I'm not too late yet!
When I woke up this morning there were still stars in the sky. Tig' was laying on my feet and the window was open and there were stars in the sky -- blue-sky, day-sky, you know? Little wispy white clouds. But there were stars. There were lots of crows outside, too. Perched up on the roof and on the wall outside (the short one, next to the window), and they were all cawing and crying. It felt sad, and I wanted to call back, but I couldn't find the voice to.
Tig' had moved, but I didn't notice until she put her paws on the window, standing up on her back legs yeah?, and leaned on it. Staring at the birds, she probably wanted to catch 'em. I'd just pulled her down off the top of the couch (away from the window) when the glass exploded. Fucking exploded right next to me. Scared the fucking shit out of me and Tig. Made me think of that time in the old house, when the front door exploded. Y'all remember that? That was fun. But I didn't see/sense anything hitting the window this time, didn't see any motion-blur out of the corner of my eye, nothing else fell over or scattered or broke. Just the window. And there weren't any rocks in the shards when I looked over 'em. Wasn't anything there except glass and a few scattered feathers. No blood. Lucky the glass didn't hit me or Tig. Speaking of: Tig bolted when the window exploded, all poofed out, and ran under the bed in mom's room.
I couldn't do anything about the window before I had to leave, so I just locked all the cats in the other room, grabbed my stuff, and left. It looked like a warm day, so I didn't grab a jacket -- should have. Looked warm but it wasn't, and I had to take off one of my shirts later (funny story that -- well, not really) and all but froze to death. Was shivering and. Maybe I'll get to that part later. Anyway. I got outside and walked a couple blocks, down toward Egg Heaven and the busstop. Couple of the crows followed me, calling -- most of 'em stayed by the house, 'though.
While I was walking, I noticed that my back hurt really bad -- worse than when I sleep on it wrong. So did my legs, actually -- but that could be blamed on the walk (which isn't too long, but it's long enough to ache and I'd been carrying around heavy things yesterday). I looked back and noticed my wings, or rather, I noticed the THING clinging to my wings. It was hard to see, at first, pale gray and it blended with the feathers, and it wasn't heavy, wasn't heavy at all. Really, I couldn't feel the weight of it, just the CLAWS -- little needley things -- and the pressure it was exerting. It hurt. The thing -- I've no idea what it was -- was about the size of a baby, covered in fine gray fur with a ruff of it around the head. I couldn't see it's eyes at first, but then it looked up at me and it's eyes were HUGE and vibrant crimson in it's face. It had no nose that I could see, and it's mouth looked very small at first. It's chin was pointed sharp. It had no visible ears, either. I stared at it a moment, and it stared at me before nuzzling back into my wing. It still hurt, so I tried the shake the clinging thing OFF.
It took a bit of work, and I saw my bus pass by down the street as I did so -- took too long, I missed it. And I started CURSING at the little bastard in every language I knew until it finally fell off with a dull popping sound and hit the ground with a thud. It stared at me again, eyes wide and soulless - unreadable - and then it opened it's mouth and showed me it's teeth. It's mouth was huge, split it's skull near in half when open, and it's maw filled with needlesharp teeth, row upon row upon row -- like a lamprey -- with no tongue. It didn't attack me, but just sat there with it's mouth open, eyes closed, frozen like some nightmare statue.
I backed away from it and it suddenly moved, closing it's mouth and climbing to it's feet -- there were nine of them, spindly spider limbs -- and stared a tme again, before scampering off into the bush. I saw it grab a slug on the way, pop the little gray mollusk in it's mouth and eat it, juicy slug-guts oozing between it's teeth.
I realized that I felt rather ill -- perhaps I shouldn't go to class? -- but I did end up going. I can't miss more than two classes, and I figure I should save those for emergencies. So I walked to the busstop and waited -- my crows stayed with me, alighting on the busstop's awning. It was half an hour before the next bus came, the large furry thing jetting on to the stop and then lumbering to a halt. It grinned at me, big white teeth standing out against it's orange fur, grinned at me as I got on. The bus was packed by I managed to find a seat -- one of the mice got up off of his, got out at the next stop. I was on the bus another half hour, and had to run to class. I almost forgot to check my locker, but remembered at the last minute, stopping there for a second before class. My combination had changed and it stole more precious minutes from me as I tried to figure it out. But I got it, eventually, and pulled my drawing pad out of the black abyss, then ran the rest of the way to class.
