InsaneJournal

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Abi yelled up.

Way up. Kellach, having had moderate success jumping out of trees and flying with his three wings, was now perched at the top of Morningside Towers. Abi, inherently risk-averse, felt a bit queasy just looking at him up there. Thus far she’d had no luck talking him out of it, but she felt she had to make one last try.

Losing his abilities as a Garou was weird. Kellach felt as though he were Kin again, which would have been upsetting if not for the fact that in exchange for being a Garou, he had gained a sweet set of wings! From the moment he woke up that morning, Kellach was determined to learn how to fly.

Of course, there had been a few hurdles to get over. Not having a face had been pretty fucking terrifing for one (and would likely haunt Kellach’s nightmares for the next few weeks). Fortunately, hadn’t taken him very long to figure out how to put his own face back on. It took a lot of concentration, but Kellach was used to having to concentrate in order to shift from one form to the next. So long as he kept the idea that he had a face in the back of his mind he didn’t look like some uncanny being from a horror movie.

The next challenge had been learning how to maintain his balance with three new appendages coming out of his back. That had taken a little bit longer and if he was honest, Kellach still didn’t quite have it mastered. Standing on the roof of Morningside, peering down at Abi below him, Kellach felt a bit off center. .

He didn’t tell her that though. “Aye!” He called down instead. He pointed to the nearby pile of hay near where she was standing. “If it doesn’t work, I’ll just land there!” Not that Kellach had ever actually landed in a pile of hay before, but it looked like it’d be enough to break his fall should the wings not work the way he wanted.

Abi looked at the pile of hay and was not filled with an overwhelming sense of confidence in it. This still seemed to her like a good way to break some bones. If there was one thing she’d learned about Kellach, though, it was that once he got an idea in his head, getting him to let go of it was no easy thing. (She tried to avoid making the “dog with a bone” metaphor even in her head.)

“Okay, please don’t break any bones?” she yelled back, and waved her phone at him. “But I’ve got the emergency number dialed and ready to call if you do!”

Kellach had been pretty confident about what he was planning on doing, but Abi’s caution to not break any bones made him realize something he’d conveniently forgotten in his excitement over the wings: He wasn’t Garou anymore.

That meant he didn’t have the ability to heal himself, an ability Kellach had used so often in the many fights he had been involved in both Australia and in Vallo, that he’d almost started taking it for granted.

Kellach frowned down at the pile of hay. He wasn’t afraid so much as he was annoyed by this revelation. What good was having a set of wings if he didn’t at least try to learn how to fly? Kellach remembered watching the gulls down by the shipyards and how they effortlessly glided on the sea wind. They looked so weightless and free. He wanted to experience that himself!

Determination reset, Kellach flared two of the wings. That pesky third wing had gotten in the way when he’d been jumping out of trees until Kellach realized he could use it to kind-of-sort-of steer. The wind felt amazing against the wings. They were insanely sensitive and the rush of air through the feathers got him excited all over again.

“Alright, Abi!” He called down. “I’m gonna give this a try!”

Instinct wanted Abi to close her eyes, but she realized if she did that and this went badly, she wouldn’t be prepared to act as quickly as she needed to. She determinedly set her shoulders back, looked up, and held onto her phone. “Okay, but…” There wasn’t really a but at this point, so Abi changed tack. “Good luck!”

Kellach pictured those seagulls again and how they flared their wings to catch the wind. He spread those two wings further testing the lift of the wind and then before he gave himself any further chance to re-think this stunt, he jumped from the roof.

The air pushed up against the wings and Kellach glided from the ledge. That was good! At least he wasn’t plummeting like a stone to the ground. Kellach grinned to himself. Now, gliding was all well and good, he felt as though he was pretty much a master of that at this point. Now it was time to fly!

He flapped his wings the way he’d seen the gulls do, get more of that lift that he needed. And it started to work! Kellach felt himself start to climb! He pulled in an excited breath, the smile across his face absolutely radiant. “Look, lass!” He called down to Abi.

The feeling of being airborne didn’t last too long, though. There was a rhythm to this that Kellach had yet to master and despite his best efforts, gravity was starting to win out. Kellach grunted. He’d glided too far out and was going to miss that pile of hay. He tried to steer himself around using that awkward middle wing. It kind of worked, even if he did flail around in the air like he was a drunk pigeon.

The bigger problem was that he was losing altitude and fast! He flapped desperately and got a little bit of lift again, but it was too little, too late. In a last ditch effort to at least look like he knew what he was doing (and not at all to show off in front of Abi), Kellach tried to land on his feet.

