lucetilogs | Flying my way...

Flying my way...

Who: Lenalee

looktoheaven , perhaps more later.
What: Searching for freedom
When: Afternoon/early evening, late in the animal event
Where: Outside the village
Summary: Lenalee sees this as a great opportunity to see how far away one can get, and what she can find. She doesn't know it, but she's being followed...
Rating: PG-ish. Lenalee's not one for foul language.

She made sure no one was watching. Lavi and Allen were preoccupied, and Miranda was out. She knew Daisya had told some people, but they had no way of knowing that she was leaving now. Even he hadn't known that until a couple hours ago.

Lenalee took off from her own rooftop, easily climbing above the trees of the forest. She turned away from the mountains and started to fly, over the river, away from the village. She had to get as far as she could, as fast as she could.

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Though what Lenalee didn't know was that someone had been watching. Ken had been circling the village at high altitude, high enough that he thought he might be able to touch the clouds if he tried. He banked to match Lenalee's direction, starting a shallowly angled descent that would let him catch up to her without much working of his wings.

"Lenalee!" he called out as he came alongside her, still higher up but not by much.

Lenalee nearly fell into a dive, hearing her name like that. She recognized the voice, at least, if not the shape of the bird tailing her.

Ken. Daisya said he'd talked to you. ...I'm going, whether he's worried or not.

"Wasn't gonna try an' stop you, and he didn't ask me to either. He just asked me to go with you."

Ken adjusted his tail and wings, dropping to fly beside her.

"It's less work if you get altitude and coast," Ken offered. "We can go farther if we don't wear ourselves out right away."

I'm going as far as I can, no matter how tired I get.

Still, she rose, gaining enough altitude to turn her flight into a series of long glides. Lenalee had grown accustomed to a falcon's sharp vision, but even with that all she could see in any direction was forest. She knew the mountains were behind her, but the sheer expanse of trees below her was a little disconcerting.

Could a group of people ever attempt what they were about to do?

If they did, it would have to be a full-blown expedition. Ken scanned the trees below, and aside from animals and the occasional break in the trees, he couldn't see anything that might be a way out--no roads, no rivers, and like hell they were going to be lucky enough to be near the ocean.

"I'll be right there with you," Ken said, finding an updraft that would get him enough height for a good long glide.

Lenalee expected nothing less of anyone who would choose to accompany her.

She had to fight the bird's instincts to hunt as they passed over several open clearings. She could see prey down there, and the bird in her was hungry, even though she'd eaten right before leaving.

She tried to ignore it, to revel in the experience of flight instead. To that end, she rose even higher, then folded her wings and dropped into a dive. It was fast, and the greatest rush she knew outside of Innocence.

She couldn't stop herself from a sort of mental cry of pleasure, either.

If Ken could grin, he would. There was a reason he'd spent most of the last week in the air, and the rush was it. A hawk's cry left his beak, but he didn't follow Lenalee, she was far too fast. He'd thought he had been fast in a dive, but it was nothing compared to the peregrine.

Pulling out of the dive at just the perfect moment, Lenalee caught an updraft and rejoined Ken in the sky.

Maybe if we could just come out this far and...sort of hide, the Malnosso wouldn't be able to find us.

It was wishful thinking, and she knew it. But it was beautiful out here, especially in the late afternoon sun.

"...maybe." Though if the Malnosso had no way to track them, they were idiots.

The sun felt wonderful on Ken's back, his wings were starting to ache but it wasn't enough to make him want to land. He felt like he could keep flying forever.

Lenalee wanted to keep flying forever, too. The desire to just escape was almost overwhelming. Part of her wondered, if she did manage to get somewhere safe, if she really would be able to bring herself back here.

That part of her was silenced very quickly by the rest of her. Of course she'd come back for her friends. Of course she would. Her friends were everything--

Her line of thinking ended as apruptly as her flight. Though there was nothing visible in front of her, Lenalee rocketed toward the ground as though she had struck a wall.

One second, everything was fine. The next, Lenalee was dropping like a rock.

"Shit! Lenalee!" Ken adjusted his flight--diving after her. He didn't know what he would be able to do, but if he could just...somehow slow or stop her fall...But she was falling faster than he could dive.