Luckily, the teacher appeared to be late as well. Our model sat at the front of the class, waiting in her robe. She was rather lovely, statue-faced with six firmheavy breasts and a dancer's build. She was chatting with the students while they all waited for the instructor, so I found an easel in the back and waited too. It was an hour in before we all decided that the instructor wasn't coming -- the model was a bit angry, however the rest of us didn't care much. I left with a couple friends and we went to get lunch -- tea and snails. I'd never tried it before, but according to one of the friends it was some kind of delicacy. They both seemed to enjoy the snails, although I couldn't stomach them. The tea tasted odd, as well, made me drowsy. I got up to leave around 5:40 -- I realized my bus was coming soon -- and they walked me outside. Of course, with my bad luck, the bus was already there! I ran for it, calling, but it pulled away despite my efforts. As I ran I felt something explode above my right hip, hot and stickywet trickle down my side and leg. And then everything went black.
I don't think I dreamed while I wandered the void. I woke up lying on the bus-bench, a circle of black birds around me, shuffling nervously. No one else was around. I thought, perhaps my friends had brought me there -- but they must have left me. The one had class after all, and the other had to catch her own bus home. I sat up, feeling ill, and the birds cawed hoarsely at me before flitting back some feet. My wings hurt because I had lain on them, perhaps I had fallen on them -- I'm not sure. There was a bare patch, on my right wing -- where that THING had latched on earlier, I think -- that burned. I think I must have been very sick. As I sat and waited sulkily for the next bus, my crow-friends drew closer and eventually ended up huddling near to me. They are good birds, really, good birds with bad publicity. They glared at the few other people who came to the stop, wouldn't let them sit on my bench. I was glad, because a lot of the people to pass by looked like the rotten sort, lots of burly boys. I'm uncomfortable around males, particularly big males. So I was glad for my birds.
When I got home it was dark out and there were no stars in the sky. I was nervous, passing the houses, that the THING would come back out and latch onto me again -- it didn't , 'though. Dad was homewhen I got here, and he hadn't seemed to notice the window. A few of the crows perched on the couch, and Dad was in the kitchen heating a sardine-and-monkfish pizza that I had ordered last week. I decided that I needed to take a shower -- my clothes were drenched in viscous green blood, as we my side -- so I went to the bathroom and took a shower. My scales really itched, afterward, and a few flaked off -- I wonder if I'm molting? Perhaps that's why I feel so sick.
I'm rather tired now, so I think I'll stop. Not much else has happened since. The crows are still hanging out on the couch and the computer, but they're courteous enough to go outside now and then when nature-calls. They really are nice birds.
Tig' had moved, but I didn't notice until she put her paws on the window, standing up on her back legs yeah?, and leaned on it. Staring at the birds, she probably wanted to catch 'em. I'd just pulled her down off the top of the couch (away from the window) when the glass exploded. Fucking exploded right next to me. Scared the fucking shit out of me and Tig. Made me think of that time in the old house, when the front door exploded. Y'all remember that? That was fun. But I didn't see/sense anything hitting the window this time, didn't see any motion-blur out of the corner of my eye, nothing else fell over or scattered or broke. Just the window. And there weren't any rocks in the shards when I looked over 'em. Wasn't anything there except glass and a few scattered feathers. No blood. Lucky the glass didn't hit me or Tig. Speaking of: Tig bolted when the window exploded, all poofed out, and ran under the bed in mom's room.
I couldn't do anything about the window before I had to leave, so I just locked all the cats in the other room, grabbed my stuff, and left. It looked like a warm day, so I didn't grab a jacket -- should have. Looked warm but it wasn't, and I had to take off one of my shirts later (funny story that -- well, not really) and all but froze to death. Was shivering and. Maybe I'll get to that part later. Anyway. I got outside and walked a couple blocks, down toward Egg Heaven and the busstop. Couple of the crows followed me, calling -- most of 'em stayed by the house, 'though.
While I was walking, I noticed that my back hurt really bad -- worse than when I sleep on it wrong. So did my legs, actually -- but that could be blamed on the walk (which isn't too long, but it's long enough to ache and I'd been carrying around heavy things yesterday). I looked back and noticed my wings, or rather, I noticed the THING clinging to my wings. It was hard to see, at first, pale gray and it blended with the feathers, and it wasn't heavy, wasn't heavy at all. Really, I couldn't feel the weight of it, just the CLAWS -- little needley things -- and the pressure it was exerting. It hurt. The thing -- I've no idea what it was -- was about the size of a baby, covered in fine gray fur with a ruff of it around the head. I couldn't see it's eyes at first, but then it looked up at me and it's eyes were HUGE and vibrant crimson in it's face. It had no nose that I could see, and it's mouth looked very small at first. It's chin was pointed sharp. It had no visible ears, either. I stared at it a moment, and it stared at me before nuzzling back into my wing. It still hurt, so I tried the shake the clinging thing OFF.
