Chapter 1
Chapter One
POLLUX
A scream rips through the air and I blink open my eyes, stretching out my arms. There goes my afternoon nap. The loud sounds echo around me, piercing my ears. They sound…human.
“Stop. You don’t want to eat me. I don’t taste very good,” the voice says.
His words are followed up by roaring sounds, and something big splashes in the water below.
Tucking my wings back, I peek outside my tree, and I’m so high up, the man standing on top of the blue car looks like a tiny toy figure.
I’d learned about humans when they’d passed through, dropping their belongings along the way.
There’s a siren friend of mine who’s crossed oceans into the human world and knows pretty much all there is to know about the species that lives there.
The blue creature in the water is not a siren, though, and won’t be as reasonable as most can be if you say all the right things.
Sirens are bargainers and love making deals if it interests them enough.
This monster jumping up into the swamp is the kind I usually avoid.
I don’t bother them and they don’t bother me. Mostly because they can’t reach me.
“Look, I have food. Human food. Some of it’s sweet, and it’s better than anything I could offer those giant-looking tastebuds. Seriously, you’re fucking huge.”
He’s not very good at talking his way out of this, is he? I can tell he’s gotten himself out of many sticky situations before and is pretty confident it’ll work this time too. He’s sadly underestimating the unfortunate situation he’s landed himself in.
He keeps trying anyway. Bless his heart.
A term I learned from my friend Finian who hung around a lake in the south one summer.
Humans have always interested him more than they have me…
Well…until today. This one is…I don’t know, charming, and could very well die any second, and yet he finds humor in all this somehow.
“I have jerky, too,” he carries on. “I bet you’re a guy who likes a good piece of salty meat. Which, may I remind you, isn’t me by the way.”
I chuckle at that, shaking my head. He gets an A for effort, that’s for sure.
His hand drops from his face, backpack lowering closer to the hood of the car—such strange contraptions they are.
Do any of them lift in the air? I know planes have a certain type of wings and can fly…
Focus, Polly, this man is in dire need. Now is not the time to let my mind wander off the way it always likes to do.
I lean further outside my hole, looking around me before hopping onto the nearest branch.
The lost man’s hair is a light golden color, gleaming against the sunlight.
Sweat gathers between his brows and he wipes at his head, opening his eyes wider—shimmering, captivating blues that show no signs of fear.
Who is this guy? Why do I so badly need to be closer?
The blue creature in the water lifts itself up higher, its tentacles reaching forward, and the human backs up, nearly falling off his car and sinking into the mud behind him.
“What about Ho Hos? Something tells me you’re a sweets guy, and would really love chocolate.”
Biting back a smile, I jump down to a lower branch. My claws grip onto the bark and I pause at the snapping sound.
Blue-eyes looks up, and he spends so much time with his attention on me that he doesn’t see the monster’s large appendage reaching for his leg.
It wraps around his ankle, yanking him downward.
He grabs onto his car anywhere he can, and as he’s about to slip into the water, I dive down, wings straight out behind my back as I pick up speed.
His bottom half disappears into the water and he gasps, arms flailing as he clings to any chance of hope at escaping.
Which is zero, until my hands reach his. With all the strength I have in me, I pull at him hard. It’s like a game of tug-of-war between me and the other creature. I won’t give up without a fight either. My muscles pop out of my neck as I tug harder, grunting noises crawling up my throat.
The man reaches up out of the water, eyes shut and mouth making gurgling sounds.
“I got you,” I say in my own language, and then mutter under my breath after realizing he more than likely can’t understand me. I don’t even think he’s fully conscious, so he probably can’t hear me either.
Wings pulling in tighter to my back, I curl my legs and slide my fingers down his arms to get a better grip.
My tail slips into the water, stretching out enough to punch the monster several times.
He finally lets up and I’m able to take the human higher in the air, shooting up to the sky the moment he’s no longer being held down by anything.
We have a lot more strength than people realize.
It’s what makes us such good hunters and gatherers.
“I got you now,” I say. “You’re safe.” My words are more than likely coming out as nothing but gibberish to him. He blinks his eyes at me, lips tilting into a smile as I drop him on a large branch with a flat surface.
“Hi,” he says softly, and then coughs, pulling a piece of algae from his mouth. Now that’s attractive.
I tilt my head, my feet still secured around his shoulders and my body hovering in the air.
“Can you not talk?” He coughs some more, rubbing at his throat.
“It’s not that,” I say. “It’s…I can’t speak your language,” I squawk out.
“Is that yes in bird lingo?” He chuckles awkwardly. “At least I assume that’s partly what you are. You’re beautiful.”
My heart kicks, feathers ruffling back on my head. My claws fall away from him when he tries to reach for me, and I look down toward his car, pointing.
His eyes follow mine and he lets out a strangled sigh. “Yeah, that’s quite the predicament I got myself into, huh?”
Why was he even out here? Doesn’t he know this is no place for his kind? It’s barely safe for me, but I get by because I’ve lived here my whole life and have lived by a list of strict rules created by my mother.
She let her guard down months ago, and I lost her to something I was unable to make out in the dark when she came back too late from hunting for food.
We didn’t need any more, but she was always insistent on us having enough.
It was my fault. I’d spotted the juicy alcaberries and mentioned how much I wanted to try one.
They’re hard to come by, and are seen as a delicacy by our kind.
