Capture

He awoke to the sound of voices and rumbling

They were muffled, by something and as he drowsily rose from his exhaustion caused sleep he froze as his feet took plant on the ground. Gone was the wet and muddy texture of the lakeside on which he had collapsed replaced by a cold and hard floor

He had been moved!

Remembering the light, he momentarily froze until he looked down at his hands, the same hands with which he had snatched the object before he passed out, its purple glow providing a burning sensation to his eyes

It was an eye

Surrounded by its wispy grey outside or sclera and holding within a blindingly bright purple pupil and as he stared into it he felt as if it stared back at him, despite benign severed from its body

And again that word reverberated around his skull, it felt as someone was poking him in the heart gently over and over

Father, father, father

What did it mean? Did it refer to the man who had impregnated his mother? Or someone else? Something else

It smelled as different… alien even

Not like the rank human smell of his mother, a smell that emanate slightly from both his body and where ever he was now, something else

Wait! It smelled of humans here!?

Holding the eye gently in his clawed hand he jerkily crawled forwards, only to find himself walking into a wall and when he tried to use his wings to clap and learn the shape of his surroundings they didn't move

They were bound tightly, leaving him unable to move them

Without his wings, he was presently unable to create a sound loud enough that he could easily echolocate, a clap from his hands didn't create enough sound and a cry from his voice was far too unfocused

Meaning he was truly blind one more, something he hadn't experienced since birth

"Oh it's awake" a voice announced, likely having seen or heard him walking into the wall, there was a sound of some form of the tarp being pulled and someone whistling "Jesus, what the hell is this thing?

The voice was gravely and put him on edge, even causing him to let out a small his in its direction before another suddenly appeared, this one lighter yet unpleasant in a different way, more… oily

"Ugly fucker isn't he'' the man laughed, he felt something knock at the wall he had just run into causing his surroundings to shake and shudder "never seen anything like it before, either"

He was in a cage, he realized, something he had never encountered before, and just the fact set him on edge

"It looks like some kind of crow… wolf?" the first voice said, their voice a mix of curiosity and disgust "wings, beak, claws, sharp teeth and beady eyes… the whole package"

"Smells like shit!" the second voice laughed, he heard the sound of a tarp moving over his cage again before the voice continued, more muffled now "I'm sure it can sell for a good buck though! Haha!"

From there the voices grew weaker and he was mainly unable to make them out, aside from a few words here and there

Market, collector, haul, and brothels were the most commonly used, whoever these men were they clearly intended to sell him, but he didn't know why

However before he could speculate, he felt the tarp covering his cage shift, from the other side of the two men and much more gently this time, as if someone were hesitant to do so. Slowly he moved away from the sound, attempting to curl up to avoid being seen

However, before anything happened one of the voices erupted from outside

"Oi get away from there!" the gravely voiced boomed in his ears, he heard the sound of something clang as if something had been thrown at whoever was trying to look in his cage

"I-i'm sorry!" a new voice apologized, this one was young and feminine, likely an adolescent female, before she scampered a few steps away, likely at the end of whatever wagon they were on as the man laughed

Yes, they were on a wagon, the sound of horses clopping across the ground and the constant rocking was a dead giveaway. The scent of human blood, filth, and excrement was near nauseating. The two men in charge smelled strongly of sweat and cheap alcohol and he was picking up the scents of half a dozen others, each filthy and smelling similar to the corpses he had encountered in the forest.

So he simply lay in his cage, waiting, his hunger growing and his hands clasping his light occasionally he got up, pacing the borders of his new prison and testing it, the bars were metal and the lock outside of his reach, when he attempted to bend or scratch the bars on of the men just kicked his cage roughly, sending him bouncing into one of the walls so he stopped trying.

Eventually, the night arrived, signaled by the stopping of the wagon and a drop in temperature for a few moments the voices of people rose and fell as the scent of rotting food filled the air, and after a few moments the arp of his cage was pulled off once more

However, this time, instead of the gravely or oily voices of the two men who had caged him, he heard the feminine voice from earlier

"i-i have your meal" her voice was filled with hesitation and some amount of fear as he turned to her, smelling the scent of spoiled meat "p-please don't bite me" she whispered, he felt the scent grow stronger, as she brought it to his cage

However, something else drew attention instead, causing him to freeze in place

This girl!

She glowed!