It took a bit of work, and I saw my bus pass by down the street as I did so -- took too long, I missed it. And I started CURSING at the little bastard in every language I knew until it finally fell off with a dull popping sound and hit the ground with a thud. It stared at me again, eyes wide and soulless - unreadable - and then it opened it's mouth and showed me it's teeth. It's mouth was huge, split it's skull near in half when open, and it's maw filled with needlesharp teeth, row upon row upon row -- like a lamprey -- with no tongue. It didn't attack me, but just sat there with it's mouth open, eyes closed, frozen like some nightmare statue.
I backed away from it and it suddenly moved, closing it's mouth and climbing to it's feet -- there were nine of them, spindly spider limbs -- and stared a tme again, before scampering off into the bush. I saw it grab a slug on the way, pop the little gray mollusk in it's mouth and eat it, juicy slug-guts oozing between it's teeth.
I realized that I felt rather ill -- perhaps I shouldn't go to class? -- but I did end up going. I can't miss more than two classes, and I figure I should save those for emergencies. So I walked to the busstop and waited -- my crows stayed with me, alighting on the busstop's awning. It was half an hour before the next bus came, the large furry thing jetting on to the stop and then lumbering to a halt. It grinned at me, big white teeth standing out against it's orange fur, grinned at me as I got on. The bus was packed by I managed to find a seat -- one of the mice got up off of his, got out at the next stop. I was on the bus another half hour, and had to run to class. I almost forgot to check my locker, but remembered at the last minute, stopping there for a second before class. My combination had changed and it stole more precious minutes from me as I tried to figure it out. But I got it, eventually, and pulled my drawing pad out of the black abyss, then ran the rest of the way to class.
Luckily, the teacher appeared to be late as well. Our model sat at the front of the class, waiting in her robe. She was rather lovely, statue-faced with six firmheavy breasts and a dancer's build. She was chatting with the students while they all waited for the instructor, so I found an easel in the back and waited too. It was an hour in before we all decided that the instructor wasn't coming -- the model was a bit angry, however the rest of us didn't care much. I left with a couple friends and we went to get lunch -- tea and snails. I'd never tried it before, but according to one of the friends it was some kind of delicacy. They both seemed to enjoy the snails, although I couldn't stomach them. The tea tasted odd, as well, made me drowsy. I got up to leave around 5:40 -- I realized my bus was coming soon -- and they walked me outside. Of course, with my bad luck, the bus was already there! I ran for it, calling, but it pulled away despite my efforts. As I ran I felt something explode above my right hip, hot and stickywet trickle down my side and leg. And then everything went black.
I don't think I dreamed while I wandered the void. I woke up lying on the bus-bench, a circle of black birds around me, shuffling nervously. No one else was around. I thought, perhaps my friends had brought me there -- but they must have left me. The one had class after all, and the other had to catch her own bus home. I sat up, feeling ill, and the birds cawed hoarsely at me before flitting back some feet. My wings hurt because I had lain on them, perhaps I had fallen on them -- I'm not sure. There was a bare patch, on my right wing -- where that THING had latched on earlier, I think -- that burned. I think I must have been very sick. As I sat and waited sulkily for the next bus, my crow-friends drew closer and eventually ended up huddling near to me. They are good birds, really, good birds with bad publicity. They glared at the few other people who came to the stop, wouldn't let them sit on my bench. I was glad, because a lot of the people to pass by looked like the rotten sort, lots of burly boys. I'm uncomfortable around males, particularly big males. So I was glad for my birds.
When I got home it was dark out and there were no stars in the sky. I was nervous, passing the houses, that the THING would come back out and latch onto me again -- it didn't , 'though. Dad was homewhen I got here, and he hadn't seemed to notice the window. A few of the crows perched on the couch, and Dad was in the kitchen heating a sardine-and-monkfish pizza that I had ordered last week. I decided that I needed to take a shower -- my clothes were drenched in viscous green blood, as we my side -- so I went to the bathroom and took a shower. My scales really itched, afterward, and a few flaked off -- I wonder if I'm molting? Perhaps that's why I feel so sick.
I'm rather tired now, so I think I'll stop. Not much else has happened since. The crows are still hanging out on the couch and the computer, but they're courteous enough to go outside now and then when nature-calls. They really are nice birds.