Returning to Land

[featherborn]

The eagle circles one final time over the trees, wings stretched to their full. Freedom at its best. There is a slow spiralling dissent onto a tree in the middle of the forest. Moments later the eagle vanishes, and there is blond woman sitting in its place. Katya settles down on the study branch, swinging her legs while she reaches for the backpack she left there earlier.

She ties her hair back and slides the old faithful baseball down shading her face. Well, back to be landlocked for another day or so. She rips open a Mars bar with her teeth and toasts the skies and spits the wrapper to the ground cursing her employers at the circus.

If she could have her way, she would live in the forest where she could fly every day and ignore the rest of the world.

Comments

[featherborn]

Sweetheart. The thought crosses her mind as he walks back towards her. While she has seen the man more than once, she would be ashamed to admit that she has barely spared him a thought. Her eyes are warm as she touches his arm.

"I will always give you a minute," she says gently. "That was...probably worth more than he gets from asking for money."

[lovestofly]

Casper gives a gentle shrug in response. "It's not about the money, that's not the real worth. It's the time, and more than anything about being seen and acknowledged as an actual human being. WE forget that a lot of the time, I think."

[featherborn]

"I know I forget," she says with complete honesty. She glances over her shoulder at the old man. It could have been her fate in this country. Colour rises on her cheeks as she thinks how casually she walks past people thinking that she cannot help them all.

"It is too easy to get caught up in my own life." She glances up at him. "Thank you. I feel guilty enough to try and remember to help a few people."

[lovestofly]

"Ah, hey now, it's not about guilt. Don't feel guilty." He bumps his shoulder to hers, flashing her a quick smile even with the gentle chiding. "A want to help will get you way further than guilt would."

[featherborn]

He is very companionable, it is hard to feel a negative emotion around him or very long at all. Katya feels comfortable letting him walk with her to where she lives. "I will use the guilt to spur action, then I cannot feel guilt."

She bumps her shoulder back against his. "With anyone else, I would have thought they were trying to impress me."

[lovestofly]

He looks honestly surprised at this. "Should I have been?"

When he thinks about it, then true; before he might have felt a bit of a need to impress, though not in that way. But now... Now, he doesn't think quite the same way as he did, once. There are things he has almost forgotten, or things he doesn't need.

[featherborn]

"No," she says emphatically. "It is good you didn't try. I might have slapped you if you had." She does not need men trying to catch her attention that way.

She laughs merrily. "Most men try to impress me, five minutes after they meet me."

[lovestofly]

He laughs. He can easily imagine her annoyance as such men, though he somehow doubts that she would actually resort to physical corrections.

"Oh dear, I hope you aren't leaving too wide a trail of knocked-out guys in your wake."

[featherborn]

"If you see a trail leaving from the circus you know it was me." He is right about her though, she has seen enough violence. Though her glare she has been told is weapon enough.

"Though I do pity some of them. People must be very lonely."

[lovestofly]

"A lot of people are," he agrees, stuffing his hands in his pockets as they walk on. "Needlessly in many cases, I think. It's like we've forgotten how to reach out or how to let people in."

[featherborn]

Katya turns her eyes up to the sky. It is her place of comfort when her thoughts become uncomfortable. "Perhaps because we think others have enough to deal with already." That is her own personal reason anyway.

[lovestofly]

He hums softly in agreement. "That would be one reason for a fair few." He smiles at her. "Though it's probably less accurate than you think."

[featherborn]

Her fingers disappear deeper into her pockets where she can twiddle her fingers and she looks at him puzzled. "How do you mean less accurate?"

[lovestofly]

"I mean that a lot of people wouldn't only be willing but even happy to make the space and take the time. Probably more people than you'd think." Hr chuckles quietly, sheepishly, looking down at the street as he scratches the back of his head, ruffling up his hair. "Yes, I'm a hopeless optimist, I admit it."

[featherborn]

"I like that you are," she murmurs. "I know people care about others. But helping adds to their own problems." She will listen to other people's problems and help her friends but there are days it only add darkness to her heart. She does not wish other people to experience that.

[lovestofly]

"Not always," he muses in reply. "Sometimes helping others might ease ones own burdens. Like by putting a different perspective on things, or maybe by simply taking ones mind of matters for a bit. Not always, though. I admit that it can be a bit of a tough balancing act."

[featherborn]

Katya's body language becomes more at ease as they leave the more crowded streets and head down the quieter ones, getting closer to her block of flats. Like her bird form, she is more comfortable in less enclosed areas. "It feels like miracle when you do get it right," she agrees.

"Sometimes I think it would be easier to be only a bird."

[lovestofly]

"Easier? Mh, probably. For a time. But we're not just birds, and in the end I think our humanity would reassert itself." He breaks off the more serious pondering with a grin. "It's a great escape, though."

[featherborn]

"Yes, and a very cheap holiday." Who needs trains or buses when the skies are free and so much more comfortable. She smiles at the comments on humanity. "I will know I am losing my humanity if I get a desire to lay eggs."

[lovestofly]

That comment has Casper laughing out loud, his laughter very free and honest. "Yeah. Yeah, that would be your cue to get back down to the ground for a bit."

[featherborn]

Katya comes to a stop outside of a block of run down flats, disappointed that the walk must come to an end. Her Russian boys would have a thing or two to say if she invited a man in even for an innocent cup of tea after so few meetings with him.

"I am a fan of bird humour," she says her eyes dancing as she reaches into her bag for the key. "I would invite you in, but I am afraid a warm my muscles are more in favour of a warm bath to ease tension from the performance."

[lovestofly]

"That's quite alright." If he had at all expected to be invited in he shows no trace of disappointment. Really, he had expected no such thing. If an invitation had come, he would have likely declined.

"Though if you wanted to go flying some day, care to give me a day when you're free and have the time?"

[featherborn]

"Wednesday at noon," Katya suggests. "It is my day so I can make it evening if you are working." It is sometimes easy to forget that non circus folk have very different routines and hours "We could meet back at same tree in the woods."

[lovestofly]

"Noon is good." Work isn't something he has to worry about anymore but that isn't something he wants to explain.

"It's been nice, having a chance to properly meet you. I've enjoyed myself tonight."

[featherborn]

"Me too," she says and sticks out her hand. "It has been a pleasure to meet you Casper. It is nice to have a friend who is outside of the circus again. Especially one who can fly. I know some few who can change their shape."