Chapter Text
They wake up to the smell of smoke. It takes them a minute to realise why, until the events of the day before suddenly flood their mind. Some fucking nutter had burnt down the zoo— the facility. Prime, if they were still there then they were fucked—
They try to scrabble up to their feet in their panic, only to immediately fall on their face, a jolt of pain lacing through their ankle and taking them by surprise. They yelp, and it is greeted by a startled cry in front of them, only scaring them further. They snap their head towards the sound, only catch sight of the fucker from yesterday. Fuck.
The Elytrian’s wings are ruffled and spread wide in her own shock, shiny as the iridescent and gold flecked feathers catch the morning sun. It is mesmerising for a moment, watching the way they shine, but they are swiftly broken out of their trance by a cheery voice.
“Oh, you’re awake!” They smile, a stark contrast from how they appeared last night. The feathers in place of her ears lay flat on her head, relaxed. Her wings mirror a similar position as they settle neatly behind her back. Gone is the look of a mad woman committing arson with a rocket launcher. In fact, the scene is almost strangely domestic as they idly become aware that the smoke is coming from a fire, likely being used to cook food, and not a burning building. Black glasses frame hazel-green eyes, light brown hair just reaching their shoulders. They wear a lightning blue sweater and dark blue trousers, all things they hadn’t noticed before— a little preoccupied by the burning building.
“Hungry?” She prompts after a moment of not getting any reply. Their ears pin to their head with a small hiss.
“Not if it’s cooked. Shit tastes fucking gross.” She tilts her head curiously before shrugging.
“Well, that’s okay. I probably have something lying around that I can feed you.”
“Rotten flesh?” They query. The Elytrian makes a funny noise in response, almost like a snort but somehow more like a chirp at the same time. They have no idea how you produce such a sound.
“Most people don’t just carry around rotten flesh, unfortunately.” She replies, seeming a little amused. “We can get some— not now obviously because it’s day and there’s no way I’m going in a cave right now, but no. I meant like raw meat or something. Is that good for you?”
“Whatever.” They say suppressing an eye roll. You’d think someone who wasn’t afraid to burn down a human facility and who is probably thousands of years old would be more intimidating but, no. They are swiftly starting to realise that this Elytrian doesn’t know when to shut up, and may just in fact be stupid.
“Pogg.” She replies cheerily, just to prove their point. They watch idly as she pulls up her inventory, riffling through it with unneeded determination. “Ahah!” She cheers after a few moments, pulling out a raw salmon. “Knew I had some extra, here.” She holds out a hand, offering it to them, and they snatch it away swiftly, a hiss passing their lips. The Elytrian just fucking coos at them, wings ruffling slightly behind her. They just hiss louder.
“Oh, by the way,” she continues after a moment, turning around to face the small fire, dislodging their own, slightly burnt looking salmon from where it had been cooking above it. “I never caught your name last night— we were a err, a bit preoccupied, I guess. Sorry about that. I’m Jay.”
“Josh.” They mumble around a mouth full of salmon. “And I know— what the fuck was up with that?” They ask, taking another bite.
“Well, those hunters were assholes, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you.” She pauses, wings flattening as they draw close to her back, some expression of guilt flickering across her face. “Normally things go better than that. I wasn’t expecting the Hunters to cause that much of a ruckus about it, you know?” They don’t, but they do know that the Hunters had put up a fight. Trying to prevent them from escaping despite the fact that the facility was on fire. They had been cornered by one of them, and trapped, almost left to die until Jay, who had started the fire, had stumbled upon them and shot the Hunter with little remorse. They are not quite sure what happened after that, but thinking about it is starting to remind them of the headache that has been steadily pounding behind their eyes, beating along with the sharp pain in their leg and tail. Prime, are they tired, and honestly it’s making them feel a little nauseous.
“You alright?” Jay asks, after a moment of them just sitting there with their eyes closed.
“Tired.” They answer, a half truth. Jay hums, considering the answer with a tilt of her head.
“You could probably have a bit of a health pot, if you want. Might help you sleep as well— I’m sure you need it.” She offers.
“Sure.” They shrug, even if it might be kind of bad to casually take a potion from a stranger who clearly isn’t adverse to committing serious crime. If she wanted them dead, she probably would’ve done it already anyway. Those claws could definitely rip them to pieces with little resistance. Jay reaches back into her inventory producing a half full bottle of shiny pinkish liquid and hands it to them. They at least give it a sniff before chucking it down, trying not to wince at the overly-sweet taste masking the gross, ashy taste that encompasses an unfortunate amount of potions.