"LENALEE!"

Someone was shouting in her head. Lenalee slowly started to come around to it, but before she could answer, she dropped below the tree line. Smashing through branches, it felt like forever before she hit the ground - back in human form.

Unconscious (and unclothed, oh dear) on the forest floor, she could no longer answer Ken's shouting. If she'd known, she would at least have been comforted by the fact that she'd landed in a way that hid most embarrassing things from view.

Ken crashed through the canopy, landing next to her--he barely even noticed her unclothed state, too concerned with checking as well he could for heartbeat, breathing, injuries.

"Lenalee!" He hopped from foot to foot nervously. He didn't have his journal, and like hell he could do any field aid as a bird. But he couldn't go for help until she woke up.

It was a while before Lenalee started to stir. She opened one eye slowly. The other one felt like she'd rather keep it shut. Blurred vision registered a hand, with fingers. Her hand, because when she wondered if it could move, it did.

That movement sent a bolt of pain through her arm and into her back, and she cried out before she could stop herself.

"Shitshitshit. Don't move, okay?" Ken's wings twitched restlessly, nervously. He was going to have to go back and get help, or...send an animal back. He was reluctant to leave Lenalee here without anyone to keep watch. "Damn it."

"Lenalee, do you know where you are?" First off--he needed to know if Lenalee had a concussion or not.

She recognized the voice. ...Didn't she? It was strange, it almost sounded like someone was speaking inside her head...

Lenalee drifted out of consciousness a bit, only realizing that someone had asked her a question several minutes afterward.

"Mmnn...ss...a-ah!" Her attempts at words ended in a throbbing headache.

Ken definitely wasn't going to leave her alone after that. How long had they flown to get here...? It had to have been more than an hour. It would take too long for a group to come and help.

"I'm going to see if I can find another bird to fly back and get someone to help." It was perhaps pointless to let her know that, but it made him feel better anyway. Ken flapped off, returning only after giving a message to another falcon to fly back to the Filial town and find Daisya.

"You...t-t-t...nn."

It was frustrating, not being able to say what she thought was clear enough in her head. Then again, her head wasn't that clear of a place, either.

"Lenalee, it's Ken. Remember me?" Ken nervously hopped back and forth, feathers ruffled, hoping that help got there soon but knowing that it would be quite a wait until it did.

Ken. Through her one open eye, Lenalee stared at the bird. The Ken she knew...he wasn't a bird, was he? He was...she thought of brown hair and...and wings, yes, but not...a hawk's wings.

"Ken?" She tried to move her hand toward him, flinching when all that did was cause her pain.

Ken nodded his head. "Yeah. The Malnosso were turning people into animals. You were a falcon, we tried to see if we could fly far enough to find a way out. Remember?"

When Daisya had spoken to him, nearly frantic with worry, Chichiri had also begun to worry despite himself. The message had been brief, but its intent was clear... and though he understood the Exorcist's hatred at his own helplessness, he had to agree with Zero that Daisya was better off staying home.

He spread his kesa out on the floor and murmured the words to a teleportation spell, then stepped through it. The woods on the other side were dark, but the cry of a hawk some distance away alerted him to what he sought. He ended the spell and wound his kesa around himself again, and ran through the underbrush.

"Lenalee! Ken!" he yelled. "Call back if you hear my voice!"

Ken's head jerked up and turned at the sound of someone's voice--calling their names. He thought he recognized it...was it Chichiri? He let out a hawk cry, as well as a mental shout.

"Over here!"

Chichiri followed the cry, running hard until he reached the two. He swore an oath to Suzaku when he saw Lenalee on the ground - and in the condition she was in, who could really blame him? He spread his kesa out over her for her modesty's sake, then looked at Ken.

"Tell me what happened," he said. If his tone was short, it betrayed his worry and concern. He could imagine what had happened... and a fall from the sky was a horrible thing indeed.

Someone else was there. And that someone covered her with something. He didn't say very much, but that voice...

"Ch..." She stopped. Blinked, slowly, and took a long breath. "Ch-chichiri."

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Flying my way...

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