He hit the ground much harder than he would have liked and just missing the pile of hay. He tried to catch himself, but the laws of physics pushed him forward, stumbling until he tripped over his own feet and landed facedown on the ground with a splat!

“Ohmigod, Kell!” Abi was already running over top speed, which was a lot faster than it used to be, skittering down to her knees to check on him. “Are you okay? What do you need? Can you move?”

Because he looked like he might not be able to move. That looked like a heck of a fall to Abi.

Kellach groaned into the dirt. That could have gone better. He hoped that not many people had seen him literally eat dirt. At least Abi wasn’t laughing at him. He pulled his face off the ground as Abi ran up to him, a little surprised at how quickly she’d closed the distance between them. “Aye,” he muttered, sounding as frustrated and embarrassed as he felt. “Birds make it look so bloody easy!”

He tried pushing himself up off the ground, uttering a few gaelic oaths under his breath as he did. “Thinkin’ maybe it was a li’l too early to try anything quite that high,” he admitted. He tried to get to his feet, only to have his ankle buckle under him the moment he put weight on it. Another string of gaelic oaths as he crashed back to the ground.

“Ohhhhhh no, maybe just sit down,” Abi said quickly. She looked down at his foot, which thankfully did still appear to be attached, so she supposed matters could be worse. It wasn’t dangling at some horrifying angle, either, which was reassuring. “Is this one of those things you can just heal like you do, or–” Her eyes widened as she realized that with powers getting completely traded over, he wouldn’t be able to just heal himself. “Crap. I guess we’d better get you to the clinic for that.”

“Aye,” Kellach muttered. He didn’t want to admit it, but Abi was right, he was going to have to go to the clinic for this. And it wasn’t as though he minded having to go – Kellach had been to the clinic before to take care of a few injuries that had been more serious than his healing ability was able to deal with right away. Rather he was more so annoyed at himself for putting himself in the situation of having to go. For the first time that day, he was realizing just how vulnerable he was in this state. He may as well be Kin again, weak and worthless…

He was embarrassed too. There had been a part of him (a part he was only really now realizing with her standing over him with wide eyes) that had hoped to impress Abi. Instead he had made a complete and utter fool of himself and now he couldn’t even walk properly! Depending on how long this power switching thing lasted, he might not be able to walk for the rest of the week! “Goddammit,” he muttered. He looked up at Abi, “I’m sorry, lass,” he said. “But…d’you mind givin’ me a hand up?”

“Of course I don’t mind!” Abi held her hand out and bent her knees to be able to offer a little more leverage. “Grab hold of my forearm, I’ll grab yours, and I think we can get you up that way.”

It didn’t even occur to her that she couldn’t do it. She was still short, but her power swap had her a little stronger than usual. She wasn’t worried about her ability to get Kell back on his feet. Or foot, at least.

“Aye, thank ya,” Kellach grunted as Abi helped pull him up. He stumbled a little trying to stand one one foot and not put too much of his weight on Abi. However, his balance wasn’t what it once had been, his dexterity just wasn’t there anymore either. He ended up leaning on her a lot more than he wanted. He was surprised that she didn’t even seem to flinch when he leaned on her a bit heavier than he intended.

He chuckled despite himself. “Looks like yer powers came in hand t’day,” he said. “I dunno what I’d do withoutcha.” Abi looked up to respond, and suddenly she realized how very close they were standing. She still had her hand on his arm. He was leaning down a little bit, and all it would take to kiss him would be a little pop up on her toes. She wanted to do exactly that, so much that it made her blush, which left her stunned right out of saying actual words for a few seconds. When she finally succeeded in dragging her vocabulary out of hiding, it was still a little jumbled.

“Haha, you’d–I mean–no, you’d–which way is the clinic again?” There, subject change, that was good. She took a quick look around to get her bearings right. “That way, of course. We should, um…” Crap, she was still standing in his space, and she still wanted to kiss him. “We should go there.”

It was hard to miss that Abi was stumbling over her words. At first Kellach thought maybe he was leaning on her a bit too much. He tried to pull some of his weight off of her, but his ankle was not having any part of that. The moment he tried, he nearly crumpled to the ground again as pain shot straight up through his leg. He stifled the yelp, but a hiss still managed to get out through his teeth.

