Free Lumen by Joseph Eastwood Page A

wondered.

 
    Chapter Nine
     
    Daniel stayed in his room, touching the side of his face and looking in the mirror. The lump beneath his eye had started to discolour from the fleshy pink to a bright purple, spreading out into a thick blue. He spat curse words out at his reflection as he touched the lump for the last time.
    He rested his eyes for what felt like moments, and then his alarm clock sounded. He grabbed his pillow and rammed his face against it, shouting and kicking the duvet at the pain shooting through his body. His morning alarm sounded and seconds later there was several knocks at his bedroom door.
    “Dan, are you okay? I heard your alarm. You up?” Taner asked, his voice was muffled from behind the door and the continuous bleeping.
    Daniel shot up and slammed his hand hard on the snooze button. He paced his breathing behind his gritted teeth. He touched the flashing throb beneath his eye, seeing the swollen colour dampen in a haze, he tsked, sucking in air.
    “Just gonna take all the school in. A bit overwhelmed,” Daniel said, swiping his hair out of his eye and trying not to touch the swollen part.
    “Um. Well, I’ll see you at lunch then,” Taner replied.
    Daniel grinned to himself, the crease of his smile caught his eye and it quickly turned into a wince. Daniel knew what he had to do, he had to go and see Jac, but he couldn’t go home with his face looking like that. And Jac would know what to do; Jac grew up learning how to defend himself. Daniel only wished that he’d learnt beforehand.
    He propped his ear to the door; there was no sure way of knowing if Taner had gone. It humoured Daniel to think that Taner would try to follow him and act casual when they were both at the same place in life. That, or he’d be mortified by the sheer poverty and so-called status Daniel had.
    He paced across the room, occasionally stopping by the window. He sucked in a deep breath and finally opened the window to its fullest. “Three floors up,” he said to himself, poking his head out of the window.  Need to turn into a bird! I can’t just grow wings, they’d notice. I need to be something people wouldn’t take a second look at. I need to be a bird.
    Daniel took several steps back. He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. He took his t-shirt off and put his hooded jacket on, zipping it up to the top. He wasn’t risking another t-shirt being ripped and he feared that now was one of those moments when it would, when somehow his jacket hardly ever tore, it just melted right in with his skin.
    He couldn’t take a huge run-up; the room wasn’t that big. He took his run-up and leapt out of the window, his body curved as he swooped downwards, falling half a floor. The wind stopped hitting his face and instead, aided him. He opened his now pale blue eyes to see a tall metal fence with an intrinsic ivy pattern crawling up it.
    He flew over the gate, in the smallest of bird forms he could think of. His golden feathers would go undetected beneath the sun. He started to home-in on the Lowerlands as a unique beacon of light broke in and steered him. Daniel had first seen the bird when he was only six and his father was adamant on teaching him about animals. It was also the bird that had nested in the tree beside their house, and the same bird which some man had offered to buy. And he bought it, but at that moment it was the smallest bird he could think of.
    His wings grew restless as he reached the halfway point and only half an hour in. The Trident Mountains were the middle, and he was too late to pull out and go around, he was heading for a dip in between two of the hills, he continued full throttle. It was once said that small people with sturdy arms and legs wondered this part of Templar, small folk, and Daniel was hit with the realisation that these people could exist.
    His wings quaked on his small bony bird back. He ducked and dipped, trying to stay low, but not so low that he was able