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“Patty, please .” Jimmy’s practically on his knees, wings fluffed and eyes wide as he stares up at his caretaker. “This is the first time it’s snowed all year, and it looks so pretty!”
The salmon seafolk looks down at him, her tail swishing in the way that tells Jimmy that she’s annoyed with him for whatever reason. Her ear fins frill up, and she rolls her eyes, taking her cigarette out of her mouth and putting it out on the ashtray beside her. Jimmy flinches. Not enough to be noticeable, but… well, Jimmy fucking hates Patty.
“And how do I know you’re not just gonna run away?” Patty asks. Her voice has a leathery edge to it, compounded by the hefty cigars that leak smoke all over the warehouse Jimmy and other rare species are kept in. Patty is a collector- she finds specimens of rare species, like Jimmy (avians are plenty rare, and canaries like Jimmy are the rarest subspecies), and sells them off for a profit. When Jimmy was younger, he’d thought that was just the way things were. He knows better now, though.
Jimmy furrows his eyebrows at her comment, perfectly timed in the way he’s practiced for years. He knows how to get on Patty’s good side. It’s not difficult, once you’ve figured out her tells and the fact that she’ll almost always believe subservience even when all data points show a different story.
“Why would I run away?” Jimmy chirps, artificially pitching his voice upwards. Helps him sound less threatening. Makes her trust him more. “What else is there to see?”
Patty huffs out a puff of smoke, and Jimmy’s eyes water at the heady stench. “Damn right, kid. Nothing else.”
“So can I- can I see the snow, then?” Jimmy asks, voice barely bordering on audible. Because he needs to get out of here. Patty was right with what she said earlier- Jimmy is going to run away. He’s going to leave, because he hates this place and it’s wrong , it’s wrong to be here. But he has to bide his time until he can fly away on weakened wings, the limbs never having been allowed to work fully. But little does Patty know that Jimmy’s been practicing- in darkened nights, he’s flown around as much as he can in his little room, learning how to power himself into the air, at the very least. Jimmy’s hoping that the actual flying part will be relatively instinctual.
“Yeah, fine,” Patty mutters, lighting another cigar. “Ten minutes. That’s all.”
Jimmy nods, maybe a little too frantically, but Patty doesn’t notice. She meanders towards the door and opens it up, revealing a snow-blanketed parking lot beyond the warehouse. Jimmy’s played in the snow plenty of times before- it’s one of the only fun things he’s been allowed to do in all his years here. Now that he’s nearing his fifteenth birthday, though… well, it’s not as fun as it used to be. Patty doesn’t need to know that. She doesn’t need to know it, because this is Jimmy’s way out of here.
He steps out into the snow and Patty follows, wrapping herself in a coat and still shivering. Jimmy tries to ignore the way that his naturally cold-running avian body shivers frantically, tries to pretend that he’s fine. Absent-mindedly, Jimmy makes a little snowball with his hands, deathly aware of Patty’s eyes on his back.
And he waits.
Eventually, she turns around. Just enough to drop her cigar in the snow below her. It goes out with a harsh hiss , and Patty’s moment of distraction is just enough for Jimmy. He beats his wings- once, twice, three times- until he’s in the air. Patty lurches around, an expression of shock and betrayal on her face. Clumsily, Jimmy manages to gain more height, flying at around a fifteen-foot height.
“What the-” Patty shrieks from behind him. “Get the fuck back here, you idiot!”
Jimmy’s heart patters, and he can feel himself losing height. But then the adrenaline kicks in. Immediately, Jimmy is off like a rocket, tearing through the air like nobody’s business. He’s shaking as he soars over highways and closed-off strip malls, blood coursing through his veins and feathers as Patty’s infuriated yells die out behind him.
What the fuck has Jimmy just done ?
He’s ran away from the only home he’s ever known. Patty’s going to put out warrants for him now, or something, and Jimmy can’t run from the police. He can’t run from anything. He’s just a scared- just a-
Jimmy’s always been a curious little bird .
A wracking shiver runs through him, and Jimmy swallows, eyes blurring as he struggles to keep upright. And just as he fully begins to fall out of the air-
He sees the bright snow, sparkling in the morning light below him.
Jimmy will never have to ask to go outside to see the snow again. Because he can just do that now . Holy fuck. Holy shit, Jimmy is free.
A high, keening laugh sparks from Jimmy’s throat, and he beats his wings again. It’s definitely a struggle to continue flying this far, this fast- and Jimmy will stop eventually, once he lands in Boatem. It’s a big enough city that he can get lost in it- far enough from Laurentown, where Patty lives, that he might actually be able to hide away from her.
Jimmy can’t help but feel, as he rockets through the sky, that his life is just beginning.