“What now?” They ask after they’ve drunk it, chucking the empty bottle at the Elytrian and clearing their throat to try and get rid of the aftertaste.
“I mean, I have a place we can go that isn’t too far away. At least, I don’t think so.” They add, seeming contemplative.
“What do you mean you don’t think?” They ask, exasperated and only feeling more tired.
“Well, time gets a little muddled to me sometimes, but I’m fairly certain it’s not that far. Maybe a day or two. Probably a week at most.” She clarified, only serving to prove that she has no idea how far away they are from this place. Of course. Of course they had to be stuck with an Elytrian, of all hybrids. Not only do they herald from the End where the concept of day and night is non-existent, they tend to live for a ridiculously long time only making this judgement of time further skewed. Elytrians tend to be a rather private species, with few even making it out of the End in the first place, preferring to stay away from prying eyes. Prying, human eyes. Personally, they think those Elytrians are much more sensible, but it probably doesn’t help with fact that they clearly can’t tell the fucking time. Ugh.
After once again not receiving a response from them, Jay turns, pocketing the leftover bones from the fish she’d just eaten and turns to face the fire. They’d long since finished theirs, so they continue to watch idly as she stands and begins to snuff it out with her boot. Their tiredness and slight nausea is only starting to further catch up to them as they sit there, eyes drooping. They let out an amused huff as they consider the Elytrian, because as willing as they were to commit arson yesterday, she seems very determined not to set the forest on fire by leaving it lit. Funny little bird. Eventually though, she seems satisfied that it isn’t gonna set the forest on fire anytime soon, (even if that would be kind of funny), and that all the embers have been crushed, so she turns back to face the raccoon beside her, crouching back down to the floor.
Upon meeting their half-closed eyes, she makes a funny little cooing noise again. Their ears pin half-heartedly, but they really kind of just wanna nap at this point. It is also kind of funny when she suddenly chirps as well, and seems to startle herself, breaking out of the trance with a flare of her wings that swiftly snap back to settle along her back, although her feathers still seem a little ruffled. She clears her throat, then coughs awkwardly, before speaking up, sounding as if she has to force out the words instead of just more noises.
“Sorry I— you must be tired, you look like you're falling asleep over there. I don’t blame you, busy night, busy night.” She pauses briefly, hands wringing together idly. “We can start heading to the house, if you’d like but—,” their gaze briefly flicks down and she barely grimaces before she looks back at them, gaze clearing. “I’m not sure I really want you walking right now— certainly not that far and you're still about to fall asleep anyway, so— I guess, do you want me to carry you instead? Then we can get somewhere safer and you can sleep for as long as you like.” She finishes, clapping her hands together with a smile. They should probably deny her, considering she is clearly a nutter or something, but a nap does seem really good right now and considering the fact that their head, and foot, and tail apparently still seem to be making a fuss about whatever they did to hurt them, they suppose this is probably their best option right now. She is also probably right in saying that they wouldn’t make it very on their own. Besides, they can always just leave again later when they’re feeling better, if they don’t like it there.
It’s not really like they have anywhere else to go either, they’d spent practically their whole life alone in that damned fucking building and—
“Fine!” They blurt a little harshly, cutting off that train of thought before it spirals too harshly and the metaphorical train drives off of a cliff. Not right now, not right now. “Let’s just go, already, I wanna nap!”
“If you’re sure.” She adds anyway, but upon receiving no further protest, shuffles closer before hooking her talons under their arms, hoisting them up. It only now just occurs to them that standing up, they would probably barely make it to her shoulders. Damn Elytrians. Why did the fuckers have to go and be like— an average height? Screw them and this one in particular!
Strangely enough, they actually walk for a time, instead of flying. Upon a mumbled question, the Elytrain tells them if their gonna be flying for a long period of time, which they presumably are, then she wants to find a better vantage point— somewhere high or where she knows that they won’t immediately be thwarted be the hanging branches of the taller trees in this forest. It’s not really something they’d considered before but they supposed that made sense. They don’t really have too long to dwell on it however, as they are swiftly lulled to sleep by rhythmic steps, a few idle chirps and the warmth of the Elytrian besides them, the eventual sound of fireworks, rushing wind and a steady rumble from their own chest falling on death ears as, for the first time in a long time, they sleep soundly and comfortably.