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“Sit still . You’re acting as though I’m cutting off your wings completely. Honestly…” His captor said, holding the pair of scissors against his flight feathers. Grian had lost count how many times his flight feathers had been cut. Grian squirmed and strained, only to get squeezed by the hand wrapped around him, holding him in place.
“There we go.” The man said once he was finished. He admired his work for a moment before forcefully turning Grian around in order for the avian to face him. “Now we have a reset on those little escape attempts you like to try so much.”
When Grian didn’t speak, his captor shook his head. “Oh little one, if you would just listen to us and fulfill your purpose, we wouldn’t have to do such cruel things to you.”
Grian shut his eyes tight. “I don’t want to be here.” He said through gritted teeth.
His captor was immediate in his response, slamming his hand down onto the table with Grian in it. Grian howled in pain, feeling the bones crack before he felt the familiar sensation of magic fix them right back up. Grian panted from the quickness of it all.
“You would do well not to talk back, little one. You are one of us now and that will never change.” His captor’s voice echoed slightly, creating an inhuman kind of sound that grated on Grian’s ears.
When Grian didn’t speak, he was pushed further into the table. “I need confirmation you heard me, little one.” He sneered.
“Y-Yes…”
“Yes, what?”
Grian closed his eyes again, trying to stop the tears. “Yes, my Watcher.”
The pressure finally let up and the Watcher huffed. “Good enough.” He was gathered back into the hand and all but thrown into a gilded bird cage. His home for the better part of a year now. The door was closed and locked behind him and he looked up at the watcher with barely concealed disdain.
“I think a few more hours alone in your cage will be enough punishment for speaking back, don’t you?” The watcher laughed. And then, without any more words, the watcher turned around and left the room.
Grian curled in on himself, fanning his once colorful wings, now just purple, around himself, trying to hide from the world. He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to get out, get away, he didn’t want to be a watcher.
He sat there, crying silently.
“--rian? Grian? Hey, wake up, it’s okay.” A familiar voice had him opening his eyes. He was no longer in the gilded bird cage. Or anywhere in the watchers’ domain.
Instead, he was laying on a chest with a gentle hand over him, acting as a blanket. He blinked and looked up, seeing Scar looking down at him with a worried gaze. He must have looked confused because Scar answered his unasked question. “You were crying in your sleep. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Grian, now more aware, could feel the wetness streaking down his cheeks. He freed a hand to wipe them away but a giant finger came close to his face, doing it for him. The touch was a far cry from the watcher’s. Grian relaxed into the touch, eyes starting to close again. “I’m okay.” Grian said, knowing Scar would want an answer.
And it was true. In this moment, away from his past and with Scar, he was okay.
Scar smiled softly and moved his hand away from Grian’s face to gently move it through his wings. Grian sighed with pleasure, fully relaxing under Scar’s touch. He never thought he would be okay with anyone touching his wings ever again but he was glad he had been mistaken.
“I’m glad.” Scar said as he continued to run his thumb and finger over Grian’s wings. “You gonna fall back asleep?” Scar asked, a bit of a teasing tone in his voice.
Grian nodded, eyes now fully closed.
Scar hummed. “Go ahead. We’ll talk more in the morning.”
Grian barely registered his words as sleep took him once again.
The night passed with no more nightmares.