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

[lovestofly]

"There won't be anyone to stop you if you decide to talk about it, but..." He gives her a bit of a sad smile that really does fill in the rest of the sentence. Who would believe her? And, for so many reasons, he can't and won't reveal himself.

[featherborn]

"They'd just think me odder." She sighs and shuts her eyes. "Thank you....for this.... Katya's nice but she's a woman." And she doesn't know when the fun circus performer might turn on her.

[lovestofly]

"She is. That doesn't make her better or worse than anyone else." Though this too he understands. For him it was men who seemed more frightening.

He tightens his hold in a hug briefly. "It's time we go back now."

[featherborn]

She hugs him back, what else could she do? He's the nicest person she's met outside of her dad. "I wish tonight could go on forever," she confides. But it can't. She sits up and gathers herself.

No cracks. She must be strong in the flat.

"But I am as ready as I will ever be."

[lovestofly]

At that his hold tighten again. The cloud under then gradually loses its solidity and he lets them float down through it until they are in the clear air again where he spreads his wings and sets the course back.

He doesn't bring her to the same window, but rather to that of her bedroom. During the slow descent the child had fallen asleep and Casper sees no reason to wake her. It's better, this way. So he brings them in, not through the window as such but rather through it, as well as the wall. Things like glass and bricks and plaster isn't of any consequence.

Moving gently to not wake her he pulls the blankets back and puts her to bed, tucking her in. "I'm but a whisper away," he assures her sleeping form, brushing her bangs from her closed eyes. Then, with no more than a rustle of wings, he's gone.