If only I’d stayed quiet and hadn’t mentioned them.
If only I was fast enough pulling her inside our home.
It doesn’t matter how many regrets I have, blaming myself and wishing things happened differently won’t bring her back.
Nothing will. I couldn’t save my mom, but at least I’ve saved him. Whoever he is.
“I guess I can say goodbye to the car I just paid off.” He rubs at the back of his head, and I zone in on the torn skin on his elbow.
“Hurt,” I manage to say.
His eyes dart to mine. “You can speak English.”
Biting my lower lip, I turn my hand from side to side. I do know some words, but very few, and I don’t always get the meaning right. I understand it better than I can speak it, but some words make me do a double-take.
“Hurt,” I say again.
He rubs at his bloody skin, shrugging. “Eh, nothing but a little scratch. Nothing a little Neosporin can’t fix.”
I squint my eyes, scratching my head. “Nee…o. ” I try to repeat what he said and fail badly.
A chuckle escapes him, and that smile…it could bring out the light in the darkest places.
I want to touch it. With more than my hands too.
I shake away my crazy thoughts. What’s happening to me?
There’s a strange swooping sensation in my stomach, and I don’t understand where it’s coming from, but I kind of like the way it feels.
“Neosporin. It’s a cream people use to help wounds heal faster. Like medicine.”
“Med-i-cine,” I slowly sound out.
“Yeah. Good for healing.”
Healing. Of course. Why didn’t I think of it before?
Holding up my finger—what I’ve seen other humans do as a way to ask people to wait—I swing down the branches and scratch at the bark to get to the golden sap.
Eyes brightening at the amount pouring out into my hands, I tear a piece of cloth from my front covering to create a pouch to collect it in.
It’s thick enough not to seep through, and I close the top, carrying it back up to him.
He looks at me with a curious expression as I offer it to him, hesitantly taking it. “What’s this?”
“Hea-ling,” I say, trying to recall the word he used only minutes ago. “Medi-cine.”
His lips tilt. “Hey, you catch on fast. You said that perfectly. Thanks.” Lifting up the bag, he studies it carefully and pulls the top apart with his fingers.
I smile, beaming with pride as his white teeth shine in the sky’s bright light.
We don’t have a sun or moon here, just bright light that lasts longer than nighttime, and rain that is sometimes paralyzing if it touches your skin.
My wings and feathers keep me protected from most things here.
Water usually repels right off them before it can get past my skin and into my system. He won’t be so lucky, though.
The sky grows gray above us, the smell of dew surrounding us in the air. I point to him. “Home.”
“I…well, it’s kind of hard to get there with my car being taken underground.
” He looks at me sheepishly, leaning against the tree’s thick trunk as he rubs the sap onto his wounds.
The ones I created. Not the other monster, but me.
Guilt sinks in, and I never understand why I feel all these things when most of us here don’t.
My parents would never have risked their lives for humans.
They wouldn’t have hurt them either. But although our kind prefers to avoid what we don’t fully understand, it’s like I knew all about him the moment I looked into his eyes.
They’re kind, curious, and I can’t look away from them—from him.
It’s evident that the feeling is mutual.
Nodding, I observe my surroundings and tie several vines together, twisting them with branches and jumping into the water, ducking myself under long enough to secure his car.
I fly out of the water, wrapping myself in the same rope I made, using the last of my energy for the day to drag the car back onto land.
It drops heavily onto the grass, swaying from side to side.
The human looks down at me in disbelief, and I use my wings to push water onto the large machine to wash off all the grit and mud.
“How did you—” Wrapping his fingers around the top of the makeshift rope, he climbs down, shaking his hands off from the rope burn.
He hooks his feet into the slippery mud, using the plants around him to drag himself closer to me.
Plucking out the sack I gave him, he uses the ointment on his raw palms. “This stuff is like magic. I can have this, right?”
“Yours,” I say pointedly.
“Cool. Thanks for…well, everything.”
Taking in the air’s thick moisture, my eyes ping-pong between him and the car. “Home.”
“You really want me out of here, huh?”
I point up at the droplets slowly falling. “Hurt.” I grab onto his arm, shoving him toward the car.
“Okay, okay, I’m going. But I should pop the hood and check the car out first.”
“Home.” I push him again and flick my gaze upward. “Hurt.”
“Is there something wrong with the rain?”
“Hurt.”
“Okay. I believe you. I’ll go. You’ll be okay, right?”
“Me…okay. Home. There.” I point up at the tree.
“Okay. It was nice meeting you… Do you have a name?”
“Name?”
“Yeah. What do people call you?”
“Bird,” I say sharply.
He snorts. “No…like, what did your mom call you?”
My brow furrows. “Pollux.”
“Well, maybe I’ll see you around, Pollux.
I’ll have to find a way to repay you for everything you’ve done for me.
” He looks down at his bag and his brows jump.
“Oh, here. Keep it. I won’t need it anymore.
Have whatever you want inside. There’s lots of food and some of my favorite drinks. Candy too.”
Candy. I know that one, I think. My siren friend said it tasted sweet and is often made with lots of sugar. My hand lifts the handle from his and he winks at me, turning around to climb into his car. Rolling down the window, he waves at me, and backs up before going forward.
“Bye, Pollux.”
I wave my hand like he does, and soar back to my favorite spot in the tree, returning to my home while he goes back to his.