Chapter 16: Feather Nest

Tessa follows Rachiel as she moves to deliver Tanner his food. They walk, and enter the room. They see the room has the lights off. As they turn them on, and see... Tanner. Tanner's digigrade legs are curled up on the bed, tail swaying lightly off the side of the bed. Thin, and grey. Hoved-clawed feet visible, splayed out off the bed. Thin black fur on the ends of his feet. The body is splayed across the bed. Lanky arms close, huge hands nearby, passive, with a pillow set under his sholder, lifting his head, and preventing his head from fully resting on the bed, and reventing all those wings, and feathers, and limbs on his head from getting pushed in. As the eyes focus on them. As Rachiel enters, and sighs. "Here is your food. Tessa said she wants to talk with you, so she came along." Tanner says "Thancks". She puts the foot on the desk, before tessa floats off her sholder, and stays, while she leaves. Closing the door for privacy. Tessa floats, as Tanner moves, and sits upright on the bed. Watching her. His face is half a face. One part human-shaped, with a mouth, and nose. The rest all feathers, and eyes, black, with gold irises. Watching her.

She floats close to the head, as the feathers move slowly, and softly. As she gets very close to the eyes. She says "Thanks..." As she moves, and lays on his alien sholder. As he says "You don't deserve this." Tessa is quite. Then says "Neither do you. But you still manage. I just want to live now. Best i can." He is quite. Tessa moves, and floats up, with a flutter of her buzzing wings. As she feels... the feathers on his head. He jurks a little. But lets her feel them. "These are warm..." She says... thou does not mention how cold his skin is physiclly. "After i transformed, warmth... means... everything now..." She pets the feathers, carefully, as one of his eyes is right near her, seeing her this close. She moves, and eventually, sits in his feathers. Giggling a little. He smiles, as his fethers move upwords slowly. As one of his eyes sees her clearly. She says jokingly "Your feathers, are warm, and comfy!" As she hugs one of them. Brushing it. He says "b-ce... carch...ful... they are sechnitive."

Tanner moves, and picks up the container of spegenti, with a fork on top. As he opens it. He puts... the fork aside. Tessa asks "Whats wrong?" As he stops moving, and a few eyes stare at the food, and she notices from the head of his angleic feathers, and eyes. He says "I eat ugly." Tessa sighs "I do too. I eat with a literall... proboscis." He is quite, as a eye clearly looks at Tessa on a feather, focused on her. As he says "I will move alockt. So... im not sure its safe up there while i eat." She sighs, and nods. As her wings buzz, and she sits on the nightstand. Arms close together. "Still... i dislike cold... i get cold so fast now." He looks at her, without moving his head. His feahters, and eyes move to watch her.

He says "Just give me a sec." As his mouth opens... wider... and wider... until it unwinds his throught. Its... no longer human, as thousands of thread-liek tenticles grab, and pull all the food into a red-fleshy place inside. Before it closes up. She shakes a little. Looking at the empity container, eaten everything in a instant. As he closes back up. He pauses... and says "Sorry... cravking." As his jaw opens, and stuffs inside the plastic carton. Before closing it. "It... was goingk... in the trash anywcay." She is quite, and says "Its ok... you can't control how you eat." She floats back to the crown of his head, and nussles, into the feathers. As she grabs onto the limbs, and mess of feathers, flesh, heat, and eyes up there. She is careful about the eyes, careful of where she sits. As she says "its... nice up here. This is one of the best places i found to lay. Your feathers... are soft." He is quite. Not saying much, just... happy, as his eyes watch her. His limbs move to support her, and the wings, and feathers allow her to be near.

Eventually, he moves, and gets up. Turning off the lights. He says "Darckness is... nice for me." She nods. Not caring. As he moves. He begins to lay on his bed, and cuerl up. Until Tessa lays in his feathered wings, and plumage on his head. Careful. As she relaxes with him. "After... i changed... it was... the little things. I miss... being able to open doors with force, instead of with a spell. Miss... how well i could handle cold. Now... i can freaze to death in minutes, if it was not for my magic protecting me. How... just water... water alone... is so... scary. It pulls me in, hard to pull out of. Sticks to my wings, and... makes it impossible to fly." He is quite. Letting her vent.

