Quickly, he lunges forward, gripping the sides of my glass coffin and it takes me a moment to realize that he’s trying to shield me from thosethings. They screech, and whoop, and gurgle behind him, all while it looks like they’re attacking his back, trying to yank him away from me, trying to pull those beautiful wings straight from his back.
The man grits his teeth and stares at me, grunting in pain, sweat beading his brow as he concentrates on holding his stance - his stance in protecting me from those creatures. His body jerks from how rough they are with him. His expression screws up in agony before he forces his eyes open again to look at me.
“What do I do?!” I plead, banging on the inside of the glass. “I don’t know what to do!”
“Po-lly,” he grunts, steadfastly holding his protective stance over me.
“How can I help you?! I don’t know what to do!I don’t even know your fucking name!” I’m so beside myself, I think I’m starting to sob. “I want to remember your name when I wake up,” I say hoarsely.
Briefly, the shadow ofthat smile of hisflickers across his lips. It’s wiped quickly away when one ofthose thingsstarts yanking at his wing in earnest. The man jerks his shoulder, managing to make the ‘mimic-ah’ lose its grip. He winces and groans, falling forward, resting his forehead against the glass in front of me. He’s breathing heavily through his nostrils and he’s covered in blood and sweat, but his eyelids slowly open to pierce me with those gorgeous purple eyes. His huge palm presses flat to the glass and I instantly raise my hand to meet it. “Aloryk,” he huffs before hissing in more pain. “My name is Alor-”
He’s yanked away again by another onslaught of the whooping and hollering monsters.
“Aloryk!” I scream, banging on the glass, the water in here sloshing with each thump. “Aloryk!”
The man turns with a loud roar and begins to fight the monsters again.
And…
And all the whooping and screeching suddenly dies. I squint into the darkness out there beyond my strange, nightmare glass box and see someone else has joined the fray.
Chapter 5 - Aloryk
“Protector Aloryk, we must go now!”
One of the mimyckah must have smashed my head with a rock or something. That is a Trixikka voice.
I turn and as I do, I’m assaulted by a stench so strong, I am suddenly more clear-headed than I have ever been in my life. When my focus settles, I see him. “Tryk?”
He rushes to me, looking concerned. The mimyckah give him a wide berth. “Aye. Come, we must leave this wretched place.”
I shake my head, gasping for breath as I almost double over in a wave of pain. “What is that scent?!” I ask, only half grateful for the distraction from the fire in my wings.
“It is frightberry,” he answers, coming to my side with a worried look to his face as he surveys my sorry state. “The beasts mistrust the scent, but they will grow bolder the longer we-”
His words die out as his eyes catch on the lit up pod behind me. “A female,” he lets slip under his breath as he straightens and stares at her - stares atmyPolly.
Groaning, I straighten too. “Myfemale.”
“Aloryk?” Polly enquires from inside her pod. “Aloryk, are you alright?”
Tryk’s tail flicks as he scans the cave wall, obviously now seeing the shapes of the other pods, all caked in blood and filth. He goes to the nearest two and wipes the grime from their shells, activating the glow of life from within. He looks at me, then tothe mimyckah - those that remain have backed away, but they observe us curiously. I can only guess that the terrible smell of frightberry has confused them, and they are not yet sure of what exactly the Shadow Wingis. “We do not have the time to take them with us,” he says.
“I am not leaving my female. Not here, not anywhere.”
Tryk looks to Polly, his jaw tensing as he assesses the situation, glancing quickly at the remaining mimyckah, too. “Can you get her free of that thing?”
I do not answer him. Instead, I leap up to Polly’s pod and start touching the not-skin-lights on it. Some react to my frantic pressing with noises, or the light changes color. I had done this when I’d tried to appease the one-eyed mimyckah. I hadn’t actually intended to wake my Polly, but wake she had, and I pray to the Goddesses that one of these lights will release my female.
“Aloryk?” Polly asks, her hands pressed to the clear shell of her pod.
I press my hand over hers, feeling nothing but the odd coolness of the thing. I know my Polly would feel nothing like this. She is all warm softness, and bountiful curves, not cold and hard. “I am getting you out of here,” I tell her before going back to pushing the lights in all manner of sequences. Something makes a slightly different sound and suddenly the waters inside Polly’s pod drain so quickly, it makes her yelp. I do not know where the waters have gone, but there is my female in there now - my female wearing sodden coverings and shivering as though she has been caught in the depth of a cold night during a rainstorm.
“Hurry, Protector,” Tryk barks while he eyes the mimyckah as they begin to grow in boldness, inching closer only to back away when he jerks in their direction. “They will soon decide that they do not care that I stink of frightberry and attack anyway.” I glance back at him just as he throws me a look overhis shoulder, his eyes catching on the other pods behind me and the slumbering females inside. “Should we wake the others?”
“We cannot,” I say, shaking my head as I curl my fingers around the lid of Polly’s pod, trying to pry the Goddess-damned thing open with brute force. “Polly took a long time to wake - it is time we do not have,” I say, grimacing as I tug and pull with all my strength. “And besides -fuck!- I can’t get thisfucking thingto releasemy female!” I slam my fist down on the flashing lights in anger, surprised when that seems to make the lid of the pod softly pop open. Polly pushes the thing and then promptly falls atop me which is both the best and the worst thing to happen to me.
The worst, because being thrown onto your back when your wings are obviously broken, bruised and bloody is making the pain reach heights no Trixikka should ever reach.
