poking around from the window frame like teeth scraped through his wings, almost impaled him with how he lost his balance at the tug and he screeched a loud, frantic call of distress, hoping for someone, anyone to hear him as strong arms of the hunter pulled him back inside the house. He beat his wings as much as he could, cries falling from his mouth as he tried to fight off the attacker, pretty uselessly at that. He kicked, and bit, and scratched, all his struggles to no avail, as he was carried back the way he came.
‘You little fucking brat, I was going to be nice with you!’ he heard at one point, when the path suddenly changed. The door of the room he was kept in was passed, instead his captor was turning to a dark staircase that ended with a dark-red, almost black door. He was tired and hurt, but it only made him fight more fiercely, clawing wherever he could master in his attempts to get out of the strong grip. Dream was still holding one of his legs, but the other was put to work in tearing through the clothes on the man’s chest.
‘Stop- Stop, or I’m gonna shoot you!’ Dream screamed, the grasp on Tommy’s leg tightening ten folds. The avian screamed out in pain and froze, shaking with adrenaline but not daring to move.
Dream finished his descent to the door and pressed the avian to the wall, still holding his leg up tightly and digging his elbow in the creature’s sternum to hold him up. Tommy whined, barely able to breathe under this pressure. His ribcage felt like it’s going to cave in at any moment and he couldn’t even bring himself to look at what Dream was doing.
The loud click of the lock being opened tore through his desperate wheezing and then strong arms sent him tumbling down in the dark of what looked like an emptied out basement.
‘Maybe this will cool off your temper.’ Dream hissed and shut the door loudly. Another click meant that the door was locked.
Tommy heaved in cold damp air and immediately felt like he’s suffocating again. He started coughing violently, curling in on himself. His chest hurt, and all the places the glass dug through hurt as well and he couldn’t help tears coming up to his eyes. Sobs mixed in with the coughing quickly and he felt like he’s going to throw up. He pressed his hands to his mouth only to discover that one of his palms was cut and now stained his face with a bloody print. He managed the cough soon enough, but crying remained out of his control. He sobbed and heaved, feeling like the cold air was getting right under his skin and into his hollow bones, seeping inside through the wounds and through the tears. He shuddered and wrapped his wings around himself, trying to keep in at least some warmth, but it was rendered useless in a matter of minutes as he was crying desperately.