She continues "It... its so scary... my... my every human memory... do not... match. Its... its so scary... pepole... are giants... hands... hands... can grab me... trap.. .me... hold me... i... i... am so weak." She is quite. "I... i feel like a bug... i kinda... am one. I can't cry. I am... a bug... biologically. My... my reaction time is crazy... its... instictive... how... i fly, and hover. I... hate... that my speach is so... quite, that it can be muffled by a fan. I... when... i transformed... it... it... took 3 weeks before... i could talk... to... anyone!" He is quite... and then says "When i transformed... everyone ran from me. I lost everything... this form... its from a supid webnovel i loved."

She says "Mine... is from a D&D campaign. I loved... fairies.... cute... small things, that live small lives... yet still manage to be strong... i... i knew... all about the realities of... being small... but... it... was fiction..." She is quite for a while "I... i bleed... green... my organs are not human... this... stupid human apperance... is a shell... its... fake... my eyes are not human... my habits... ive... never been able to feel confort... except... in nice warm places... its... horrible. I... can't even cry." She is quite "I... when i... transformed... i burst.... out of my own skull... it split apart... blood... and... and... just a empity skull, with me inside a cocoon..." She is quite, shaking, as she grasps hard his feathers, as his eyes within then watch her. She says "I... died that day... my... own... dead body. Right... there..." She is quite for a long time. Then says "My parents... found the body. They found... a fairy... it was easy to blame the fiary with a small voice, once it was captured... in a glass bottle, where... screams were quite. They... thought i was dead."

She shakes... deeper... hugs his hair. As a shaking buzzing sound comes out of her body. Before she goes quite once more. "I... sorry... the... doctors say its... a... warnin-" she stops speaking, and shakes deeper, as the sound of a insict, a vibration. Fills the air. Before... she stops once more. She is quite. As Tanner moves a wing in his hair to wrap around her, and keep her warm, and with his fluff of feathers. As the nearby eyes watch her. Her body is shaking, grasping on tightly to his feathers. As she pulses with thise vibrations. Her little human face, with two large black eyes. is showing facial expression. She is in horror, and fear, and... he recognizes that... she is having a panic attack, and her instincts are doing... what a bug does in panic. She eventually stops, and is just quite. She says "They... did not know... what to do with this fairy in a bottle. They... threw me to my father, and after days of trying. My brother... looked at me, and said i was... not... his... sister, and water" She buzzes a little. "So much... water... i... i was... dying... and... magic... and... table... bubles of water... stuck on me... hurt... tried to... remove them... suger cubes... dogs... everything... was... big... scary... hands... hands... they caught me... they... cuaght me... pulled off my... a wing... it hurt... it hurt so bad... i cast... spell... they... they died..." She goes quite... they both do.

Its several minutes. Before... she says "Im... sorry... i... i only told a few... full story..." She goes quite... "I... you are warm... and... nice... and have nice things to grab too... its... nice..." Quite... for a bit. Tanner says "Youur fine... you are nokt just a bug... you are a pers-aon... a fre-aind. If my face mackes feel nice... good... at least its doing somethinkg right. As... it is my face... you are climbing in." She is quite, and chucles. "S-Sorry... i.... its warm... my instincts love... warmth.. and... nice places to hold onto." He is quite for a while. "I'm goo-ing to sleep, you can stayy if you waknt. But... i'm not sure what my win-cgs, and eyes do in my sleep. Be... warkned. Thact place is lickterly my face." Eventually, he sleeps, and Tessa sleeps within his feathers, and wings, and eyes. While his 28 eyes stay closed. Tessa wakes up randomly thru the night, seeing his feathers moving unconchessly, but they seem to recognize her.