The worst part was that he had to grab onto Abi even tighter to keep from completely falling over. “Ah! Sorry! Sorry!” He said quickly. He noticed the redness in her face. God above, this had to be so embarrassing for her! Having to help her idiot friend hobble along to the clinic. She was such a good sport about it, too. “Thanks fer not giving me any shit,” he said.

Kellach needing help got Abi set back on task and out of her imaginary wanderings. She arranged herself under his arm to be a better crutch and got them turned in the direction they need to go.

“I would never give you a hard time about getting hurt,” Abi said. “Like, I don’t think I could bring myself to be mean to you anyway, but I definitely couldn’t when you’re already in pain.”

Kellach smiled faintly. “Aye, but yer not given’ me shit fer jumping off the apartment building in the first place.” he said. “I really appreciate that. If I were back in Australia, I wouldn’t hear the end of it.”

As much as Kellach missed his pack, they weren’t necessarily the most forgiving lot. “Callie, our alpha, wouldn’t let me hear the end of it,” he said as he limped along next to Abi. He still tried not to lean too much on her, but knowing he wasn’t going to knock her over or hurt her, he relaxed and let her take his weight. “Sometimes she took her role as leader a little too seriously.”

“People get like that when they’re responsible for everyone, sometimes,” Abi replied. “Especially with dangerous stuff going on. Like, Kaitlyn had to be a way more strict counselor than I did, because she was teaching archery and shooting. You can get hurt really badly if you do that wrong. I could be a lot more chill in the arts and crafts cabin—nobody dies of a paper cut.”

Kellach considered this. “Aye,” he said thoughtfully, his brows furrowing tightly as he thought. “She was our pack leader and I know she wanted t’ do a good job. Even if she did pull just as many boneheaded stunts as I did.” No sooner had he said it did Kellach feel instant regret. When it came to the hierarchy of his pack, Kellach had been at the bottom. He didn’t have a right to badmouth the other members of his pack, much less his leader. “Ah,” he shook his head. “Forget I said that.”

“If you want,” Abi said. She didn’t really understand the subtleties of pack hierarchy; the things Kellach had said here and there had given her the basics, but there was a complexity to it that she knew she wasn’t quite getting. “But I think you’re allowed to get frustrated with people even if you love them and you know they’re doing their best. Everybody messes up sometimes.”

In all fairness to Abi, Garou ranking and hierarchy could be complicated. Kellach had the fortune of being raised within it and always knowing where his place within it was, even after he’d gone through his first change. “Aye, yer right there, lass,” he said with a chuckle. “But saying things like that can be taken as a challenge to a Pack leader’s authority. Challenges within the Pack are taken very seriously. They kin tear a whole pack apart.”

He glanced over his shoulder back towards Morningside. “Though…if I’m bein’ honest, Callie probably wouldn’t have jumped off the roof.” He looked back at Abi, with a very sheepish grin. “So, I guess I am the bigger bonehead. I did fly a little bit, though. I think.”

“You definitely flew a little!” Abi loyally replied. It had been awkward, weird flying, but there had definitely been some flying. “I think if you got to practice enough you could probably get good at it. Just…maybe practice from a little closer to the ground next time.”

Kellach laughed. “Aye, Lass,” he said. “Yer right, yer right. Though, if I’m bein’ honest, I think that’s gonna do it for me flying days this time around.” He sighed. “Messing up my landing gear means I won’t be jumpin’ off of anything for a time. How long does it take an ankle to heal anyway?”

“A little over a month,” Abi replied with a sympathetic wince. “But that’s just if you leave it alone to heal on its own. Vallo’s got all kinds of magic—-I’m sure they can get you fixed up a lot faster.”

Kellach groaned. “A month?” He should have known. He really had gotten so used to being able to heal quicker than usual. A month may as well have been an eternity! But...was that really a bad thing? As much as it was a hit to his ego to be limping along like this, Abi was with him right now. That was pretty good. He still felt bad that he had to lean so heavily on her, but he liked the excuse to be close to her.

But, there were a lot of magic users and healers in Vallo, so it probably wouldn’t be an entire month. As much as Kellach really did want to be on his feet again and he’d likely to go stir crazy having to sit around, he couldn’t help but picture Abi continuing to help him around, and the two of them being close like this for a little longer. Kellach felt his face growing hot. “Aye,” he said. “They probably can…”

“You’ll be fine. Heck, you’ll probably have your own abilities back before too long,” Abi said, ever the optimist. She looked up at Kell with a smile that faded when she noted how his face was flushed—from the pain, she was sure. “Are you sure you’re okay to keep going like this? I can call the emergency line if…”